Once upon a time I worked at Apple while daily driving a Google Nexus 4. New iPhones would come and go, customers would ask how I liked the new iPhone; I proudly exclaimed that while I’m happy for them, I enjoy my device.
In January I lost $129 to Apple due to an App Store technical issue and never received my item. Nor the app dev, nor Apple, nor my bank’s chargeback could make it right and it angered me. It angered me as someone who previously worked at Apple, we didn’t treat customers like that. This issue was also actually an issue, not a Karen minor complaint blown out of proportion.
I sold my Mac, iPad, iPhone, it all went. But something interesting happened.
See, I signed up for Google Fi; I used them a long time ago and enjoyed the service. This time was a dumpster fire and I was one of the lucky ones. Store items not shipping, free shipment items arriving two weeks before paid, express shipping items, customer service who lies and sets incorrect expectations.
Others have their devices stolen by the warehouse Google uses and trade-ins stolen or lost and get billed for never sending devices back. Some people receive boxes with bricks in them, Reddit is full of horror stories and yes, while people usually share when things go wrong, not right, it’s a bit out of the ordinary where it just isn’t bias.
The software experience and using the device was.. alright. There’s some cool things like how it can screen your calls with on device AI. It can wait on hold for you. When calling businesses, it transcribes and displays menu items, gives you typical call hold times, and so on.
You can get messages on any computer now with messages for web, Microsoft has their phone link app; solutions are out there to try and replicate some of the cohesion Apple has in their walled garden.
But the battery life, on fucking everything. Pixel 7 Pro battery life is meh. Thinkpad AMD (the good processor) is very meh requiring charging twice a day, at minimum. Thinkpad quality is very poor, the first machine bowed out 15 minutes out of the box due to a BIOS update that bricked the system due to Lenovo’s own tooling.
The second machine’s Wifi card completely disappears and the cell modem resets often. The Wifi is SOLDERED TO THE MOTHERBOARD, in a Thinkpad, wtf? (not that Apple is any more repairable).
I used my Windows/Android setup for three months. I just couldn’t anymore.
I don’t know about the 12.9 iPad, though; the thing is fucking massive. I will wait for the keyboard and pencil to arrive for a good feel of using it before making a return decision, however.
But it is really nice sitting here with 98% battery after using it for a half hour to watch YouTube last night and writing on my blog this morning. I feel asleep, as I usually do, with the iPhone on and YouTube on. The screen was on most of the night and it’s still at half battery, the Pixel would be dead by now.
Anyway, now if I can just stop switching, lol. But really, I’ve tried the Samsung Fold twice, hated it. Pixel is usable as long as you stay away from Google Fi. Windows laptops are just… meh. ARM CPUs are solidly the future.
Ross Fisher 