I have been using an iPhone 12 as my secondary phone for the past couple of months. Most of my friends believed that I might switch to iPhone for good.
Using an iPhone 12 as a secondary device for a few days from today. Not sure how this will end.
— Nikhil Pai (@nikhilpai) July 11, 2021
But contrary to this, it hasn’t become my primary phone yet. Reasons are to do both with iPhone and iOS. I will list the main issues for now.
My issues with iPhone – the hardware:
- Small (or too large & heavy): iPhone 12 display at 6.1″ feels slightly small after being used to larger screens on Android. The iPhone 12 Pro Max at 6.7″ is too large & heavy, besides being expensive in India. Wish iPhone had a 6.4″ display variant.
- The Notch: Enough said. I cannot see any app notifications in the notification bar because of this.
- No 120 hz display: Blurry scrolling on my twitter timeline keeps reminding me of this. Even with iPhone 13, only Pro series gets the ‘ProMotion’ display. Unacceptable in 2021 for a flagship.
- Earpiece & mic quality: On iPhone 12, the caller’s voice sounds harsh to me, and vice versa (have checked that this isn’t an unit specific issue). Call quality on my Samsung is crystal clear.
- No USB-C: The lightning cable isn’t as ubiquitous as the USB-C cable and creates the need for too many adapters.
- No fingerprint sensor: Unlocking your iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask in Covid times is a hassle.
My issues with iOS are:
- No Live Caller ID on TrueCaller: It exists on paper but it seldom works thanks to iOS limitations.
- No Call Recording: Most Android phones come with built-in call recording features but on iOS you can’t do that even with third party apps.
- Limited Call Log: 100 entries is too less, especially when we know that iOS stores more but shows only the last 100. Inconvenient when you want to see the number of who called you 2 weeks back.
- SMS organizer: The SMS filtering does not work with old SMSes you transfer from Android and doesn’t work as good as SMS Organizer app on Android even for new SMSes. Moreover, the auto Reminders facility is missing thanks to iOS limitations.
- USB Transfer Failures: Copying several GBs of photos from iPhone to Windows via USB is a nightmare. It aborts several times without any error message. I get it that Apple wants me to buy an iMac or use iCloud.
- No Always On Display: I know it consumes more battery but the user should have the choice.
- App Cache Deleting: You cannot delete application cache except for a few apps. Needing to uninstall an app & reinstall it to delete app cache is crazy.
- Face ID requires swipe up to unlock: Unnecessary additional step this.
- No battery percentage in notification bar: You need to have a widget on your home screen for this. Really?
- Keyboards – All iOS keyboards including the third party ones do not have the option to long press for choosing symbols.
- Back Navigation Gesture: To navigate back you must only swipe on the left side of the screen. It doesn’t work from the right if you are using the phone right handed as it works in Android.
Of course, there are things I liked as well:
- Aesthetics of the UI: Stating the obvious here. When people say quality of apps is better on iOS, I guess they refer only to this because otherwise, I don’t find anything wrong with Android apps.
- Notifications: Never thought I would say this but in some ways notifications look better & more useful on iOS now though I get more control in managing them in Android!
- Face ID:
- Works well with Microsoft’s apps: My organisation requires me to use authentication for accessing Outlook & Teams every 15 mins. While secure face unlock on iPhone is seamless, on Android I have to either use fingerprint or use face unlock with manual confirmation.
- I also like how notifications on lock screen are hidden till I look at the display.
Why did I not use iPhone 12 as my primary phone in this trial period? Simply because the Whatsapp migration of chat history from Android to iOS is not live yet.
Will I still switch to iPhone & iOS and enter the “dark side” or the “walled garden” in the near future? I am more closer to doing so than I was ever in the past but maybe I am still some months or years away.
