Is it possible to comfortably use an iPhone while living entirely in the Microsoft ecosystem?

I'm all-in on the Microsoft ecosystem. I use OneDrive, Windows 10, Outlook, Office, and pretty much every other Microsoft software and service under the sun. Most people know that for the best Microsoft experience on a smartphone, you'll likely want to go with Android as apps have more control over the OS and as such can integrate themselves as if they were native experiences. But what if you're not a fan of Android? As Microsoft is no longer focused on Windows 10 Mobile, the only other real alternative is for the best Microsoft experience in your pocket is iOS. So, what's it like using an iPhone as a user in the Microsoft ecosystem? I recently switched from an Android phone to the iPhone X to answer this very question. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more Buy iPhone X from Apple iPhone X setup

For this write-up, I'm using a 64GB Space Grey iPhone X. In case you're wondering, yes, the iPhone X is a beautiful, premium bit of hardware. Sure, it's expensive, but you get what you pay for in this regard. Not one person I know has been disappointed with the iPhone X's hardware, even with the silly notch located at the top. The device feels beyond great in your hand, and also has a bit of weight to it which I also like. Setting up the iPhone is pretty simple, but you will be required to setup an iCloud account with Apple if you plan on using the App Store to download things. You can use your Outlook account as an iCloud account, which is nice. No need to set up separate iCloud email, meaning you can retain your one email address and have that on the phone.

Once setup was complete, the first thing I did was jump into the settings to make sure iCloud wasn't backing up my photos, video and documents to its servers. I'll be using OneDrive instead for this. If you want to go total extreme, you can also turn off iMessage and FaceTime too, however that's probably not worth it if you have family or friends who use those services. Then I made sure my Outlook email wasn't being used in the iOS Mail app, as I'd be using Microsoft's own app. I did the same for Calendar, Notes, iWork, Siri, Reminders and Health. In short, I gutted most of Apple's stock apps and services with the intention of using Microsoft's own. The newest version of iOS allows you to remove/disable several stock apps that come installed on an iPhone. With that in mind, I went ahead and began removing apps such as Mail, Calendar, FaceTime, Notes, Maps, News, Reminders, Videos and iBooks. We will be replacing what we can with Microsoft-made apps instead. There are still a few apps that cannot be removed, such as Phone, Messages, Camera and the likes. That's to be expected, however, and removing them probably wouldn't help anyway. But with most of Apple's other apps out of the way, I could finally begin downloading Microsoft apps. Removing several of Apple's own apps does pose for some annoying issues down the line. Microsoft apps on iPhone

Jumping into the App Store, I went ahead and just searched for Microsoft in the search tab. This brought up a long list of apps available on iOS from Microsoft. It doesn't take long to realize that Microsoft is definitely a software company first, with such dedication to a rival platform being almost unprecedented in today's age. There are what seems like hundreds of Microsoft apps available on iOS, and they're not bad. So, I first needed to replace the Apple apps I just removed, so I started with Outlook, which I'll be using for both my email and calendar apps. Microsoft's Outlook app for iOS is pretty feature filled, with direct access to OneDrive and my contacts for quick emailing and sharing of documents. It's a very self-contained app, and one I was happy to see on iOS. So upon downloading the app, I was asked to sign in with my Microsoft account. In doing so, I had to type my email and password, and then enter my two-factor authentication code before I could start using the app. This is something you'll be doing a lot when setting up your iPhone with Microsoft services because iOS doesn't automatically apply your Microsoft Account to Microsoft apps, unlike Windows phone or even Android. This was the first iOS annoyance I came across. If you use the Microsoft Authentication app, this makes logging into apps a little less tiresome if you've got two-factor authentication enabled. Microsoft has an Authentication app for iOS, which is basically identical to the one found on Windows phone. It works well, and will be handy when logging into new Windows PCs or services that you use with the Authentication service. Up next, I went ahead and grabbed Microsoft Edge for iOS. Since I use Edge on Windows 10, I want to have all my synced favorites, passwords and browsing history on my phone too. The Microsoft Edge app on iOS offers everything you would need in this regard, along with a clean UI that features both a light or dark mode. It also has a feature that allows you to send webpages from your phone directly to Edge on your PC, pretty neat! Then I turned my attention to Office and OneDrive. As you probably already know, Microsoft has a nice selection of Office apps on iOS, including Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and Excel. I'll be using these apps in place of iWork and the Notes app.