Since I have moved onto the Pixel I find myself using Gemini a lot. I do it a couple times a day and my questions are mostly about small things. Yesterday I asked what the hell is baba ganoush, today I have asked what does “habibi” actually mean. We were picking new heaters and I wasn’t actually sure how do we calculate the wattage and it just answered me. MOST of the times I did fact-check and it was actually right!
This is a big change to my daily workflow. Because whenever something comes to my mind - I can (and I am!) ask about it and learn something new.
There are moments in which I’m missing my iPhone, sure. I do have these thoughts daily, but my sim card remains in the Pixel for about week and a half. Whenever I think about the iPhone, I remind myself that this tool has better assistant, better screen, does the same job and have OUT OF THIS WORLD notification system. And - that was new to me, seriously - these are to me worth more than iOS ecosystem? And the funny part of that is because I’ve moved from Apple to more open Google (evil, but a bit more open) - I can still access my photos and messages on my Mac. Because they are available in the web.
Crazy experience. I know we said these things about Apple, but they just figured some nice things out. You’re getting to bed and plugging up your phone? It’s getting darker and black & white, so you go to sleep instead of scrolling. Someone’s calling you and you can’t answer now? Flip your phone screen down and it will be silenced because obviously.
After a week I’ve got used to the bigger border or fingerprint scanner (I found out that using a bit more force on it actually improved my finger readability). The only thing that right now is frustrating is the slow charging speed. Everything else is fine.
Just to add to the point of iPhone feeling more expensive/premium and 8a feeling cheaper - I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because I feel safer and have to be less careful with Pixel. I love glass, don’t get me wrong, but iPhone with case feels chunky and without one - very slippery.
the assistant on Android (the normal, non-Gemini) is so much better than Siri,
I still have to keep around an iPhone because of smart home (thermostats are HomeKit only) - at least until we move in the new flat,
I love Android back gesture and I miss it a lot on the iPhone,
Android feels playful, but not in a way that makes me addicted to it,
omg proper file system, I missed that!
build quality on 8a vs 14 Plus is no match, iPhone feels expensive and 8a feels - unfortunately? - cheap,
iPhone has better vibration motor but it doesn’t bother me that much, what bothers me is lack of very important notifications on the wrist, missed a couple calls already (can be fixed with getting a smartwatch what will happen eventually because my Apple Watch is getting old.
iOS notification system is like 0.1 version of what Android has. Seriously. I’m SNOOZING one notification to come back and notify me in an hour. SNOOZING.
This phone makes sense for me even just for the camera. I’d love to get a Pro model or even just a normal one to get it even better with even better screen and then I’d just have to figure it out on Android because I love whatever it does with pictures.
I did some nighttime photography with Pixel today and it’s just amazingly good. Much much better than my iPhone. And whatever the camera did in postprocessing - would be something I’d add if it was missing. Seriously. Amazing.
I’ve just lost a 3000 words essay about Android notifications because - against my better judgement - I’ve drafted it in the browser window instead of an app and - by mistake - clicked CTRL+R.
I’ve made a note that’s basically a to-do list before fully switching to the Pixel. There are a couple of cards that don’t work in Google Pay (I have to activate them before adding to Google Pay, interestingly—I didn’t have to do this on the iPhone). Also, because we’re doing renovations and have most of our ideas in a synced photo library, I need to sync photos to Google Photos first. Once that’s done, I can switch to the Pixel, confident that nothing is missing and everything I need is on my phone.
Switching phones in 2024 isn’t easy, and that’s why I’m doing this. It shouldn’t have to be so complicated.
