Welp, I bought an iPhone again

March 24, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

David Pierce, host of The Vergecast, grew bored with his iPhone 16 after years of exclusive use and tested alternatives including flip phones like the Motorola Razr Ultra, foldables like the Pixel Fold, and Pixels to see if anything outperformed the default iPhone choice. Despite preferring Android's operating system overall, he ultimately bought an iPhone 17 in Sage, citing superior app quality as the deciding factor. Senior reviewer Alison Johnson helped unpack his 10 key observations from months of switching and testing.

Switching Phones Remains a Nightmare

The biggest barrier to trying new phones is the grueling setup process, which Pierce calls "awful, awful, awful" and everyone's fault. Transferring an eSIM from iPhone to Android took 36 hours, requiring Verizon support to call his mom for authentication since he had no backup phone. Even Android-to-Android switches were smoother but still involved weeks of manual logins, broken WhatsApp/Signal transfers, Kindle download limits, and app verifications amid notification chaos. Johnson endures this constantly by starting clean slates, losing messages, and relying on password managers like 1Password, though parking apps and email loops persist. Apple Store visits revealed widespread user anxiety, with people updating software there for safety. This friction reinforces lock-in, as seamless iCloud restores tempt despite se

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What you'll learn

1 (00:02) **Intro and Apple Book Plug** - David shares early reader copy of "Apple: The First Fifty Years" by David Pogue
2 (01:05) **Phone Journey Preview** - David outlines testing flip phones, foldables, keyboards after iPhone boredom
3 (03:45) **Alison Joins for Phone Discussion** - Senior reviewer Alison discusses David's multi-month phone switches
4 (06:06) **Observation 1: Switching Phones is Awful** - eSIM transfers, app logins, data migration take days/weeks
5 (11:50) **Observation 2: Flip Phones Hardware Good, Software Bad; Folds Reverse** - Motorola Razr Ultra hardware appeals but UI fails; Pixel Fold too bulky
6 (16:56) **Observation 3: Android Crushes iPhone on Spam Calls** - Pixel silences spam far better, restoring answer-every-call confidence
7 (18:34) **Observation 4: Gemini Vastly Outperforms Siri** - Voice assistant unlocks new phone uses like info queries, app orchestration

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

David is bored with his iPhone. Over the last few months, he has been testing every other phone he could get his hands on, from the Pixel to the Razr to the Unihertz Titan. And at the end of it all... David bought another iPhone. The Verge's Allison Johnson joins the show to recount some of her own phone-testing experiences, to litigate the quality of foldable and flippable phones, to debate Android vs. iOS, and ultimately to help David decide whether he actually bought the right phone. After all that, David answers a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]!) about whether AI can help us figure out how to use our devices better. Or maybe just use them for us. Devices are too complicated.