I'm sorry to hear that you are not very impressed with it yet! Please keep us posted!
Well, it's Saturday now so had it for almost a week. I came from a Galaxy S10+ and before that had a Pixel 3XL, 2XL and XL, so here are my thoughts:
+ Camera is very good, but imo the same as Pixel 3, 2, 1 etc. 5th generation Pixel now and I can't say there are real, meaningful improvements to it. The competition has definitely caught up. Still though, takes great Pixel-quality shots. Though I think they've reached the limits of what they can do with this sensor and if they stick with it on the next phone, we're not going to be talking about the Pixel have the best or second best camera on the market.
+ The battery life is excellent. One thing that was ok-to-poor on the Pixels is now actually great on the 5. Who knew putting a large battery in the device would lead to good battery?
+ It's a smaller device is nicer for one hand use. And I love the symmetrical bezels all round by far the best front design of a Pixel yet.
+ Despite the Snapdragon 765, it's plenty snappy. Performance hasn't been an issue - only slightly longer image processing times, which I don't find as an issue.
+ Pixel UI is nice and clean, but very vanilla and basic. I guess they're not charging a lot so they can get away with it, but I think it needs more features/functions. In Australia we never got call screening or hold for me, so even less features than in the US. But it's a nice UI that gets out of your way.
+ Fingerprint scanner is easy, quick and accurate. No issues.
+ Ram management is so much better than what it was on the Pixel 3XL. 4gb ram just simply wasn't enough and suffered for it.
Now on to the things I don't like:
- The plastic back feels awful. Feels like cheap plastic/cardboard. Yes it has an aluminium build - but you're definitely not touching it. You're only ever touching plastic. This is like the worst possible combination as uses a premium material internally but doesn't feel like. Glass would have been much better - retains the wireless charging and feels much more premium.
- The sound quality is really quite poor, particularly the top speaker. The volume is low and even on max volume, it's hard to hear people on calls, especially outside when I'm walking though the CBD. Just an awful top speaker.
- The vibration motor is a big step down. The haptics make the phone feel hollow when typing. I remember the Pixel 3 XL having a really good haptics motor, but the Pixel 5 has a very weak one.
- Video isn't very good - way behind the Galaxy. Never was a strong point for the Pixel, not a strong point here.
So overall I think it's a decent phone but overpriced. I don't think Google have a strategy with the Pixel line, as every year feels like a reset year, definitely including this one. There's just nothing about it that I can point to that says 'you should get this phone b cause of X' and collectively as a whole is just a good device, not a great or excellent one. I think at this price point there are better phones on the market.
This phone is only $100 less than the Pixel 4, but there are so many cuts in quality, it feels like a phone that should be $200+ less. Haptics, phone build/quality, processor etc - there's just a tonne of shortcuts made that other OEMs didn't do. I'd rather pay the extra $100+ and get all those features back on the phone.
I just don't see why consumer would buy this phone when there's the iPhone 12 on the market for a similar price and the Galaxy S20 FE. So I don't know what Google are trying to achieve here. You get 90% of the experience on the Pixel 4a for 50% of the price. But the higher end Google goes with their phones, the less of a value proposition it is. I'd actually like Google to make a true, proper high-end phone rather than screwing around with a gimped $700 phone. I get that their previous flagships just didn't sell in numbers, but I don't see the 5 selling in any significant numbers either. Maybe I'm wrong and it'll sell a lot better than their previous flagships, but I just don't see it. The market at $700-$800 phones is very competitive and the iPhone 12 is just a better product. Far, far better hardware, equal software, a camera just as good and far better video.
If I were to rate the Pixel 5, I'd give it a 7/10
So I'll keep it for a bit, but will likely replace it with the S30 Ultra or something.