{"id":3225,"date":"2025-11-18T15:21:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idzan.hr\/?p=3225"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:21:04","slug":"triple-phone-wielding-android-user-experience-with-iphone-13-pro-and-ios-long-term-personal-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/?p=3225","title":{"rendered":"Triple phone wielding \u2013 Android user experience with iPhone 13 Pro and iOS (long-term personal review)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Or as I like to call it: using both operating systems at the same time, but for completely different reasons and ecosystems.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s set the premise straight. I\u2019m a long-term Android-only user who occasionally flirted with iOS in the past (using iPhone 6 for a month<\/a> when I had to or even temporary for work iPhone 7 Plus<\/a>\u00a0or even\u00a0iPhone X<\/a> for a weekend socials maintenance). Yet here I am in November 2025, dual-wielding three phones every single day. In the left bottom green Android corner sits my king, almost two years old, still showing 89 % battery health, officially supported until mid-2026, now rocking the fresh October 2025 security patch on HyperOS<\/a> 2.0.207 EEA \u2013 the one and only POCO F5<\/a> in black with its black flip cover and extra tempered glass. Up in the top left green corner works the ten-month-old newbie, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage, still on the October 2025 patch with HyperOS 2.0.204 and Android 15 \u2013 the Redmi 14C<\/a> 4G in black protected by a dark-blue flip cover. Finally, in the right snow-white (or maybe red?) corner stands the three-year-old Graphite warrior with its 120 Hz AMOLED and the latest iOS 26.2 Developer Beta 3<\/a> \u2013 the iPhone 13 Pro<\/a> 128 GB that landed in my hands when the family upgraded to an iPhone 16 Pro<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m that guy carrying three phones, and no, I didn\u2019t throw any into the bin \u201clike parsley and per\u0161un, bre\u201d as Balkan Dad would say.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every device has its own wearable squad. The POCO F5<\/a> pairs with the Xiaomi Watch 2<\/a> on the fresh Wear OS 5<\/a> update from last month and with Redmi Buds 5 Pro<\/a> for private calls and music. The Redmi 14C<\/a> gets the demoted Redmi Buds 4<\/a> that still handle 3CX<\/a> night-shift calls perfectly. The iPhone 13 Pro<\/a> rocks AirPods Pro 2<\/a> in the USB-C case that I bought cheap on Marketplace<\/a> \u2013 they even came with valid Apple Care+<\/a> until 2026, although iOS 26.2 still insists they are first-gen despite the serial number proving otherwise. Developer beta life<\/a>, hah.<\/span><\/p>\n

After this longer preamble (oh-my-posh<\/a> and days), let\u2019s finally begin the comparison.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a long-term Android user who once survived a month on an iPhone 6<\/a> and occasionally borrowed company iPhone 7 Plus<\/a> or iPhone X<\/a> devices for weekend customer support, I can say that navigation on Android 15<\/a> with HyperOS 2.0 wins hands down. Both systems use gesture bars now, and I switched to gestures on Android two years ago, so the muscle memory was ready. The difference is simple: on the POCO F5 and Redmi 14C I swipe back from the left or right edge, while on iOS<\/a> I must use only the left side \u2013 and half the apps open the hamburger menu instead. Gmail and Contacts, I\u2019m looking at you. Android takes the first moral victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notifications arrive instantly on the POCO F5 and iPhone 13 Pro, while the Redmi 14C lags by a second, which is expected for a budget work device. The real difference appears when clearing them: Android lets me swipe left or right no matter what, but iOS forces me to swipe only left. Petty? Yes. Moral victory number two for Android.<\/span><\/p>\n

Battery life tells a clearer story. On a typical day of communication, navigation, music, video, and photography, the POCO F5 delivers seven to eight hours of screen-on time and lasts two full days, charging from zero to one hundred percent in thirty-eight minutes with its 67 W brick. The iPhone 13 Pro manages five to six hours of screen-on time for the same tasks and reaches one and a half days. When I need speed, I plug it straight into the same 67 W POCO F5 charger (or the old 33 W brick from my retired from daily usage but still in helpful user as Roaming only phone Redmi Note 9 Pro<\/a>) using no-name\u00a0 <\/span>Lightning-to-USB-C adapter and others<\/a> package ready to connect to any USB Type-C cable \u2013 never touched Apple\u2019s official charger<\/a> or rarely used official Lightning cable<\/a>, nyat, my brothers and sisters. If I\u2019m not in a hurry, I just drop it on my Temu best buy – MagSafe-capable wireless charger and call it a day. Type-C<\/a> to rule them all \ud83d\ude09. The Redmi 14C, used only for email, 3CX, authenticator apps, and light games, gives me three to four days between charges and fills up in roughly an hour and forty-five minutes when I borrow the POCO\u2019s charger. Even with a three-year-old battery, the iPhone still beats most 2022 Android flagships, but the POCO F5 simply destroys everything in raw endurance and speed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cameras in 2025 are no longer a fair fight. In daylight the iPhone 13 Pro wins colors and dynamic range every time. At night the POCO F5 with my trusted GCam<\/a> mod produces sharper details and less noise. Video belongs to the iPhone \u2013 cinematic mode and stabilization feel like magic \u2013 while the POCO stays limited to 4K30 with decent EIS. The Redmi 14C surprises with perfectly usable document scans and quick colleague snaps from its 50 MP sensor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Software updates crown an unexpected champion. Xiaomi promised the POCO F5 three OS upgrades and four years of security patches, and it already runs Android 15 with bi-monthly updates \u2013 HyperOS 3.0 is confirmed for early spring. The budget Redmi 14C will jump straight to HyperOS 3.0<\/a> with Android 16<\/a> at the same time with also bi-monthly updates. Yet the iPhone 13 Pro, now on iOS 26.2 Developer Beta 3 in November 2025, will easily reach iOS 30 in 2030 if Apple supports this device as long as it is today. Longevity still belongs to Apple \u2013 no Android comes close to seven or eight guaranteed years, with exception of latest flagships which now gets longer support like 5-7 years, thanks Google for that \ud83d\ude09.<\/span><\/p>\n

App experience stays mostly identical. Croatian banking apps run perfectly on both platforms, although some feel a touch smoother on iOS. Microsoft 365, Teams, and authenticator apps behave the same. Google Photos backs up everything seamlessly across all three phones because I\u2019m a paid Google One family plan user with two terabytes shared and zero \u201cstorage full\u201d drama. My Proton de-Googling<\/a> attempt works for mail and drive, but YouTube Premium and Photos keep me chained to Google.<\/span><\/p>\n

Customization remains Android territory. Dark mode everywhere, icon packs, KWGT widgets, Lawnchair launcher, and side-fingerprint gestures live only on the green side. Sure, with iOS 18 and even iOS 26<\/a>\/26.1 Apple started copying Android more openly \u2013 layout design tweaks, icon pack installation \u2013 but nothing will ever make me like my custom sizing of icon rows and columns on Android. Only if iOS finally adds that would it feel like real courage\u2026 you know, the same courage they showed when they removed the headphone jack.<\/a> iOS offers Focus modes and widgets, and that\u2019s it.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why three phones? The POCO F5 is my daily love for photography, navigation, and music. The Redmi 14C at 110 \u20ac isolates business completely \u2013 company mail, 3CX night shifts, authenticator tokens \u2013 with zero personal data mixing. The iPhone 13 Pro serves as premium backup, family sharing hub, Find My network<\/a>, customer-support screenshot machine, and occasional video wizard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Final verdict: there is no single winner, just the perfect trio. I will never go iOS-only because the back gesture alone would drive me insane. I will never go Android-only again because a modern iPhone as backup is stupidly convenient for updates, family ecosystem, and those cinematic clips. The Redmi 14C proves that work can stay at work for pocket change.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember when I survived a month on an iPhone 6 in 2020 and swore I\u2019d never touch iOS again?<\/a> The 2020 me would be shocked. The iPhone 13 Pro is a completely different beast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Separate photo galleries from each phone are linked below. Enjoy the pixels.<\/span><\/p>\n

POCO F5 gallery \u2192 Check it here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

iPhone 13 Pro gallery \u2192 Check it here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Redmi 14C gallery \u2192 Check it here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

All content, opinions, and experiences in this post are 100 % my own. The text was checked for grammar, flow, and composition using Grok<\/a>, built by xAI. The cover image is my own photo, shot with the trusty Redmi Note 9 Pro<\/a> \u2013 still kicking after five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worth the wait, right? \ud83d\udd25<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or as I like to call it: using both operating systems at the same time, but for completely different reasons and ecosystems. Let\u2019s set the premise straight. I\u2019m a long-term Android-only user who occasionally flirted with iOS in the past (using iPhone 6 for a month when I had to or even temporary for work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile-phone","category-reviews","category-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}