I started my site in this iteration in 2018 – funny enough this was the last year that I used an Android device. I’d decided that I really wanted to try out the Moto Z Platform. Why? The modular nature of the device really seemed cool to me – want a full, telephoto camera? Slap one on the back. Larger speaker to take tailgating or to the beach? Slap it on the back. Extra battery pack with wireless charging? You guessed it, slap one on the back. Or, if you liked the phone as is, you could very easily just change the back plate to customize it. I actually loved the phone itself, and the nature of the platform… the issue? Motorola’s (or Lenovo’s rather) quality control over the device production. In a year and a half I had three device replacements, and after that bad experience decided that I was going to go back to an Apple device. This wasn’t my first usage of an Android device, nor was it the first Motorola I’d used – back in 2014 when I was in college I’d shattered the glass of my iPhone 5 (both front and back) and didn’t have Apple care at the time. I had an internship in the Adirondack Mountains and needed a phone – after a few weeks of using a little Alcatel on an AT&T Go Plan, I was able to get a Hand Me Down Motorola ‘Droid’ on my main phone plan for a few months. I was actually very satisfied with this older generation phone for the few months I’d used it. After I’d replaced the battery which was just annihilated after the few years of use it’d had, it was golden, and ran solidly for the duration I needed it.
Let’s fast forward to now, six years later from my last experience, and I’m considering switching again – although this time I’m leaning towards two primary manufacturers of these devices, not something that’s a license of a brand we all know, so as to not have the same experience as last time:
The Next Generation Google Pixel (which should be out around September), and the Samsung Galaxy Ultra (whether that be this S24 that was just released, or the next gen remains to be seen). I’m not dissatisfied with my Apple device, in fact quite the contrary, I have an M2 iPad Pro, and ran a MacBook for 10 years, however I do just want to toggle back to something different for a little bit.
Apple is actually helping me make this decision as well – as it is I already use a majority of Google Apps and Services on my iPhone, from Maps to Photos, and with Apple transitioning the secondary messaging over to RCS to standardize services between iOS and Android Devices, aside from a lesser layer of encryption (and the bubble still displaying green), there should be no issues in text messages as you’ll sometimes have now.
If we look at it from a photography standpoint, does it really matter anymore? Sure, some phones buy you a better optical zoom than others, or slightly better stabilization, in fact from a sheer photo standpoint the Google Pixel is constantly rated the best camera in a phone – where Apple gains its edge though is in the video processing. Frankly, I don’t take enough videos for that to be too much of a deciding factor. Occasionally some from events, or the rover setup, but those are all in Light environments with minimal background to mute.
What do you use? I’d ask what your default operating system is, but let’s be honest, it’s not about the OS anymore – it’s about the ecosystem of devices. Which “walled garden” do you prefer, and why?
Roving On 