Last October I made the switch from being a staunch iPhone user to an Android user and at the time I was very enthusiastic about entering the open source world on my newly acquired Note 3. Almost ten months down the line I think I'm now trying to make a decision as to whether I like Android or not?
The reasons for me switching were boredom with the iOS operating system, the locked down nature of it all where you can only do what Apple wants you to do; plus the attractions of Android looked like a whole world of fiddling, customising and new features! I thought the idea of widgets interesting and thought I'd have loads.
Ten months in I think I've now got to know Android well enough to make an assessment of my use of it and whether I like it or not.
The Note 3 I got obviously comes with the Samsung Touchwhiz skin loaded with the usual bloatware, I stuck with this for a while until I got used to the phone but I very quickly wanted to change. Thanks to the option to download new themes I immediately began trying out all the different ones and settled on Nova however I have subsequently switched to the Google Experience Launcher. One of the great things about Android is the App Store, more often than not if you can think of something you want your phone to do there's an app for it. The Android app store reflects the open source nature of Android and allows any kind of app but still had rigorous checks provided by Google to make sure it's not a danger to the handset or user. One thing I really like about the app store is that you can get a refund on any app if you don't like or in the first 5 mins (I think it's 5 mins) and before you install any app the Play Store lets you know exactly what the app needs to access on your phone.
One common comment I get is about the size of the Note 3, for me it's fine as I have large hands but the general comment is "that's massive". I think one of the issues and things I now dislike about Android are the number of niggly errors which keep happening which I think are connected to the Samsung build of Android rather than the stock version. There are issues with WiFi connection - the regular appearance of 'your network connection is unstable' is very annoying and now music, YouTube videos are pausing for no reason - each update of Samdroid seems to fix some issues but create the same amount of new ones!
Having an OS which is issued by Google but then changed by each of the handset makers for their devices to me dilutes the experience and opens up an opportunity for faults and issues!
Now I've got my phone set up for me I have no widgets on my screen, I never use the S-Pen, and often find myself searching Google for Android equivalents of iOS apps!
So I'm thinking, do I like Android - stock version yes, skinned versions - not really! do I like my Note 3 - not really, are there other handsets on the market currently I like - not really!
Guess I'll see what comes out over the next few months and make a decision! Is the grass greener? Definitely not!
