So here's the thing: I really want to ditch my iPhone and switch to Android, but every time I'm close to making the switch, Apple forces me to do it again.
Last year, I used a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra for a week and really enjoyed it. But it was an experiment and I was just waiting for the iPhone 15 Pro Max to launch. In September, the titanium iPhones came out and just like that, I was back to using iOS inside my ever-growing Apple walled garden.
This year, however, was different, and it’s the closest I’ve come to saying goodbye to the iPhone for good – well, for 12 months at least. After watching the unveiling of Google’s new flagship smartphones in August, I was instantly intrigued by the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. You see, until very recently my idea of a foldable phone was one of big bezels, peeling screen protectors, and a bulky size, but that all changed when I got my hands on a 9 Pro Fold in-store.
In our review of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, US Mobiles editor Philip Berne wrote: “When I showed the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to my iPhone-using friends and family, they were all in awe, without exception. It’s the first foldable device that looks… normal, they all said. How normal? It’s not just that the front is the exact same size and shape as the Pixel 9. The fact that it’s thin helps a lot — the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is so thin that it’s less bulky than my iPhone 15 Pro Max if I keep the iPhone in a case.”
It might as well be one of your friends or a family member because that’s exactly how I felt after just a few minutes with the 9 Pro Fold. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was holding an innovation in the consumer tech space and I felt like a kid again. Obviously, my idea of foldables was skewed and there are plenty out there like Google’s offering, but when most of the tech you use outside of work is “Designed by Apple in California” you lose the sense of what it feels like to actually use something refreshing. Now, that’s not a criticism of Apple — my Mac, my iPad, and my iPhone all work exactly how I want my tech to work — but when you’ve used incremental updates to the same products for nearly 15 years, at some point you want to see if the grass is greener on the other side.
So I did. I pre-ordered a Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I was finally going to sell my iPhone and try out Android 15 for a year. But then things changed.
Groundhog Day
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold was officially launched on September 4, but my pre-order with EE, one of the UK’s biggest networks, never arrived. I waited patiently, excited to try out Google Gemini built into Android and get my first taste of a foldable smartphone with a gorgeous 8-inch display. For some reason, my pre-order kept getting postponed: September 5, September 6, September 7, September 8… And then it happened: Apple’s iPhone 16 event on September 9.
At the event, Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 Pro Max alongside the rest of the iPhone 16 lineup. The hardware is an incremental improvement over the 15 Pro Max, but in our first hands-on review of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff wrote, “The question is, can small or even invisible changes add up to something big? Based on my brief hands-on experience with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I'd say the answer is yes.”
For me, it’s not the hardware that’s important – I have the top iPhone of 2023 and it’s still a beast almost 12 months later. What was important was Apple’s ability at the event to make me feel like I couldn’t skip the first year of Apple Intelligence. Yes, I’ll have access to Apple’s AI on my M2 iPad Pro and M3 Pro MacBook Pro, but the iPhone is at the centre of the Apple ecosystem and it’s arguably the smartphone experience that will define the success of Apple Intelligence.
AI is central to the success of iOS 18 and the new iPhones, billed by Apple CEO Tim Cook as “the first iPhones designed from the ground up for Apple Intelligence.” With incremental updates coming over the next year, we’ll be able to try out individual Apple Intelligence features as they cook in the oven and see what impact they can have on our daily lives. I hope at least one of Apple’s AI tools is as useful as Universal Clipboard, arguably my favorite Apple feature, which lets me copy and paste between all my products.
iPhone 16 Pro Max pre-orders are now live, and once again I have a new Apple smartphone to pick up on launch day. I was so close to taking a leap of faith on Android, but stock delays, fear of the unknown, and Apple’s ability to make you feel FOMO got me again. I’m excited for a year of Apple Intelligence, and I can’t wait for Siri to have a consciousness on the screen to become the personal assistant in my pocket I’ve always wanted it to be. In about 11 months, this cycle will repeat itself, only next time Apple Intelligence will be less unknown, and Google Gemini might just be the way to go.
