Sometimes, it feels like I’m the only Android user in my friend group. I’m not — there are two or three of us — but it’s still an isolating feeling when you know you’re one of the green bubbles breaking up the iMessage party. Sometimes, that isolation is bad enough that I’m almost willing to switch to iOS until I remember what else I’ll give up. For several years, moving away from Android meant losing color-matched themes, skipping out on the ability to place apps anywhere I wanted, and living without creature comforts like an always-on display or a 120Hz refresh rate.
Now, that gap between iOS and Android isn’t quite as big, and it’s letting some of that temptation creep back in. After all, iOS 18 is more customizable than ever, RCS has made messaging a little less awkward, and Apple Intelligence is on its way (or so we’ve been told). So, I pulled my personal SIM out of my beloved Pixel 9 Pro, downloaded an eSIM into a brand new iPhone 16 Pro while also pocketing a vanilla iPhone 16, both of which we bought for the purposes of this review (we always buy our Apple test devices), and set out to see if the grass is greener on the other side of the 2024 Android vs iPhone divide.