Yep yep absolutely correct once again. no other phones camera hardware and software can compare to the pixels. Google knows that! It's one of their bread and butter for the company. I can take a picture of anything and with HDR plus and hands mode turned on all the time, that picture will come out looking great. any silent picture on the pixel looks amazing. And I really don't take video with my phone all that much.The only thing that my older Nexus 6P didn't have that Samsung Galaxy phones had at that time was automatic brightness. So basically what I always did was had to manually remember to adjust the brightness slider from dim to bright depending on where I was indoors or outdoors. Thankfully Google got the hint and created adaptive brightness , and adaptive battery! The big hoopla about Google phones is that the software works with users versus against users or not in users favor... Unfortunately, that's all I would have bought down to. The pixel phone is for everyone. It was never meant to be a niche phone it just became one because of marketing from Samsung from their Galaxy phones on their Galaxy note line of phones. And also to compete against Apple. now, of course, you have Google's marketing of the pixel line for premium phones and then the pixel 3A series for the affordable version of the phone. For the record though, I really do believe that if more and more customers really did use a pixel phone, they would absolutely love it. Now, whether or not that actually happens is another story but you get my point. on a separate point, the one thing I really find annoying fresh came back other Android phones especially Galaxy phones as the fact that I have two different photo apps. Google photos and then the manufacturer's own photo application. And one plus does this too. again, not a streamlined user-friendly experience in my opinion. Because which photo application does the user actually use, without being taught?
As someone who is currently running the Pixel 3XL side by side with Samsung S10, I have to admit that's it hard for me to pick one over the other. This is my first Samsung smart device so I'm glad it's not hindered by TouchWiz and it's the only reason I wouldn't look at Samsung in the past.
As far as the camera goes I have to give the edge to the Pixel....it's just incredible. Their digital zoom is really quite good. Just imagine if they coupled that software with a telephoto lens. I don't see that coming to the 4 but I believe it will have a wide angle lens. Can't wait.... I've been a fan of wide-angle since the LG G5. Ironically people used to make fun of the LG and called it a gimmick but now everybody seems to have one. Though I positively prefer the pixel camera, the Samsung is no slouch despite some of the complaints you read about. The video/audio recording is better on the Samsung. For me the pixel is adequate but I don't do a lot of video as I'm more of a picture taker. I would love to see pixel bump up their game though. I have trouble with the fact that they can crank out such great photos while providing a mediocre video experience.
I'm planning a trip to Disney at the end of July and I'm sort of torn as to which camera to use. The Samsung it's just more versatile with its wide and telephoto additions. The Pixel takes pictures more to my liking. In daylight it probably won't matter as much except in situations where HDR+ makes a big difference. I did purchase a Moment lens for Pixel because I had a $100 Google Store credit expiring and couldn't think of anything else to buy. It's drawback is that it's a bit heavy and makes the phone top heavy and harder pocket. It also reduces the telephoto range. I'll probably just end up using both phones at Disney I'm not sure about the Moment lens.
Both phones run pretty smoothly. I don't test them side by side to nitpick which one loads faster because to me fractions of a second are meaningless. The 4GB of RAM on the Pixel have been more than adequate and it keeps up with Samsung's 8GB except for the amount of apps running in the background. Guess what....I don't need apps I opened yesterday or earlier in the day. That's not to say that 8GB isn't an advantage, I just feel that Google does pretty good with it's memory management. I do think they will up their game with the Pixel 4.
For electronic payments, hands down the Samsung wins. I can survive without MST but I really see the benefits now. I can survive without it because I usually carry my credit cards and Google pay does work a lot of places but being able to use it with any any terminal is fantastic. It's funny when you go to use it in a place that only takes Apple pay and the cashier notices that you have a Samsung and they tell you we only take Apple Pay. It's especially hysterical when you go somewhere that doesn't take any form of smart device payment and you go to use it. A few weeks ago I went to use it in the post office and the agent started to tell me how we don't take that here. When it worked those agents in the office looks very interested in it so I explained to them how it worked. Every post office in New York has the same terminals I don't know about the rest of the country. Probably not that critical for them to upgrade and their terminals caps were a lot of other information so it may take them a while to get up to speed.
For timely updates and the ability try beta versions of future operating systems Google can't be beat. I realize that's not important to everyone but it's one of the things that keeps me attached to Pixel.
I do like some of the things Samsung has done with the UI like the edge panel. I also liked the gestures better on the Samsung but that was prior to Android Q beta and it looks like Google must have been listening because that's one of the things many were unhappy with. I was okay with them the way they currently are P but I definitely see the improvement. it was a real pain switching back and forth between phones before because they were completely different. I would often forget which phone I was on and swiped the wrong way.
I don't like a lot of the redundant apps that Samsung puts out but since they're optional it's no big deal. I tend to go with the Google versions of most of the duplicate apps.
If every manufacturer used Google messages instead of trying to reinvent the wheel maybe we'd be miles closer to getting something like RCS working across the board. Google photos is another example of an app that doesn't need duplicity by the manufacturer.
Then there's Bixby....not sure why it exists. Google Assistant is just so much better for me and the squeeze to activate is just so great it feels natural as opposed to having to hit a button. Another example of where it's hard to get used to switching phones.
I also use an iPhone for work and the iOS experience isn't bad, Android just feels much better to me. I do use it for things like FaceTime with family but other than that or work email and phone calls I don't pick it up much.
Is the end I still favor the Pixel, but it's also hard for me to put down the Samsung. At the moment it's on my primary line so I'm using it more. Sort of screwed myself trying the Samsung because I will probably want the Pixel 4 but I do like using Samsung Pay. Between the two phones I really don't need to upgrade but if the Pixel 4 adds a wide-angle camera I'm going to be very tempted. Someone help me stop this madness!
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