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.

That’s my home screen after a week with Pixel 8a. My iPhone is being left, untouched since last week.

Pixel shots are good enough to post, without ANY touches.

Powązki. This is that golden autumn everybody was talking about. 🍂🍁

This is just crazy. I love it.

BuzzKill and Hurry for Android are worth every cent.

Warsaw being pretty.

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.

Few random thoughts about iOS vs Android:

• I like Apple Pay experience more,
• 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.

First time getting an update on Android day 0.

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.

I feel a bit more understood by this phone. It does interesting things and is very helpful with the assistants.

If this is what Pixel 8a does I want to see what 9 Pro can do.

I can admit that app quality is sometimes a bit worse on Android but web experience is so much better.

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.

This is where I’m at.

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.

Another thing I’m a fan of - Spotify is downloading songs in the background. I don’t have to set up my phone’s display to never turn off to sync everything I want to offline.

I know I’m very screen focused but this is the thing I interact with most when using a phone.

What pisses me off now is that this phone costs like $250. And it has 120hz, always on display. And go have it on iPhone you have to get the pro.

A long time ago it was a known fact that iPhone is the best device to use with Google apps. And now I must say it just makes sense to get into android if you’re into Google services. Google Maps integration is just better here that it could be in iPhone (thanks Apple Maps). And there are multiple instances of things like that. Im not instantly becoming an Android user or a big fan but this journey will be even more interesting that I anticipated.

120hz is awesome. And this phone costs less than my current iPhone 14! Coming back to iPhone even for a second just feels bad now. That was quick.

My main SIM card is on Pixel 8a. I’ve moved my signal account and WhatsApp account there as well. I’m not getting rid of the iPhone because I want to sync my Apple Watch (that was just degraded to be a fitness watch) but I’m giving it a real shot.

And after my first day - well, half of it - I must say things are going great. It just works. Like a phone. With apps. Couple hiccups here and there but nothing that wouldn’t be solved quickly.