This is my spiritual journey towards mobile platform Nirvana.
Preface
A lot of people know me as an avid fan of Android but I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for my initial encounter with Apple.
There really isn't a point to this post, but it's a sort of timeline of my experiences with Android/iOS that I'd like to share.
Warning: Massive wall of text with no TL;DR. I use historical context and facts to mix with my story. I also ramble on a lot.
The iOS Series
2009: New Beginnings
My first exposure to a mobile platform began with the iPod Touch 2nd generation in 2009. To put in context, I was in the 6th grade when I received the device as a birthday gift.
It was a completely new and different kind of experience. The only other technologies I owned at the time were the Gameboy Advance SP and Nintendo DS, which were technological gaming feats in their own right.
 |
| Scratches merely personify aging. |
Apple was, and still is, known for having a sort of totalitarian dictatorship over their software (although in recent times, Apple is slowly retracting their strong presence). What attracted so many to Android at the time was its higher level of customization and flexibility.
Google achieved this by releasing Android as open-source and allowed other companies, as well as developers on XDA to modify the code if they didn't like Google's own software.
It gave birth to the controversial Android Skins and Custom ROMs.
But more on later.
2010/2011: The Peak Years
 |
| Black background? Minimalists rejoice! |
Jay Freeman, also known as Saurik, was a well-known developer that infiltrated iOS and found vulnerabilities that allowed him to develop the rogue App Store: Cydia.
And so I opened the application.
Cydia was the app store of software packages, allowing users to customize and modify their iOS device, which allowed more freedom in the OS. Comparably, it was seen as a mix of iOS and Android: Android's capability with iOS's familiar usability.
However, it also was home to soft-bricks, hard-bricks, boot-loops, crashes, and more when it fell to the hands of a less-than-average user. Luckily, most problems can be fixed with restoring the device on iTunes; one of Apple's stronger areas of software to tout.
To be quite honest with you, I had no idea what I was doing sometimes. My first experiences with Cydia were trial and error—I installed packages that weren't compatible with my firmware version, crashed springboard, and more.
By reading what certain packages did and eventually learning all the lingo with help from none other than the internet, I expanded my knowledge of iOS over a course of a few years.
My biggest advice to anyone trying to learn more about their device is to just read. Reading can get you very far in life. The only thing you had to do after that was to test out your knowledge by messing around with your device.
I was a curious little fellow that wanted to know what everything did, which kept me more and more interested in technology.
 |
| I never even dropped my phone a single time. |
During the time I used the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, I took full advantage of the vulnerable operating system.
I found the iPhone-and-Cydia-duo the perfect rival to Android, though my only exposure to Android at the time was my friend's* HTC Evo running Gingerbread with a Sense skin thrown over it.
*dat kickstand tho, Carlos
I really loved my iPhone back then. I've made so many memories with them, with folders among folders of moments in my photo cloud. It introduced me to all the major components of hardware—camera technology, screen technology, processors, you name it.
I used to religiously watch Apple's new keynotes right when I got home, clinging to every word that the Apple executives had to say.
You might have been able to call me an Apple fanboy for supporting Apple so strongly, and you may have been right; but it was more so because of Cydia. I had modified my iPhone so much to the point where I hated normal iOS.
It was too boring, too dull; too slow, and too locked down.
I found the iPhone-and-Cydia-duo the perfect rival to Android, though my only exposure to Android at the time was my friend's* HTC Evo running Gingerbread with a Sense skin thrown over it.
*dat kickstand tho, Carlos
I really loved my iPhone back then. I've made so many memories with them, with folders among folders of moments in my photo cloud. It introduced me to all the major components of hardware—camera technology, screen technology, processors, you name it.
I used to religiously watch Apple's new keynotes right when I got home, clinging to every word that the Apple executives had to say.
You might have been able to call me an Apple fanboy for supporting Apple so strongly, and you may have been right; but it was more so because of Cydia. I had modified my iPhone so much to the point where I hated normal iOS.
It was too boring, too dull; too slow, and too locked down.
2012: The Downfall
Fast-forward a year or two, and the home button of my iPhone 4 began to deteriorate after years of use. Assistive Touch was really choppy and buggy on iOS 5, but by the time iOS 6 smoothed things out, I was done.
Coupled with a deteriorating battery and persistent crashing of Springboard, I knew it was time.
It was always in the back of my head to consider Android, but I didn't expect it to happen so.... easily.
Luckily, I had a friend* that was fond of Android and I asked for his opinion of switching to the S2 (SGH-T989 for you nerds). He noted the customization like any other Android fan would, as well as the expandable storage, removable battery, and larger screen. He encouraged that I should try Android considering how tech-savvy I was, so I went for it.
*Jeffery, the one that started it all.
And just like that, I joined Android. It was a mixture of curiosity and frustration; fear and excitement.
Coupled with a deteriorating battery and persistent crashing of Springboard, I knew it was time.
It was always in the back of my head to consider Android, but I didn't expect it to happen so.... easily.
Luckily, I had a friend* that was fond of Android and I asked for his opinion of switching to the S2 (SGH-T989 for you nerds). He noted the customization like any other Android fan would, as well as the expandable storage, removable battery, and larger screen. He encouraged that I should try Android considering how tech-savvy I was, so I went for it.
*Jeffery, the one that started it all.
And just like that, I joined Android. It was a mixture of curiosity and frustration; fear and excitement.
Android: A New Light
 |
| Source: Droid Life |
Ah yes, Android. To this day, iOS is still the platform that I've used for the longest time.
And yet, Android is the one I'm the most familiar with.
2013/2014: New Faces
 |
| The only time you'll see my iPad naked. |
Now, I should note that although I departed the iPhone, I had the iPad 4th generation (the 3rd one was annoyingly and officially called "The New iPad" by Tim Cook, but I'm using the numbers anyway) to keep myself inside the Apple ecosystem a bit.
iMessage was sort of a good way to keep in touch with other iPhone users for its ease of use and maintaining a dual-OS life.
I also used iTunes heavily not only to control and support my iPad, but rather to manage my music library. iTunes has a great system to edit the ID3 tags on music to keep it well organized. It seemed at this point that iOS wasn't fully out of my life.
In fact, iOS 7 was announced around the summer-time and I immediately jumped on the beta releases to have fun with it. It was rumored that Apple would redesign their OS with flatter icons and vibrant colors, so it was the most anticipated version of iOS yet.
It's weird, but the iOS 7 keynote was the last keynote I've ever fully watched. I view it as a symbol of my decreasing interest and attachment, but I'm also crazy.
In fact, iOS 7 was announced around the summer-time and I immediately jumped on the beta releases to have fun with it. It was rumored that Apple would redesign their OS with flatter icons and vibrant colors, so it was the most anticipated version of iOS yet.
It's weird, but the iOS 7 keynote was the last keynote I've ever fully watched. I view it as a symbol of my decreasing interest and attachment, but I'm also crazy.
Initially, I gave Android a bit of criticism as I was still getting used to it. Touchwiz (Samsung's skin) was more to blame, with its untasteful software design, cartoon-ish bleeps and bloops, and poor update record.
I met another friend* that happened to own the S2. He showed me what a launcher was and installed Nova Launcher, which got rid of a lot of the Samsung drab (Nova Launcher is still on my phone to this day).
*Ravi, my future-self and once god of android. Absolute legend.
He also knew a thing or two about rooting.
What was rooting? In simpler terms, it was Android's version of "jail-breaking", although it was still very, very different*.
I met another friend* that happened to own the S2. He showed me what a launcher was and installed Nova Launcher, which got rid of a lot of the Samsung drab (Nova Launcher is still on my phone to this day).
*Ravi, my future-self and once god of android. Absolute legend.
What was rooting? In simpler terms, it was Android's version of "jail-breaking", although it was still very, very different*.
Rooting allows the user to gain full access, or "root-access", to their device and allows them to go a step beyond jail-breaking (insert ascended super saiyan reference here). It was far more risky and much more fun. Well, at least it was to me.
*you peasant, never compare rooting to jailbreaking!!!1!!1!
There are two different kinds of things that users can do with a rooted device.
A device that is simply rooted can get more access to apps that require root, such as an advanced wake-lock detector or advanced hibernating app.
A device that is rooted can use a custom recovery such as TWRP or CWM, which allows a user to install a custom ROM.
Think of a ROM as the software that a phone comes with out of the box. A custom ROM is a developer-made ROM that will replace the original one. It's a bit hard to explain without visuals or drawings, so please reference the AndroidPolice article linked previously.
What you need to know is that the most popular custom ROM was Cyanogenmod, which used Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code and added in a lot of useful features, but still kept to the Google stock-feel. They supported almost every single Android device out there, which made them very popular.
I was part of the cool kid's* club.
*you're only cool to an android geek, and even then they'll still dislike you
Using Cyanogenmod and following Marques Brownlee's videos, I grew more and more akin to vanilla/stock/pure Android.
After over half a year of using the S2 and Cyanogenmod, there were leaks of the LG "Optimus" G2, the successor to the LG Optimus G. The leaks became massively popular because it had something that no other phone had:
rear buttons. Unfortunately the original video leak that I saw years ago was taken down, but I linked an article commenting about it.
LG had been studying how people held their phones and realized a common pattern in grips, which led to their choice of moving the buttons to the back.
For the most part, it worked. Some people hated it, but I personally loved it.
It allowed LG to create a larger screen with thinner bezels, all in a compact package. In fact, the compact 5.2" LG G2 is about the same size as the iPhone 6, which has a 4.7" display with much bigger bezels.
LG continues to be the only OEM that uses rear buttons (except the Asus Zenfone 2, but it doesn't have the power button on the back) with each flagship release, such as the LG G3 and LG G4.
I chose the G2 because the other rival phone was the HTC One M7, arguably the best phone of that year, was aging, while the G2 was the first to use the Snapdragon 800 processor series (2.3GHz) while the M7 had a Snapdragon 600 processor with a lower clockspeed (1.7GHz) than the S4 (1.9GHz).
Therefore, I saw it as more likely to last and withstand the next year's flagships; which it did.
I used the phone "out of the box" for a few weeks in October until I rooted it for Cyanogenmod after KitKat's release.
LG's skin... wasn't the greatest. It was like the twin to Touchwiz, with a heavy, cartoon-feeling skin and loads of features. It was a bit more tolerable, however.
When Google announced the Google/LG Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat just a few weeks after I was using the G2, I was excited. A new version of Android just in time for my new phone.
Then I realized the cons of using a non-Nexus device. I'd have to wait months for LG to develop their version of KitKat, while every Nexus would get it quickly (except the Moto X, which got it before Google's own Nexus 4 did).
I got around it by, of course, rooting and using Cyanogenmod.
Skipping a lot of events, my G2 was rooted with a custom recovery, and I flashed a lot of ROMs. I became a flashaholic, switching between Cyanogenmod to CloudyG3, to ParanoidAndroid, to AOKP, etc.
I also grew akin to customizing my phone's interface pretty cleanly.
Here's what my homescreen looked like in its prime: https://imgur.com/a/OH7wy
It carried on for an entire year and a half, until my phone experienced problems.
While using BlissPop, a 5.1 ROM at the time, I experienced reboot problems that I'd never experienced before, so I decided it was a good time to unroot and revert to LG's latest Lollipop update.
Using LG's Support Tool, I updated it, but the reboots just continued to happen. They wouldn't stop.
The phone worked flawlessly and lag-free, but the screen would just freeze and reboot; sometimes it would just shut down.
I forgot to mention my dying Windows laptop, but that'll be in my...Chromebook story (if I ever write that).
It was extremely difficult to work with while my G2 was in danger.
I tried many different ways to fix the reboots, which is documented on my reddit post.
It overheated during the process somehow and caused my screen to get 3-4 black lines. I was completely shocked. I immediately turned the phone off to let it cool down, and fortunately one line went away, and then another. Two lines permanently stayed.
Coupled with the "damaged" screen and constant reboots, I was forced to switch with my father's iPhone 6 while he used a recently purchased iPhone 5s. This time I wasn't as reluctant to switch.
And here we go.
I've changed over the years, as everyone else does too.
By the time I owned the LG G2, I knew I was done with iOS. After joining the dark side, I wanted to stay in the dark side. I loved it.
Yes, now and then people would look at my G2 and ask,
"is that the new Galaxy?" or remark,"that phone is too big!"
but I was always prepared to educate them about Android and show it in a better light.
I became the defender of Android whenever the topic came up, so it was a surprise to some people when I walked into school with the enemy, the iPhone 6.
For a few times when I'd pull out the iPhone, some would react, "So you've left Android!" with much joy, while others would react, "Why do you have the iPhone?" "You have two phones now?"
This is one of the repercussions of being pro-Android, but I didn't mind it that much.
One time, I've even gotten "I like your phone!" which made me laugh a bit inside. The iPhone 6 is pretty common, but some people still admire it. It's an interesting power that Apple holds. Had it been a pretty looking Android like the S6 or M9, it probably wouldn't have been the same reaction.
In short, I told them what happened to my Android and that it was temporary. In reality, I didn't know if I was able to get a different phone, but one can keep wishing.
I was planning to definitely record each and every one of my annoyances with iOS compared to Android, but I was too lazy. I will, however, write my opinions in a different piece.
The biggest takeaway was for me was this: iOS has terrible reddit apps. Sync for Reddit on Android is eons ahead of whatever the App Store can offer. That is the plain truth. I've used at least 6 of the top reddit apps on iOS, and none could come even close.
Now, that sounds like a bunch of whining, and I'll admit that. However, Matias DuARTe*, lead designer at Google, is onto something. He developed Material Design with his team and really hit it out there. Material Design greatly surpasses iOS's blurred and flat designs with meaningful animations and beautiful, vibrant colors, inspired by contemporary art and the sorts. I'll get into it in another time, but The Verge describes Android Lollipop's Material Design very well.
*have you heard our lord and savior, DuARTe?
Okay, back to the topic. Google fortunately has most of their services on the App Store, and I love them for that. Lack of Google Maps on iOS would have made me go insane, as Apple's version isn't my favorite. Here's one of my favorite articles of all time that analyzes the differences between the two, design-wise.
However, Google likes to Keep a few of their better apps. Get it? Keep? Google Keep? No? Nevermind.
Anyway, I used Google Keep and Evernote to manage my daily tasks. Google Keep for long-term thoughts and tasks, and Evernote for homework reminders and tasks. Evernote was worse on iOS, which made me seek out another task app. I settled with Quest, a great reminders app that was free for a short period of time.
It didn't stop there. Widgets on iOS 8 are terribly designed, custom keyboards are half-baked, and clicking links will not bring you to the dedicated app most of the time.
For example, clicking a link to a post on Twitter will not take you to the Twitter app like it should; it brings you to Safari, which will then prompt you to go to the app. It's frustrating. I don't understand how apps don't communicate with the OS as fluidly as it should.
I'm only pointing out the negatives here because they were my main impressions of going back to iOS.
The biggest things I'll highlight about the iPhone 6 is its insanely fast camera, which shoots 10fps burst mode—something I really loved—as well as the iPhone's great battery standby time.
I can keep going on about the positives and negatives, but it only lasted almost an exact month.
T-Mobile, to my surprise, lowered the cost of a Nexus 6 by $100. So I jumped ship.
This is going to be a short one since I'm writing this exactly a week after getting the Nexus 6.
I already know everything about Lollipop because of custom ROMs, but the hardware was new..ish. My other friend* got a Nexus 6 in March and I used it a few times before.
*ayy lmao -Fabian
***Edit (5.27.15): It's funny, but I always knew the Nexus 6 was water resistant, as listed on the Motorola page, but it wasn't until the morning after I just got the Nexus 6 that I tried it out by briefly and swiftly putting it under the shower head.
Unfortunately, by learning the hard way, the Nexus 6 actually does not have proper IP Certification for water and dust resistance, but rather has a nano-coating, which is good for rain and accidental spills; not submerging it.
When I got out of the shower, I tried playing a YouTube video and the audio would not come out. After factory-resetting and doing all the typical things a power user should know, I figured it must have been a defected Nexus, but it was odd because audio works for phone calls while the speaker is on, but doesn't work when using the earpiece.
A few days later, I was reading a post and found out that the phone must have gotten water inside the 3.5mm headphone jack, which caused it to think there were headphones plugged in. Oh, well. Exercising the warranty is great. But yeah, that actually means my current Nexus 6 is the second one I've owned.***
First, there's the size. You cannot escape it; with a 5.96" display, this phone is the biggest of all of them. Its codename is Shamu, for crying out loud. In the beginning, it was a slippery phone to deal with, but after getting the Spigen Ultra Hybrid case, all was fine. I got used to the size after 2-3 days.
Everything else feels smaller.
There's a few things I dislike: screen brightness and low-light camera performance. Other than that, it's a great phone, and probably the best I've ever used.
The screen is beautiful, but it doesn't get as bright as I'd want it to be in the sun. It also turns a bit pink when you put it to the extremely lowest brightness setting, but only when Adaptive Brightness is on.
The camera is actually really nice, with sharp detail and saturated colors. However, metering is average at best. Focusing is fast, but if you focus on the wrong thing, the exposure gets blown out, leaving you extremely white backgrounds.
Luckily it's fixed with Manual Camera. Video recording is above average, but it hunts for focus quite often. That is also remedied by the HTC Camera apk, which locks focus during recording. It's great.
Just don't try to take a selfie in low-light. In decent lighting, it's decent quality. In less than decent lighting, it's less than decent quality.
The front-facing, dual stereo speakers are one of my favorite hardware features of the Nexus. They get loud, and they are amazing. Any phone that doesn't have speakers on the front is doing it wrong. Some may get louder, but they don't provide an immersive experience because they lack the depth.
Overall, I'm liking it. With Google I/O right around the corner, I'm ready for Android M(acadamia Nut Cookie?) and will definitely flash the developer preview. It might even come earlier than it should!
I'll write on that when I get my hands on it.
Thanks for reaching the bottom, whether you scrolled down to the bottom or made the journey here the long way. It means a lot, since this was my first real post.
Yes, I do ramble on a lot, and that's due in part to my damned fingers that seem to type everything I'm thinking.
I will definitely never write something as lengthy as this post, but this one is especially long because it's my story. Any post following this one will be much shorter and handle-able.
Please provide feedback, whether through email or commenting below.
This post was written over a course of a few days, spread out between weekends.
Thank you again, and I will catch you in the next post...when I have time for that.
--
*you peasant, never compare rooting to jailbreaking!!!1!!1!
There are two different kinds of things that users can do with a rooted device.
A device that is simply rooted can get more access to apps that require root, such as an advanced wake-lock detector or advanced hibernating app.
A device that is rooted can use a custom recovery such as TWRP or CWM, which allows a user to install a custom ROM.
Think of a ROM as the software that a phone comes with out of the box. A custom ROM is a developer-made ROM that will replace the original one. It's a bit hard to explain without visuals or drawings, so please reference the AndroidPolice article linked previously.
What you need to know is that the most popular custom ROM was Cyanogenmod, which used Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code and added in a lot of useful features, but still kept to the Google stock-feel. They supported almost every single Android device out there, which made them very popular.
I was part of the cool kid's* club.
*you're only cool to an android geek, and even then they'll still dislike you
Using Cyanogenmod and following Marques Brownlee's videos, I grew more and more akin to vanilla/stock/pure Android.
 |
| My first real Android phone, the LG G2. |
rear buttons. Unfortunately the original video leak that I saw years ago was taken down, but I linked an article commenting about it.
LG had been studying how people held their phones and realized a common pattern in grips, which led to their choice of moving the buttons to the back.
For the most part, it worked. Some people hated it, but I personally loved it.
It allowed LG to create a larger screen with thinner bezels, all in a compact package. In fact, the compact 5.2" LG G2 is about the same size as the iPhone 6, which has a 4.7" display with much bigger bezels.
LG continues to be the only OEM that uses rear buttons (except the Asus Zenfone 2, but it doesn't have the power button on the back) with each flagship release, such as the LG G3 and LG G4.
I chose the G2 because the other rival phone was the HTC One M7, arguably the best phone of that year, was aging, while the G2 was the first to use the Snapdragon 800 processor series (2.3GHz) while the M7 had a Snapdragon 600 processor with a lower clockspeed (1.7GHz) than the S4 (1.9GHz).
Therefore, I saw it as more likely to last and withstand the next year's flagships; which it did.
October/Android 4.4 Kitkat
I used the phone "out of the box" for a few weeks in October until I rooted it for Cyanogenmod after KitKat's release.
LG's skin... wasn't the greatest. It was like the twin to Touchwiz, with a heavy, cartoon-feeling skin and loads of features. It was a bit more tolerable, however.
When Google announced the Google/LG Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat just a few weeks after I was using the G2, I was excited. A new version of Android just in time for my new phone.
Then I realized the cons of using a non-Nexus device. I'd have to wait months for LG to develop their version of KitKat, while every Nexus would get it quickly (except the Moto X, which got it before Google's own Nexus 4 did).
I got around it by, of course, rooting and using Cyanogenmod.
2015: Android, then iOS, and Android again
Skipping a lot of events, my G2 was rooted with a custom recovery, and I flashed a lot of ROMs. I became a flashaholic, switching between Cyanogenmod to CloudyG3, to ParanoidAndroid, to AOKP, etc.
I also grew akin to customizing my phone's interface pretty cleanly.
Here's what my homescreen looked like in its prime: https://imgur.com/a/OH7wy
It carried on for an entire year and a half, until my phone experienced problems.
While using BlissPop, a 5.1 ROM at the time, I experienced reboot problems that I'd never experienced before, so I decided it was a good time to unroot and revert to LG's latest Lollipop update.
Using LG's Support Tool, I updated it, but the reboots just continued to happen. They wouldn't stop.
The phone worked flawlessly and lag-free, but the screen would just freeze and reboot; sometimes it would just shut down.
I forgot to mention my dying Windows laptop, but that'll be in my...Chromebook story (if I ever write that).
It was extremely difficult to work with while my G2 was in danger.
I tried many different ways to fix the reboots, which is documented on my reddit post.
 |
| Damn those two lines! |
Coupled with the "damaged" screen and constant reboots, I was forced to switch with my father's iPhone 6 while he used a recently purchased iPhone 5s. This time I wasn't as reluctant to switch.
And here we go.
Back to the Roots: iPhone 6 | iOS 8
April 15-May 16 2015: The One-Month Stand
 |
| I hardly even knew you. |
I've changed over the years, as everyone else does too.
By the time I owned the LG G2, I knew I was done with iOS. After joining the dark side, I wanted to stay in the dark side. I loved it.
Yes, now and then people would look at my G2 and ask,
"is that the new Galaxy?" or remark,"that phone is too big!"
but I was always prepared to educate them about Android and show it in a better light.
I became the defender of Android whenever the topic came up, so it was a surprise to some people when I walked into school with the enemy, the iPhone 6.
For a few times when I'd pull out the iPhone, some would react, "So you've left Android!" with much joy, while others would react, "Why do you have the iPhone?" "You have two phones now?"
This is one of the repercussions of being pro-Android, but I didn't mind it that much.
One time, I've even gotten "I like your phone!" which made me laugh a bit inside. The iPhone 6 is pretty common, but some people still admire it. It's an interesting power that Apple holds. Had it been a pretty looking Android like the S6 or M9, it probably wouldn't have been the same reaction.
In short, I told them what happened to my Android and that it was temporary. In reality, I didn't know if I was able to get a different phone, but one can keep wishing.
I was planning to definitely record each and every one of my annoyances with iOS compared to Android, but I was too lazy. I will, however, write my opinions in a different piece.
 |
| #materiyolo |
Now, that sounds like a bunch of whining, and I'll admit that. However, Matias DuARTe*, lead designer at Google, is onto something. He developed Material Design with his team and really hit it out there. Material Design greatly surpasses iOS's blurred and flat designs with meaningful animations and beautiful, vibrant colors, inspired by contemporary art and the sorts. I'll get into it in another time, but The Verge describes Android Lollipop's Material Design very well.
*have you heard our lord and savior, DuARTe?
Okay, back to the topic. Google fortunately has most of their services on the App Store, and I love them for that. Lack of Google Maps on iOS would have made me go insane, as Apple's version isn't my favorite. Here's one of my favorite articles of all time that analyzes the differences between the two, design-wise.
However, Google likes to Keep a few of their better apps. Get it? Keep? Google Keep? No? Nevermind.
Anyway, I used Google Keep and Evernote to manage my daily tasks. Google Keep for long-term thoughts and tasks, and Evernote for homework reminders and tasks. Evernote was worse on iOS, which made me seek out another task app. I settled with Quest, a great reminders app that was free for a short period of time.
It didn't stop there. Widgets on iOS 8 are terribly designed, custom keyboards are half-baked, and clicking links will not bring you to the dedicated app most of the time.
For example, clicking a link to a post on Twitter will not take you to the Twitter app like it should; it brings you to Safari, which will then prompt you to go to the app. It's frustrating. I don't understand how apps don't communicate with the OS as fluidly as it should.
I'm only pointing out the negatives here because they were my main impressions of going back to iOS.
The biggest things I'll highlight about the iPhone 6 is its insanely fast camera, which shoots 10fps burst mode—something I really loved—as well as the iPhone's great battery standby time.
I can keep going on about the positives and negatives, but it only lasted almost an exact month.
May 16th: Hail the Nexus
T-Mobile, to my surprise, lowered the cost of a Nexus 6 by $100. So I jumped ship.
This is going to be a short one since I'm writing this exactly a week after getting the Nexus 6.
I already know everything about Lollipop because of custom ROMs, but the hardware was new..ish. My other friend* got a Nexus 6 in March and I used it a few times before.
*ayy lmao -Fabian
***Edit (5.27.15): It's funny, but I always knew the Nexus 6 was water resistant, as listed on the Motorola page, but it wasn't until the morning after I just got the Nexus 6 that I tried it out by briefly and swiftly putting it under the shower head.
Unfortunately, by learning the hard way, the Nexus 6 actually does not have proper IP Certification for water and dust resistance, but rather has a nano-coating, which is good for rain and accidental spills; not submerging it.
When I got out of the shower, I tried playing a YouTube video and the audio would not come out. After factory-resetting and doing all the typical things a power user should know, I figured it must have been a defected Nexus, but it was odd because audio works for phone calls while the speaker is on, but doesn't work when using the earpiece.
A few days later, I was reading a post and found out that the phone must have gotten water inside the 3.5mm headphone jack, which caused it to think there were headphones plugged in. Oh, well. Exercising the warranty is great. But yeah, that actually means my current Nexus 6 is the second one I've owned.***
First, there's the size. You cannot escape it; with a 5.96" display, this phone is the biggest of all of them. Its codename is Shamu, for crying out loud. In the beginning, it was a slippery phone to deal with, but after getting the Spigen Ultra Hybrid case, all was fine. I got used to the size after 2-3 days.
Everything else feels smaller.
There's a few things I dislike: screen brightness and low-light camera performance. Other than that, it's a great phone, and probably the best I've ever used.
The screen is beautiful, but it doesn't get as bright as I'd want it to be in the sun. It also turns a bit pink when you put it to the extremely lowest brightness setting, but only when Adaptive Brightness is on.
The camera is actually really nice, with sharp detail and saturated colors. However, metering is average at best. Focusing is fast, but if you focus on the wrong thing, the exposure gets blown out, leaving you extremely white backgrounds.
Luckily it's fixed with Manual Camera. Video recording is above average, but it hunts for focus quite often. That is also remedied by the HTC Camera apk, which locks focus during recording. It's great.
Just don't try to take a selfie in low-light. In decent lighting, it's decent quality. In less than decent lighting, it's less than decent quality.
The front-facing, dual stereo speakers are one of my favorite hardware features of the Nexus. They get loud, and they are amazing. Any phone that doesn't have speakers on the front is doing it wrong. Some may get louder, but they don't provide an immersive experience because they lack the depth.
Overall, I'm liking it. With Google I/O right around the corner, I'm ready for Android M(acadamia Nut Cookie?) and will definitely flash the developer preview. It might even come earlier than it should!
I'll write on that when I get my hands on it.
Ending Notes
Yes, I do ramble on a lot, and that's due in part to my damned fingers that seem to type everything I'm thinking.
I will definitely never write something as lengthy as this post, but this one is especially long because it's my story. Any post following this one will be much shorter and handle-able.
Please provide feedback, whether through email or commenting below.
This post was written over a course of a few days, spread out between weekends.
Thank you again, and I will catch you in the next post...when I have time for that.
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