My next phone would be either from Xiaomi or from Apple
Before I started using the Xiaomi Mi3, the phone I had was the Samsung Galaxy S3 which was a massive hit. The S3 was powerful, had a great camera, dozens and dozens of 3rd party ROMs were available for the phone. I paid around 34 grand for that phone and I was never really satisfied with the GS3. The main reason being unable to use the stock ROM that has so much of lag. That is when I decided that my next phone will be a Nexus device with plain Android. Due to the Touchwiz issues, I had this strong feeling that the only way Android can be fast is when there it is plain. Then, I started using Xiaomi Mi3 and the developers at Xiaomi proved that I was wrong about Android overlay interfaces all this time!
As of today, I do not think there is another brand that comes close to the ‘full experience’ that Xiaomi phones give. They are absolute value for money, does not slow down, come with superb customizability, MIUI 6 looks absolutely clean and elegant, Mi Cloud is extremely useful and I do not have to worry about losing my data thanks to Mi Cloud backup. And they are powerful.
I had to do a full reset of Mi3 phone and that is not due to any issue. The few instances were when I installed a beta variant of MIUI 6 and when I wanted to taste Lollipop (Ivan’s lollipop ROM for Mi3). Thanks to the Mi Cloud backup, I never worried about losing contacts, messages, notes, voice recordings and more importantly, photos/videos. All of these are synced to my cloud account and are added back to my phone (except photos/videos). It makes switching between phones or doing a full reset a far less tedious exercise. Even if I lose my phone or if my phone storage is full, I can go ahead and remove local phones (as the photos are already added to the cloud backup). This is one of the major reasons why I am not even thinking of moving to another smartphone brand. Some may argue that there are 3rd party apps that offer the same functionality but when it comes to this functionality, a seamless native experience is any given day better than a 3rd party setup.
Its been 8 years since Apple launched the first iPhone that completely changed the smartphone industry. Yet, I am yet to try iOS ecosystem. I have used Android, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Maemo, Symbian but to date, I have not tried the iOS running smartphone and I started having an itch since iPhone 6 launch to move to iOS ecosystem. This also makes me a full fledged Apple user as I use a Mac at home. The main reason for this is that I have moved from a guy who changes the ROM on his phone every month to someone who does not have time to even look at what ROMs are available for his phone. I have stabilized, I have stopped experimenting with my phone (mainly thanks to the super stable and lag free experience that MIUI gives).
I thought of moving to Windows Phone but the problem is that Microsoft is the only maker of top end Windows Phone devices and they are totally concentrating on budget and lower mid range products. The ecosystem still feels disjointed and it will take another year or two fo the ecosystem to evolve (if Windows 10 gets massive support from buyers). There is a huge gap between Lumia 640/XL and Lumia 940.
Apple iPhone is known for its reliability and a brand new iPhone (successor to iPhone 6/6+) will get updates for another 2 to 3 years at least. The iPhone 4S that was released in 2011 will is already on iOS 8.4 and will get iOS 9 while most flagship Android smartphones that were released in 2014 are yet to get Android 5.1.1. I am still using KitKat based MIUI and eagerly waiting for Lollipop based MIUI and Google has already announced Android M (successor to Lollipop). If Nexus 6 was not such a massive device with such a massive price tag, I would’ve got hold of one by not and after using android for 4 years in last three years, I am bored of it and want to move to a different ecosystem and iOS is the only one that is as big as Android.
The only concern for me is the price to pay for Apple iPhone. I will have to go with a 64GB variant as unlike Android, I cannot use USB OTG pen drive or microSD card to expand onboard storage. And 64GB iPhone will definitely cost more than 50k and that is not a price I would pay for a smartphone. Instead, I may have to go with iPhone 6 when Apple announce new iPhone. Apple will definitely apply price cut on existing models and in case, I get a change of mind and decide to move to Windows Phone or Android, it would not be painful.
Coming back to Android, I did love the Xiaomi’s Mi Note and Mi Note Pro flagship smartphones and they may surprise everyone with the successor to Mi4. With the new MIUI (Lollipop based) OS version, Mi Cloud and powerful visual IVR feature, it will be my defacto choice if I decide not to go with an iPhone. As of now, my heart and mind are tilted in favor of iOS smartphone but you never know. It all comes down to one simple question!
HOW LONG WILL MY MI3 LAST!
