I was a Samsung phone user for over five years until I recently cracked Samsung s8 screen from two places. To fix the screen, the cost of over $300, which was not worth the hassle. I’ve used it cracked screen much to the amusement of coworkers and friends, but it worked fine until recently when it fell again for the 15th time, and now it was not charging unless I insert the cable in a specific way and try not to move. I could deal with a cracked screen, but the stress of not having a charged phone in the morning was not too much to keep on using the phone.
This incident put me back in the market for the phone, and I decided to go with Apple X much to the surprise of many friends, and even my wife was shocked that I am moving back to the iPhone. Yes, I was the original iPhone user, no I did not wait in the line to get one, but I was one of first to get iPhone 1 on AT&T network back in the days. Why I went back to the iPhone?; I wanted to try something different; I was satisfied with my Samsung S8, but it almost worked too well, and I was ready for a new adventure (or something to complain about).
The Goods
First impression?
I love it; the body feels solid, expensive, and weight is well balanced.
Body Material
The solid feel of the body and weight was perfectly balanced. Samsung S8 / S9 almost felt like too plasticky.
The onboarding process was flawless; Apple knows how to provide instant gratification and get users to interact with the product as soon as it turns on.
Face ID
Face ID works so much better than Samsung face detection. It works well in low light and from various angles. I miss the fingerprint unlock of Samsung, but if you can ignore all the privacy concerns or theories of Apple eventually sharing all the Face ID data with the governments, you can almost forget about the fingerprint because It is superior and almost instant.
Photos
The portrait mode in Camera works well, it appears that the Camera for iPhone X is on par with Samsung S8/S9, camera software for taking and editing pictures is better in iPhone X. Camera gallery organizes the photos by different media types including selfies, live photos, and screenshots. Samsung has all similar features, but I think the user experience of Apple is slightly better.
Music
There is no doubt that music experience in an iPhone so better than any of Andriod running phones. After many years, Google or Samsung cannot figure out whether to use Google music as primarily music app or Samsung to develop a music app. Over the years, both Samsung and Google try to push their app while degrading their experience. Apple Music and Podcast app work flawlessly. I listen to many podcasts; it took me a few minutes to find all my favorite podcasts on the Apple podcast app and subscribe to it.
The bad
Itunes
I am not sure why we still have to use iTunes to sync music, that was one of the reasons I moved away from the iPhone. I want the ability to connect my phone to any PC or MAC and drag and drop my music collection.
Siri
I was astonished by how bad Siri is, after using Google assistant for simple tasks such as opening applications, searching the phone, searching the web, it is evident that it is a superior product. I had to install Google search and leave it in the widgets to avoid using Siri.
Overall
I would say that I am delighted with the new iPhone; it just works!
My prior gripe with the iPhone was that one could not easily drag and drop the music files and start listening to it; you must transfer the files using iTunes. I think it is still the case; however, during to plethora of choices of streaming services, so far, I only had to sync a few of my albums, and the rest of my music collection is all on the cloud. I also like the photo editing app better than any app on Andriod phone. It is simple, and the effects are moderately pleasant.
