I’ve spent the last week or so with my SIM in the iPhone 17, and overall, I’ve been impressed with Apple’s latest iPhone – more so than any base iPhone in years.
Apple’s entry-level iPhone has always represented a bit of a compromise in my mind – unsurprising considering it’s hundreds of pounds cheaper than the all-bells-and-whistles Pro and Pro Max variants, but that has changed with the iPhone 17.
Apple has finally fixed my biggest complaints about the entry-level iPhone by including previously Pro-level upgrades like the 120Hz ProMotion display tech, along with a larger 6.3-inch screen, boosted storage and more.
As a result, I’ve not felt that usual feeling of ‘this is good, but it could be better’. Even as someone who routinely uses phones that cost over £1000/$1000, I could happily use the iPhone 17 as my daily phone.
Sure, it still doesn’t have a dedicated zoom lens, and as ever, battery life could be better, but it’s the most complete base-level iPhone package in years. So why am I already itching to jump ship back to Android?
Turns out it’s not the iPhone hardware that’s the problem – it’s the software.
I really like the iPhone 17, but iOS 26? I’m not so sure
Now I’m not going to say that iOS 26 is bad. It’s far from it.
I love the rather controversial Liquid Glass effects present throughout the OS, and the novelty of moving glassy elements to see how graphics are refracted feels like it won’t get old. I’m also as big a fan as ever of how well Apple products play together – something that I still yearn for on the Android side of things.
However, it also feels like not much has really changed. The core experience of using the iPhone is pretty much the same as it has been for years, just with a fresh lick of paint. That consistency works well for Apple, and I’m sure that some users appreciate it, but it also means that it’s starting to fall behind in certain areas.
There’s no big area where iOS is lacking; rather, it’s a combination of smaller elements and features I’ve grown accustomed to on Android that simply aren’t available on Apple’s alternative that make the day-to-day experience of using an iPhone feel a little clunky.
How does iOS still not have a back swipe?
The Android operating system has had a back swipe functionality for years at this point. It was actually a Huawei innovation before Google integrated it into the OS – and given that Huawei and Google haven’t played well together since Trump’s first presidency, it should tell you exactly how long it has been available.
And there’s a good reason for its broad adoption on Android; it just makes sense when navigating in apps. Rather than having to tap the X or ‘back’ button to go back a step in an app as you do in iOS, you simply swipe in from either the left or right-hand side of the screen.
You don’t need to awkwardly reach for the button, especially on bigger screen iPhones, and it makes for much smoother navigation overall.
It also means that developers don’t need to design awkward navigation buttons in their apps – which are rarely consistent in placement or look among apps on iOS – for a more polished, clean look. Something that, y’know, Apple is known for, but is actually more prevalent on Android.
AI is way more helpful on Android
It’s not just navigation that’s easier on Android; AI is, generally speaking, way more helpful on the Android side of things. Of course, it depends on the Android phone you’re using as AI features vary between manufacturers, but even the more basic implementations shine brighter than Apple’s ‘Intelligence’.
Google’s Gemini and Circle to Search are two standout tools that are, by and large, available on most 2025 Android phones regardless of manufacturer. I use both fairly regularly – they help me find products that I’ve seen photos of on social media, as well as searching for information, or even generating lifelike images – and it works pretty much as you’d expect.
That wasn’t the case with iOS 26 though. As I scrolled through Facebook, I saw a post in a gaming group I’m in about being Hideo Kojima and Sam Lake spotted together and how it could signal a big collaboration coming soon. Lake sounded familiar, but I wasn’t quite sure which games he’d worked on previously – so I asked Siri who he was.
Siri came back with a one-line overview, outlining his work as a game writer and director – but I wanted to know about games he’d worked on specifically. I asked Siri this, and unsurprisingly, it was a little too complicated for the ‘upgraded’ assistant. Instead, it asked if I wanted to pass it over to ChatGPT. iOS 26 does integrate ChatGPT, after all.
The problem is that the ChatGPT integration can’t seem to access the previous conversation context, because when I asked ‘which games has he worked on?’ rather than using his name specifically, ChatGPT had no idea who I was talking about. At that point, I gave up trying to use AI and just Googled it; he worked on fantastic games like Max Payne, Alan Wake and Control, if you were curious.
That just doesn’t happen with Circle to Search. All I had to do was tap and hold the bottom of the screen to activate the tech, and highlight his name. I was then provided with a complete Google overview, including popular titles he’d worked on, answering my query without even asking. Asking Gemini who he was yielded similar results, with a natural back-and-forth allowing for follow-ups.
It’s not just a disappointing Siri experience though; Apple is seriously lacking in the AI image removal tech department compared to the likes of Samsung, it struggles to deliver as accurate an audio recording transcript as Google’s Pixel range and more.
All these minor issues add up to something greater, and the result is relatively simple: Apple is way behind in the AI race, and it’s not clear if it can actually catch up.
All the small things
It’s not just big features like navigation and AI capabilities that I’ve missed during my time with the iPhone though; there are plenty of smaller features too.
These range from simple quality-of-life features like automatically signing in with my Google account, rather than having to open a webpage and confirm my Google login, to more niche (but still important) elements like being able to completely kill an app without uninstalling it.
Earlier this week, I noticed that an app on iOS was using way more battery in the background than I’d like, and despite swiping up from the multitasking menu to close it, it continued to drain battery.
On Android, I’d simply go into the App Info menu and tap Force Quit or Disable to stop it in its tracks – Apple’s alternative offers nothing of the kind. That kind of thing is just too involved for Apple’s ‘it just works’ ethos, apparently.
Similarly, I missed elements like being able to clear the cache of a misbehaving app without having to completely uninstall and reinstall the app, like I have to on iOS.
I’ve also noticed that some accessories play better with Android than iOS, both in terms of connectivity and functionality.
Wearables like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses transfer images much faster, and in the background, thanks to Wi-Fi Direct – something Apple doesn’t support – and I’ve noticed that I can only get notifications from a handful of apps on my Even Realities G2 smart glasses on iPhone. In contrast, I can enable it for every single app on my Android phone.
I’ve also quickly grown sick of all the background location permission pop-ups on iOS. Yes, Apple’s aggressively open approach to privacy is overall a massive win for consumers, but the constant pop-ups for apps like Life360 and Oura that need location services to operate feel unnecessary. You don’t get the same location-specific notifications for Apple’s own Find My app, after all.
Even if you allow the background activity to continue, you’ll get the same pop-up a few days later. It’s just annoying, there’s no two ways about it.
Granted, these are fairly niche features and complaints, but it all adds up to a more fluid, more customisable and more capable day-to-day experience on Android than what Apple offers with iOS 26 – and that is why I can’t wait to hop back over to the likes of the OnePlus 15 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. Sorry, Apple.
