Welp, I bought an iPhone again | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIPolicyHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessSee all techReviewsExpandSmart Home ReviewsPhone ReviewsTablet ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsSee all reviewsScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthSee all scienceEntertainmentExpandTV ShowsMoviesAudioSee all entertainmentAIExpandOpenAIAnthropicSee all AIPolicyExpandAntitrustPoliticsLawSecuritySee all policyGadgetsExpandLaptopsPhonesTVsHeadphonesSpeakersWearablesSee all gadgetsVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee all shoppingGamingExpandXboxPlayStationNintendoSee all gamingStreamingExpandDisneyHBONetflixYouTubeCreatorsSee all streamingTransportationExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersSee all transportationFeaturesVerge VideoExpandTikTokYouTubeInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersArchivesStoreVerge Product UpdatesSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.Welp, I bought an iPhone againComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsPodcastsClosePodcastsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PodcastsWelp, I bought an iPhone againI was bored with my phone, so I tried all the others I could find. There’s a lot to like out there — and one big problem.by David PierceCloseDavid PierceEditor-at-LargePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David PierceMar 24, 2026, 5:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.It’s not the phone I was hoping I’d pick, but at least it’s green! | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsPodcastsClosePodcastsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PodcastsWelp, I bought an iPhone againI was bored with my phone, so I tried all the others I could find. There’s a lot to like out there — and one big problem.by David PierceCloseDavid PierceEditor-at-LargePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David PierceMar 24, 2026, 5:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.David PierceCloseDavid PiercePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.It takes a week to switch phones. First, there’s the technical process of moving eSIMs across devices, which takes either a few minutes (if you’re switching from one Android phone to another) or two days, a half-dozen calls to Verizon, a verification text message sent to your mom, and approximately 11,000 restarts of your phone (if you’re switching from iPhone to Android). Then comes a few hours of app downloading, settings tweaking, and personalization, because every phone has a bunch of unique ideas about everything.You can be up and running on a new phone in an afternoon, but by the time you’ve downloaded all your Kindle books, synced your podcast queue, moved all your two-factor code generators, and reconnected to all your Bluetooth devices, it will have been a week.I know this, because I spent the last few months switching phones just about every week. I’d grown tired of my iPhone 16, a phone I bought almost entirely because it was blue, and decided to see what other options I really had. I’m also in an unusual position: I used to be a phone reviewer, which meant I spent nearly a decade switching phones every few months, but for the last five years or so I have been almost exclusively an iPhone user. I think I qualify as a normal phone owner at this point. But I do have one distinct advantage: I can ask a bunch of phone manufacturers to send me their devices to test, and some of them will! So I spent the winter on a Tour de Android, looking to see whether there was a phone — or, more exciting, a whole new concept for a phone — that might entice me.I’ll just spoil the end: Last week, I went to the Apple Store and bought an iPhone 17. I know, I know. I’m not thrilled about it either. But I can explain.For even more of our thoughts on the state of phones, check out this episode of The Vergecast.The first phone I tested was the one for which I had the highest hopes: the Motorola Razr Ultra. I remain convinced that flip phones are a good idea, and that the combination of smartwatch-style outer screen with a normal-sized inner screen is a compelling one. The Razr Ultra’s hardware is pretty close to right, at least for my purposes. Flipped open, the phone is a little tall, and can be hard to navigate with one thumb, but that’s true of every big phone now. I didn’t mind the slight crease in the middle, and I love the squareish shape of the phone when it’s closed. I found myself treating the closed phone like a tiny Gemini-specific walkie-talkie — bring the phone up to my mouth, hold the side button, and ask inane questions about cherry blossoms.The problem, which would become a theme in my tests, was the software. Neither Motorola nor Google has figured flip phones out. There are a few useful widgets for the outer screen, but the organization system for them makes it hard to add or find stuff. More often than not, what you get on the outer screen is just the full-bore Android app smushed down small, which is all well and good until the keyboard opens and covers up the message you’re responding to and the text box you’re typing in. Even if I could get past that, I eventually couldn’t take all the “allow this app to access the external display?” warnings. Some apps manage to shrink and expand well enough, while others just shrug and demand you open up the phone. I spent days changing settings, downloading utility apps, trying to make the Razr Ultra feel seamless. It never did. So I switched.Flip phones: love the shape, hate the software. Photo: Allison Johnson / The VergeI had a slightly different experience with my foldable phone, a Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. (I tried to get my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, by most accounts the best foldable on the market, but couldn’t get one in time.) My foldable problem is all hardware: The phone feels big and blocky in my hands, it’s not easy enough to pry the thing open, and foldables come with lots of durability, battery, and camera sacrifices. I did enjoy having the larger inner screen for watching YouTube videos and a bunch of Champions League soccer. But faced with this many sacrifices — and the eye-watering $2,000-ish price that comes with every foldable phone — I gave up on Bigger Screen.Next I tried the Unihertz Titan 2, a rectangular monster of a phone with a big, roomy physical keyboard. It felt like using a BlackBerry again! I discovered almost immediately that I do not miss using a BlackBerry — while I loved having the keyboard for quick access to numbers and symbols, I never typed as fast on the physical keyboard as I did on the screen. Plus, this phone is just gigantic (which is why I’m intrigued by the much smaller Titan 2 Elite coming later this year).The Fairphone 6’s Moment slider is such a good idea. Image: Dominic Preston / The VergeMy single favorite new Android experience came from the Fairphone Gen 6, a generally solid phone with one remarkable feature: a physical slider switch that transforms the device into a much more locked-down, minimalist take on a phone. Fairphone calls this feature “Moments,” and it’s awesome. You can have a few different moments, each with whichever handful of apps you pick; I spent a lot of time with my phone winnowed to Phone, Messages, Maps, Pocket Casts, and nothing else, and it was glorious. Everything else — even your wallpaper — disappears. It’s the most compelling version of the two-phones-in-one experience I’ve wanted for forever, and it really works.The Fairphone had just one problem: It’s not really optimized for US coverage, and doesn’t work fully on Verizon. So that’s out.My next and last test was the Google Pixel 10 Pro, which is easily my favorite Android phone of all time. It’s a little heavy, but really well made; the camera is excellent in almost any conditions; I love having both fingerprint and face authentication; Pixel phones nearly always have the cleanest and most feature-rich version of Android. (Though my Pixel still doesn’t have Gemini task automation…)The Pixel 10 Pro solidified a feeling I’d been having through all of my tests: Android is a better operating system than iOS. Gemini is a useful and usable voice assistant, neither of which you can say about Siri. Android is excellent at sorting and triaging notifications, which meant far fewer buzzes in my pocket. I also got far fewer spam and robocalls during my testing, which was an unexpected but nice change — I actually started answering calls from unknown numbers again, because they were almost always calls I actually wanted. I like the Android keyboard better than the iPhone, in part because its autocorrect is so much better.The Pixel 10 Pro is my favorite thing going in the Android world. Photo: Allison Johnson / The VergeThere are so many little differences between Android and iOS that can make it hard to switch between devices, but I prefer the Android implementation in almost every case. You can customize everything about your Android homescreen easily, while even dragging apps around on an iPhone is a crazy-making experience. Android’s app tray makes more sense than the bizarrely organized iOS App Library; swiping down for notifications and up for search is simpler than swiping down from different parts of the iPhone screen for everything. And did I mention how much better Gemini is? When I’m using Android, I actually use my voice assistant. On purpose! What a world.If all you got from your phone was the out-of-the-box experience, I’d have picked the Pixel. But unfortunately for Android, app stores exist. And the App Store absolutely wipes the floor with the Play Store. Lots of the apps I use every day — apps like Puzzmo, NotePlan, Mimestream, and Unread — either don’t exist on Android at all or only exist as web apps. Most of the ones that do work on both platforms are better on iOS. And forget about the kind of handcrafted, small-developer stuff — apps like Acme Weather, Current, and Quiche, just to name a few recent favorites — that’s all over the App Store and absolutely nowhere to be found on Android.Android apps only have one advantage: They’re allowed to do things iOS apps simply can’t. The Beeper app, which I use for messaging across platforms and devices, integrates beautifully with Google Messages and not at all with iMessage. I can do more with my Pebble watch when it’s connected to an Android phone. The Tasker app is an automator’s dream. But for everything else, and for almost every app people use, iOS is better.There are plenty of reasons the Play Store can’t keep up. The Android ecosystem is more varied and thus harder to develop for; most developers use Apple products; iPhone owners are apparently for whatever reason much more willing to spend money than Android owners. But the fact of the matter, and the thing I realized most at the end of my phone-switching experiment, is that phones are app machines above all else. And the iPhone has better apps.And so, at the end of it all, I went through another bizarrely complicated eSIM switch and upgraded to an iPhone 17. This is the best the base iPhone has been in some time, and my iPhone 16 trade-in offset about half the cost. I’m not thrilled with it, honestly. My phone is back to buzzing too often with robocalls and unnecessary notifications, and I’m back to fighting with Apple’s ridiculous homescreen layout tools. Siri is still terrible. But until and unless AI changes the way we do everything on our devices, my phone remains an app machine. All my apps are here on this iPhone, and they all work.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.David PierceCloseDavid PierceEditor-at-LargePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David PierceGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsPodcastsClosePodcastsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PodcastsTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechVergecastCloseVergecastPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All VergecastMost PopularMost PopularNvidia CEO Jensen Huang says ‘I think we’ve achieved AGI’The US government just banned consumer routers made outside the USDonut Lab’s solid-state battery could barely hold a charge after getting damagedConfronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated meVideoAyaneo says selling its Windows gaming handheld ‘is no longer sustainable’The Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. 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The experience of purchasing and switching phones, as detailed by David Pierce, editor-at-large for The Verge, highlights a common, surprisingly complex frustration within the consumer tech landscape. Pierce’s narrative centers on a cyclical pattern of buying new devices, driven by perceived boredom with existing technology, and the subsequent, protracted struggle to seamlessly integrate these devices into one’s established digital ecosystem. The core of the piece revolves around the difficulties inherent in transferring data and settings between operating systems – specifically, the considerable time and effort required to migrate from an iPhone to an Android device, described with a somewhat exasperated tone. The process, compounded by app incompatibilities and the need to reconfigure numerous settings, extends to a full week, a stark contrast to the advertised efficiency of modern device transitions. Pierce’s repeated experimentation with various Android models – including the Motorola Razr Ultra flip phone and the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold – underscores a fundamental issue: the software experiences of these devices consistently fall short of expectations, particularly in the context of mature, well-established operating systems like iOS.

The specific challenges with the Motorola Razr Ultra’s software – a clunky organization system for its external widgets and persistent app integration issues – exemplify a broader problem within the flip phone category. The software simply wasn’t optimized to leverage the hardware’s potential, resulting in an experience that felt more cumbersome than innovative. Similarly, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, despite its foldable form factor, presented significant hurdles related to its size and weight, along with durability concerns, ultimately leading Pierce to deem it impractical. The Fairphone 6’s “Moments” feature, designed to offer a stripped-down, minimalist phone experience, served as a notable exception, demonstrating a thoughtful solution to the distractions and complexities of modern smartphones. However, even this successful implementation was ultimately constrained by the limitations of US carrier coverage.

Throughout his trial, Pierce consistently emphasizes the fundamental and ongoing disparity in app ecosystems between iOS and Android. The preference for iOS users – particularly concerning the availability of specialized apps and developer support – is a powerful, and frequently cited, factor in driving purchase decisions. The Android ecosystem, while boasting greater flexibility and customization options, struggles to compete with the curated selection and robust support offered by the Apple App Store. This disparity leads to a frustrating experience for Android users seeking to replicate the functionality and convenience found on iOS. Pierce concludes that, ultimately, the iPhone remains the superior option due to its app availability and ecosystem dominance. This isn’t simply a matter of personal preference, but a reflection of the continued technological investments and strategic advantages held by Apple. The entire experience serves as a pointed observation on the consumer tech cycle and the often-underestimated logistical complexities involved in adapting to new devices.