Here’s the thing: I really want to ditch my iPhone and switch to Android, but every time I’m about to make the switch, Apple manages to talk me into it again.
Last year I used a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra for a week and I really liked it. But that was for an experiment and I was just waiting for the iPhone 15 Pro Max to launch. September saw the release of the titanium iPhones and so I was back to using iOS within my ever-expanding Apple garden.
This year, however, has been different, and it’s the closest I’ve ever come to saying goodbye to the iPhone for good – well, for 12 months at least. After watching Google’s new flagship phones unveiled back in August, I was immediately captivated by the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Until recently, my idea of a foldable phone involved large gaps, peeling screen protectors and a large footprint, but that all changed the moment I held a 9 Pro Fold in store.
In our Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review, US Mobiles Editor Philip Berne wrote: “When I showed the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to iPhone-toting friends and family, they were, without exception, amazed. It’s the first foldable phone 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. Being thin helps a lot — the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is so thin that it’s less bulky than my iPhone 15 Pro Max when I keep it in a case.”
I might as well have been one of his 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 a candle to innovation in consumer tech, and I felt like a kid again. Sure, my idea of foldables was skewed, and there are plenty out there that look a lot like Google’s, but when most of the tech you use outside of work is “designed by Apple in California,” you lose track of what makes something truly refreshing to use. Now, that’s not a knock on Apple, my Mac, my iPad, and my iPhone all work exactly how I want my tech to work, but when you’ve been using 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 it. I pre-ordered a Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I was finally going to sell my iPhone and try Android 15 for a year. But then things changed.
Groundhog Day
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold was officially released on September 4, but my pre-order from EE, one of the UK’s largest networks, never arrived. I waited patiently, eager to try out Google Gemini built into Android and get my first taste of a foldable smartphone with a beautiful 8-inch display. For whatever reason, my pre-order kept getting pushed back, September 5, September 6, September 7, September 8… and then it happened: Apple’s iPhone 16 event on September 9.
During the event, Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 Pro Max alongside the rest of the iPhone 16 lineup. The hardware is an incremental improvement over my 15 Pro Max, but in our initial iPhone 16 Pro Max hands-on review, editor Lance Ulanoff wrote: “The question is, can the small or even invisible changes add up to something big? Based on my brief hands-on time with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I’d say the answer is yes.”
For me, it’s not about the hardware, I have the best iPhone of 2023 and it’s still a beast almost 12 months later. Instead, it was Apple’s ability at the event to make me feel like I couldn’t miss the first year of Apple Intelligence. Yes, I have access to Apple’s AI on my iPad Pro M2 and my MacBook Pro M3 Pro, but the iPhone is at the heart of the Apple ecosystem and it’s likely to be the smartphone experience that will define the success of Apple Intelligence.
AI is crucial to the success of iOS 18 and the new iPhones, which Apple CEO Tim Cook calls “the first iPhones built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence.” With incremental updates coming over the next year, we’ll be able to test individual Apple Intelligence features while they’re cooking and see how much of an impact they can have on our daily lives. I’m hoping at least one of Apple’s AI tools will be as useful as Universal Clipboard, perhaps my favorite Apple feature that lets me copy and paste between all of my products.
iPhone 16 Pro Max pre-orders are now live, giving me yet another new Apple smartphone to collect on launch day. I came so close to taking the plunge with Android, but stock delays, fear of the unknown, and Apple’s ability to make you feel FOMO have drawn me in again. I’m looking forward to a year of Apple Intelligence, and I can’t wait for Siri to gain on-screen awareness and become the personal assistant in my pocket I’ve always wanted. In 11 months or so, the cycle will repeat itself, only next time Apple Intelligence will be a little less unknown and Google Gemini might just be the way forward.