I used to have a Pixel 5 and loved it. Recently switched to an iPhone 14 Pro and... frankly it sucks. iOS UX is pretty bad, IMO, and the photos are subpar. Google's computational photography is much better and faster. Android keyboards are more powerful and lets you easily type punctuation. The notification system is way more customizable. Imessages doesn't filter spam. In fact there isn't even spam filtering built in like there is on the Pixel. You have to buy a separate app. I regret getting an iPhone...

My partner has a Samsung and she's fine with it. But having their own photo and calendar apps makes things super confusing when you're trying to share with another Android user using the Google standard apps.

If I were getting another Android, which I really wish I did, I wouldn't even consider anything but the Pixels...

This is exactly how I feel about the iPhone. From the UX to the Photos. I recently broke the screen of my of my Pixel 5 and needed to replace it. For the brief period I was going to be without the phone I needed a temporary phone.

My partner has many iPhones laying around but I simply could not deal with iOS. I bought a Pixel 2 as a temporary phone.

For me it was the camera + price combo. The Samsung cameras are probably better on the flagship phones but the prices for those phones are insane. iPhone price is obviously even worse and I really don't like the camera and how iPhone applies edits automatically, even to the RAW files.

I do a lot of photography and the Pixel 6 Pro with the wide angle lens plus dedicated Telephoto 4x zoom lens covers like 90% of my needs. Other than true long exposure, super low light night shots, macro, and astrophotography, my Pixel 6 is great.

None of the Samsung cameras really come close to Pixels.

Owning both Pixel 6 and Galaxy S22+, the S22 has a massive problem with slow shutter, movement and dark scenes (this issue I've observed on S22 Ultra as well).

So while Samsung might look better on paper, Pixel consistently takes better picture due to more responsive shutter and less blurry pictures.

Is the shutter actually slow or just delayed? I suspect you mean it is delayed.

Same. And after a few days the "photos" app will post some AI enhanced versions of the good shots. Some are ok, some are not much better, but occasionally it makes the photo 100x better. It's pretty amazing.

The phone is pretty nice, good screen, long battery life ....

You don't get a ginormous amount of crapware installed on your phone that you can't remove.

The point of the Pixels is that raw hardware specs don't trump good software and features.

I bought an OG Pixel at launch, really enjoyed it, and then bought a Pixel 3 XL which was... rough for a while. I preferred both and their unlocked bootloaders to TouchWiz on any Galaxy I've owned or Samsung abandoning feature updates on my model after a year or two.

If you've never owned a Pixel, they're just generally good phones. Each one has a unique gimmick, and yeah, you're their QA team, but they're ultimately thoughtful, functional devices that show you ways to add value to the things you do.

The Nexus phones were the last good androids google made.

A phone should be $300-400 not the ridiculous prices they're going for now.

I actually went through a carrier this time because I could trade in my current device for waaaaay more than it's worth. My current phone is neither receiving OS updates nor security updates, and the Pixel 7 gives me five years of security updates and three years of OS updates.

The pixel "a" line is around the $300-400 range.

They also recently seem to be doing this thing where they pay _way_ too much for certain trade-ins.

I got a pixel 6a for $150 because I traded in my dying pixel 3a that was also losing software support, and they threw in a free pair of their wireless earbud things.

Pixel phone gets monthly Android updates, plus you can test all new feature ahead of anyone else as soon as Google push updates. You get a plain Android experience, too. But, of course, Samsung is a fine phone. I am considering getting Galaxy Flip Z 5 as 5 G is now available in my town.

Indeed, the problem is they're just too high priced for the specs they're offering, unless you really, really have to have the Google software.

Yeah, I really expected to see a 10x camera like the S22 Ultra, but I guess they don't like being competitive. Oh well.

I wish they had gone back to the 3x- I don't have too much use for 4x or 5x. I don't object to a 10x as well but I wouldn't personally use it often.