Overall, it's been fantastic. Six years ago or so I was really into playing with all of the ways you can customize Android, but more recently (I switched 2 years ago), I realized I just wanted a phone that would work. And for the most part, that's what I got: a phone that does phone stuff, and does it well (and still does it, 2 years later, just as well as the day I bought it). And does so with the most privacy that you can reasonably find these days without giving up those basic features of modern life or constantly fighting and fiddling with your device.
My main complaints:
1) The notifications UX is not as good. It gets the job done, but it just feels overall clunkier and worse. There's also a bizarre separation between your lock-screen and the "Notification Center" pull-down. I almost never use the latter, but whenever I open it there's always a random notification from like a week earlier that had been dismissed from my lock screen but was still hanging around there. This doesn't really matter in practice but it's very weird.
2) It sounds like a tiny thing, but the Clock app is not as good. It lacks a couple of really nice little features like early-dismissal of alarms and a confirmation whenever you turn one on ("Alarm set for 8h 23m from now").
But really that's about it. Apple Maps works great (at least in the urban area where I live), despite the memes. Customer support is great. The granular app permissions are extra great. And mainly, it's just nice to know that you can be a full participant in modern society, and you can expect your device to simply work, without also having your every step tracked. Knowing you won't buy a pair of headphones only to find out you can't use them because they require an app, which requires Google Services, which you don't have (this actually happened to me).
Edit: I should point out that I wasn't using microG, so I don't know how much that changes the experience. YMMV.
> I realized I just wanted a phone that would work. And for the most part, that's what I got: a phone that does phone stuff, and does it well (and still does it, 2 years later, just as well as the day I bought it).
I certainly don't intend to wax lyrical about Android devices but it does do phone stuff and does it pretty well. Android versions usually make sweeping changes to the UI so mine is a bit dated but it does what I paid for.
I do agree that tracking by private corporations is big no and collectively we should push back hard but whether it be google or apple or samsung or microsoft, all of them give nigh 2cents worth a damn about our privacy. We are their products as the now popular maxim goes.
> but it does do phone stuff and does it pretty well
It does, if you have Google Services. If you don't want Google Services, you're going to have a crippled device. Apple is the only company that has any financial incentive not to spy on you, so while I don't take them 100% at their word, I accept that they're the best I'm going to get in that regard.
I did like having a notification LED, but I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. And anyway, those are becoming less common on Android devices too.
FWIW you can configure your iPhone to flash the camera LED when you get a notification. Not quite the same thing because it isn't passive, but it's something.
My main complaints:
1) The notifications UX is not as good. It gets the job done, but it just feels overall clunkier and worse. There's also a bizarre separation between your lock-screen and the "Notification Center" pull-down. I almost never use the latter, but whenever I open it there's always a random notification from like a week earlier that had been dismissed from my lock screen but was still hanging around there. This doesn't really matter in practice but it's very weird.
2) It sounds like a tiny thing, but the Clock app is not as good. It lacks a couple of really nice little features like early-dismissal of alarms and a confirmation whenever you turn one on ("Alarm set for 8h 23m from now").
But really that's about it. Apple Maps works great (at least in the urban area where I live), despite the memes. Customer support is great. The granular app permissions are extra great. And mainly, it's just nice to know that you can be a full participant in modern society, and you can expect your device to simply work, without also having your every step tracked. Knowing you won't buy a pair of headphones only to find out you can't use them because they require an app, which requires Google Services, which you don't have (this actually happened to me).
Edit: I should point out that I wasn't using microG, so I don't know how much that changes the experience. YMMV.