[eropple]

For a differing opinion:

I tried an iPhone 6, moving away from a Nexus 5 and then a Moto X. I enjoyed many parts of it--Touch ID is cool, Apple Pay is cool--but I took it back two days later because the operating system expects you to have a thumb the size of Montana to do something as simple as going back a screen in the mail app and I found dealing with applications and getting the phone the way I wanted it (and I'm no iOS newbie, I had an iPhone 4 and have multiple iPads) was at best interminable, at worst impossible. I bought a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. It's the first cell phone I've loved since the iPhone 4--unsurprising, as it borrows a lot from its design while being pretty unique and pleasant on its own. (The waterproofing is great, hiding the connectors during regular use is nice, having a real focus-stop camera button is brilliant. Also, it's bright orange. My Nexus 5 was bright red. This is kind of my thing.)

As far as your argumentum ad turtleneckum, I wouldn't give ninety percent of the people I know in Silicon Valley the time of day. Their choice of phone doesn't reflect on me or the world at large.

[matwood]

I had an iPhone4 then moved to Nexus for the larger screen. I like Android, but it was never as polished at iOS. The iPhone 6 got me to try it again and I think it's awesome. The big thing I notice is how polished all the iPhone apps are over their Android counterparts.

Most of my iOS complaints were fixed in 8 and phone size was finally remedied.

Admittedly, if Google had released an update Nexus5+ for $350 I likely would have just stayed with Android for the cost alone.

[eropple]

Honestly? Every app I use on Android is really nice and polished. Chrome, GMail, Maps, Twitter, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, 1Password, Pocket Casts, Poweramp, and Pandora are all completely satisfying. The worst app I have is OpenMBTA...which fails to get my jimmies rustled because it's a dropdown list and a map overlay.

There are lots of shovelware applications on Android (lots on iOS too, though), but I don't really live on my phone so I think it's just much less of a thing for me.

[baudehlo]

Going back a screen in the mail app is as simple as swiping right. I don't understand why you'd need a huge thumb for that. It doesn't need to reach up to the top of the screen.

[eropple]

The swipe gestures are not standard across all apps (they didn't seem to work in GMail, for example), and when they did I had to hit the left edge of the screen. I do not have monsterhands that can securely grip the phone, reach all the way across, and do that edge swipe. (I can hold securely the Z3c and hit almost any point on the screen with my thumb.) I also don't really like gestures--other than Swype keyboards--when using a phone one-handed, which doesn't help either.

That wasn't the main reason I took it back, though if they had an iPhone 5-sized upgraded iPhone 6 I'd probably have kept it longer. (I probably wouldn't have kept it, there were enough other frustrations that not paying $900 for a phone and being able to get a better phone for my use case for $375 was appealing, but it might have lasted longer than a snowy weekend.)

[acchow]

I'll second your thoughts on the Xperia Z3 compact. I've gone through a variety of iPhones and Android phones, and this is the first phone that blew me away since the iPhone 4.