I’ve switched to an iPhone. After sticking with a Windows phone for over 5 years, I’ve gone back to Apple and an iPhone 6S Plus. In less than 48 hours I’m already more happy with it than I was with my Lumia 950XL.

I didn’t do this lightly. I’ve invested a lot of time in Windows phones. All my hobby programming projects for the last 5 years have been on Windows phones. My first small amount of money made by programming, was made on Windows phones. I basically learned to program on Windows phones. I have tremendous love for them.

I want to mention a few things that I’m going to miss after switching. Some might sound trivial, and I’ll get over them, but it’s the things you take for granted.

• Live tiles: I know, I know. It’s what all Windows fans rave about, but it turns out that I actually used them. I didn’t really think about it until they were gone. I liked having the calendar app showing me what was coming up the next day (I keep forgetting stuff all the time). For some apps, live tiles worked really well. Being able to change the icon or image of an app to suit it’s need is actually quite neat.
• Custom alert tones: This is probably one of the most underappreciated features of Windows on phones. You can change the alert sound of any app. For me this meant that I could have a different tone for Facebook Messenger (which is widely used in Norway) than all my friends. While their phones all go “pl-qing” (cue everyone looking at their phones), mine goes “froop froop froop” like Mario going down a green pipe. I also put a custom tone for Slack and my mail, making it dead easy distinguishing which app was telling me to stop everything and look at my phone.
• Updating wallpapers: On my lock screen I got a new fantastic image every day. Chosen by some guy at Bing (I guess), I would get something fresh and beatiful every day. I got an app for switching the wallpaper of my start screen too (Dinamic Wallpaper).

Having said that, there are some things which are very welcome after switching. In just a few hours I notice irritation points, which I wasn’t even aware of, disappear: When I press the power button to turn on the screen, it always works – not just 90% of the time. When I try to play an audio book in the Audible app I don’t have to press play, wait 5 seconds to see if it starts, press play again, hear half a second of audio, half a second of silence and then get to hear the book.

The camera launches faster; I don’t have to wait a minute for Spotify to launch; I don’t spend two thirds of the time switching between apps watching “Resuming…”; sharing is faster too, with the share menu showing immediately. Apps launch faster: sometimes in just a tenth of the time. The apps run faster too. It sometimes feels like I can’t keep up with them, I’m so used to the small delays everywhere.

Having got a new phone, I of course used it a bit more today than I would do with my previous phone. Still, I’ve got twice the battery left at the end of the day, than I did with my old phone. I hear people complaining about bad batteries in iPhones all the time, but it lasts twice as long as my Lumia 950XL for me.

For those that read this and wonder why I went with an iPhone instead of an Android phone, the answer is simple: it just feels better (to me). You might feel otherwise, but let’s pretend to be adults for 30 seconds and let that argument rest (we can fight over tabs vs spaces afterwards).

I have a Nexus 6 (which is nearing two year) that I tried to pick up and use instead of investing in a new phone. I charged it, updated it and downloaded my necessary apps. After using it for 2-3 hours I felt like going back to my Lumia again. It made me wonder if the grass was greener on the other side after all. I decided to go full in and got the iPhone and it turned out to be the right move. I was a bit afraid I had overhyped the phone to myself, but I’m actually more satisfied with it than I thought I would be. I only have a small tinge of a want to go back to the Lumia 950XL, but that’s mostly because of nostalgia.

I’m happier now…