So right here’s the factor: I need to ditch my iPhone and transfer to Android so badly, but each time I verge on making the transfer, Apple pulls me again in.
Last 12 months, I used a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra for per week and actually loved it. But it was for an experiment and I used to be simply ready for the iPhone 15 Pro Max to launch. In September, titanium iPhones appeared, and similar to that I used to be again to utilizing iOS inside my ever-growing Apple walled backyard.
This 12 months was totally different, nonetheless, and it’s the closest I’ve ever come to saying goodbye to the iPhone for good, nicely, at the least for 12 months. After seeing the reveal of Google’s new flagship smartphones in August, I used to be immediately intrigued by the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. You see, up till very lately my thought of a folding telephone was giant gaps, peeling display screen protectors, and a cumbersome footprint, however that each one modified once I held a 9 Pro Fold on the retailer.
In our Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold evaluation, US Mobiles Editor, Philip Berne wrote, “When I confirmed the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to iPhone-toting family and friends they have been all amazed, with out fail. It’s the primary foldable that appears… regular, all of them mentioned. How regular? It isn’t simply that the entrance is the very same dimension and form because the Pixel 9. Being skinny helps lots – the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is so skinny that it’s much less cumbersome than my iPhone 15 Pro Max if I hold the iPhone in a case.”
I could as nicely be one in all his pals or a member of the family as a result of that’s precisely how I felt after just some minutes with the 9 Pro Fold. For the primary time in a very long time, it felt like I used to be holding innovation within the client tech house and I felt like a child once more. Obviously, my thought of foldables was skewed and there are tons like Google’s providing, however when many of the tech you employ exterior of labor is “Designed by Apple in California” you lose a way of what one thing genuinely refreshing to make use of appears like. Now that’s not a diss at Apple, my Mac, my iPad, and my iPhone all work precisely how I need my expertise to work, however once you’ve used incremental updates of the identical merchandise for practically 15 years, sooner or later you need to see if the grass is greener on the opposite facet.
So I did it. I pre-ordered a Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I used to be lastly going to promote my iPhone and take a look at Android 15 for a 12 months. But then issues modified.
Groundhog Day
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold was formally launched on September 4 however my preorder with EE, one of many largest networks within the UK. by no means arrived. I waited patiently, excited to check out Google Gemini constructed into Android and get my first style of a folding smartphone with a good looking 8-inch show. For no matter purpose my preorder stored getting pushed again, September 5, September 6, September 7, September 8… And then it occurred: Apple’s iPhone 16 occasion on September 9.
At the occasion, Apple showcased the iPhone 16 Pro Max alongside the remainder of the iPhone 16 lineup. The {hardware} is an incremental enchancment over my 15 Pro Max, however in our early hands-on iPhone 16 Pro Max evaluation, Editor At Large, Lance Ulanoff, wrote, “The query is, can the small and even invisible modifications add as much as one thing huge? Based on my transient hands-on time with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I’d say the reply is sure.”
For me, it’s not in regards to the {hardware}, I personal 2023’s finest iPhone and it’s nonetheless a beast virtually 12 months later. Instead, it was Apple’s potential on the occasion to make me really feel like I couldn’t skip the primary 12 months of Apple Intelligence. Yes, I’ll have entry to Apple’s AI on my iPad Pro M2 and my MacEbook Pro M3 Pro, however the iPhone is on the core of the Apple ecosystem and it’s arguably the smartphone expertise that may outline Apple Intelligence’s success.
AI is pivotal to the success of iOS 18 and the brand new iPhones deemed, “the primary iPhones constructed from the bottom up for Apple Intelligence”, by Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook. With incremental updates coming over the following 12 months, we’ll get to check out particular person Apple Intelligence options as they cook dinner within the oven and see simply how a lot of an affect they’ll make on our day-to-day lives. I’m hoping at the least one in all Apple’s AI instruments is as helpful as Universal Clipboard, fairly presumably my favourite Apple characteristic which permits me to repeat and paste between all my merchandise.
iPhone 16 Pro Max preorders at the moment are reside and but once more, I’ve acquired a brand new Apple smartphone to gather on launch day. I got here so near taking a leap of religion into Android, however inventory delays, the concern of the unknown, and Apple’s potential to make you are feeling FOMO hooked me again in. I’m excited for a 12 months of Apple Intelligence and I can’t wait till Siri has on-screen consciousness to turn out to be the private assistant in my pocket I’ve at all times needed it to be. In round 11 months this cycle repeats itself, solely subsequent time Apple Intelligence will likely be much less of an unknown and Google Gemini is perhaps the way in which ahead.
