It’s Feb 2025 now and last month Samsung released their latest flagship device S25 Ultra. I have been following it since it’s released and overall looks super impressive.
I am currently using iPhone 11 Pro Max which was released 2019 and it is now 6 generations old. I am planning to buy a new phone this year. The big dilemma – should I get the new Samsung flagship and switch over the Android or should I stick to iOS? I am really confused.
Why switch to Android?
Well, the short answer is just for the sake of change. I have been using iOS for 6 years now am I am pretty much bored of it. The latest Android 15, especially Samsung’s One UI 7 looks refreshing and has a lot of great features. I think experiencing the new refreshed UI is my primary motivation behind the switch.
Apart from the UI, Android does offer other perks like being able to sideload apps (no more region restricted apps like iOS), better file management and root access and many other developer friendly features.
Minimalism vs feature bloat
On the flip side, I do feel that almost 90% of those UI-level features are useless and I’ll be rarely using them. I remember, 10 years back when I was in my early 20s, I used to be really excited to explore and try out all those new features. I would spend days together tinkering around endlessly with all the customizations available. I would even show-off those features to my friends.
I am 30+ now and my priorities and perspectives have changed. I try to follow a minimalistic lifestyle now, especially in the digital world. I try to keep my phone usage to the bare minimum. I install only the essential apps which are mostly tools and utilities. I don’t install any app that has infinite scrolling.
With all that in my mind, I feel like having all those shiny new features of OneUI 7 will act more like cognitive load rather than actual functional use. Having all those features will mean I’ll have the urge to tinker and customize endlessly which is against my minimalist approach. If I don’t use these features then I’ll feel like I am not utilizing the phone to its full potential.
Leaving Apple ecosystem is hard
I have been living in the Apple ecosystem for over 6 years now. Over these years I have acquired 5 Apple devices that I actively use on daily basis:
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- MacBook Pro M1 2021
- iPad Air 10th Gen
- Apple Watch Series 7
- AirPods Pro 2
Now, all these devices are tightly integrated with each other and work together seamlessly. Sharing between these devices is super easy and also maintaining these devices using a single Apple account is convenient. Leaving this walled garden behind is hard.
If I switch over to Android, here are some of the Apple ecosystem features I find difficult to let go:
- Fitness & health tracking using my Apple Watch won’t work.
- iMessage and FaceTime won’t work. These are the two apps that I primarily use to connect with my wife.
- AirDrop sharing with other iPhone users won’t work
- AirPods won’t connect and switch seamlessly between the device that I am actively consuming media on. Right now, if I am listening to Spotify on my iPhone and then switch over to watching a video on my iPad then the AirPods automatically switch between these devices.
- iOS specific apps like Bear, Cape, etc. are not available on Android.
These are some of the obvious ones that I’ll miss but I am sure there are other features in the Apple ecosystem that I am used to but I might not even remember now.
Samsung S25 Ultra Hands-on
Today I went to Best Buy to check out the Samsung S25 Ultra. I spent almost an hour there exploring all the shiny new features of OneUI 7. The phone definitely felt premium and I was surprised at how lightweight it was as compared to my iPhone 11 Pro Max. The camera also seemed good. I loved the smooth zoom feature when recording videos.
Apart from the usual features, the other thing that I was very impressed with was Galaxy AI. It did work very well, especially when working with Photos. It had tons of features. As much as I was impressed with all those features, I knew for a fact that I was rarely going to use any of those features during my daily use. The phone costs $1390 (incl taxes) which is approximately ₹1.21 lakh.The S25 Ultra is a great phone and I couldn’t find any problems in it. I definitely loved it.
Will I buy the S25 Ultra?
I don’t think so. Why? I think there are two main reasons:
- I don’t want to go overboard with phone usage and I really love my current minimalist approach towards digital.
- Leaving the Apple ecosystem is hard for me at this point. Is it impossible? Definitely not, but I don’t think I am willing to go through the hassle of using an Android phone while all my other devices are Apple.
What next?
If I really want to experience the OneUI 7 then I think a better solution is to get a mid-range Samsung device like M56 which is expected to be launched next month i.e. March 2025. The M series is available only in India and sold only through online retailers. It’s cheap as compared to the A-series which is sold through offline retail but has almost identical features.
As for my new phone, I’ll wait for the next iPhone release which is 7 months away from now. Till then, I’ll continue to use my iPhone 11 Pro Max which has served me really well so far.