I’ve written 3 major phone reviews in my time at BirchTree:

• An iPhone Lover’s Review of the HTC One M8
• An iPhone Lover’s Review of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
• An iPhone Lover’s Review of the Google Pixel 2

I have said right in the title of each of these reviews that I am an “iPhone lover” which throws some people off and I wanted to explain what that means to me.

When I say I love the iPhone it’s because I legitimately do love this product. The iPhone is bar none the most important piece of technology in my life. I’m a well known Apple Watch fanatic, but the watch isn’t much good without the phone¹. The iPhone is a centerpiece of my life, in that everything in my life runs through it. I talk to my friends and family on it, I document my life with the cameras in it, and I have made a part time gig writing about it on this site right here!

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that I am some Apple fanboy that only likes the iPhone because I’m a simple user who is either too blind to see what else is out there or that my needs are so basic I don’t need a truly powerful operating system. Hell no.

I’ve owned a ton of smartphones in my life, probably enough to put me in the top 1% of people worldwide since 2007. I’ve owned 2 Galaxies, 3 Motos, 1 Nextbit, and recently 1 Pixel. In the same time I’ve also had 7 iPhones. Beyond those 14 that I’ve owned, I’ve also had the chance to use several other phones for a while and get a feel for them. My opinion of the iPhone comes from a place of having more exposure to both sides than basically anyone I know. I use an iPhone as my typical phone because I prefer it for a multitude of reasons.

So why mention this right in the headlines of these reviews? I do it because I want to make sure the reader knows I am not an unbiased reviewer. This is a personal blog, not a general interest tech outlet and I do my best to be objective, but I have personal preferences that will absolutely inform my reviews. It’s also fair to mention this up front because I’m going to compare whatever phone I’m reviewing to the current iPhone. Beyond simply answering whether a phone is good or not, I also want to know if it’s better than the iPhone. 68% of this site’s readers are using an iOS or macOS device, so I find that to be a relevant comparison for most readers.