Made the switch away from iPhone. My experience.

I got bored of the iPhone. This has been a conundrum for for the past few months. I wanted a new phone, but didn't know how to transcend away from the iOS environment. I woke up one morning, and said, "whatever, I don't care anymore," and walked into BestBuy(save the hate, I had a $25 coupon and $35 gift card) and bought the Note 2. I have been wanting this phone since I first hear about it.

Why I made this decision. I love tech stuff, and the iphone, to me, was getting boring. My early upgrade just came through, so I could test a new phone, and still be within the launch period of the next gen iPhone. Having gone from the iPhone 3G, to Iphone4, to the 4S, you would think I would be drawn to the iPhone5 right? No. It did nothing for me. I don't even know how to explain it.

These are some things that worried me about switching. I have a Mac, and though I use Windows7 on BC, I still want my phone to sync natively to my Mac. The worry that syncing wouldn't be as smooth as the iPhone had me. I don't think there's another phone in existence that syncs info as well as the iPhone on an Mac. I had gotten used to easily syncing EVERYTHING in one go with Itunes and iPhoto, but I decided to just go with it and use it as an experience.

Now that I actually own the Note 2, and more specifically an Android phone, I actually have a better understanding of the OS quality provided by Apple.
However, with that said, the Android 4.1 is awesome. Better than anything to come before it from Android(obviously, right?). This phone is an absolute MONSTER!

I now use my iphone as an alarm clock and is the bluetooth source to play music in my car.

The iPhone feels like a child's toy in comparison. I'm not sure how many of you might be from my generation to know this, but the best analogy I can come up with is a person owning a MBP, and a child owning one of those preteen laptops that only do a few things. That's how I feel in terms of limitation.
I can't believe I just said that. O.O

I've actually been holding judgment for a while now...so I can know for sure.

Please don't hate me

Can't wait for the iPhone 6!

iggibar said:

It did nothing for me. I don't even know how to explain it.

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It lacks excitement. This is one of the benefits of a licensing based model - manufacturers have to compete against each other on hardware since the software is relatively the same. With that, you get interesting and different twists. In the model Apple has mastered (at least in the consumer space), the integration is tight (as you discovered with iTunes and OS X) but a lack of competition means that you're stuck with one design. Neither is necessarily "better" but they are worlds apart in many ways.

iggibar said:

These are some things that worried me about switching. I have a Mac, and though I use Windows7 on BC, I still want my phone to sync natively to my Mac. The worry that syncing wouldn't be as smooth as the iPhone had me. I don't think there's another phone in existence that syncs info as well as the iPhone on an Mac. I had gotten used to easily syncing EVERYTHING in one go with Itunes and iPhoto, but I decided to just go with it and use it as an experience.

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I can't comment on this because I don't use them but some manufacturers have a sync tool that makes this easier. For example, Sony has one that lets me sync my phone with my iTunes library. Does Samsung offer something similar?

iggibar said:

Please don't hate me

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As someone who owns both Android and iOS devices, it would be hard to do.

Absolutely no hate here . . .

On the other hand, I have zero desire for my phone to be exciting. I just want it to be reliable and easy to use.

iggibar said:

I got bored of the iPhone. This has been a conundrum for for the past few months. I wanted a new phone, but didn't know how to transcend away from the iOS environment. I woke up one morning, and said, "whatever, I don't care anymore," and walked into BestBuy(save the hate, I had a $25 coupon and $35 gift card) and bought the Note 2. I have been wanting this phone since I first hear about it.

Why I made this decision. I love tech stuff, and the iphone, to me, was getting boring. My early upgrade just came through, so I could test a new phone, and still be within the launch period of the next gen iPhone. Having gone from the iPhone 3G, to Iphone4, to the 4S, you would think I would be drawn to the iPhone5 right? No. It did nothing for me. I don't even know how to explain it.

These are some things that worried me about switching. I have a Mac, and though I use Windows7 on BC, I still want my phone to sync natively to my Mac. The worry that syncing wouldn't be as smooth as the iPhone had me. I don't think there's another phone in existence that syncs info as well as the iPhone on an Mac. I had gotten used to easily syncing EVERYTHING in one go with Itunes and iPhoto, but I decided to just go with it and use it as an experience.

Now that I actually own the Note 2, and more specifically an Android phone, I actually have a better understanding of the OS quality provided by Apple.
However, with that said, the Android 4.1 is awesome. Better than anything to come before it from Android(obviously, right?). This phone is an absolute MONSTER!

I now use my iphone as an alarm clock and is the bluetooth source to play music in my car.

The iPhone feels like a child's toy in comparison. I'm not sure how many of you might be from my generation to know this, but the best analogy I can come up with is a person owning a MBP, and a child owning one of those preteen laptops that only do a few things. That's how I feel in terms of limitation.
I can't believe I just said that. O.O

I've actually been holding judgment for a while now...so I can know for sure.

Please don't hate me

Can't wait for the iPhone 6!

Click to expand...

kinda funny lol - i went opposite

went from android/pc to iphone/mac

i love the iphone and hate the mac. iphone feels so smooth and clean where my galaxy nexus felt pretty buggy

as far as mac vs PC - its hard for my mbp to stand against my gaming rig with windows 8 and SSD i truly love my iPhone - but my mac kinda feels like a toy computer. the incompatibility is ridiculous - i used to laugh at the mac kids in class who we would have to wait for to catch up and get things figured out - now i am one of them

thank god for boot camp

RavingMac said:

On the other hand, I have zero desire for my phone to be exciting. I just want it to be reliable and easy to use.

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+1 on reliable & ease of use.

Glad you found what works for you/makes you happy. I could never give up my iPhone. I went from 4 -> 5 so it was a little more of a jump up for me. Maybe that makes a difference?

I also value the reliability and lack of issues to deal with. I just want it to work. Security is a big issue with other mobile (and computer) OS. It's not a concern or even a thought on my iPhone or my MBP. To me, the peace of mind, ease of use, and smooth user experience trumps all else. Plus I think my iPhone 5 is pretty sexy.

iggibar said:

The iPhone feels like a child's toy in comparison. I'm not sure how many of you might be from my generation to know this, but the best analogy I can come up with is a person owning a MBP, and a child owning one of those preteen laptops that only do a few things. That's how I feel in terms of limitation.
I can't believe I just said that. O.O

I've actually been holding judgment for a while now...so I can know for sure.

Please don't hate me

Can't wait for the iPhone 6!

Click to expand...

Not sure if I'm reading this part correctly? You are saying that you feel limited in the way iOS feels?

MYmacROX said:

Glad you found what works for you/makes you happy. I could never give up my iPhone. I went from 4 -> 5 so it was a little more of a jump up for me. Maybe that makes a difference?

I also value the reliability and lack of issues to deal with. I just want it to work. Security is a big issue with other mobile (and computer) OS. It's not a concern or even a thought on my iPhone or my MBP. To me, the peace of mind, ease of use, and smooth user experience trumps all else. Plus I think my iPhone 5 is pretty sexy.

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It's stealthy and sexy. Especially the black one.

RavingMac said:

On the other hand, I have zero desire for my phone to be exciting. I just want it to be reliable and easy to use.

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There's certainly something to be said about this as well. I was like this for the longest time, holding onto the idea that a phone should just be a phone. I've moved away from that a bit though.

MYmacROX said:

Security is a big issue with other mobile (and computer) OS. It's not a concern or even a thought on my iPhone or my MBP. To me, the peace of mind, ease of use, and smooth user experience trumps all else. Plus I think my iPhone 5 is pretty sexy.

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Be careful - don't let that push you into complacency.

vansmith said:

There's certainly something to be said about this as well. I was like this for the longest time, holding onto the idea that a phone should just be a phone. I've moved away from that a bit though.

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I know with the black armor and all, you have maintain appearances and a certain "Techno-geek" dignitas, but I find myself slipping in the other direction entirely. Instead of a smart-phone, I'd love a "not-quite-dumb-as-dirt" one.

Actually, ideal for me would be for Apple to base a cheaper model off of the iPod Nano, with a down-sized data plan to match. All I need are for my contacts to sync and reminders to work (and to be able to pull up 1Password when I need it). I'll do the rest on my iPad.

RavingMac said:

Actually, ideal for me would be for Apple to base a cheaper model off of the iPod Nano, with a down-sized data plan to match. All I need are for my contacts to sync and reminders to work (and to be able to pull up 1Password when I need it). I'll do the rest on my iPad.

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Unfortunately, that would go against everything Apple trie to accomplish through its image and representation.

I made a similar transition a few months ago. I had the iPhone 4, which I did love but as I'm frequently in areas with 4G, I really wanted a phone that would support 4G. The iPhone 5 didn't do it for me (for one thing, I hate the new screen - if it were a bit wider I would have been happy, but this tall maintaining narrow just didn't cut it for me and for another thing, iOS needs a facelift, it's almost 6 years old (might as well be 20 in computer years) and really feels its age). So, I moved to a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

I am happy with the phone (I was already very familiar with Android but didn't use it every day), but now that I use it every day I am having some stability issues that comes from at least one of the apps I've installed which is becoming a not-so fun challenge to track down as I don't want to uninstall/reinstall everything (unstable being that the phone becomes unresponsive black screen where certain buttons still do something, usually requires a battery pull) - this has annoyed me as the ONLY time I had a real problem with my iphone that required reboots was when I had it jailbroken and was experimenting. Other then the little gripe of the app issue, the screen is the size I like and I have 4G, so for me, at least for another 2 years, I'll be using this phone.

I also had the "how am I gonna sync my iTunes" to it issue (my android tablet I never wanted/needed to sync iTunes to) and chose to use an app called iSyncr, non-drm songs and videos transfer and work well)

I haven't been impressed, except with the camera - thus, still sitting on my 3GS.

And since Samdung is not permitted any more of my money, would like to see something from anyone that's gone with a LG or Moto phone that has a 64 GB version available.

Nethfel said:

iOS needs a facelift, it's almost 6 years old (might as well be 20 in computer years) and really feels its age).

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This times 1000. iOS looks the same way it did when it first came out. Honestly, at this point, a grid of icons just doesn't cut it.

bobtomay said:

And since Samdung is not permitted any more of my money, would like to see something from anyone that's gone with a LG or Moto phone that has a 64 GB version available.

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It take it that was done on purpose?

bobtomay said:

I haven't been impressed, except with the camera - thus, still sitting on my 3GS.

And since Samdung is not permitted any more of my money, would like to see something from anyone that's gone with a LG or Moto phone that has a 64 GB version available.

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I like the camera, but even more so the Retina screen. I find that I can actually read some web pages using Mobile Safari without zooming in, and the readability on books and PDFs is much better.

IMO for our aging eyes the change is well worth it.

Like the name choice for the competitor BTW.

Didn't spend any time looking at text on the screen when I went to check out the 5, probably should do that again before I finally upgrade.

I find the 5 to be fast and light also the extra length helps in landscape mode.
It should not matter but I really like the white with aluminum back.

I was thinking about getting the Samsung galaxy note 2 also. I put an order in for the iPhone 5. It seems that the iPhone five on verizon has an unlocked Sim card so I can use the iPhone 5 internationally.

I'd like to hear your long-term usage review after several months. I still like everything I see and read about the Note 2.

I had a 3GS and thought about a 5. I finally compromised on a 4S and don't regret it.

I got "burned" by a Chinese epad a few years ago, and would need to see a very clear advantage in an Android device before I would buy one instead of an IOS device.

That said, the Nexus and Samsung devices do look very good these days. Good to see some sensible discussion on them on an Apple site.

vansmith said:

This times 1000. iOS looks the same way it did when it first came out. Honestly, at this point, a grid of icons just doesn't cut it.

It take it that was done on purpose?

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To each their own.

Personally never liked widgets and the like on any platform. Love the simplicity of the iOS interface. Very happy with it. Change all my Android to devices to mirror it.

If I want complexity etc I turn to specific apps. Much prefer the OS to be plain.

Just one guys opinion though

The Note fit my needs. As for wanting a phone that was just a phone, why did you get an iPhone when there are much more dependable phones out there specifically designed to be a phone? Sort of a subjective excuse, isn't it? Getting an iPhone for reliability? Come on, who are you trying to fool? Do not forget I had 3 different iPhones, and many iPhones in between are replacements. I know exactly ** reliable they are.

I think I might have mentioned this before, maybe not, but I'll say it here possibly again: The note 2 was the only Android phone I would take over an iPhone. In absolutely no way am I saying that some random crap Android is automatically on my list of good phones just because I switched to an Android. I don't even care about the Galaxy S3, even though it's right there with the iPhone as being a good phone. I got the Note 2 because it pleases my interest. Don't tell me you didn't buy an iPhone because it didn't please your interests. You know it did.

So far, The Note 2 has been an awesome phone. I even had a funny joke come out of it while I was using it yesterday. A woman that I was conversing with was sitting behind me on my left. I pulled out the Note2 from my left pocket and she says "Wow, that's huge!" I replied, "Yeah, that's what the ladies say." She had a smirk on her face. Job well done phone.

What I sure learned is that you can form a judgement on something without knowing much about it, but when you own something, your opinion changes drastically. I had this same judgment on Android, and even held it for a while as I used a test phone from BestBuy to make sure it worked correctly in my new car(I didn't want to a new phone that didn't work with the features that made me get the car I got). I was sitting with a friend at the bar last night(good deal thursday). I pretty much turned him into an Apple person, and only buys iPhones. He just got an iPhone5, and when I told him that I got the Note2, he joked around about how it's horrible and what not(the same way people who lack knowledge talk negatively about a Mac without knowing anything). Anyways, it didn't take long for him to like it.

It's an awesome phone, and this is coming from an advocate of iOS devices having the best OS...me.

I will most certainly keep this thread posted with positive and negative issues that come up with the phone.