Intro
This post is inspired by a post titled "Android to iPhone, whats it like? (Update)" by @CleoTheWizard@beehaw.org.
I grew up with an iPad and desktop computers and my family members also had Apple products. When I had the chance to purchase my first phone I did lots of research, I looked up the best smartphones at the time, I saw videos from Marques Brownlee, EverythingApplePro, Unbox Therapy, etc. It was a tough decision between Samsung S7 but I ended up getting the iPhone 7. Apple was all the rage at school, I got hooked into the ecosystem, even bought the first Airpods, used iMessage, and all the other Apple stuff. Their UI is very polished. I was even an iOS beta tester all 4 years I had it.
iPhone Experience
2 years ago, my iPhone 7 started to have severe battery issues and so I decided it was time to upgrade. I also did research on my phone choices at the time too. This time it was between the iPhone 13 and Samsung S22. I did a bunch of research on this one too, much like my previous phone and ended up choosing the iPhone 13. I preordered the phone right when it opened but then I changed my mind, I wanted a different color, so I canceled it but the color was gone. So, I ordered the Samsung S22. However, when I was doing my research, I got into privacy and security and the r/degoogle subreddit. So I saw these solutions like CalyxOS and GrapheneOS. I then cancelled that Samsung S22 order. I was amazed, I saw how private and secure these solutions were without even having to touch Google or Apple. Stuff like the Aurora Store and Fdroid sounded like really cool stuff. I cancelled my Samsung S22 order and bought a used Pixel 5, because I didn't want to directly support Google.
CalyxOS on Android Experience
I started off with CalyxOS because GrapheneOS sounded really hardcore and hard to use. The experience was amazing. I really liked Netguard and the firewalls for the apps. I used ProtonVPN, ProtonMail, Bitwarden, Signal. My ecosystem of Foss, privacy, and security was complete. However, after a year or so of using the OS, it started getting buggy. My distinctly remember that my volume would magically keep on raising to the max volume, it was a terrible bug. I would watch videos or listen to music and it will shoot up to 100% like someone was holding the power button. I tried to look up answers on this issue and couldn't find any solutions so I decided to try out GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS on Android Experience
I figured I heard a lot about this amazing project and so I should get on it before my device is no longer supported. I think I'm about a year into using GrapheneOS and I can say that it is amazing. It felt like a more refined deGoogled OS. I felt like CalyxOS was more like a few devs coming together and throwing some security tools and hardening it a bit but GrapheneOS has a much larger and dedicated team and truly making it the most private and secure Android operating system. With the compartmentalizing of Google Play Services or whatever it's called. I even found out that when using Location, they have their own SUPL and PSDS proxy servers. Instead of using Netguard, GrapheneOS has network permission toggles much like for mic and cam access. It's truly the best phone OS I have ever used. People can safely use Google Play Store like nothing happened and all the information is segregated and protected. It's been pretty stable and I couldn't be happier.
TLDR and Recommendations
That being said, iOS has its strength and weaknesses. Apple being very locked down and hard to break and mess up, Android being less refined and even more so the more you branch out away from Google. Would I change what I did? Not really, all of this helped me gain experience and evolve as a person. Would I recommend it to other people? I recommend GrapheneOS, if you are tech savvy and want to mess with phones a bit. The argument is fairly similar between the argument between Windows and Linux. Do you want to use something better and free you'll need to play around with or use something locked and just works at the cost of freedom, privacy, and security?
The official websites can probably explain it better than me:
This hits close to home, I have 3 "current generation" phones right now, and all because of the reasons you've mentioned. However where I ended up was different.
I got the Apple because of the ecosystem, I have a ton of Mac products (Airpods, Apple Watch, Macbook, etc.) and figured it would be a natural fit. Apple has weird restrictions that make me unhappy and generally there are not much open source apps to use. I particularly dislike being forced to use iCloud for certain syncing services (e.g. Obsidian).
Next I picked up a discounted openbox S21FE because I wanted to get back into the Android ecosystem, it was very nice device. Camera takes nice shots, really beautiful screen and high refresh. I did not enjoy the intrusive apps that forced themselves and couldn't be uninstalled. Google Play and other services felt intrusive and I had no expectations of any privacy. I use pihole at home and notice this device consistently being the topped blocked device. Outside of Google, Samsung themselves are pretty abhorrent at forcing you into their ecosystem.
Lastly I picked up a Pixel 7 and immediately went with GrapheneOS. It was not as rosy as I would've imagined, without Google services a majority of the apps (particularly social ones) do not work, and in general I was struggling to "find the open source version of app. There are supplements to Google play services such as MicroG but that felt more like a work around than just a fully working device and ecosystem. I will admit out of all 3 devices this had little to no blocked content on my Pihole server, and the battery life was the best of the 3.
Eventually I settled back onto my Apple device (iPhone 12), as the watch is a crucial part of my day to day, and unfortunately there are no well made Android watches. I tested out a Galaxy Watch 4 for a while, but even that was a far cry from my Apple Watch.
You can actually download Google Play Services and any app in the Google Play Store you wish. You can go to the "Apps" app and download the Google Services Framework and the Google apps from there. It should work like a normal Android, but it's protected from the rest of your system.