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Birchtree
By Matt Birchler
I've been writing here since 2010! Back when personal blogs were all the rage. Kids, ask your parents.

The “Android Love Curve”

The “Android Love Curve” is something I’ve experienced numerous times when doing these Android experiments, and I was wondering if it would happen again this time with Android Oreo on the Google Pixel 2. The answer is a definite yes.

Every single time I start using Android I start off feeling pretty good about it. It’s fun to mix things up, and the excitement of not knowing how everything works is enchanting.

Over time, I got most of my apps installed and tweaked the settings to how I want them. I’ve even found some things I can’t do on iOS that I really love. My affection for Android grows through this period and I start to think that this may be the time Google has finally cracked it and can win me over.

Then I get settled in and start to notice the little things that annoy me about Android. Maybe it’s an iOS feature I miss more than I realized I would. Maybe it’s a feature Android has that I thought would be more elegantly implemented than it has. Maybe it’s a few apps with stability issues. All of these things happen to me over time and they start to wear me down. I start having to reboot the phone more. I have to clear caches for apps that are misbehaving. I have to go to shady-ass websites to download APKs from god knows where to make a feature work how it’s supposed to work. I have to do all these things regularly and it takes its toll. I fall more and more out of love with Android.

I’m a few weeks away from concluding my Android experiment for the year, and I feel like a student before winter break, counting the days until I can go back to normal. I don’t want to throw the towel in too early, because that would be unfair to the entire purpose of getting this Pixel 2 phone in the first place, but I’m eager to move my SIM back to the iPhone.

What operating systems one prefers is a matter of preference, so this will not be true for everyone, but it’s definitely something I’ve experienced consistently and repeatedly with Android. I’ve sunk a considerable investment into this experiment and I have no incentive to dislike a phone I paid for with my own money, and I still get this same experience every time I jump over the fence.

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