5 highlights of the iPhone7: an Android user’s perspective

The iPhone7 (Source: 9to5Mac)

Majority of my smartphone life so far has been on Android (I used HTC HD Mini in between, which with Windows 7 can’t really be considered a ‘smart’ phone anyway). I have been most comfortable on Android, and given that I am a strong user of Google and its ecosystem of apps at work and off it, I was quite at home on the platform.

I had been largely oblivious to the existence of the Apple ecosystem, except occasionally reading about the long lines outside Apple stores, whenever a new iPhone was released. That started changing last year when I moved to the Mac from Windows, at work. I went through some onboarding troubles, before settling down with it.

Over a year later, I seem to be taking a bigger bite of the Apple, with a migration from my Android phone to an iPhone. The supposed ‘coolness’ of Apple products aside, I’ve been a bit anxious about getting farther away from the fast-growing Android platform, the ubiquitous Windows ecosystem, and losing touch with the technology of masses.

After a month of extensively using and playing around with the iPhone 7, here is my review of the 5 key highlights of the iPhone, and the one thing that I miss sorely:

1. The hardware and software makes the iPhone standout, as with any other Apple product. This is the primary differentiator that ensures an amazing performance and gives a solid user experience. Its great to get used to slick performance and almost no lags.
2. iOS native apps (Safari, Mail, Calendar, Maps, Photos) are primed to work natively and provide a superior cross-functional experience. But, being a staunch user of Google apps (Inbox, Gmail, Gcalendar, Gmaps, Gphotos), I haven’t leveraged them much and don’t intend to migrate to any of them in the foreseeable future.
3. Sync across Apple devices can be a very handy feature that lets you start in one device and seamlessly pickup and finish the task anywhere. Working across the Mac & iPhone, I’m finding this sync to be quite handy — whether its Notes, Safari tabs, Contacts or any other native feature.
4. A swashbuckling Camera is a strong selling point, as Apple has rightly been positioning this in its marketing blitz. A solid camera packed with core features to deliver great pictures and videos, bridging some gap of point-and-shoot cameras against the SLRs, is an unquestionable asset.
5. A slew of small nifty things add up to the positive experience: 3D touch, context aware alerts, Touch ID fingerprint scanner, Siri (for small unintelligent stuff)

I sorely miss the Google Now homepage. I’m talking about the Android homepage where Google neatly strings together your schedule for the day, timely contextual alerts, and other news/tweets/feeds of interest. Misses aside, this has grown over the years into something quite engaging. I recently setup Google Search for iOS, the app that bundles the famous ‘Now cards’, but the non-native experience is just not the same.

I continue to explore, play and learn more about this new device. Expect some posts on this soon.