I’ve had the privilege of working in tech media for over 20 years now, and I get to use a variety of phones (including ones that have as many pixels as your living room TV). While I enjoy the iPhone and especially the fantastic Apple integration across all of their devices, there are still several features of Android that have yet to be replicated by iOS, now over 15 years since the release of the first iPhone. These features do what Android does best: they let you customize your experience and fully take advantage of the “super computer in your pocket”. Whether adjusting the display DPI to give you a nearly tablet-like interface, speeding up animations, or changing the launcher in order to fully change your experience, Android still gives you the tools to personalize your device exactly to your liking.
Display scaling adjustment
Take full advantage of high-density displays
Since Android 7, you’ve been able to tweak display scaling settings in Android to make all text elements appear smaller in order to fit more content on the screen. With flagship Android phones having screen sizes in excess of 6 inches, and with screen resolutions that exceed 400 DPI (the Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 6.9″ screen with 3120×1440 resolution, giving it an impressive DPI of 505. For reference, the human retina cannot see pixels above 400 DPI), you can only really take full advantage of this incredible resolution by increasing the pixel display density.
While most phones have a granular scaling adjustment in Display Setting, it’s limited to a few presets. In Developer Options, you can dial in a ridiculously high DPI value to essentially force your phone into tablet mode for some apps, which in some apps unlocks a dual-pane layout and gives you a very high density of information that reduces scrolling. In Chrome, a high DPI value will let you see your open tabs like on desktop, which is super cool. To do this, you know the drill—first enable Developer Options (go to Settings -> About -> Tap Build number 7 times. Go back to Settings, tap Developer Options). Then, go to the Drawing section, go to Minimum width, and experiment with values in excess of 500 DPI. On my Galaxy S22+ which has a 6.6″ 2340×1080 screen), I found 600 DPI to be the right value to basically force my phone into tablet mode. What’s great about this setting is that the changes apply immediately and survive a reboot, so you can experiment with different values to achieve the density that looks good to you.
In Developer Options, you can dial in a ridiculously high DPI value to essentially force your phone into tablet mode for some apps
Custom launchers change your homescreen
Give your phone a new look and feel
Something Android can do that is truly transformative is that you can change the launcher so that when you go back to your homescreen, you have exactly the experience you want, whether a minimal launcher like Niagra that streamlines your homescreen to a simple list of apps without the clutter (as shown above), or a more tailored experience that lets you customize gestures and tabs in your app drawer like Smart Launcher, the choice is yours.
No matter which launcher you pick, Android lets you set it as the default so that every time you return home, you’ll see the homescreen experience that you want.
Increase animation speeds
Make your phone feel 50% faster
Screen animations used to be very important on phones because back when phones weren’t as powerful, it would often take several seconds to launch apps. Animations were a way to provide a buffer between the time you tapped an app and when it actually appeared on the screen, granting the feeling of fluidity without you having to wait for apps to load. Today’s high-powered octa-core phones often offer as much RAM as some PCs, so they don’t need the delay of screen animations — so turn off animations or shorten them for a much faster experience. To do this, again enable Developer Options as per the above, then scroll to Drawing, and change Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale to 0.5x. That will make animations 50% faster than the default 1.0 speed. You can experiment with zero animations, but I find that some animations help with the perception of fluidity versus turning them off entirely.
4 things Android phones still do better than iPhones (that I actually use)
Android habits that don’t survive switching to iPhone.
Android is still about choice
It’s still the best platform for those with preferences
The iPhone is the most used phone in the world for a reason: it just works, and one of the ways it achieves this “just works” status is by Apple limiting what you can do. You can’t change the launcher, you can’t change animations, and you can’t adjust DPI scaling because Apple doesn’t want you to mess up the careful choices they’ve made on your behalf to keep the user experience simple, fast, and usable. But for the rest of us who like to tweak and customize, Android is still the unmatched king.
