Like all good stories, this too started on a Friday. I needed to make a work call and my usually trusty iPhone kept disconnecting over a dozen times and I’d had it. It was too much to take. I was moving on from the iPhone to anything which wasn’t one. Things had been bad in the last couple of months, for every new app I installed I had to delete two more shaky timelapse videos, iCloud would send me a memory full notification once a day and updating an app needed a lot of soul searching. But those 12 calls, that was it. I bullied a work colleague into parting with the review unit of OnePlus 5 and boom, I was on my way.
OnePlus 5 vs iPhone 6
First things first – the OnePlus 5 looks good – but I still kept reaching for my iPhone in my pocket. It was familiar, more skinny denim friendly, but the OnePlus 5 was the shiny new toy. With 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB storage (several times the space afforded by my iPhone 6) and for someone bred on 16GB phones like the rest of this country, I suddenly didn’t know what to do with the amount of storage at my disposal.
5 pm, Friday, Bandra Worli Sea Link, enroute to CSIA Airport, Mumbai
But the issues started soon enough, the OnePlus 5 for all its RAM overload hung while multitasking with two Messenger chats and Whatsapp. Suddenly, it dawned on me, that this was going to be a painful challenge. But one home visit later, I was ready to go again. The trouble for me was that Outlook was still down on the iPhone (don’t ask, can’t reopen the scars of that wound!) and I was unable to install my email on the OnePlus 5 just yet, which meant the iPhone was still hanging around. It was a strange kind of threesome with everyone just trying to get along and failing at it. Badly.
8.30 pm, IGI Airport, Delhi
By the time I landed in Delhi, my optimism grew a little. After years of living inside Apple’s orchard, I was free at large, but the trouble was – did I want to be free? There was another issue in Delhi, as the Uber app was still on the iPhone so out it came again, as the OnePlus 5 wasn’t yet my go-to phone. But by now I had really begun to enjoy the OnePlus 5. The interface, the screen and the colours were kicking the iPhone’s ass, the pictures from the air of the Delhi night lights had been phenomenal, even though I was yet to muster up the courage to start mucking about with the camera’s manual settings. It was doing a good job as it is.
The iPhone was at one percent and the Uber had still not arrived. However, the OnePlus 5 was chugging along even though it had the iPhone piggy backing off its Wi-Fi Internet. By the time I got home, I was missing my iPhone again – Twitter specifically, and the floating chat heads of Android (of Facebook Messenger) were quite frankly beginning to annoy me.
All day, Saturday
OnePlus 5 dual camera
I spent most of Saturday looking for ways to get my work email to work on the OnePlus 5, which I finally succeeded in setting up as an exchange account in the Gmail app. The app sucked, so did the options, the Sync would fail at times but I was still going strong. I visited a friend on Saturday for an iftar dinner, they seemed more interested in the OnePlus 5 than the mutton burra and biryani – which was great for me. This was the first time my iPhone was off for more than 2 hours. Ever. It was alien feeling for me, but I was getting used to the distraction.
I tried out the portrait mode of the OnePlus 5 and kaboom! The missus hasn’t made me delete even a single picture of the both of us. The night images are particularly great, thanks to the wider f/1.7 aperture of the OP5’s camera.
OnePlus 5 dual camera
11.30 am, Sunday
I spend Sunday trying first to figure out if I can recreate some of the iPhone’s OS goodness -- like notifications control, unread update notification on app icons (badge notifications), and more -- on the OnePlus 5. I realize that I can’t. I spend the rest of the day trying to get used to life on Android.
Don't Miss
12.05 pm
Ugh. I realise that I can’t function without app badge notifications. It’s beyond annoying! I spend 20 mins figuring out why I couldn’t hear the phone, the next 10 figuring out why the bloody thing wasn’t ringing and 45 mins trying to decide what ringtone and message alert combo worked best. By now, the iPhone had been shut down for a day and a half.
12.30 pm – 4.30 pm
Lunch and binge-watching Billions. On Apple TV and Mac. I realize I’m beginning to miss the iPhone now. But a promise is a promise.
Dash charge
The rest of the day is uneventful till I drop the OnePlus 5 in my sleep. It’s hanging in there. Not breaking, not hanging. I am loving the Dash charge of the OnePlus, it’s getting the phone up to 100 per cent in close to 45 minutes. I had to, I was having to charge the phone twice a day, my two year old iPhone 6 needed two-three charges a day.
9.30 am, Monday
Its Eid, I’m going to office today for peace and getting things done. The OnePlus 5 manages to create a little bit of a stampede, the iPhone lot was wondering why I was punishing myself, it was almost like I was cutting myself. The others (and there were a lot of others) were not interested in me, the Eid biryani or life at large but in this one Android phone they had heard so much about. The colours, the RAM both managed to inspire a lot of chatter, speculation and device ownership dreams.
11 am
Shit. I’ve left the One Plus 5 charger and the MacBook charger at home. Found a substitute MacBook charger, life is good. Will now beg for an Android charger.
11.25 am
Problem. PEOPLE DON’T HAVE AN ANDROID CHARGER. WTF. They don’t have a USB Type-C charger. Does it think it’s the iPhone – how dare it? Regular USB chargers don’t work on the OnePlus 5, and the one guy in the team who has a Type-C type charger is chilling in Leh. Ugh. This is going to get ugly.
11.35 am
A colleague claims he can write a quick code to activate badge notifications. The phone is at 3 per cent. I tell him to go for it.
11.45 am
He installs a new launcher, tells me to reboot. Doesn’t work. I tell him that his aunt was wrong, not all engineers can fix phones.
12 noon
iPhone 6
SIM card has been popped back into the iPhone. The OnePlus 5 is dead, remains that way till I get home. Meanwhile the iPhone Outlook issue is resolved.
6.30 pm
I stick the OnePlus 5 on charge and go out for chat and posh tea. By the time I get back, the OnePlus is on 100 per cent and I can’t believe it but I’ve begun to miss the damn thing. The iPhone is powered off again, its display dull next to the 5.5 inch screen of the OnePlus.
9.30 am, Tuesday
I’ve been on the One Plus 5 all day. Email is working on the OnePlus 5, but I’m still having withdrawal issues with the iPhone. I love the phone, don’t understand what people mean when they say the OnePlus 5 looks exactly like the iPhone 7 Plus, but the iPhone 6 is still in my pocket.
OnePlus 5
4.40 pm
The iPhone is still off, I’m now using the OnePlus 5 for everything. It still has 24 per cent battery – which means it will need minimum one more charge to get me through the day. I had charged it last night so that’s not bad.
7 pm
I haven’t forgotten my charger, I stick the OnePlus to charge, maybe I’d just leave the iPhone at home tomorrow. Maybe.
10.30 am, Wednesday
It’s my first day without the iPhone. I feel like a little part of me is missing and not in the way you break up and feel sick - but the way where you need an intervention, check yourself into rehab and re-evaluate your life’s priorities. I figure I can’t live without badge notifications. I paid for it, but it’s free on the iPhone. It’s almost like iPhones are booking a hotel room full price while Android is booking a discount room without breakfast and pretending you prefer eating on the go.