Title: Long-time iOS user considering switch to Android - Need advice on $1000 flagships
Body:
Hey everyone, I’m looking at phones around the $1000 price point and would love some input. I’ve been an iOS user for years but I’m seriously considering making the jump to Android this time.
Here’s what I’m looking at:
iPhone 17 Pro - The safe choice since I’m already in the ecosystem
Samsung Galaxy S25 - Hearing good things about this generation
Pixel 10 Pro - Probably crossing this one off the list due to the stability issues I’ve been reading about (the 911 call failures, overheating problems, etc.)
Nothing Phone - The design looks really cool, but I’m not sure if they have anything in this price range
For those who’ve made the switch from iOS to Android (or vice versa), what would you recommend? Any major gotchas I should know about? And is the Nothing Phone even worth considering as a daily driver at this price point?
Thanks in advance!
If good multiple cameras is what you look for in a phone, you can’t go wrong with a Google Pixel. It comes with a clean OS as well. Don’t listen to the others who say to flash a custom ROM, as doing that will gimp the phone’s experience and potentially stop some of the apps from running.
The only things affected might be some banking apps and google nfc payments. Graphene OS is still the best alternative for Pixel Android for both privacy and security.
Samsung’s phones are pretty superior but the software is pretty bloated. And i don’t think anyone should trust Nothing anymore because of all the controversies going around.
Google pixels on the other hand has a good bloat free OS. Also i think those 911 call failures and overheating issues that you mentioned might get fixed via a new update. I think you should go with the Pixel 10 Pro, You could also consider installing GrapheneOS on that bad boy.
Regardless of what brand you choose, buy it from the manufacturer. I bought my prior Samsung from Verizon and the bloatware was horrible.
Is this even a thing you can avoid anymore? You connect to the network with their SIM installed and it immediately downloads the apps they say you need.
I don’t know what carrier you use, but after I bought my new phone from the OEM I didn’t have that happen
I bought a new phone a couple months ago and on the first setup it installed their app. Then when I traveled soon after the eSim I was using installed something else when I connected to that network.
Pixels just get astroturfed into oblivion, for 10 years they’ve offered the best Android experience by far.
The only mediocre aspect is battery life/charging. Other than that, Pixel is always the way to go.
Google pixel /thread
I would not use anything that didn’t run pure Android.
Get a OnePlus 13. They’re ~$900 now but that will soon drop when the new model drops, or black Friday or whatever.
No bloat, great specs, a new battery technology that lasts for 2 days for me.
A friend of mine showed me their nothing phone, one with the glyph lights in the back. It wouldn’t have been an expensive version, but even so the back plate felt very plasticy. Is that still the case with them?
Nothing’s releases this year were underwhelming unfortunately
It depends what experience you are looking for and why you are switching. Plus what region you are in because some phones are not available/the same in all countries.
But I prefer Pixel with Graphene OS installed. Very private and granular controls, but not always the smoothest experience because locking down for privacy isn’t convenient.
Stock I really like the Samsung S series. Decent UI and doesn’t feel bogged down.
I think for “gotchas” you should consider how you message people and how you pay for things. Not that those are deal breakers for you, but they seem to be the most prevalent daily use cases that can’t always be gotten around.
I would either get a pixel and put graphene os on it, or just get the iPhone. Android is trash for privacy.
Don’t spend iPhone money on an Android. Definitely don’t on a Samsung unless you like having both Google and Samsung’s versions of basic applications such as phone, messages, calendar, browser etc.
Motorola do a very minimally customised Android .
Yea my $200-300 Motorola’s have been good for years. Why waste 4x on a phone?
There’s definitely benefit in going further up market (the $600 range tends to be where diminishing returns really kick in, where the differences between a $300 phone and a $600 phone are pretty obvious, the $600 and the $1000 phone are much harder to spot the differences) and if you buy a used generation or two old device you can really save some cash. My wife and I both got Pixel 7s last year for about $250 a pop, and they’ve still got several years of updates left on them
Not all Samsung phones are the same. Carrier versions are usually the one’s that come neutered and bloated. While international versions are unlocked and allow to uninstall anything. Including Google’s applications. I wished they wouldn’t be working on permanently locking the boot loader, that is their real sin.
$1000 is too much for a phone.
If you wait for a deal to January, you can probably get a Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus for under $700.
If you want to really save money, you can get an S24 and it will still have half a year of upgrades.
The s24 series has 7 years of updates
Sorry. I meant half a decade. You are correct.
Came here to say the same thing 😭
Ehhhh I build a computer that lasts eight years or more for 2KUSD
I think spending 1.5kUSD on a pocket computer that stays fast and works amazingly for at least five years is legit. I got my last phone five years ago and didn’t even need to upgrade, I just wanted more storage space and 120hz screen. Oh and better cameras. But 1-2k is not too much for a phone if you use it as a pocket computer with… what rivals a DSLR but you don’t have to bring your DALE with you, attached to it.
You can get a decent phone for cheap, but it’s gonna be kinda shit it a couple years. I don’t have to lug my Nikon with me anymore and that’s great.
I do agree with the notion that phones in todays society are hugely important and spending money on what for most people might be their most important computing device is valid.
But the thing is that you really don’t need to spend this kind of money to get all the performance 95% of people need. Unless you want a foldable phone or NEED the telefoto-lense that is often reserved for higher end models (but I assume even then there are cheap options),
As an example here in Germany you can get a pixel 9 for under 500€, if you get a cheap mobile contract even cheaper (I pay 15€/month over 2 years and got a free pixel 9 with the mobile plan). All the performance you need and makes great photos. And for anyone who wants lots of storage there are still phones with sd card readers
No
I switched from a Pixel to a Samsung and I would like to inform you that Samsung is bullshit. The phone is nice and all but I’m always fighting the software. Google Pixel software stays out of your way and occasionally helps you.
As a Pixel 6 Pro user who occasionally has to interact with the Samsung devices my parents use, holy moly I don’t know how anybody puts up with this. We’re talking fullscreen advertisement lockscreen bloatware that can be disabled but not uninstalled, added to the phone out of nowhere with a recent update. The worst android keyboard I’ve ever used in my life. A UI and all of Samsung’s versions of existing apps that I’m constantly fighting just to use the phone. It’s ridiculous. I genuinely don’t know how anyone can run a Samsung device without installing a custom ROM or something it’s actually insane.
None of that comes activated by default. Sure, there are some dark patterns that trick people into activating bullshit. But anyone with half a brain and a minimum attention span not rotten yet by social media will click no on those prompts. Once disabled at the first startup, Samsung doesn’t bother you ever again. You can uninstall every single Samsung app and substitute with your favorite, no issue. This includes all Google apps, except play services because of Google.
As for ads and uninstallable bloat, it’s probably a carrier version. Those do get bloated and get ads. But otherwise, the international unlocked versions don’t show any ads at all. I’ve never seen an ad in my S25 phone and use nearly all Foss apps. The phone has never refused to uninstall anything. The effort to do that is pretty minimum, no tech knowledge required. Just learn to say no to software, it’s not rocket science. People got conditioned to saying yes to every prompt just to make it go away. This is how they get you. But it is not mandatory or out of your power to disable that stuff.
And for the UI, it’s a subjective matter of taste. I’ve never liked any of the alternative launchers either, they all suck in some minor way that breaks their gimmick. OneUI is fine and perfectly functional, it even has more customization and QoL features than stock launcher and other truly bullshit launchers like Xiaomi’s.
I’ve not run into any of these issues…but as I went from iPhone to samsung perhaps its all just a matter of perspective. Perhaps the Pixel is superior.
I check each year what the reviews are saying and the Samsung always seem to edge out on top for what I want - a large device (i get the Ultra) with a premium build and great camera. I also have a samsung watch so the integrations work quite nicely. I found the google wallet on the watch constantly asked for my pin while the samsung wallet only would the first time since I put it on. Oh and you have to unlock your device to use Google Wallet as your travel payment…with samsung wallet I can just tap and go which is much more preferable to me as it means my eyes are up and paying attention to my world, not looking at my phone unlocking it.
I’m another happy Pixel 6 Pro user. I use GrapheneOS so my phone doesn’t have adware (or Google for that matter).
Great battery life, beautiful 120hz display, quality cameras. The only bad thing is replacing the battery isn’t easy (though I’m not having issues with the original battery yet)
I totally agree with Samsung being bullshit. As for how people can accept that, well, it’s probably the only ecosystem they know. My experience is anecdotal, but I’ve been to parts of the world where it’s iPhone vs Samsung. Like, USB-c is a Samsung plug. So, just as people get attached to the iPhone UI, regardless of model, people do the same with Samsung.
Speaking of bullshit, has anyone elseatched Pixel’s deletion of the back button? While I’ve been conditioned on how it works, there’s still a number of app swipes that turn into “back” commands instead.
I miss the Nexus lineup.
Why make the jump to android? What prompted the consideration?
Samsung is on my shit list. Their spammy, ad riddled UI is infuriating.
I don’t trust them. They lock their phones down and don’t let you remove their bloatware or block their ads/notifications.
Fuck them. Never buy Samsung.
I agree and disagree. I switched from a Pixel to an S series and I have to say I like the Samsung better.
While the Samsung UI used to be a sore spot, I think the Pixel design language shift of the past couple years is far worse. All the big colorful pills with too much whitespace… Samsung brings back a proper notification shade with lots of quick buttons, like it used to be 3 or so versions ago with a Pixel. I put my custom launcher on and basically forgot it’s Samsung.
There’s spots all over Android that have been rough that Samsung just, smooths out. It’s like they’re actually using the phone and willing to take matters into their own hands when Google isn’t, because Google is focused on AI assistants and letting everything else rot. Samsung lets you customize, whereas Pixel keeps walking you toward an iOS style experience one step at a time.
DeX, if you have a use for it, is awesome. During my lunch break at work can unplug my laptop from my dock, connect my phone, and have a personal workstation for watching videos, whatever. I also have a much better Private Folder with multiple apps. It’s like Samsung understands that with one device we need separation. Google has been saying a competitor to this is coming, but at this point it’s so far behind I’ll believe it when I see it.
Samsung doesn’t hold you hostage in format wars. My old Pixel in 20fucking23 couldn’t support external storage with anything but FAT32. That’s insane. It was screwing me up trying to easily back up a large file and that was no problem for the Samsung. Same with casting, Google is all in on Chromecast and nothing else, Samsung can CC but it can also Miracast. So now I can cast to any TV instead of only some.
Samsung’s hardware is usually better. They try new things sooner so you have a refined ultrasonic fingerprint sensor while Pixel was still doing illuminated, depending on your version the processors are better.
Now, places where Samsung sucks are obvious and you stated a few. No unlocking is bullshit. I own the phone, I should be able to unlock it. If you’re into tinkering then stay away, but Samsung’s do tend to have higher resale value, so if you want to get into ROMs then you can always sell the Samsung and grab a cheap used Pixel. Samsung kept the headphone jack and uSD around a little longer, but they’re both long gone on today’s models so that’s moot.
Samsung (and I can see where they’re coming from) was concerned with how much control Google had over Android so they made their own first party apps for everything. This means a lot of duplicate apps. I will say that while some can’t be easily uninstalled, they can be easily ignored. I just don’t use most of them and I’m fine. They don’t really force them on you or keep changing them to the default handler or anything. I’m OK with it, but I could see some people being annoyed.
That’s about it honestly… Samsung reminds me a bit of the early Nexus era days. Lots of customization, interesting tech, and work being put into the OS. Google is just plodding along, content to lock people into an iPhone clone and sell AI. I say give them both a try. If you pick up used or a refurb you can save a fortune and easily switch if you don’t like it without losing much if anything.
It’s been a while since I used Samsung. My work phone is a Samsung flip of some sort that gets powered on once a month.
However, it’s not just their phones that have me turned off. Their TVs built in OS is shit and they just had a whole lot of bad press for their fridges that will start showing ads. Not to mention how their appliances tend to have the shortest lifespan of comparably prices appliances.
Good hardware, but consistently anti consumer software.
My very fist Android phone was a Samsung and while it had all kinds of cool features like TV out and an IR blaster, the software never got updated. I ended up installing and tinkering with custom ROMs and that led me to the Nexus line when it first launched. I stayed with Google ever since because they kept the Nexus and A series affordable, and had a much nicer clean OS with constant updates.
When they switched from Nexus to Pixel they decided they wanted to price it like an iPhone, even though it totally lacked the polish and value proposition. I stuck with my Nexus until they introduced the A series. It was affordable and new, but lacked video out, wireless charging, and thr SD card. Things the Nexus line all had. It was the beginning of the iphone-ification of Android IMO, but there were no other good options because every other vendor abandoned their phones after a year.
Now several years later things have only gotten worse. The amount of brands selling Android phone that are actually decent is like 2, maybe 3, they all are just slate designs with nothing interesting, and only a few actually give you proper updates. Samsung stands out in that crowd for having the most interesting phones and still decent support, but I agree that they are too expensive when new, and the locked bootloader sucks.
As you mentioned I’m 100% I’m just talking about Samsung’s phones here. Samsung as an entire company is one I would stay away from in most cases. I also would never buy one of their appliances and while I may have considered their TVs in the past due to them being an excellent panel manufacturer, I would think twice today.
Totally fair.
I do admit the phones look cool and have some very nice features. But they’ve been on my “never buy” list for a long time for all their products, phones included.
I think not being able to uninstall Facebook was one of the breaking points when I last trialed their phone.
Eww, yeah that’s not cool. Was that Samsung forcing that on the phone or the carrier? I know US carries are atrocious for their uninstallable apps like that. Regardless shame on Samsung and the others for allowing it. The only apps that came on mine were Samsung apps.
Regardless, your dislike is completely justified. I really wish someone else could step up and make the phone we need. Repairable, jack/slot, small-midsize, proper updates, but I just don’t think the market is there. The iphone-ification of smartphones is basically complete, and now Microsoft is trying to do it to the desktop. In the future there’s going to be a lot of old people telling stories to their grandkids about how they used to own a computer and choose what was installed…
I’ve been on Samsung for years and I don’t get this argument anymore. There’s no ads on my phone, and one ui is pretty smooth.
I do use my own launcher so maybe that covers it up, but new Samsung isn’t like what they were a long time ago.
they also didn’t donate any money to trump’s vanity projects unlike apple and google.
I have the same experience although I’m still on One UI. S24 Ultra
I was working on my Mom’s Samsung tonight and can confirm that default One UI is the worst cell phone interface experience I’ve ever had. Needing a skin or launcher is a deal breaker when devices with great OOTB experience exist.
and one ui is pretty smooth.
Nah. It only stopped lagging, because the hardware got faster. Each hardware generation it got a bit better, after 2015 or so.
Agree with this. Samsung has great hardware but I hate their software. I switched from them to iOS. Only thing I really hate in iOS is swipe typing and fucking awful autocorrect. Everything else is better than Samsung. They might also have a better camera but it’s hard to keep up with all the leapfrog.
As an Android user, the iOS keyboard is fucking horrendous and I don’t understand how people deal with that every single day.
I’m literally questioning my life choices right now thanks to this keyboard. Somehow they managed to make it worse in iOS 26. I regret ever installing this OS.
The keyboard is bugged and someone JUST caught it on slow mo changing the user input. It’s a wild bug and explains a lot because the iOS keyboard and autocorrect used to the gold standard. It was sooooo good pre-ML.
My complaints are not ones of bugginess. It’s 1. the size and 2. having to switch layers every 3 characters.
iOS allows you to switch keyboards.
Maybe they’re better now, but every other one I tried also sucked. Especially compared to the likes of GBoard or heliboard or FUTO keyboard or many other FOSS Android ones.
You can download gboard.
Oh I didn’t realize that. I’ve only ever seen people use Apple!
I’ve dealt with it by using SwiftKey instead.
I recall Swiftkey being less awful, but with the side benefit of a keylogger, courtesy of Microsoft.
It definitely is. I’m not sure how to overcome this. The app offers the option to use it without an online account, but nothing guarantees that it won’t phone home every second anyway.
None of this is true. I hate notifications so I turn them off and then I don’t get them.
Even back then. I discovered on my Galaxy S3 (2011/2013?) that you have to buy some softwre from them, to edit the boot animations in their own proprietary format (a novum back then). Then they got Knox and stuff. Their entire bootchain is now a custom proprietary hackjob.
If you’re seeking privacy, I bought a Pixel 9 from a clearance sale (at a $200 discount) and the only difference for me personally is a one year support timeline difference. You can install GrapheneOS using their official guide and never touch the Google OS.
Need advice on $1000 flagships
Get a $500 non-flagship. Basically the same but a bit less AI-noise in the pictures it takes.
I can recommend the Xperia line, especially if you liked the old iPhones better than the phablet ones.
