The first thing to note here is that I’m probably viewed as a bit of an Apple fanboy, I use an iPhone 5s, iPad Air and Macbook Pro, oh, and I’m also an iOS Developer. I however don’t believe I am a fanboy, instead I view myself as somebody who uses what I view to be the best available for the job at hand. It just so happens Apple make some pretty cool stuff. If a product came along that I found more useful then I’d switch, simple as. So when I picked up a Nexus 5 a few weeks ago for all I knew it could have been my next daily driver so to speak.

The Nexus 5 is a beautiful device, this isn’t really a 100% Android related note, but wow it really beautiful. I’ve been debating if its prettier than the 5s for quite some time, I’m still not sure but its pretty close.

The first thing that struck me when I started using the Nexus was all the real estate those big Android devices get, I was excited for all the things that would now be that much more pleasurable on a big vibrant screen. I’ve long wished iPhones would have larger screens to give more room for content like Android devices have had for a long time. However, this quickly became one of my big annoyances with the OS. You have all that lovely space but it isn’t worth a damn as apps are meant to scale so all you get is a zoomed in version of what you would have on a smaller device, how wasteful. I never really felt like Android was giving me any more content on a screen than I was able to get on iOS, so why have devices that are so large is they don’t make use of that extra real estate.

There is one thing which hurt me when I used an iOS device when I was using the Nexus, Google Integration. The integration of Google services on Android really is phenomenal. Between useful widgets and the ever amazing Google Now always one swipe away I’ve never felt more integrated and organized then when I used the Nexus. Sure on iOS you can get the same to a degree, but it doesn’t feel this good, this seamless. Google Now is a killer feature, its always learning and always providing some useful information. I loved that it gave me information that I wouldn’t necessarily look for otherwise but still found useful. For example, I wouldn’t always check how long its going to take me to get from my house to my girlfriends but its nice when its just there ready for you. Using Google Hangouts as my default messaging app was also pretty cool as I use Google Hangouts to talk to my American colleagues in work, keeping all my messages in one place suited my personal use case pretty well. I’ve dithered when thinking about mail integration, I don’t really like the default Gmail App on Android (or iOS for that matter) but I did love how my calendar appointments were displayed and how it allowed me to easily email the other guests. On a whole though the integration of Google services is awesome and definitely a win for Android over iOS, of course that all makes sense considering Google owns Android, but hey thats still a win no matter who owns what!

Apps, apps, apps. That’s what mobile devices thrive on. The ability for you to do nearly anything through the diverse amount of apps available. Unfortunately Android apps left me completely uninspired if not slightly angry at times. The best example I can give about how I feel about the quality of Android apps is that the best Android Twitter client (I eventually settled on Twitter’s first party client) is probably equivalent to the 10th maybe towards the 20th best iOS client. I don’t even consider myself a person who uses apps to a very heavy degree, I have a few I use a huge amount but I have less than three home screens full on my iPhone or iPad. This also goes back to the screen size thing, I really never felt that any apps, apart from games that I played, made use of the larger screen size. The Android conventions also just seem uglier than iOS, beauty isn’t skin deep but I didn’t feel the functionality was as tight either. This is obviously a generalization as you can’t test 10-20 apps and judge thousands more by what you saw, but I’m confident they are just no where near as good as their iOS counterparts.

General OS functions like settings were both enjoyable and a frustration. I loved the fact that I could see what was eating my battery and how long I’d been active on that charge with since the last time I’d plugged in. However I felt that I found myself going in there too often to try and see what was eating my battery and running in the background, it felt like I needed to micromanage my phone and that isn’t fun. I also feel like I didn’t get as much out of things than I thought I would, widgets for example didn’t make me feel like I was really missing out when using iOS. They looked cool and they provided some quick toggling/information but besides from the weather I found myself digging into apps if I wanted something more detailed or wanted to change more than turning my WiFi on and off. The overall ability to be more in control and have a more customized experience appeals to many I’m sure, I can definitely see that.

So where am I now. Well I feel frustrated to be honest. Android is all kinds of awesome is so many different ways, but at the same time it just doesn’t have that polish or flow that I feel around iOS. I’m aware this might be because I’ve used iOS for so long but that’s how I feel about it, disappointed. The general OS is snappy, Google services as mention above are seamless but everything on top, the apps, widgets etc. just don’t do it for me. I’m back using my 5s now. I will switch from time to time and see the latest Android goodness but I’m not ready for Android yet or maybe more accurately I don’t think Android is quite ready for people like me.