Why I came back from the HTC One

Sep 8, 2012
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I was a long time iPhone 4 user and got the itch for something new. I purchased the iPhone 5 but had wifi issues with it so I returned it within my 30 day window. Got the HTC One in May and just switched back to the iPhone 5s today. After one day, I can say it's a keeper.

The main reason I switched was battery life. When I first got the HTC One, the battery drained fairly quickly and I had to install apps to slow battery drainage, go into the settings and tweak things, something I never had to do with the iPhone. I kept gps off most of the time, it's on all the time on my iPhone. After the tweaking, I was making it through the day without any problems. But lately I was dropping to 10-20% at the end of the day with light usage. This had me concerned for the next time I traveled and would be using the phone heavily. It would have been less of a concern if it was easy to top the phone off, but it charged very slowly. The other day it was down to to 13% at the end of the day, 8 hours and 15 minutes later the next morning, it still wasn't fully charged (close at 98%).

After one day with the 5s, I know I'm back to stay. The things I like about the 5s better than the One:
-The home button, especially the fingerprint reader. It really speeds up access to the phone.
-Phone and voicemail functions are more straightforward
-A ringer switch
-Being able to use the phone one handed
-The screen is better on the 5s. I know this goes against what you might think, it's smaller and lower resolution. However it's easier to read for me. The whites are brighter, so black text is easier to pick up. Also, you can fit more apps on the iPhone home screen than you can on the larger HTC One screen. One of the big attractions for me of the One was the larger screen, but why bother with a larger phone if the view isn't markedly better?
-Better apps. There are exceptions, but for the most part the apps for the iPhone are better than the equivalent apps in Android.

The things I'm going to miss from the HTC One:
-The back button. Apple could address this by moving the menu bar in apps to the bottom of the screen. The equivalent of the back button in most iPhone apps is in the upper left hand corner, a stretch for your thumb when you're holding the phone in your right hand.
-Tight google apps integration. I use gmail for my personal email and we run google apps at work. Google does at good job of porting their apps to the iPhone, but you just don't have the seamless integration like you do on android.
-notification LED
-I liked Google Play better than iTunes, but not significantly so.
-Widgets. While not as awesome as the Android crowd claims, there are a few that are nice. Definitely not must haves though. The control center in iOS 7 negates the advantage of one of the most popular Android widgets, Power Toggles.
-Google voice works better for web searches and general questions than Siri does
-being able set Chrome and Google Maps as defaults

Overall the iPhone is smoother in a smaller, easier to hold package
 
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GeekMoxie

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Sep 21, 2013
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Thank you for the comparison!

I am so conflicted. I jumped ship to Android not too long ago, mostly for all the reasons you mentioned you will miss. Hubby is rocking the 5s and the camera is just so awesome. I can't seem to find a decent android camera. I know the phone I have is supposed to be one of the best, but it's a constant fight.
 

Premium1

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Thank you for the comparison!

I am so conflicted. I jumped ship to Android not too long ago, mostly for all the reasons you mentioned you will miss. Hubby is rocking the 5s and the camera is just so awesome. I can't seem to find a decent android camera. I know the phone I have is supposed to be one of the best, but it's a constant fight.

The new Sony and lg are supposed to have really good cameras, and with the iPhone using a Sony sensor that both the lg and don't use I'd say they should compare favorably
 

tazcordo

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I tried the LG G2 and the camera on the iphone 5s mostly blows the G2 camera away. G2 is slightly better in low light pics, but is awful recording video in lower light.
 

KingaSpades

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You loved and are missing all of the same things that I felt those things for when trying out the One. It's a really nice device but the battery issues were a deal breaker. The biggest problem that I had was the fact that the battery would not charge when I tried to use it while it was charging. That's something that I do all the time so that when I walk out he door I'm always at 100% whether I'm leaving home or my job. Without the ability to do this I just couldn't keep it. But I'm so glad that I came back now! The 5S is the best phone that I've ever used. The experience is amazing! The pictures are just not fair to other phones! Sooooooo good!
 

Jtshurtleff

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I came back because of camera and a few things involving having to find work arounds for things I use on a regular basis. I can listen to music in my car and control the iPhone with my stereo and my steering wheel controls and I'm a huge proponent of not even looking at your phone in a car. The headset also works with the iPhone a lot better. That includes other headsets like the piece of garbage one that comes with the One. The camera is the main issue and apps seem to hit iOS well before Google Play so those are the real reasons I switched. The One was a good phone, but I like this 5S.
 
Sep 8, 2012
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You loved and are missing all of the same things that I felt those things for when trying out the One. It's a really nice device but the battery issues were a deal breaker. The biggest problem that I had was the fact that the battery would not charge when I tried to use it while it was charging. That's something that I do all the time so that when I walk out he door I'm always at 100% whether I'm leaving home or my job. Without the ability to do this I just couldn't keep it. But I'm so glad that I came back now! The 5S is the best phone that I've ever used. The experience is amazing! The pictures are just not fair to other phones! Sooooooo good!

Yes, 4 days in, I'm still very happy with the 5s and will be putting my One on ebay.
 
Sep 8, 2012
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I came back because of camera and a few things involving having to find work arounds for things I use on a regular basis. I can listen to music in my car and control the iPhone with my stereo and my steering wheel controls and I'm a huge proponent of not even looking at your phone in a car. The headset also works with the iPhone a lot better. That includes other headsets like the piece of garbage one that comes with the One. The camera is the main issue and apps seem to hit iOS well before Google Play so those are the real reasons I switched. The One was a good phone, but I like this 5S.

That is an advantage of Siri over Google voice. Google voice you hold down the home key and the screen comes up and then you have to look and find the microphone and press it. Whereas with Siri you just hold down the home button and it's ready to go. No need to take your eyes off driving and look at the phone.
 

eb_therebel

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Sep 17, 2012
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I was a long time iPhone 4 user and got the itch for something new. I purchased the iPhone 5 but had wifi issues with it so I returned it within my 30 day window. Got the HTC One in May and just switched back to the iPhone 5s today. After one day, I can say it's a keeper.

The main reason I switched was battery life. When I first got the HTC One, the battery drained fairly quickly and I had to install apps to slow battery drainage, go into the settings and tweak things, something I never had to do with the iPhone. I kept gps off most of the time, it's on all the time on my iPhone. After the tweaking, I was making it through the day without any problems. But lately I was dropping to 10-20% at the end of the day with light usage. This had me concerned for the next time I traveled and would be using the phone heavily. It would have been less of a concern if it was easy to top the phone off, but it charged very slowly. The other day it was down to to 13% at the end of the day, 8 hours and 15 minutes later the next morning, it still wasn't fully charged (close at 98%).

After one day with the 5s, I know I'm back to stay. The things I like about the 5s better than the One:
-The home button, especially the fingerprint reader. It really speeds up access to the phone.
-Phone and voicemail functions are more straightforward
-A ringer switch
-Being able to use the phone one handed
-The screen is better on the 5s. I know this goes against what you might think, it's smaller and lower resolution. However it's easier to read for me. The whites are brighter, so black text is easier to pick up. Also, you can fit more apps on the iPhone home screen than you can on the larger HTC One screen. One of the big attractions for me of the One was the larger screen, but why bother with a larger phone if the view isn't markedly better?
-Better apps. There are exceptions, but for the most part the apps for the iPhone are better than the equivalent apps in Android.

The things I'm going to miss from the HTC One:
-The back button. Apple could address this by moving the menu bar in apps to the bottom of the screen. The equivalent of the back button in most iPhone apps is in the upper left hand corner, a stretch for your thumb when you're holding the phone in your right hand.
-Tight google apps integration. I use gmail for my personal email and we run google apps at work. Google does at good job of porting their apps to the iPhone, but you just don't have the seamless integration like you do on android.
-notification LED
-I liked Google Play better than iTunes, but not significantly so.
-Widgets. While not as awesome as the Android crowd claims, there are a few that are nice. Definitely not must haves though. The control center in iOS 7 negates the advantage of one of the most popular Android widgets, Power Toggles.
-Google voice works better for web searches and general questions than Siri does
-being able set Chrome and Google Maps as defaults

Overall the iPhone is smoother in a smaller, easier to hold package

You summarized my exact reason for leaving the One and coming back to the iphone. Although I do have a few things that I will miss from the one

Google Play Music-loved that I could stream my own music and didn't have to have it locally stored unless I chose to do so.

The screen-The larger screen coupled with the BoomSound speakers made content consumption a dream.

The two things that really drove me back were the app quality and battery life. I have several apps that I rely on daily such as Nike+ Running that although they functioned on Android they killed battery life and were more complicated than their ios counterparts. Also, I don't have to fiddle with too many settings to get my iphone to last all day
 

nokia4life

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The new Sony and lg are supposed to have really good cameras, and with the iPhone using a Sony sensor that both the lg and don't use I'd say they should compare favorably

I am going to have to challenge you on that whole sony deal there are already reviews for new z1 where they say the camera is grainy and sony even admitted that it shipped it knowing there were issues and that future updates would address this, so while in the end you get a 20 meg camera or whatever it really is at least with apple you know it work as advertised out of the box and not have to wait for 20 months or for ces to come around for the next phone to fix the issue
 

CrzyP

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I'm switching too but from a Galaxy S4 to the 5s. Four things I'll miss about Android/Samsung. 1) Google Keyboard with swype. 2) larger screen. 3) bigger battery 4) Smart Stay. I'll miss the keyboard the most, but iOS just works better for my tastes.
 
Sep 8, 2012
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You summarized my exact reason for leaving the One and coming back to the iphone. Although I do have a few things that I will miss from the one

Google Play Music-loved that I could stream my own music and didn't have to have it locally stored unless I chose to do so.

The screen-The larger screen coupled with the BoomSound speakers made content consumption a dream.

The two things that really drove me back were the app quality and battery life. I have several apps that I rely on daily such as Nike+ Running that although they functioned on Android they killed battery life and were more complicated than their ios counterparts. Also, I don't have to fiddle with too many settings to get my iphone to last all day

Yeah, it's some of the lesser apps where you really see the difference.
-Cyclemeter. They don't have an android version. The closest I could find was Map my fitness, but it was nowhere as good as Cyclemeter/
-Topo maps on the iPhone works great, they don't have an Android version. The closest I could find was US Topo maps pro, but I could never get the same level of detail.
-Momonote. No Android version
-Foreflight. No android version.

I went out of town this weekend and forgot to bring my new charging cable since I just got the iPhone on Friday. I made it from Saturday morning to Monday morning on one charge. I would have never been able to do that with the One.
 
Sep 8, 2012
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I'm switching too but from a Galaxy S4 to the 5s. Four things I'll miss about Android/Samsung. 1) Google Keyboard with swype. 2) larger screen. 3) bigger battery 4) Smart Stay. I'll miss the keyboard the most, but iOS just works better for my tastes.

I was using Swiftkey and it rocked, I do miss it. I like the iPhone stock keyboard better than the stock HTC One keyboard.
 

mikeydooodie

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Yes, 4 days in, I'm still very happy with the 5s and will be putting my One on ebay.

I'm going to be in the same boat. Let me know how much you get for it

Yes I agree apps look better on apple. The ones speakers are great. Apples screen with the ones speakers and iOS would be the perfect phone but for now back to iOS and the 5s
 
Sep 8, 2012
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After one week I'm still glad I switched back to the 5s. However, I'm really missing the Swiftkey keyboard and predictive text. As I'm typing on the iPhone I keep looking at the top of the keyboard for the next word and it's not there. I wish Apple would allow third party keyboards or implement this themselves.
 

tigerinexile

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You summarized my exact reason for leaving the One and coming back to the iphone. Although I do have a few things that I will miss from the one

Google Play Music-loved that I could stream my own music and didn't have to have it locally stored unless I chose to do so.

You can still stream your Google Play Music, via third party apps...
 

Larry Pager

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Thanks for the post, Viva Terlingua!

-The back button. Apple could address this by moving the menu bar in apps to the bottom of the screen. The equivalent of the back button in most iPhone apps is in the upper left hand corner, a stretch for your thumb when you're holding the phone in your right hand.
Hahahaha... when you first picked up the iPhone, how many times did you press the lower right corner of the front panel? I did that when I went to the Apple store recently to play with a 5S. It was out of habit, so I'm standing there pressing that corner thinking, why aren't I going back???
-notification LED
I thought it would be great going back to it, but then the damn thing is always going off and it was getting annoying. I can live without it.
-I liked Google Play better than iTunes, but not significantly so.
I was always unimpressed with it- I think it's improved, but I've always thought iTunes was better. For apps, iTunes is the best. And all other media, I use amazon, since I have a Kindle HD
-Widgets. While not as awesome as the Android crowd claims, there are a few that are nice. Definitely not must haves though. The control center in iOS 7 negates the advantage of one of the most popular Android widgets, Power Toggles.
Totally agree- but I feel that the one widget that really is genuinely useful is the calendar widget where you can see everything on one homescreen.
 

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