My Pixel 5a5G just died and is out of warranty and I think I’m going to jump from Google Fi / Pixel to Mint Mobile / iPhone. I plan on getting an iPhone 14, but there are several models. Which would you consider is worth upgrading to, if any, from the base iPhone 14? Plus, Pro, and I think there is one above that. 128 GB or 256 GB? Mint Mobile has them cheaper than Costco since Costco includes Applecare. I usually don’t do those types of ‘insurance plans’.
My use…I don’t really game much on mobiel devices. I mostly use it for communication, use apps like Garmin Connect (although I think I will get an Apple Watch at some point), Alexa App, Garage door opener and car app, notes, reminders, calendar, etc… I still plan on my Google account being what I use for email, calender, etc…
Edit: I do like my photos to be good, so if there is a significant improvement between models then that may be worth it depending on the price difference.
I have a plain 14. For my uses, similar sort of to yours, it’s fine. The camera is better in general than my old 12 Pro, and the fancier stuff in the 14 Pro didn’t seem to offer me things I’d really take advantage of. I find the battery life to be very good, too, and it’s a bit lighter than my old 12 Pro.
You don’t need the Pro unless you really love playing with the camera or want the 120 Hz refresh.
The Pro has a third lens for more zoom and it can use it for some tricks it does, but it’s nothing anyone needs. If you are used to 120Hz refresh, you will probably not want to step down to a 60Hz screen again, but then again some people don’t even notice.
The Pro does status stuff with the notch, which is nice, but nothing that is a must have. It also has an always on mode that I turned off immediately. I think that’s about it on differences.
Plus vs normal is just what you prefer. Plus is too big for me.
If you use a Garmin watch, you are going go want to keep using Garmin Connect. Health syncs some stuff, but it’s a bit of PITA so I just ignore it now.
Personally I prefer the SE. I can’t stand huge phones, I don’t use my phone to play games, I just want a portable, reliable communications device that I can use with apps appropriate to mobile needs. I’m so glad they resurrected that smaller phone size a couple of product generations ago. Plus, the SE is usually quite a bit cheaper than the other models.
It looks like the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro are slightly smaller than my Pixel 5a5G, so the size of those should be OK for me. I definitely don’t need the Plus or the Pro Max.
For now I’m using the Garmin, but I do want to check out the Apple watches and see what features they have. For my running and walking, I really only care about time, distance, heart rate - values over entire activity, average and max pace - I assume the Apple watch can capture that stuff but I should probably double check.
There are a couple of reasons. First, I’m not happy my Pixel 5a 5G just died after 14 months.
Second, my wife and son are on iPhones and messaging works better between Apple users.
Third, there are more phone specific accessories for the iPhone, like a bike mount.
I am a little worried that I’ll prefer the way the Android UI works since I never had Apple before. I’m also worried that I’ll prefer the Pixel camera, even though the Apple one is supposed to be good too.
Apple Watches are really good for running now. They don’t have all the power features of Garmin, but will easily do everything you care about. It is by far the best smart watch out there. It blows Garmin away in the every day stuff.
That’s bonkers. Is that a known issue with the 5a 5G?
I’ve had my 4a for almost two and a half years, and other than the battery not lasting quite as long, it’s going strong. My old Nexus 6 still works after almost 8 years. What happened with your 5a 5G?
I don’t know if it is a known issue, but here’s what happened to me…
A couple days ago my phone wouldn’t unlock by typing my pin, which I know was correct. After it failed the first time I really paid attention. It did unlock with my finger print, so I was using that. I thought I should reboot to see if that solves the issue. Early in the rebooting procress it got a FastBoot error with a red exclamation. from the boot menu I tried restore and recover options and I got the same error.
I called support and didn’t get anywhere. They told me to bring it to UBreakIFix becasue it was out of warranty, but from looking around it doesn’t seem like a problem they can fix.
Personally, I am an android user who is iphone-curious, but I am waiting for them to finally make the switch to USB-C.
I don’t want to buy a load more cables just for the iphone. I already am stocked with plenty of USB-C cables, ready to go.
I have been on the 3.5 inch headphone jack evangelism train, but with the latest pixel refresh, Google has abandoned them as well. If I can’t get what I need on android… might as well switch to the better phone and app ecosystem.
Unless this fall a nice flagship phone with a 3.5 jack comes out, I am going to join the iPhone USB-C train.
For me the Garmin is far superior, I actively DGAF about things like using the watch to text or email. But deeply care about things like trail maps and GPS.
So Apple Watch is vastly inferior for my use case. Especially as we three all live in mountainous areas. That GPS topo map on Garmin is great for me.
Apple Watch has a lot of high quality apps though. Like I used Gaia GPS when I was still using the AW and it’s just good as the Garmin (even more powerful when used with the iPhone app). Don’t like the work out app that comes with the watch? There are several high quality ones to choose from. Of course then you start getting into subscriptions.
I like Garmin better for fitness stuff, but the AW has a lot of great stuff on it to make it better. Garmin is nice because it’s all right there. You don’t have to go find apps, there isn’t a sub, etc.
Same. My Apple Watch Ultra is sitting unused next to my iPhone 14 Pro Max. One day I took it off (which you have to do a lot for charging, same as Samsung and Google watches) and just never put it back on.
Meanwhile my fabulous Garmin Epic 2 needs a charge once a week, and that’s only because I LIKE an always-on OLED display ;-) it could go much longer otherwise.
Eh, I have a single wireless charger (well, two if you count the watch) and given that every single problem I have had with a portable electronic device like a tablet or phone has been due to the charging port going south, I think I can live with it.
But didn’t you switch to Android as well? No point in using an AW with an Android phone.
If AW ever does frequent HRV, I would probably switch back. I find the stress reading of the Garmin very interesting. Not that it really tells my anything I didn’t know. Like if I didn’t sleep well last night, and look at my watch and see that stress shot up all night, it tells me something odd is going on, I just don’t know what.
On the other hand, Garmin’s backend software is much better. I can go back and look at my runs from 13 years ago. Even if Apple Health/Fitness was around that long, it still doesn’t provide the detail Garmin does. I do miss my AW though, for anything non-fitness, it’s 100x better for me.
I did, but I stopped using the AW awhile before that. Which is more damning, I suppose – I preferred not using a smartwatch at all. Only later was the Garmin able to bring me back.
