I was an Apple-all-the-way fan girl from the ’80s onward. I first learned to program on an Apple IIE. The first computer I owned was a used Macintosh Classic, a graduation gift from my parents when I graduated college in ’91, and every computer since has been a Mac of one kind or another.

But when it came time to replace my suddenly problematic and nearly non-functional iPhone 5s this past January, I jumped to Android. I’d had a frustrating and ultimately unsatisfactory experience with Apple support in trying to solve the issues with the iPhone and couldn’t justify spending roughly half the cost of a new Android phone just to send the iPhone to Apple to continue the unproductive process.

Nearly eight months later, I have to say that I treasure and rely upon my Nexus 5x in a way I never did with the iPhone. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the 5x’s power and elegance.

I’d thought the transition would be difficult and that there would be a learning curve to adjust to the new ecosystem; if there was an adjustment period, it was minimal. I’d left Apple Mail behind several years ago in favor of the Gmail web client and app and was already using Chrome as my browser of choice; as a result, the Nexus 5x plays beautifully with my Macbook and with iPad Mini.

At this point, I’m keeping an eye on Chromebooks. My MBA isn’t anywhere near needing to be replaced, but I can now easily imagine going all-in (or close to it) with Google over Apple. The only glitch would be that a key piece of software—Scrivener, which I use heavily as an author and journalist—isn’t yet available for Chrome/Android or as a web app and doesn’t look likely any time soon.

Then again, when it comes time to retire my current MBA, laptops may well be obsolete. With the landscape prone to shifting dramatically within the course of a single year, there’s no telling what device I might reach for next—if you’d asked me a year ago, I would have told you there was no way I’d choose an Android phone over iOS, yet here I am.