Do I want to change My Mobile Ecosystem?
I got my first phone when I was doing my final year — even that time I was hesitant to buy one, but because my father insisted I got one. It was Motorola L7 marketed heavily as the slimmest phone (well L6 was actually
more slimmer). I really liked that phone — solidly built metal chassis and a fancy keypad — yeah sounds like a stone age :) unfortunately the phone lasted only 6–7 months as I lost it in a bus. I never thought I would go so crazy for mobile phones from that instant.
I started browsing for my next mobile and started reading so many articles, reviews on mobile phones. I got Nokia N70 ME (Music Edition), switched to Nokia N95 and then landed on to my FIRST Android phone — HTC Legend (still have it in working condition) in 2010. Its been 8 years for me in this ecosystem. After Legend, I went to Moto Atrix — Samsung Galaxy S2 — HTC One X — HTC One — Samsung Galaxy S6 before finally coming to Huawei Nexus 6P which i’m currently using.
I feel so comfortables with the Android phones as I love customisation. I try many launchers, install different icon packs, create few widgets (Zooper). Basically I play around with my phone a lot.
My 6P is almost, almost 3 years old and hence I started looking for my next gadget — by the way I never owned a phone this long :) Google Pixel 3 series is what I was interested in — obvious reason, The Camera (note the casing). My 6p has a really good camera and the pixel phones built on it to reach the TOP. They continue to widen the gap in the camera department — even a year old Pixel 2 tops the new iPhone XS.
But is camera my only reason to buy a phone? No, I believe in a better design, looks and other aesthetics (this includes a bigger screen). Of all the phones I had, S2 was so plasticky and way out of my league; rest of them were solid. Ok, now coming back to the pixel part, I really wanted to buy the Pixel 3 because for its camera and the pure pie its gonna give. I started following the leaks from May when slashleaks got hands on the glass screen protectors for Pixel 3/3 XL and it kinda gotten very interesting in July/August after started watching ftp’s video channel. Like everyone else, I too fell for the conspiracy theory — believed there might be a Pixel Ultra. Now after watching today’s ftp’s episode, I started losing hope that there might not be a Pixel Ultra after all and I really do not like how Pixel 3 XL shaped up to be.
Google seriously needs to learn from Apple on how to “design” a phone. If Pixel had a bigger bezels, Pixel 2 xl got bogged down by the display issues, Pixel 3 XL has a bad “notch”. I said bad notch because after iPhone X, everybody went nuts on the notch and started copying it in their device (Essential phone had a notch before iPhone X — Apple always sets a trend). But Google’s copy is so bad that it had a very deep notch and a bottom chin making the phone bigger and not so eye-pleasing. Arguably, I can still get the smaller Pixel, but again I got used to the 5.7" 6P screen and I’m not willing to get anything smaller than that.
Another thing that peeves me off is the Google’s Software Support to its children. My phone which will complete 3 years this October, last got its major software update last year (2017) in the form of Oreo and it was informed months back that it won’t get the Pie. A support of just 2 years, seriously?
On the other hand, Android’s main rival, iOS — its latest update iOS 12 travelled down till iPhone 5s which is 5 years old. I truly like this part in iOS — a solid software support. Also to distinguish from others, Android OEM’s sabotage the software experience by adding some nasty custom skins on top (I hate Samsung very much for this). Now that only Google brings a pure/vanilla experience of the software, doesn’t care damn about how its hardware looks. I seriously miss the Google Play Edition (GPE) devices — imagine a pure Android Pie on Note 9, a drooling thought indeed.
Google’s event scheduled on Oct 9th now has nothing big/new to reveal on the mobile phone side. Both the devices were extensively leaked online and even a high quality review is available in its own Youtube — sad. Now I’m seriously considering to move to iOS; at-least I get a good software support and a smaller notch. It is going to be a bigger move for me. If I buy an iPhone, I will be forced to use it for at least 2 to 3 years because the price tag is insane. If get used to the iPhone, then I’m afraid I might not get out of that ecosystem. Maybe iPhone is my answer to my continuous phone usage in the name of customisation.
Everything being said, I might (might!) even be convinced to go for Pixel 3 XL — we humans after all have a “Monkey Mind”. Fingers crossed!