- Dec 22, 2010
- 84
- 0
- 6
I've always been a Samsung fan since the Galaxy series began. I've had the S1, S2, S4, S7 edge, S9+ and finally the S20 ultra. For me, after making phone calls and sending text messages, the camera is one of the most important features of a phone and Samsung has never disappointed me until I used the s20 Ultra. I'm sure you all know the problems it has so I won't go over them but the pictures I took were nowhere near what they should be for a phone that expensive! The phone itself was great, it had some amazing specs but it was such a overkill for what I need out of my phone. I usually just take photos, edit them and do social media on my phone, I'm not into mobile games or anything like that so nothing about that phone justified the price for me.
So after using it for a few weeks I returned it and picked up a new 128gb Pixel 4 XL that was on sale for $599. I've heard the hype of pixel cameras so I figured at that price it was worth a try and holy smokes!! I was instantly impressed with not just the camera, which is amazing btw, but with the phone itself! Even with a spec sheet that is nowhere close to a s20 ultra it still does everything with ease. Editing RAW photos in Lightroom mobile is probably one of the heaviest RAM consuming things I do on a phone and the pixel didn't lag or run slow a bit. But even using the phone for every day things like running and switching through apps is seamless. I was a little worried about battery life cause I've heard all the horror stories and while it's not near as long of a battery life as the Ultra, it still gets me through my day just fine, with usually 30% or more left when I charge it up at night. Now the camera really surprised me! I've been so used to Samsung cameras that I forgot how much they can oversaturate and oversharpen pictures. I'm also really impressed with the Pixels low light pictures! I might actually leave my DSLR at home more often now. I do wish they had a manual mode in the camera but I really only used that for night pictures with my samsungs and I didn't use it that often. But the option would be nice to have.
After using Samsung phones for as long as I can remember there's things the Pixel 4 XL has that I really missed about smartphones. A flat screen is one of those things. The edge screens on Samsungs are nice but finding a decent priced glass screen protector for it was impossible. And as someone who uses a lot of Google Home products like the Nest thermostat, home hub and a couple of nest minis, the pixel just flows more naturally with them. I also find myself using the squeeze feature to use the Google Assistant a lot more than I thought I would. In some cases it's just easier than saying Hey Google.
The only downsides to the phone for me are the lack of a fingerprint scanner and lack of a microSD card slot. I reallllly miss having a microSD card. I've never been a fan of using Google photos and organizing photos in a dedicated photo gallery app is just was easier imo. It literally took me over 48 hours to upload all the photos and 4k videos I had on my microSD card to Google photos and many more hours to organize them all. Having Samsungs secure folder is also something I miss, it was nice to have a secure place for things like logins and passwords.
So while many people may prefer the crazy impressive specs of the s20, I found that a so called "mid range" phone was actually way better...for me at least. For the things I need my phone to do, I found a $600 phone did it just as good, and in the case of the camera, way better than a $1400 phone.
So after using it for a few weeks I returned it and picked up a new 128gb Pixel 4 XL that was on sale for $599. I've heard the hype of pixel cameras so I figured at that price it was worth a try and holy smokes!! I was instantly impressed with not just the camera, which is amazing btw, but with the phone itself! Even with a spec sheet that is nowhere close to a s20 ultra it still does everything with ease. Editing RAW photos in Lightroom mobile is probably one of the heaviest RAM consuming things I do on a phone and the pixel didn't lag or run slow a bit. But even using the phone for every day things like running and switching through apps is seamless. I was a little worried about battery life cause I've heard all the horror stories and while it's not near as long of a battery life as the Ultra, it still gets me through my day just fine, with usually 30% or more left when I charge it up at night. Now the camera really surprised me! I've been so used to Samsung cameras that I forgot how much they can oversaturate and oversharpen pictures. I'm also really impressed with the Pixels low light pictures! I might actually leave my DSLR at home more often now. I do wish they had a manual mode in the camera but I really only used that for night pictures with my samsungs and I didn't use it that often. But the option would be nice to have.
After using Samsung phones for as long as I can remember there's things the Pixel 4 XL has that I really missed about smartphones. A flat screen is one of those things. The edge screens on Samsungs are nice but finding a decent priced glass screen protector for it was impossible. And as someone who uses a lot of Google Home products like the Nest thermostat, home hub and a couple of nest minis, the pixel just flows more naturally with them. I also find myself using the squeeze feature to use the Google Assistant a lot more than I thought I would. In some cases it's just easier than saying Hey Google.
The only downsides to the phone for me are the lack of a fingerprint scanner and lack of a microSD card slot. I reallllly miss having a microSD card. I've never been a fan of using Google photos and organizing photos in a dedicated photo gallery app is just was easier imo. It literally took me over 48 hours to upload all the photos and 4k videos I had on my microSD card to Google photos and many more hours to organize them all. Having Samsungs secure folder is also something I miss, it was nice to have a secure place for things like logins and passwords.
So while many people may prefer the crazy impressive specs of the s20, I found that a so called "mid range" phone was actually way better...for me at least. For the things I need my phone to do, I found a $600 phone did it just as good, and in the case of the camera, way better than a $1400 phone.
. Seems I got my first digital in 2001.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram