Five months later with my Pixel 7...

[Saintor]

... I miss my Galaxy S.

For my needs/preferences the P7 is a solid 8/10 smartphone and the S was a 9+/10. One of my children has a P7 and love it. I don't.

Here are my gripes.

• Even at 100% brightness, outdoor I barely see the screen !!! My Samsung wasn't so bad. I expected much more from a AMOLED display.
• It drops the link many times with my Android Auto Wireless. I had the same car 14 month with the S, I don't recall having issues.
• Odd bugs issues. Again, never happened with my S. For example, the Daily Mail app always crashes. I tried another P7, does the same.

On the positive side, pictures are awesome.

I was attracted by the price and reputation gaining ground. But I really want a 9+/10 smartphone. Time to move on.

 

[YankInDaSouth]

You have to go with what makes you happy!

I have the 7 Pro and the S23 Ultra and frequently bounce back and forth between the two. After a while of using one I find myself missing some of what the other offers. So I keep both in order to scratch both itches LOL

 

[B. Diddy]

The app crashes are unlikely to be due to the phone. It probably has more to do with the apps themselves.

 

[Joshua Luther1]

Somedays I wish I had the brightness of a Galaxy phone and other days I'm glad I have my Pixel 7 pro for capturing great pictures. I'm likely going to keep it until the S24 Ultra comes out. If that has a flat screen, I'll probably get the 24 ultra. I'm not ready to sell my Tab S8 as I like to game and watch videos on it. I was thinking of selling my Tab S8 and trading in my Pixel 7 pro for the S23 ultra.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to have two phones.
I'm currently on Android 14 beta and apart from a couple of minor bugs, it's running well.

 

[Saintor]

The app crashes are unlikely to be due to the phone. It probably has more to do with the apps themselves.

Then why does crash only on both my P7/children's one, but not other ones I ran it. Also dropping frequently the AA wireless connection is more than annoying. It even happened to me in heavy traffic when relying on Waze, in a rental car.

 

[B. Diddy]

Then why does crash only on both my P7/children's one, but not other ones I ran it. Also dropping frequently the AA wireless connection is more than annoying. It even happened to me in heavy traffic when relying on Waze, in a rental car.

Are you able to compare the Pixel and the Samsung phones side-by-side? You're mentioning the Samsung in the past tense, so I'm assuming not. It's hard for me to say for sure, but the crashes might be coincidental after switching to the Pixel. There are other reasons for apps to crash, like due to problems with a recent security update or Google Play system update. Maybe there's someone else here who can attest to the stability (or instability) of that app on a Samsung phone that's completely up to date.

I also just looked at the most recent reviews for the Daily Mail app in the Play Store -- lots of 1-star reviews for crashes and glitches. Some people are saying that this happened after the Android 13 update, so the developers may not have tested it thoroughly on Android 13.

I can't comment on the Android Auto wireless issue, since I never use that. That sure sounds frustrating!

 

[bembol]

No complaints except when it's time to sell it. LOL

I can't believe I'm having trouble selling my 7 Pro for $700 Canadian. I still have the regular 7, love my Lemongrass.

Now that I think about it why do I need to max out the brightness outside to use. I never needed use Auto Brightness on my Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi. Not the end of the world. Definitely not the reason why I'm feeling it either, just bored.

 

[Saintor]

My Pixel 7 works hard to make me hate it even more.

In Europe for 2 weeks, I thought that I was covered with my faithful 10000 mah battery pack that worked with a dozen devices, never missed a beat.

I found the hard way that *NOPE*, not with this princess phone that has special charging requirements (pd3 ... whatever). It took me a few days to understand why my Samsung tablet recharged and not this #$% phone that ran out of juice, I thought it was a poor cable.... it should warn the user right away "Hey this battery pack isn't supported"... but nothing explicit. Poor job, Google.

Aren't they supposed 'universal' phones? Why didn't Google design it to support multiple modes of charging, including the most common ones?!! Do recent S22 S23 have also those restrictions or would they just work on my 4yo battery pack?

 

[Stanley Kubrick]

My Pixel 7 works hard to make me hate it even more.

In Europe for 2 weeks, I thought that I was covered with my faithful 10000 mah battery pack that worked with a dozen devices, never missed a beat.

I found the hard way that *NOPE*, not with this princess phone that has special charging requirements (pd3 ... whatever). It took me a few days to understand why my Samsung tablet recharged and not this #$% phone that ran out of juice, I thought it was a poor cable.... it should warn the user right away "Hey this battery pack isn't supported"... but nothing explicit. Poor job, Google.

Aren't they supposed 'universal' phones? Why didn't Google design it to support multiple modes of charging, including the most common ones?!! Do recent S22 S23 have also those restrictions or would they just work on my 4yo battery pack?

Never needed or used a battery pack so I have little (no) experience with one. That being said I determined from your explanation (rant) that this pack is 4 years old? That is dinosaur age in the tech world. Trying to use anything that is 4 years old on a new tech gadget is risky at best. Would a new battery pack work? That is the real question because if it does then the problem is with the 4 year "old" hardware, not the new phone. YMMV

 

[B. Diddy]

My Pixel 7 Pro charges off my Samsung 5100 charger without any difficulty, and this is a charger that came out in 2017. It supports Samsung Fast Charging (which is like QC 2.0), but not PD.

I wonder if there might have been some wonkiness with the cable? Can you test it with a different cable (like the one that came with the Pixel)?

 

[Saintor]

Never needed or used a battery pack so I have little (no) experience with one. That being said I determined from your explanation (rant) that this pack is 4 years old? That is dinosaur age in the tech world. Trying to use anything that is 4 years old on a new tech gadget is risky at best. Would a new battery pack work? That is the real question because if it does then the problem is with the 4 year "old" hardware, not the new phone. YMMV

Well I respectfully disagree. Then why don't we just throw away all devices working with wifi 2.4GHz since 5.0GHz is the better thing? My trusty Laserjet printer of 2003 works with whatever USB I plug it in (lucky to have Windows 10 driver)... this example is a stretch, but when bringing something new and better, I would assume that the manufacturer would care about transition and not put their customers like me in trouble. It would be perfectly fine if the only drawback would be a slower recharging.

When there is moisture or overheat, the P7 screams at you.... why doesn't it clearly and explicitly "Hey I can't recharge on that thing..."? Again, Google dropped the ball.

To make thing worse, I can see the little charging symbol within the battery symbol. What's an unsuspecting user to conclude? Hey it works! Wrong... but true if you look closer, it doesn't say 'charging'.

Yesterday, I had an hunch. I used my battery power bank and my wireless charging stand (OJD-29B 15w), using a USB-B micro cable (introduced in 2009, I checked mind you ).... and it works!!! But if hard-wired with a USB-C cables (I tried a few) that can handle 4x the watts, it doesn't. Mind-boggling.

This is the kind of ridiculous but annoying nonsense that will affect the Pixel reputation, and differentiate it with a S-Galaxy IMO.

 

[dookie.]

Buh bye!

 

[Morty2264]

You gotta do what makes you happy! Samsung is a great product!

 

[Saintor]

Finally convinced our IT to get me a Samsung S23! I don't need/ want an Ultra as I like them compact. The P7 dropping the signal on a daily basis really got on my nerves. For the record, I found in what context it happens, maybe this will help someone, although if it doesn't solve the issue. After an Xth Wi-fi BT reset, I tried to only connect my headset before adding more. After a few hours of stability, I decided to add my Samsung 46mm (3rd gen I think) smartwatch. Then I got a smoking gun; it started to drop the signal again. Removed it, and it was ok for the rest of the day. What convinced me to push them a bit harder is when I got my new S9+ tablet last week (CA1500, less $450 discount, less $500 trade-in for my 2019 S5e - same price that I paid!,... too good to pass); gorgeous & vivid screen, grade excellent IMO, where the P7 's is just very good.

My beef with the Daily Mail app seems resolved with Android 14, while it runs flawless on my S9+, even on Android 13.

BTW, my old battery can't recharge my S9+, the new one does.

I'll stop bothering ya all.

Edit: my old battery recharges my S9+, just not when my screen is on. It never did on my P7.

 

[Jx J]

Well, I have a Samsung S8 tab and a PIxel 7.

The Pixel hardware is mostly fine, but I'd rather have a more reliable fingerprint reader. Google try to disguise this by making the face unlock really good, but of course that is defeated by sunglasses or using the phone in the dark.
For software, ideally, I would have the Samsung interface, minus all the unwanted Samsung apps. Or with the option to at least remove them.
The reasons why I didn't buy a Samsung phone were:
1 Unwanted Samsung apps, which I cannot delete
2 Some models have curved screens, so it's difficult to have a screen protector.
3 The Pixel had a more attractive price point.

 

[Saintor]

2 Some models have curved screens, so it's difficult to have a screen protector.

I actually miss this; I had it on my S10, and it felt just a bit more premium. But true, the screen was more exposed to damage.