Only one Android phone could tempt my partner to switch from an iPhone

Around Thanksgiving final yr, I overheard my accomplice Jennifer on the cellphone together with her household, bemoaning how bored she’s gotten together with her iPhone and waxing rhapsodic about her scorching pink Moto Razr V3 from her teenagers — how COOL telephones was once. And instantly, a plan fashioned in my thoughts. You see, I’d heard my coworkers doing their very own geeking out all summer season in regards to the Motorola Razr+ (2023). Unlike the opposite trendy Razrs, which largely relied on nostalgia slightly than high quality, the Razr+ backed up the hype with wonderful efficiency and a design that my chic-tech-loving accomplice would recognize. If something may free her from years of boredom with Apple slab telephones, it could be an Android foldable cellphone. So I requested my coworker Nick Sutrich to mail me his Razr+ as an iPhone-freeing experiment. The query was, would the novelty be sufficient?Like many Apple customers, Jen sticks together with her iPhone as a result of it syncs together with her different Apple tech, not out of any nice love or pleasure for the {hardware} or iOS. So I noticed this as an opportunity to see whether or not probably the greatest foldable telephones of final yr would excite her sufficient that she may make the leap to Android for good. After utilizing the Motorola Razr+ for all of December, Jennifer gave me her verdict.Google made the transition simple(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)I figured the toughest half about switching from iOS to Android can be the software program. Before her first iPad, Jen purchased an previous Samsung Galaxy Tab (she could not inform me which mannequin) and was completely underwhelmed by the previous Android software program; it is what pushed her to Apple within the first place. Thankfully, inventory Android 13 is light-years forward of no matter model she used then — in all probability Android 4.X — and the wealth of Google apps and tips proper out of the field made her really feel at dwelling. She appreciated having her Chrome searches, bookmarks, and recs from her laptop computer and pill instantly at her fingertips, together with the brand new perk of Google Discover. She’s additionally somebody who used Apple Shortcuts and Widgetsmith to completely customise her iPhone dwelling display screen, which made Android’s concentrate on customization thrilling to her. She hasn’t absolutely taken benefit of Android’s many theming tips and widgets but, however she’s a giant fan of the Material You theming and enjoying with app icon shapes and packs.Otherwise, effectively, she spends most of her cellphone time on Instagram and TikTookay. Aside from any new options that iOS will get earlier than Android, the app expertise between the 2 ecosystems is not that completely different. Breaking information: Foldable telephones are cool(Image credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)We stay in Apple and Google’s yard, Silicon Valley, which suggests we largely see folks with iPhones, with a number of Pixel 8s and Galaxy S telephones combined in. We simply do not see many foldables round right here, and possibly will not till the iPhone Flip lastly reveals up.So despite the fact that people studying this website could also be aware of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 or OnePlus Open, plenty of on a regular basis people aren’t even cognizant of this new wave of tech, which made the Motorola Razr+ an thrilling novelty to my accomplice. She instantly spent plenty of time with the duvet display screen, saying she preferred the automated outer-to-inner app transition and the choice to rapidly examine Doordash monitoring or different cursory updates whereas it sits on her desk. (Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)At the identical time, she stated she wished the cellphone did a greater job of strolling her via what she may really do with the duvet display screen, and she or he discovered that the small variations of apps like Calendar and Instagram felt awkwardly cramped, to the purpose that now she nearly at all times opens the cellphone absolutely.As for the internal show, she went from an 800-nit, 60Hz iPhone 12 Pro to a 1,400-nit, 165Hz Razr+, making it a vivid, easy marvel to her, even when it isn’t as vivid as most of the finest Android telephones. She additionally did not thoughts the tall side ratio as a fan of the previous narrow-sized flip telephones — she largely makes use of vertical video apps, in any case — and the minimal crease in comparison with a Samsung foldable made {that a} non-factor for her, too. She loves the hybrid strategy between a retro really feel and trendy design concessions; she solely needs she had the Viva Magenta variant or the Summer Lilac colour possibility for the usual Moto Razr 2023.One main Achilles’ heel(Image credit score: Derrek Lee / Android Central)Apple will get justifiably roasted for its middling battery life, particularly when utilizing the brand new AOD setting. Our iPhone 14 Pro reviewer was beneficiant when he referred to as its battery “average.” Still, even by that commonplace, flip-style foldables have the identical difficulty on steroids with their high-Hz cowl shows and tiny batteries.The Motorola Razr+ is particularly mediocre for battery life. Jen stated she’d want two arms to rely the variety of occasions she went to examine one thing on the Razr+, solely to search out it lifeless. That’s plenty of sudden battery deaths for a number of weeks of testing, and it is one which fully soured her on the expertise. Part of the difficulty is Apple’s Lightning dependence, previous to its pressured USB-C transition, filling our home with incompatible charging cables. But she’s simply not used to having to cost her cellphone or discover a wi-fi charger, besides after hours of exercise — not hours of inactivity. Simply due to that, she began letting the Razr+ keep lifeless and going again to her iPhone increasingly more. Not ready for an iPhone FlipAs the experiment began truly fizzling out as a result of Razr+ battery points, I requested Jennifer two remaining questions:Would one other Android cellphone with higher battery life tempt you to change?Would you select a future hypothetical iPhone Flip over a normal iPhone Pro?Her solutions have been (1) a reluctant “No” and (2) an emphatic “No.”To the latter level, all of her frustrations about latest iPhones boiled over. She thinks an iPhone Flip can be “insanely overpriced,” in her phrases, mixed with “boring-ass colors” which have turn into Apple’s trademark with Pro telephones. Apple’s failure to do extra with Dynamic Island makes us each fearful that it would not do something particularly progressive with a canopy show, both.She additionally famous that when she informed her library colleagues about her foldable cellphone experiment, one warned that her husband had purchased the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and ended up having to switch it when the hinge gave out. With foldables’ sturdiness points and the issue of getting one repaired, Jen says she’d need to wait and see whether or not the iPhone Flip magically does any higher than manufacturers testing the shape issue for years.The iOS vortex cannot be simply escaped… (Image credit score: Apoorva Bhardwaj / Android Central)As for switching from iOS to Android with one other cellphone, she says all of it comes again to the truth that she additionally makes use of an Apple Watch Series 9 and a MacBook. She likes these much more than she likes her iPhone, however it’s how all of them sync collectively that retains the iPhone helpful.As the location’s Wearables editor, I’ve proven her one Wear OS watch or health watch after one other, and she or he’s been totally unimpressed with most of them, particularly my Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic. She would not like their thickness, how the round show cuts off textual content and the general look of One UI Watch. To her, the Apple Watch squircle is precisely what she desires. She makes use of a Windows PC for gaming, and Microsoft Link to Windows will surely work higher with an Android cellphone. But the prospect of switching all of her different tech without delay can be an excessive amount of, she says, for an on a regular basis Android cellphone that is simply as boring as an iPhone. So what is the “one” Android cellphone that will tempt my accomplice away from iPhone, as my headline hinted? Samsung foldables haven’t got the sturdiness, and the hypothetical iPhone Flip is not price ready for, in her opinion. A normal Android slab would not appear completely different sufficient to her from an iPhone to make it definitely worth the trouble of switching. I believe a Pixel 8 Pro may change her thoughts, given her love of cell images and Google apps, however I haven’t got one for her to check.The remaining reply is her perfect smartphone hasn’t come out but and will not ever: It’s a hypothetical Motorola Razr+ 2024 with related specs, a vibrant design, and a significant battery enhance (or a software program change to how the duvet display screen works) that’d make idling battery drain a lot much less of a difficulty. With that, she says, she’d fortunately take into account leaving her iPhone 12 Pro behind. For now, she’s caught languishing with an older cellphone, not eager to improve to a different boring iPhone 15 Pro, however not sure if future foldable flip telephones will ship the correct expertise and battery life to stay as much as her nostalgia.