Is it me or Android is getting boring?
Never thought that I would ask this question, but is it me or that Android is getting boring with time?
The first time I used an Android device was back in 2012 and my first device was the Samsung Galaxy S2 (it’s really nostalgic), the Galaxy S2 was Samsung’s flagship the year before it, it competed directly with the iPhone 4S, and to a point it was better in many ways, with a bigger Super AMOLED display, bigger battery, and better Selfie camera (although at that time, there wasn’t such things as Selfie pictures), it made it the best smartphone that could replace an iPhone, although it wasn’t that much better in terms of the rear camera or the performance, but it was really good.
For that period of time, this phone was really powerful, as it had a 4.3 inch display, with Super AMOLED technology, dual core processer with a speed of 1GHz and the S2 was the first smartphone to have a dual core processer, and paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, 8MP shooter in the back, it was at the top of the industry. For most people right now that could seem a little on the down side, as right now a phone with those specs won’t sell for more than $70 but back in the day, that was the extreme.
So the S2 was my entrance to the Android world, before it, I was using a Nokia like everyone else at that time (As Nokia was still at the top of the industry) the phone that I was using was the Nokia E5, a smartphone that had a QWERTY keyboard, and it was produced towards the business people, it was a good phone, but at that time Nokia smartphones felt like being a little bit obsolete.
When I got my S2, it was really different at first, of course the way that you use an iPhone or an Android device, was really different, than a Blackberry or a Nokia, and for me as a person who was using a Nokia for a lifetime, I was afraid that I couldn’t get used to using an Android device, especially that now the world is shifting from using Nokia and Blackberry to Android and Apple devices, but turns out it was really fun. Using an android device was different, but actually it was a good different, and the best thing was about it, was the apps, I can’t forget about the number of apps that I was downloading the first days, I believe that I’ve tried more than 300 apps, of course they were games like Angry Birds, or geeky apps like the app that turns the camera to a neuralyzer like the device from the movie series Men in Black.
With more security, a lot of customization options, a wide variety of apps, Android was the OS that had me really interested, although I also own an iPad which uses iPadOS, which is actually an iOS version that has been altered especially for iPad, I still find Android more interesting, as I said before in one of my articles, that Android suits the power users more than iOS, I know that iOS is more stable, has a bigger number of apps than Android, and is supported for longer times than Android, as I own an iPad Air 2, which is now using the iPadOS 14 and got the update to iPadOS 15. But Android gives you more freedom to do what you want, it is less controllable from Google, and it has more customization options than iOS. But with all that been said I think that Android got really boring.
I didn’t use Android from the start like I said before, there were people who started with Android from the very beginning. The Samsung Galaxy S2 shipped first with Android 2.2 Froyo, but when I got it, the first time I opened the box and powered it up, it gave me a notification that it had to do an update, and of course for a guy who was using Nokia all his life, that was new and interesting, so I gave it the OK to start the update, after everything was done, the UI changed a little bit, with new way of sorting the options on the menu button at that time, as it was the difference between Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 Gingerbread, after that I started exploring and downloading the apps, it was really fun, and since that time I was using an android device, after the S2 I got myself the S3, which in my opinion wasn’t that good, it was really laggy, I think part of the reason for that is that they used the same 1GB of RAM here too rather than putting a 2GB RAM in it, but the experience was better, as Android evolved to a better operating system, especially when it reached the version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and they unified the icons on the top of the screens on all smartphones from the manufactures with the same white color, that maybe a small thing, but it gave the feel that Android is a unified system that was used from a lot of smartphones that was produced from different manufactures.
But after that came my best years of using an Android device. After using the Samsung Galaxy S3 for a while it got broken at the same time I was getting more and more interested in Android and using it as my main device, so of course I was exploring all the options out there so that I can replace my broken S3 with a device that is better in every spec at the same time using an Android OS, and it was the year 2014 and before it the Google Nexus 5 was released by Google and LG, and what better device that can run Android than a device made by Google itself and other company, so of course I got into studying the phone and it blew me away, it got a 1080p 5 inch display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, it was really good, but it wasn’t great, the battery life was really terrible, the camera was bad and there was no storage expansion, but there was two things that made me compromise, the first that it was considered a flagship device, but it was very cheap, starting around $300 in Saudi Arabia, it was the first flagship killer device, and the second was that it was supported from Google for like 3 years, so I can get as many updates as I can, so I got it, and after I got it, there was a third reason that appeared, and it was that Google announced the biggest overhaul design for Android since it was released the first time, with the unveil of the Android 5 Lollipop with Material Design.
So the Nexus 5 wasn’t the best there is in everything, but in term of the specs it was really great and it suited me very well, but I think that the reason that got me to buy this phone the most is the fact that, it was supported for like 3 years, for me it was really weird that Apple can support their devices for up to 5 years, as I said before my iPad Air is the second generation version and now it’s running the iOS 14 with no problem at all. I think back when I was using Samsung, it was annoying that Samsung couldn’t deliver their updates on time for their smartphones, as it was known in the technology world, Samsung is known for their slow process of updating their devices, and I experienced that first hand with the S2 and later with the S3, so it got me thinking that I should get the device that was made by Google itself, as this device would probably be the best device that can get updates for longer time than Samsung device, and I researched the market and then I decided that I’m getting the Nexus 5.
And indeed that was the best choice that I’ve taken for years, I got the Nexus 5 and it was supporting Android 4.4 KitKat, and when I started using it I noticed how snappy it was, and how much simple it was with no bloatware like Samsung devices, and the best thing about that it was the closest thing to an iPhone in terms of stability and usage smoothness, and after a while, I was the first person to get the update to Android 5 Lollipop, as all my friends had smartphones that was made by other manufactures, I was the only one who was using a Nexus. So quickly I started downloading the update, I remember that when I got the update it was like 11PM, I stayed all night waiting for it do download, as we had a bad internet connection in Sudan (and actually it still is) and getting installed on my device, and that really happened, Android to me was like a whole new operating system, with new colors, and new options, and completely new user interface. It was amazing, I felt like my device got even great with the new update, of course days after that, I noticed a bug that affected the memory of the device as I can remember, of course a lot of people were affected by this bug, which was the reason that Google quickly got to work and released 5.1 to the public after 2 or 3 months of releasing Android 5.
After that I think Android started to get boring, after a year and a half I lost my Nexus 5 and got a used Samsung Galaxy 4, which also got the Android 5 Lollipop and used it for a while after that, of course after it came Android 6 Marshmallow, and I think it got a really cool features, it wasn’t that different from Lollipop in terms of the UI, but it added the support for 4k Display mode for certain apps and the support of USB-C and Native fingerprint reader support. I didn’t use this version of android, as my next android device was the Motorola G5, which was shipped with Android 7 Nougat, which I used it for like 3 years until I switched to a newer Motorola (Can’t believe that I spent almost 6 years using only Motorola devices) my newer Motorola which I’m currently using before I switched to my new Samsung Galaxy A71, is the MOTO G7 Power, a Good device with a huge battery as its biggest feature which it is 5000mAh, 6.2 inch 720p display with a notch on the top, a 4GB of RAM coupled with 64GB of internal storage, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 as it’s processor, and it was shipped with Android 9, and it got the update to the Android 10, which I think it’s the last version that this device can support, as I didn’t get any further updates, and from my usage I think that the best feature about Android 10, which didn’t have another name other than the number as Google dropped the sweats names for its Android version was the Dark Mode, I think that it was the first thing that I enabled after the update got installed and till this day I never switched from this mode, it makes it a lot easier on the eye, other than that I think that Android 10 is still boring and didn’t have any of the interesting features that could grab your attention to the software, and although I never used 11, but I think that I can say the same about it as well. The MOTO G7 Power was a good device from a general standpoint, although the internal specs, makes it a lot slower than its competitors, but it was cheap, which was one of the best thing about it.
Now we finally got to the new version of Android, which is Android 12, I think that I’m mostly excited about this version more than any version that got released before it, and it because it got the same hype as the Android 5 Lollipop, with the new design overall, I mean if you haven’t watched a video about it, I’ll drop a Link below, as Google changed the whole system with new UI, new themes and colors, new notification area and control area, and for the first time for years a new design for Android Widget, which I think that it took forever, I can’t wait to get the update on my new Samsung Galaxy A71.
Android 12 Review: Top features + what’s new in Android for 2022! — YouTube