Title: Long-time iOS user considering switch to Android - Need advice on $1000 flagships
Body:
Hey everyone, I’m looking at phones around the $1000 price point and would love some input. I’ve been an iOS user for years but I’m seriously considering making the jump to Android this time.
Here’s what I’m looking at:
iPhone 17 Pro - The safe choice since I’m already in the ecosystem
Samsung Galaxy S25 - Hearing good things about this generation
Pixel 10 Pro - Probably crossing this one off the list due to the stability issues I’ve been reading about (the 911 call failures, overheating problems, etc.)
Nothing Phone - The design looks really cool, but I’m not sure if they have anything in this price range
For those who’ve made the switch from iOS to Android (or vice versa), what would you recommend? Any major gotchas I should know about? And is the Nothing Phone even worth considering as a daily driver at this price point?
Thanks in advance!
I would either get a pixel and put graphene os on it, or just get the iPhone. Android is trash for privacy.
I use a oneplus 8 and their phones are quite good. I highly recommend them.
I’ve not needed to upgrade cause this thing has been excellent since I bought it.
Don’t spend iPhone money on an Android. Definitely don’t on a Samsung unless you like having both Google and Samsung’s versions of basic applications such as phone, messages, calendar, browser etc.
Motorola do a very minimally customised Android .
$1000 is too much for a phone.
Ehhhh I build a computer that lasts eight years or more for 2KUSD
I think spending 1.5kUSD on a pocket computer that stays fast and works amazingly for at least five years is legit. I got my last phone five years ago and didn’t even need to upgrade, I just wanted more storage space and 120hz screen. Oh and better cameras. But 1-2k is not too much for a phone if you use it as a pocket computer with… what rivals a DSLR but you don’t have to bring your DALE with you, attached to it.
You can get a decent phone for cheap, but it’s gonna be kinda shit it a couple years. I don’t have to lug my Nikon with me anymore and that’s great.
If you wait for a deal to January, you can probably get a Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus for under $700.
If you want to really save money, you can get an S24 and it will still have half a year of upgrades.
Came here to say the same thing 😭
I switched from a Pixel to a Samsung and I would like to inform you that Samsung is bullshit. The phone is nice and all but I’m always fighting the software. Google Pixel software stays out of your way and occasionally helps you.
As a Pixel 6 Pro user who occasionally has to interact with the Samsung devices my parents use, holy moly I don’t know how anybody puts up with this. We’re talking fullscreen advertisement lockscreen bloatware that can be disabled but not uninstalled, added to the phone out of nowhere with a recent update. The worst android keyboard I’ve ever used in my life. A UI and all of Samsung’s versions of existing apps that I’m constantly fighting just to use the phone. It’s ridiculous. I genuinely don’t know how anyone can run a Samsung device without installing a custom ROM or something it’s actually insane.
I’m another happy Pixel 6 Pro user. I use GrapheneOS so my phone doesn’t have adware (or Google for that matter).
Great battery life, beautiful 120hz display, quality cameras. The only bad thing is replacing the battery isn’t easy (though I’m not having issues with the original battery yet)
I totally agree with Samsung being bullshit. As for how people can accept that, well, it’s probably the only ecosystem they know. My experience is anecdotal, but I’ve been to parts of the world where it’s iPhone vs Samsung. Like, USB-c is a Samsung plug. So, just as people get attached to the iPhone UI, regardless of model, people do the same with Samsung.
Speaking of bullshit, has anyone elseatched Pixel’s deletion of the back button? While I’ve been conditioned on how it works, there’s still a number of app swipes that turn into “back” commands instead.
I miss the Nexus lineup.
get yourself a refurbished note 5 and flash it with LineageOS.
flagship phone, zero google bloat, and runs just as well as a new phone. cost; $150 and an hour of your time.
Yeah, something like this. Going from iOS to Android is potentially very rough, depending on how you use your phone, and going de-googled Android right off the bat might be worth it, if you value not being surveilled for advertising all the time and like it rough, I guess.
I’m on a Pixel 8 Pro now, with GrapheneOS, and it’s been great.
Just saw that the new Nothing phones come with unremovable Facebook bloat installed BTW, which is pretty bad.
If you’re seeking privacy, I bought a Pixel 9 from a clearance sale (at a $200 discount) and the only difference for me personally is a one year support timeline difference. You can install GrapheneOS using their official guide and never touch the Google OS.
I am nearing the end of my rope with Android, I might suggest hanging on with your iPhone for another cycle. My P9 Pro is feeling more and more like just an advertisement data collection machine, and core features like speech to text and notifications have never been worse.
I don’t own an iPhone, but got an iPad in 2024, and most of what I do on my iPad feels more refined. I was floored this morning when speaking out a comment on the iPad that the text to speech didn’t add a bunch of random periods/caps alongside half a dozen incorrect words. iOS also has basic things like consistent first party podcast, payment, and chat apps that they don’t continually switch out every few years like what Google just did (looking at you Google Podcasts, GPay in USA, and Hangouts). We’re also losing the ability to install apps from outside the walled garden that is then play store at some point soon. I’m not looking forward to learning what that means for my Retroid/Android gaming handhelds.
If you do jump to Android, consider the Pixel 9 Pro. I hate it the least of anything I’ve tried in then Android universe. Battery life is very respectable, I can actually get 2 full days from a charge. The cameras have somehow fallen in their standard shooting mode, but the pro/high res mode is crispy AF, just a bummer that the file sizes are bigger than they are on my Sony mirrorless. Samsung makes nice hardware but the skin they put on Android is truly terrible. If you use Microsoft work apps on your phone, you’ll appreciate being able to shut them off with one button, and your employer’s limited visibility into your phone will be further reduced to what’s installed in the work container.
you should get pixel 9 pro, its almost identical to pixel 10 pro, but much cheaper now, my girlfriend recrntly switched from apple xs and she’s quite happy. its comfortably sized phone 6.3", cameras are great, battery is ok. I own pixel 8 but i constantly lack telephoto camera. Theres new oneplus coming out, they have new type of battery that is almost twice the size of most phones.
Get a pixel. They are less expensive, especially at last year’s model. Way less vendor bloat. Easiest device to deGoogle, ironically. I’m running GrapheneOS on a pixel 7 I spent $700 a couple years ago. Get your freedom while you still can
Need advice on $1000 flagships
Get a $500 non-flagship. Basically the same but a bit less AI-noise in the pictures it takes.
I can recommend the Xperia line, especially if you liked the old iPhones better than the phablet ones.
Samsung is on my shit list. Their spammy, ad riddled UI is infuriating.
I don’t trust them. They lock their phones down and don’t let you remove their bloatware or block their ads/notifications.
Fuck them. Never buy Samsung.
I agree and disagree. I switched from a Pixel to an S series and I have to say I like the Samsung better.
While the Samsung UI used to be a sore spot, I think the Pixel design language shift of the past couple years is far worse. All the big colorful pills with too much whitespace… Samsung brings back a proper notification shade with lots of quick buttons, like it used to be 3 or so versions ago with a Pixel. I put my custom launcher on basically forget it’s Samsung.
There’s spots all over Android that have been rough that Samsung just, smooths out. It’s like they’re actually using the phone and willing to take matters into their own hands when Google isn’t, because Google isn’t focused on AI assistants and letting everything else rot. Samsung lets you customize, whereas Pixel keeps walking you toward an iOS style experience one step at a time.
DeX, if you have a use for it, is awesome. During my lunch break at work can unplug my laptop from my dock, connect my phone, and have a personal workstation for watching videos, whatever. I also have a much better Private Folder with multiple apps. It’s like Samsung understands that with one device we need separation. Google has been saying a competitor to this is coming, but at this point it’s so far behind I’ll believe it when I see it.
Samsung doesn’t hold you hostage in format wars. My old Pixel in 20fucking23 couldn’t support external storage with anything but FAT32. That’s insane. It was screwing me up trying to easily back up a large file and that was no problem for the Samsung. Same with casting, Google is all in on Chromecast and nothing else, Samsung can CC but it can also Miracast. So now I can cast to any TV instead of only some.
Samsung’s hardware is usually better. They try new things sooner so you have a refined ultrasonic fingerprint sensor while Pixel was still doing illuminated, depending on your version the processors are better.
Now, places where Samsung sucks are obvious and you stated a few. No unlocking is bullshit. I own the phone, I should be able to unlock it. If you’re into tinkering then stay away, but Samsung’s do tend to have higher resale value, so if you want to get into ROMs then you can always sell the Samsung and grab a cheap used Pixel. Samsung kept the headphone jack and uSD around a little longer, but they’re both long gone on today’s models so that’s moot.
Samsung (and I can see where they’re coming from) was concerned with how much control Google had over Android so they made their own first party apps for everything. This means a lot of duplicate apps. I will say that while some can’t be easily uninstalled, they can be easily ignored. I just don’t use most of them and I’m fine. They don’t really force them on you or keep changing them to the default handler or anything. I’m OK with it, but I could see some people being annoyed.
That’s about it honestly… Samsung reminds me a bit of the early Nexus era days. Lots of customization, interesting tech, and work being put into the OS. Google is just plodding along, content to lock people into an iPhone clone and sell AI. I say give them both a try. If you pick up used or a refurb you can save a fortune and easily switch if you don’t like it without losing much if anything.
It’s been a while since I used Samsung. My work phone is a Samsung flip of some sort that gets powered on once a month.
However, it’s not just their phones that have me turned off. Their TVs built in OS is shit and they just had a whole lot of bad press for their fridges that will start showing ads. Not to mention how their appliances tend to have the shortest lifespan of comparably prices appliances.
Good hardware, but consistently anti consumer software.
I’ve been on Samsung for years and I don’t get this argument anymore. There’s no ads on my phone, and one ui is pretty smooth.
I do use my own launcher so maybe that covers it up, but new Samsung isn’t like what they were a long time ago.
they also didn’t donate any money to trump’s vanity projects unlike apple and google.
I was working on my Mom’s Samsung tonight and can confirm that default One UI is the worst cell phone interface experience I’ve ever had. Needing a skin or launcher is a deal breaker when devices with great OOTB experience exist.
I have the same experience although I’m still on One UI. S24 Ultra
and one ui is pretty smooth.
Nah. It only stopped lagging, because the hardware got faster. Each hardware generation it got a bit better, after 2015 or so.
None of this is true. I hate notifications so I turn them off and then I don’t get them.
Agree with this. Samsung has great hardware but I hate their software. I switched from them to iOS. Only thing I really hate in iOS is swipe typing and fucking awful autocorrect. Everything else is better than Samsung. They might also have a better camera but it’s hard to keep up with all the leapfrog.
As an Android user, the iOS keyboard is fucking horrendous and I don’t understand how people deal with that every single day.
I’m literally questioning my life choices right now thanks to this keyboard. Somehow they managed to make it worse in iOS 26. I regret ever installing this OS.
The keyboard is bugged and someone JUST caught it on slow mo changing the user input. It’s a wild bug and explains a lot because the iOS keyboard and autocorrect used to the gold standard. It was sooooo good pre-ML.
My complaints are not ones of bugginess. It’s 1. the size and 2. having to switch layers every 3 characters.
iOS allows you to switch keyboards.
Maybe they’re better now, but every other one I tried also sucked. Especially compared to the likes of GBoard or heliboard or FUTO keyboard or many other FOSS Android ones.
You can download gboard.
Oh I didn’t realize that. I’ve only ever seen people use Apple!
I’ve dealt with it by using SwiftKey instead.
I recall Swiftkey being less awful, but with the side benefit of a keylogger, courtesy of Microsoft.
It definitely is. I’m not sure how to overcome this. The app offers the option to use it without an online account, but nothing guarantees that it won’t phone home every second anyway.
Even back then. I discovered on my Galaxy S3 (2011/2013?) that you have to buy some softwre from them, to edit the boot animations in their own proprietary format (a novum back then). Then they got Knox and stuff. Their entire bootchain is now a custom proprietary hackjob.
I have both. iPhone 16 Pro Max (2024) and Galaxy S10 (2019).
Okay so the iPhone 17 Pro is kinda pointless vs the regular iPhone 17. There’s a reason the 17 is the hot seller. It got ProMotion and it has a virutal 2x telephoto (by cropping into the regular cam) so it’s good enough for most people.
Pixel 10 Pro is worth considering, but try the camera first. You’ll love it or you’ll hate it. I love how when dialing into the 100X zoom, you get a little preview in the corner so you see where you’re going! That’s helpful. But it uses AI to hallucinate what it can’t make out, so be advised the 100X is kind of an illusion. But it’s also a 100X zoom! That’s awesome.
P10P has roughly the same compute power as an iPhone 11, and that’s sorry as hell, given the price, and given that Google sells your personal information. It’s borderline inexcusable, but if you’re considering Android, you’re not getting away from that. Also, benchmarks can be misleading. The Tensor CPU may be a few generations behind in raw compute power, but the P10P package makes up for this in other areas, like camera compute and battery life. It is NOT like having an iPhone 11 in 2025 (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I rock a 2019 S10 in 2025 and I still love that phone). The phone is not much slower (if at all to a layman’s perspective) than any 2025 flagship.
Speaking of benchmark shenanigans, the Galaxy S25 gets the highest benchmarks (not sure if this counts the iPhone 17 line, they were benching against the 16 series), but it loses more when thermally throttling. So if you’re playing high-end games, the Galaxy S25 will become weaker than the 16 Pro because it slows down more. But in day to day tasks? Kicks the iPhone’s ass… in benchmarks. Both phones will perform admirably!
If I had to replace my S10 right now, I’d get a base Galaxy S25. I like Samsung. It gets the best of Android and you generally get a year or two before Google’s more controversial decisions (removing the buttons, removing the headphone jack) come to Galaxy. Galaxy phones are fun. They’ve always had good energy to me.
If I had to replace my 16 Pro Max, I’d get a base 17 in a heartbeat.
I don’t hate the Pixel phones. I want to see Google step up the power of the Tensor chip a bit. I like Apple’s lax approach to AI. Samsung tries to make it fun and I think Google does too much, but I can’t point to any one thing with AI that really bothers me that Google does. I just think Samsung is better here, and they use more powerful chips.
I’ve always said that no matter what side of the iOS/Android fence you’re on, you really can’t go wrong with either Apple or Samsung. That goes for platform loyalists and those considering switching. Samsung isn’t really the Apple of Android, that’d be Google, but Apple is kinda boring and so is Pixel, and Samsung… isn’t.
Thanks for the detailed answer
Not sure where you’re located, but if you’re in the EU you can consider Fairphone for an extremely repairable phone instead. The 6 doesn’t have the specs of proper flagships, but it’s quite a step in the ethical direction in my opinion.
…hard agree. Depending on use case, you do not need top notch hardware anyway. Also, degoogling a Fairphone is extremely easy.
Honestly, if you’re coming from IPhone you won’t find any meaningful advice on Lemmy. Everyone here hates iPhones, and will try to sell you on phones with little to no market support. They’ll tell you to wipe the device and boot load your own OS.
I haven’t used an android in years but their strength is the flexibility in apps and you have a lot more options in terms of app ecosystem. That said I don’t know how long you’ve had an iPhone but if you exclusively use the apple ecosystem like MacOS, Apple Music, Apple TV it’s not worth changing it unless you are fully committed to starting over.
The other thing to consider is the camera. If you take photos every single day the Samsung phones will be your best bet.
