There are things of which I am sure. I very much prefer Windows to macOS, for example, despite the obvious problems. But there are also things of which I am not sure. And that's where Android and iOS land, or, more specifically Pixel and Android.
I've gone back and forth on this so many times I can't keep it straight in my mind. Rationalizing, I can state the obvious and note that my job basically requires me to go back and forth between the two platforms. But which I prefer shifts according to the quality of the respective hardware and software upgrades that Google and Apple deliver each year. There is rarely an obvious choice, and I miss specific features from one platforn when I switch to the other.
Looking back in time is pointless, but looking at just this past year is perhaps instructive. And it's confusing. Coming into 2024, after having reviewed the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Pixel 8 Pro, I thought I had come to a rare but not unprecedented point in which my choice was clear: Though the iPhone was (and still is) terrific on almost every level, I very much preferred Google's entry, with the Pixel finally overcoming the nagging little problems of the past and delivering that experience I had long wanted. I was good.
Except that I wasn't.
The same week I published my Pixel 8 Pro review, I inexplicably ordered a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra for two reasons that seemed meaningful at the time: The explosion of AI features coming to the best-selling Android brand and an expanded partnership with Google which had, to that point, kept its hardware-accelerated AI advances to itself. Looking back on this now, I semi-regret it. I was never going to switch to the Galaxy full-time--I can't stand Samsung's unnecessary software bloat, for starters--but I wanted to be open-minded and fair, and I knew that the phone would find a good home with my wife, who was still using a Galaxy S22 Ultra at the time. And sure enough, the Galaxy S24 Ultra landed where I think I knew it would, though the AI functionality was surprising half-baked and disappointing. Whatever, my wife loves it and I moved on.
What I didn't do was move on to the Pixel as expected. Instead, when we were in Mexico for February and part of March, Apple announced the MacBook Air M3. And while I didn't mention this at the time, I immediately decided that I needed to buy one: PCs based on Qualcomm's explosively good and Arm-based Snapdragon Elite X platform were due by mid-2024, the company was specifically targeting the Apple Silicon M3, and it seemed like--and was, still is--the correct head-to-head comparison to see how well Qualcomm had really done. And so I purchased one. And dear God is this a fantastic computer. Thin, light, and gorgeous, with an epic display and 15 hours of real-world battery life, the MacBook Air M3 is astonishingly good. The only thing holding it back, frankly, is macOS.
But before I was able to come to that conclusion, I knew that any reasonable evaluati...