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I Ditched My Android for an iPhone, and I Don’t Regret It

Commentary: I now get the Apple hype.

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For a decade, I defended my choice to own an Android to countless haters. But at long last, I’ve traded in my beloved Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus for an iPhone 14 Pro. And so far, I have no regrets. (Especially now that I’m no longer teased for having green texts — more on that later.)

It may sound like I’m being overly dramatic, but that trip to the Verizon store signaled a big shift for me. I’ve always prided myself on not buying into the Apple hype. Despite years of pestering from friends to switch to an iPhone, I pushed back, maintaining that I liked being different from the masses. Everyone around me has an iPhone. It felt good to defy the norm. And so for years, I stuck with my Samsung Galaxy devices, which I still believe are incredible phones

But after conversations with friends and family about what I could get from the iPhone that I could never get with my Android, I started to reconsider my stance. Yes, I loved my Galaxy S10 Plus and everything it offered: a top-notch camera, a customizable interface and Object Eraser, which removes any unwanted people or objects from your pictures (Pixel phones have a similar feature). But at the end of the day, there was one big thing my Android could never offer: a seamless way to communicate with all my friends on the iPhone.

Read more: Android vs. iPhone: 7 Things Apple Phone Owners Wish They Could Do

I’ve been told countless times that I ruin group chats by turning all the texts «green.» This is because Apple refuses to make iMessage compatible with Android phones, so when you message someone who isn’t on iOS, you’ll see green text bubbles instead of the standard blue ones. Because this felt like a superficial complaint — and is 100% Apple’s fault — I brushed it aside.

Until I realized I was missing out on other, more significant benefits of owning an iPhone. 

Unless you use a third-party app like WhatsApp, there’s no easy way to send high-resolution photos and videos directly between an Android phone and an iPhone. I was OK with just using WhatsApp… until I began to envy my friends who were instantaneously AirDropping pictures and videos after our hangouts. WhatsApp also diminishes the quality of videos, and Google Drive takes a lot longer to upload videos to.

It also was frustrating that apps like TikTok diminished my camera quality on Android. Comparing TikTok videos taken on an iPhone — even an older version like the iPhone X — with those taken on my Galaxy S10 Plus is like night and day. On my Galaxy, TikTok distorted the colors and blurred everything in the most unflattering and unrealistic way. On the iPhone, videos are crisp and clear and appear just as they should. For someone who uses TikTok as much as I do, this was important.

These reasons, along with the fact that I already use a MacBook and would therefore benefit from the Apple ecosystem, led me to start changing my mind about owning an iPhone. Throw in features like the new always-on display on the iPhone 14 Pro models — something I absolutely loved on my Galaxy devices — and fun new elements like Dynamic Island, and suddenly I was sold on the idea of switching over. 

A growing number of people are feeling the draw to switch to an iPhone, according to a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Fifteen percent of people who bought an iPhone from March 2022 to 2023 switched from an Android phone. That’s up from 11% the previous year. So, I have company.

Read more: iPhone or Android? Your Phone Choice Could Be Hampering Your Love Life

Yes, I had to fight off feelings of being a sellout. But I realized that ultimately, it’s just a phone. And no matter what you do, people will have unsolicited opinions about what device you’re using. My Galaxy worked well for me for many years. Now I was ready for something new. And so far, I have no regrets.

Check out the video above for more of my thoughts on switching from an Android phone to an iPhone. Also, here’s my comparison of the iPhone 14 Pro versus the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max Get the Biggest Changes to Apple’s Phone Lineup

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Technologies

The Impressive Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e Bluetooth Headphones Drop Below $300

You can save more than $100 on these high-end, previous-gen Bowers & Wilkins headphones.

Bowers & Wilkins headphones are among the best, and right now you can grab the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e Bluetooth headphones for only $297. That’s a nice $102 discount and just $3 more than the lowest price we’ve seen. But this deal won’t last long, so be quick to lock in this price.

The newer PX7 S3 headphones have earned a place on our best headphones roundup, but those also come in at $479. However, if you aren’t worried about having the latest model, you can take advantage of price drops on previous-gen models, like this one.

Our audio expert, David Carnoy, appreciated the original PX7 S2 headphones when they debuted, noting their comfortable fit, sound quality, noise cancellation and voice-calling performance. So these PX7 S2e headphones are an updated version with refined internal tuning and a more controlled base, but they still have the same design and offer up to 30 hours of playback, just like the original.

Not quite what you’re looking for? Check out all of our best headphone deals for more options.

Why this deal matters

Any chance to save over $100 on a pair of high-end headphones is a deal worth paying attention to. This model isn’t the current flagship, but it still offers exceptional sound and comfort, and now you can score a pair for under $300.

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Technologies

Watch Out, Meta. I Tried Alibaba’s Qwen Smart Glasses and They’re Mega Impressive

These AI-focused smart glasses are available now in China but will roll out internationally later this year.

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona might be a European tech show, but for the past few years, the event has largely been dominated by Chinese phone companies such as Xiaomi and Honor. This year, they were joined by tech giant Alibaba, which launched its Qwen smart glasses at the show — and having tried them, all I have to say is, Meta should watch its back.

The Qwen glasses are among the first wearable devices Alibaba is building on top of its Qwen AI family of large language models, and the company brought two different models to the MWC. 

The first pair, the Qwen S1 specs, have a heads-up waveguide display etched into the lenses, and serve as a rival to Meta’s Ray-Ban Display model (minus the gesture control). My first impression of these AR glasses was that they were light and comfortable to wear — I wouldn’t have known that they were smart glasses by their weight alone. At the end of each arm are swappable batteries, which snap off easily so you can keep the glasses running for longer when you’re on the go.

I activated the glasses with the phrase «Hey Qwennie,» which it picked up with its five microphones. I then asked it to complete a range of basic tasks, including asking the device to take a photo and to tell me what I was looking at when I held a photo of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia in front of my face.

I could see a miniature version of the photo I captured in the green display, and the glasses were able to answer my architectural query both by displaying text in the heads-up display and through the bone conduction built into the arms of the S1. Perhaps my favorite feature, though, was the turn-by-turn directions. This feature felt like it could become essential for navigating a busy city, and far more convenient than using a phone or smartwatch.

I also tried out the teleprompter feature, which scrolled as I read out loud from the text appearing on the display but must confess I didn’t find it quite as easy to follow as a similar demo I tried earlier in the week on the MemoMind One glasses. With the Qwen booth assistant talking to me in Chinese, I was able to see and hear the English translation of her words on the display and in my ear simultaneously, although there was enough of a delay to prevent our communication from being entirely smooth.

The second pair of glasses Alibaba brought to the show were the Qwen G1 glasses, which lack the heads-up display present on the S1, but otherwise offer pretty much the same features thanks to the microphones, cameras and bone-conduction.

On the whole, I was impressed by the look, feel, sound quality and capabilities of these glasses, which for many people might be their first introduction to Alibaba’s Qwen AI (by way of the Qwen App, which is integrated with the specs). In China, where preorders for the glasses are already live, people wearing the glasses will be able to complete tasks such as ordering food or hailing a cab completely hands free.

Alibaba said pricing for the G1 glasses will start at around $275 (for comparison, Meta’s Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses cost $379), but didn’t say how much the more advanced S1 glasses will cost. Official sales in China will commence on March 8, with Alibaba promising an international rollout featuring integration with popular global services scheduled for an unspecified date later in 2026.

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Technologies

Softness and Brightness Blend to Stunning Effect in TCL’s Nxtpaper AMOLED Phone Display

An anti-glare screen that’s still radiant and vivid? Sign me up.

I’ve always been impressed with TCL’s easy-to-read Nxtpaper technology. Sitting somewhere between E Ink and a more traditional screen with built-in anti-glare tech, there’s a softness both to the look and feel of a Nxtpaper display that makes it a real pleasure to use.

But if I were asked whether I’d be happy to replace my regular phone with one that had an LCD Nxtpaper display, the answer has always been no, for one simple reason: brightness. The vivid colors that we’re accustomed to on most phones screens tend to look dull on Nxtpaper, and I just wouldn’t be willing to compromise on radiance, in spite of the many good qualities Nxtpaper brings to the table.

Until now, that is. Among the cool phones and weird tech on display at Mobile World Congress 2026, I saw a Nxtpaper phone that might have changed my perspective. TCL showed off an upgraded AMOLED version of Nxtpaper stopped me in my tracks. It blended the luminosity of AMOLED and the softness of Nxtpaper to stunning effect, in a way that would genuinely make me reconsider my stance on owning a Nxtpaper phone.

The screen offers 3,200 nits of brightness, and has a circular polarization rate of 90%, which means it closely resembles natural light. TCL has managed to reduce blue light emission as low as 2.9%, and the display dynamically adjusts brightness and color temperature in tune with the body’s natural circadian rhythms.

The one drawback I can see for using Nxtpaper on a phone screen is that it might not be ideal for taking, viewing and editing photos. In my brief demo at MWC, I took a selfie and noticed the colors didn’t look especially true to life. But it’s important to note that TCL is still developing this technology, so it remains a work in progress and my brief time using it likely won’t be an accurate reflection of a final product.

In all, this is real leap forward for Nxtpaper. Although TCL hasn’t announced any devices featuring the technology yet, it likely will do in due course. I’d personally like to see it on a laptop — as I spend all day staring at my screen both reading and writing, it seems like the perfect application of this tech. I can’t wait to see where it ends up.

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