Upgrade from Pixel 3XL to Pixel 5

[jskinvest]

I have a Pixel 3XL and it it is running great no issues very happy with it. I am looking for a reason though to upgrade to the Pixel 5 when it comes out. Here are two reasons holding me back: smaller screen, only a mid range processor (765G). Given the leaked specs I am looking for reasons to switch and any reasons opinions and insights are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Rukbat]

I have a 2 (not even a 2XL) and I still haven't seen a reason to upgrade. (The camera app is about the only thing that's been improved, and I'm running the latest one, so I can take the same pictures as the 4.) I hope they'll give us a reason by the 6, or I'm stuck on Android 11 for a few more years.

 

[kenorian]

I have a 2 (not even a 2XL) and I still haven't seen a reason to upgrade. (The camera app is about the only thing that's been improved, and I'm running the latest one, so I can take the same pictures as the 4.) I hope they'll give us a reason by the 6, or I'm stuck on Android 11 for a few more years.

Ever since the Treo days, through Blackberry days Nexus days and Pixel days, I've always gotten a new phone every year. Still with the Pixel 3XL, and.... I'm still thinking about what it doesn't do that I want it to. Plus, back in may, my phone took a swim in the ocean (long sad story). Fortunately I had purchase the extended care thing. So, the next day I got a replacement phone with a brand new battery. Maybe I'm getting older, but I don't have to impress anyone any more, and the 3XL is just so tuned up the way I like it (takes a full day to bring everything back to status quo). Always pre-ordered whatever Google came out with (except the 4 series). Probably will go to the 5, but certainly not paying top dollar out of the gate.

 

[Jeremy8000]

I have a Pixel 3XL and it it is running great no issues very happy with it. I am looking for a reason though to upgrade to the Pixel 5 when it comes out. Here are two reasons holding me back: smaller screen, only a mid range processor (765G). Given the leaked specs I am looking for reasons to switch and any reasons opinions and insights are appreciated. Thanks.

I had a 2 XL and didn't see substantive enough improvements to warrant upgrading to the 3 XL (this having been an upgrader virtually every year, from Nexus 4->5->6->Pixel->Pixel 2, only skipping the 6P). Was incredibly fortunate and won a 3 XL in a drawing, so am using that now. The 4 came along, again no huge upgrades (would have been a bit more tempting had I still been using the 2 XL).

With the 5 imminent, I'm in a slightly different position.

YMMV, but my 3 XL's battery was much worse for the wear at the one-year mark than any other Nexus/Pixel I've owned, and coming up at 2 years is at about 34% battery health. While I know I could get a new battery installed for about $90, that seems likely to be a poor investment in a device is approaching end-of-support and is well outside its warranty.

Aside from battery life, a few things that appeal to me on the 5 include the dedicated wide angle lens, higher refresh rate display, eradication of the notch, and - perhaps most of all - 5g compatibility. Being a T-Mo user, while I'm not anticipating greatly enhanced speeds in the near future, from what I'm reading, the potential for relevant coverage enhancement (both geographic and in-building) are being realized much more quickly.

I'll probably upgrade, though candidly may be as or more likely to go with the 5aXL as with the 5.

 

[jskinvest]

All good points Jeremy. I too have horrible battery life now on the Pixel 3Xl so maybe the less power hungry 765G on the Pixel 5 will be a benefit in that area. I also would prefer the 90 hz display and the hole cutout instead of the notch. However I would rather have the wide angle lense in front instead of back for selfies, but I am willing to sacrifice that in favor of losing the notch. My main concern though is display size so I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it looks and feels for myself when it comes out.

 

[Jeremy8000]

Being a T-Mo user, while I'm not anticipating greatly enhanced speeds in the near future, from what I'm reading, the potential for relevant coverage enhancement (both geographic and in-building) are being realized much more quickly.

Perhaps I spoke too soon... Watched a S20 5G hit 200Mbps on T-Mo side by side with my 3XL hitting 25Mpbs.

 

[HyperM3]

My main concern is whether to trade my 3xl and get their assumed $168(but guaranteed), or try to sell it on swappa like everyone else for another hundred over that and hope I eventually sell it.

 

[Mike Dee]

My main concern is whether to trade my 3xl and get their assumed $168(but guaranteed), or try to sell it on swappa like everyone else for another hundred over that and hope I eventually sell it.

You're probably looking more relistically at low 200s unless you're packing a bunch of accessories with it. By the time you get done with shipping insurance and fees you might be closer to trade in value. It doesn't cost you anything to try though.

 

[HyperM3]

You're probably looking more relistically at low 200s unless you're packing a bunch of accessories with it. By the time you get done with shipping insurance and fees you might be closer to trade in value. It doesn't cost you anything to try though.

Thats what I figured and why the money google is offering is fair for not having any hassle dealing with a seller. Plus if I dont like the 5 I can just send it back and keep my 3XL.

 

[swebb]

YMMV, but my 3 XL's battery was much worse for the wear at the one-year mark than any other Nexus/Pixel I've owned, and coming up at 2 years is at about 34% battery health.

I've had the same experience, though not quite as severe. Was fortunate to have Google replace my original P3XL for this issue at about the 1 year mark. Can't imagine what the battery health would have been on a 2 year battery. It's a big factor in my decision whether to get a P5.

I have settled in to getting a new phone every 2-3 years. Used to upgrade every year, but new features don't seem to be as compelling as they used to be. Plus the costs of new phones have gone way up since the days of the Nexus 5. It will be a different experience going down in overall size. Every other phone I've upgraded to has been larger.

 

[SupraLB]

I'll be upgrading from my 3XL. I skipped the 4 because of lack of FPS and no wide angle lens. Those are now featured. Another important issue was the RAM, stuck at 4mb on my 3xl. Getting tired of every app refreshing while multitasking. The 8mb of ram on the 5 will help greatly.

As far as screen size, I don't think the 5's usable screen is much smaller than the 3xl (with its huge notch). It would be nice to see them measured side by side.

 

[Lepa79]

I'll be upgrading from my 3XL. I skipped the 4 because of lack of FPS and no wide angle lens. Those are now featured. Another important issue was the RAM, stuck at 4mb on my 3xl. Getting tired of every app refreshing while multitasking. The 8mb of ram on the 5 will help greatly.

As far as screen size, I don't think the 5's usable screen is much smaller than the 3xl (with its huge notch). It would be nice to see them measured side by side.

Pixel 5 is much shorter and narrower too. Definitely a smaller phone, you will notice it coming from pixel 3 xl.

Image below and here is the link for the size comparison https://j.mp/3ncs4Ad

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm tempted, but what keeps me with my Pixel 3 XL is the continued free Original Quality Google Photos uploads through January 2022. Really wish Google would bring that back for the current models!

 

[mustang7757]

I'm tempted, but what keeps me with my Pixel 3 XL is the continued free Original Quality Google Photos uploads through January 2022. Really wish Google would bring that back for the current models!

That would be cool

 

[SupraLB]

Pixel 5 is much shorter and narrower too. Definitely a smaller phone, you will notice it coming from pixel 3 xl.

Image below and here is the link for the size comparison https://j.mp/3ncs4AdView attachment 327276

Thanks for the visual!

The big notch on the 3XL makes so much screen unusable, they really should only count the usable area below the notch for screen size. Both the left and right side of the notch go dark in full screen or camera mode.

Useable area doesn't appear significantly different, but the form factor is much smaller on the 5. I'll be happy to finally have a smaller phone for easier typing/holding.

 

[mustang7757]

Looks on small side the phone , maybe pixel 3a size ?

 

[J Dubbs]

I had a 2 XL and didn't see substantive enough improvements to warrant upgrading to the 3 XL (this having been an upgrader virtually every year, from Nexus 4->5->6->Pixel->Pixel 2, only skipping the 6P). Was incredibly fortunate and won a 3 XL in a drawing, so am using that now. The 4 came along, again no huge upgrades (would have been a bit more tempting had I still been using the 2 XL).

With the 5 imminent, I'm in a slightly different position.

YMMV, but my 3 XL's battery was much worse for the wear at the one-year mark than any other Nexus/Pixel I've owned, and coming up at 2 years is at about 34% battery health. While I know I could get a new battery installed for about $90, that seems likely to be a poor investment in a device is approaching end-of-support and is well outside its warranty.

Aside from battery life, a few things that appeal to me on the 5 include the dedicated wide angle lens, higher refresh rate display, eradication of the notch, and - perhaps most of all - 5g compatibility. Being a T-Mo user, while I'm not anticipating greatly enhanced speeds in the near future, from what I'm reading, the potential for relevant coverage enhancement (both geographic and in-building) are being realized much more quickly.

I'll probably upgrade, though candidly may be as or more likely to go with the 5aXL as with the 5.

Yep when you keep your phones longer things like future proofing with 5G become much more important. That's why I'll probably pick up a 5 when the prices come down.

 

[Jeremy8000]

So, being in desperate need to replace my Pixel 3 XL due to the battery being essentially dead and not wanting to invest $100 into replacing the battery of a phone that would, in accordance with Murphy's law, have some other failure immediately thereafter since it is out of warranty.....

I was very much torn between the S20 FE and the Pixel 5.

I considered that the FE has a faster processor (though the 5 would be comparable to my current - and completely fine - experience), a better (120 vs 90 Hz) and larger display, expandable memory (though 128GB onboard on either should be sufficient), faster storage, DEX (seems interesting), and a few other things. Also reports that the bloat is far, far less than it used to be, and Samsung is providing for OS updates for the full term that I would realistically own the phone.

I considered that the Pixel 5 would likely still offer better 'everyday' photos, faster updates, slightly more ram (8GB vs 6GB), smaller form factor while still offering similar display size to my current device, no learning curve for features, and a simple it-just-works interface.

In the end I went with the S20 FE for the deciding factor that I was effectively able to get it for free after trade-in, where the Pixel 5 would have cost me about $500.

That being said, here are my thoughts after a few days with the S20 FE:

• Display is drop-dead gorgeous and extremely bright. At 6.5" it's noticeably larger than the 3 XL, which I like, though I wouldn't have minded the more comparably sized display in the much more pocketable body of the Pixel 5
• Battery life is staggeringly good - 8 hours screen time. Of course, my impression is partly influenced by how bad my 3 XL battery had grown - the Pixel 5 might easily compare to the S20 FE given the lesser demand of a 90Hz panel and greater efficiency of the 765G
• Bloat isn't that bad on the Samsung, but the UI will take some time getting used to.
• No support for multiple user accounts. This is something I enjoyed on the Pixels - setting a separate personal and work profile (Pixels support up to 5). Samsung blocks this Android feature, though does have a "Secure" folder that can accommodate separate app profiles (only 1 though)
• Under-display FPS. It's quick, and works ok most of the time, but not nearly to the degree the rear FPS did on the Pixel 3 XL (and to which it would presumably work on the Pixel 5) which also accommodated more images. I had the 3 XL set up for thumb, fore- and middle-finger on either hand. Can't do that on the S20 FE.
• Samsung Pay - haven't run into a scenario where I could use the MST since virtually every terminal these days requires a chip, so while that might be nice, it seems to be obsolescent. As far as NFC goes, it's slower than Google Pay.
• Camera. S20 FE camera is very good. Had I not been coming from the Pixel 3 XL, I'd say great. I don't know that I'd complain about the quality (other than night shots, which are markedly inferior), but generally speaking they are a qualitative step down.
• 5G. I'm guessing this will be comparable with the Pixel 5, but in comparison to the 3 XL... LTE speed is similar, but connecting to the low-band 5G in Charleston, SC (we don't have midband yet, nor of course mm-wave) is an eye-opener. Many places it is of similar speed, while others it is dramatically faster (top 5G I've clocked is 152Mbps, vs my historical best of about 50Mbps on LTE). Bigger difference is in coverage, though. There are areas where I'm getting usable 5G coverage with 20-40Mbps in locations where the Pixel 3 XL might show the LTE symbol but would time out trying to load even a simple page. Naturally towers near my home haven't yet been fitted with 5G, but looking forward to that in (hopefully) the near future.
• Gorilla Glass 3 should be fine, While the Pixel 5 sports Gorilla Glass 6, the GG3 on the S20 FE should be fine.
• 3-button navigation... After finally getting used to gesture navigation, it's back to this. Not a big deal as it works just fine, but felt a bit funny. At least it shouldn't take too long to adapt.

So do I now pile on hate on the Pixel 5, being converted by the spec majesty of Samsung? Do I mourn my decision to betray the purity of the Pixel? I feel like I'm supposed to do one of these, but the truth is that I find there's a lot of nice things about the Samsung that the Pixel might not afford, but at the expense of the simplicity of using the Pixels.

With my preconception of what using the Pixel 5 would be like and initial experience using the S20 FE, I'm happy with the S20 FE given the pricing advantage it gave me. If there were no cost difference, I would definitely prefer the Pixel for familiarity, and in fact would probably have spent an additional $100 towards it it it were an option, but attribute that to saving myself the trouble of adapting to a new system. In any event, the pricing of both are very, very reasonable imo, with neither being inherently better or worse values until viewed through the lens of what features one personally values more.

Edit - On the bright side, based on past experience... in 2 years when I look to upgrade again, Google will probably offer me a much higher trade-in value on a Samsung product than on one of their own.

 

[bkdodger2]

So, being in desperate need to replace my Pixel 3 XL due to the battery being essentially dead and not wanting to invest $100 into replacing the battery of a phone that would, in accordance with Murphy's law, have some other failure immediately thereafter since it is out of warranty.....

I was very much torn between the S20 FE and the Pixel 5.

I considered that the FE has a faster processor (though the 5 would be comparable to my current - and completely fine - experience), a better (120 vs 90 Hz) and larger display, expandable memory (though 128GB onboard on either should be sufficient), faster storage, DEX (seems interesting), and a few other things. Also reports that the bloat is far, far less than it used to be, and Samsung is providing for OS updates for the full term that I would realistically own the phone.

I considered that the Pixel 5 would likely still offer better 'everyday' photos, faster updates, slightly more ram (8GB vs 6GB), smaller form factor while still offering similar display size to my current device, no learning curve for features, and a simple it-just-works interface.

In the end I went with the S20 FE for the deciding factor that I was effectively able to get it for free after trade-in, where the Pixel 5 would have cost me about $500.

That being said, here are my thoughts after a few days with the S20 FE:

• Display is drop-dead gorgeous and extremely bright. At 6.5" it's noticeably larger than the 3 XL, which I like, though I wouldn't have minded the more comparably sized display in the much more pocketable body of the Pixel 5
• Battery life is staggeringly good - 8 hours screen time. Of course, my impression is partly influenced by how bad my 3 XL battery had grown - the Pixel 5 might easily compare to the S20 FE given the lesser demand of a 90Hz panel and greater efficiency of the 765G
• Bloat isn't that bad on the Samsung, but the UI will take some time getting used to.
• No support for multiple user accounts. This is something I enjoyed on the Pixels - setting a separate personal and work profile (Pixels support up to 5). Samsung blocks this Android feature, though does have a "Secure" folder that can accommodate separate app profiles (only 1 though)
• Under-display FPS. It's quick, and works ok most of the time, but not nearly to the degree the rear FPS did on the Pixel 3 XL (and to which it would presumably work on the Pixel 5) which also accommodated more images. I had the 3 XL set up for thumb, fore- and middle-finger on either hand. Can't do that on the S20 FE.
• Samsung Pay - haven't run into a scenario where I could use the MST since virtually every terminal these days requires a chip, so while that might be nice, it seems to be obsolescent. As far as NFC goes, it's slower than Google Pay.
• Camera. S20 FE camera is very good. Had I not been coming from the Pixel 3 XL, I'd say great. I don't know that I'd complain about the quality (other than night shots, which are markedly inferior), but generally speaking they are a qualitative step down.
• 5G. I'm guessing this will be comparable with the Pixel 5, but in comparison to the 3 XL... LTE speed is similar, but connecting to the low-band 5G in Charleston, SC (we don't have midband yet, nor of course mm-wave) is an eye-opener. Many places it is of similar speed, while others it is dramatically faster (top 5G I've clocked is 152Mbps, vs my historical best of about 50Mbps on LTE). Bigger difference is in coverage, though. There are areas where I'm getting usable 5G coverage with 20-40Mbps in locations where the Pixel 3 XL might show the LTE symbol but would time out trying to load even a simple page. Naturally towers near my home haven't yet been fitted with 5G, but looking forward to that in (hopefully) the near future.
• Gorilla Glass 3 should be fine, While the Pixel 5 sports Gorilla Glass 6, the GG3 on the S20 FE should be fine.
• 3-button navigation... After finally getting used to gesture navigation, it's back to this. Not a big deal as it works just fine, but felt a bit funny. At least it shouldn't take too long to adapt.

So do I now pile on hate on the Pixel 5, being converted by the spec majesty of Samsung? Do I mourn my decision to betray the purity of the Pixel? I feel like I'm supposed to do one of these, but the truth is that I find there's a lot of nice things about the Samsung that the Pixel might not afford, but at the expense of the simplicity of using the Pixels.

With my preconception of what using the Pixel 5 would be like and initial experience using the S20 FE, I'm happy with the S20 FE given the pricing advantage it gave me. If there were no cost difference, I would definitely prefer the Pixel for familiarity, and in fact would probably have spent an additional $100 towards it it it were an option, but attribute that to saving myself the trouble of adapting to a new system. In any event, the pricing of both are very, very reasonable imo, with neither being inherently better or worse values until viewed through the lens of what features one personally values more.

Edit - On the bright side, based on past experience... in 2 years when I look to upgrade again, Google will probably offer me a much higher trade-in value on a Samsung product than on one of their own.

Excellent .. you will be happy with the choice..

 

[SupraLB]

So, being in desperate need to replace my Pixel 3 XL due to the battery being essentially dead and not wanting to invest $100 into replacing the battery of a phone that would, in accordance with Murphy's law, have some other failure immediately thereafter since it is out of warranty.....

I was very much torn between the S20 FE and the Pixel 5.

I considered that the FE has a faster processor (though the 5 would be comparable to my current - and completely fine - experience), a better (120 vs 90 Hz) and larger display, expandable memory (though 128GB onboard on either should be sufficient), faster storage, DEX (seems interesting), and a few other things. Also reports that the bloat is far, far less than it used to be, and Samsung is providing for OS updates for the full term that I would realistically own the phone.

I considered that the Pixel 5 would likely still offer better 'everyday' photos, faster updates, slightly more ram (8GB vs 6GB), smaller form factor while still offering similar display size to my current device, no learning curve for features, and a simple it-just-works interface.

In the end I went with the S20 FE for the deciding factor that I was effectively able to get it for free after trade-in, where the Pixel 5 would have cost me about $500.

That being said, here are my thoughts after a few days with the S20 FE:

• Display is drop-dead gorgeous and extremely bright. At 6.5" it's noticeably larger than the 3 XL, which I like, though I wouldn't have minded the more comparably sized display in the much more pocketable body of the Pixel 5
• Battery life is staggeringly good - 8 hours screen time. Of course, my impression is partly influenced by how bad my 3 XL battery had grown - the Pixel 5 might easily compare to the S20 FE given the lesser demand of a 90Hz panel and greater efficiency of the 765G
• Bloat isn't that bad on the Samsung, but the UI will take some time getting used to.
• No support for multiple user accounts. This is something I enjoyed on the Pixels - setting a separate personal and work profile (Pixels support up to 5). Samsung blocks this Android feature, though does have a "Secure" folder that can accommodate separate app profiles (only 1 though)
• Under-display FPS. It's quick, and works ok most of the time, but not nearly to the degree the rear FPS did on the Pixel 3 XL (and to which it would presumably work on the Pixel 5) which also accommodated more images. I had the 3 XL set up for thumb, fore- and middle-finger on either hand. Can't do that on the S20 FE.
• Samsung Pay - haven't run into a scenario where I could use the MST since virtually every terminal these days requires a chip, so while that might be nice, it seems to be obsolescent. As far as NFC goes, it's slower than Google Pay.
• Camera. S20 FE camera is very good. Had I not been coming from the Pixel 3 XL, I'd say great. I don't know that I'd complain about the quality (other than night shots, which are markedly inferior), but generally speaking they are a qualitative step down.
• 5G. I'm guessing this will be comparable with the Pixel 5, but in comparison to the 3 XL... LTE speed is similar, but connecting to the low-band 5G in Charleston, SC (we don't have midband yet, nor of course mm-wave) is an eye-opener. Many places it is of similar speed, while others it is dramatically faster (top 5G I've clocked is 152Mbps, vs my historical best of about 50Mbps on LTE). Bigger difference is in coverage, though. There are areas where I'm getting usable 5G coverage with 20-40Mbps in locations where the Pixel 3 XL might show the LTE symbol but would time out trying to load even a simple page. Naturally towers near my home haven't yet been fitted with 5G, but looking forward to that in (hopefully) the near future.
• Gorilla Glass 3 should be fine, While the Pixel 5 sports Gorilla Glass 6, the GG3 on the S20 FE should be fine.
• 3-button navigation... After finally getting used to gesture navigation, it's back to this. Not a big deal as it works just fine, but felt a bit funny. At least it shouldn't take too long to adapt.

So do I now pile on hate on the Pixel 5, being converted by the spec majesty of Samsung? Do I mourn my decision to betray the purity of the Pixel? I feel like I'm supposed to do one of these, but the truth is that I find there's a lot of nice things about the Samsung that the Pixel might not afford, but at the expense of the simplicity of using the Pixels.

With my preconception of what using the Pixel 5 would be like and initial experience using the S20 FE, I'm happy with the S20 FE given the pricing advantage it gave me. If there were no cost difference, I would definitely prefer the Pixel for familiarity, and in fact would probably have spent an additional $100 towards it it it were an option, but attribute that to saving myself the trouble of adapting to a new system. In any event, the pricing of both are very, very reasonable imo, with neither being inherently better or worse values until viewed through the lens of what features one personally values more.

Edit - On the bright side, based on past experience... in 2 years when I look to upgrade again, Google will probably offer me a much higher trade-in value on a Samsung product than on one of their own.

No import the Google Camera APP software, and see if that give you best of both worlds. The gap might negligible this year with the Pixel 5 not including the Nueral Core chip.