"Why get it?"

[EMGSM]

I know some don't like it, but the dongle suits me just fine and the beauty is there are better dongles available

I just use the included ear buds. I'm fine with those

 

[chezm]

Ugh, i was a firm believer in wired>wireless and nothing would ever change my mind. yes, the best headphones out there with the best sound are wired (supported DAC esp)...but the convenience of wireless made me realize for some music listening and such its fine. Plus, if i wanted to listen to the highest audio quality it wouldnt be through my phone...i use my home recording studio.

 

[chanchan05]

Ugh, i was a firm believer in wired>wireless and nothing would ever change my mind. yes, the best headphones out there with the best sound are wired (supported DAC esp)...but the convenience of wireless made me realize for some music listening and such its fine. Plus, if i wanted to listen to the highest audio quality it wouldnt be through my phone...i use my home recording studio.

Yup convenience is a huge thing with bluetooth, especially the bit having two devices connected to the headset. I mean I could be watching something on my tablet with bluetooth headset, but a phone call comes in, and I can take it on the headset and Netflix auto pauses with the only action I take is pressing the call button on the headset. No need to stand up or anything.

 

[Almeuit]

I have been Bluetooth for years. I am not an audiophile so a nice pair of BT headsets and I am good to go. The convenience is just unmatched versus having a cord.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Honestly I follow the Pixel line for the cameras and purity of the Android experience. Past Android experiences were bloated and mucky in regards to added baggage.

 

[Mike Dee]

I have been Bluetooth for years. I am not an audiophile so a nice pair of BT headsets and I am good to go. The convenience is just unmatched versus having a cord.

This difference is becoming less substantial even if you know what to listen for. The best Bluetooth protocol is LDAC but it's limited because it's Sony proprietary, and not available even on all of their own headphones. Also requires Android 8.0 minimum. I wish they would add it to their buds. That's not to say that some of the other Bluetooth protocols are all that shabby.

 

[gustavomc]

i'd like to have it.

 

[Mike Dee]

Honestly I follow the Pixel line for the cameras and purity of the Android experience. Past Android experiences were bloated and mucky in regards to added baggage.

I think sometime around Marshmallow things got better provided you had a decent specked device.

 

[chanchan05]

I think sometime around Marshmallow things got better provided you had a decent specked device.

Yup. That's when things turned around for most. Especially Samsung. That was the point where they offloaded a lot of stuff from TouchWiz, started calling it Samsung Experience, and instead of having the features built in, SE was just a framework where apps needed to be installed on, like the Play Services framework. Then several apps were detached as well. You can now install apps like Samsung Health or the Samsung Browser on other non Samsung phones. Heck, Samsung Browser is built on Chromium, and the current Samsung Messages app is based on a slightly older version of Android Messages, and they just announced an upcoming Samsung Messages update that was made in partnership with Google to make it compatible with Google Messages RCS.
Hopefully this increasing friendliness between Google and Samsung reaches to a point where an future Pixel device would be made by Samsung.
I think it's Huawei's UI that's the heaviest nowadays, or Xiaomi's.

 

[jfs101]

To be honest, I'm sick and tired of not getting updates in a decent amount of time. That's why I would consider a Pixel device.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: "Why get it?"

The camera and fast updates are the reasons I can see to get the Pixel line of phones.

The camera on the Pixel 3 are excellent, but only marginally better (if at all) than the Pixel 2. Still photo imagery is still great on the Pixel, however some of the features are quite poorly implemented. Top shot sounds good and works well, but the images it takes are such pathetic quality that I find them unusable. They're 1mb photo size and look like a photo sent over SMS or something. The sound on video recording is also absolutely abhorrent. Sounds distant, tinny and lacks volume. Hope both these things get fixed with updates.

The phone gets fast security and OS updates, which is always nice, but even then, I now have reservations. While I loved the Pixel UI back on Android 7.0 and 8.0, but on Android 9.0 with this new half-gesture, half-button UI to me is really quite bad, and I don't like how Google didn't allow the traditional layout, even if they were to bury in developer settings. The new gesture system is much slower to navigate than the previous method. It's clunky, cumbersome and imo looks worse as well because it's lop-sided now. So now I'm not confident the changes Google are making to android are necessarily good.

So back to the question, 'why buy it'? It's got a great camera, and if that is the most important thing to you, then it could be a great phone for you. Otherwise, you get much better bang for your buck with other phones. Better designs, better hardware, better specs, much better battery life (I'm very disappointed with the Pixel 3 XL battery life, it's even worse than the Pixel 2 XL I had) and at cheaper prices.

Honestly, I think unless you're an extreme Google/Pixel fan or you must have the best camera, I think other phones are better overall devices for consumers. I find this is the Pixel 2 XL just with a much, much better screen and a worse UI. I find it hard to justify buying this phone.

 

[anon(10092459)]

Re: "Why get it?"

Honestly, I think unless you're an extreme Google/Pixel fan or you must have the best camera, I think other phones are better overall devices for consumers.

You know, I don't necessarily disagree with that. I think more general consumers should give more thought to their purchases to begin with.

One of the more thorough reviews that I read on the Pixel 3 pretty much reflect you exact thoughts. If anyone cares to read, I'll post the link below. Fair warning, it's a lot of words at 10 sections and covers the regular Pixel 3 (not the XL), but I found it to be complete and fair.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13474/the-google-pixel-3-review

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: "Why get it?"

You know, I don't necessarily disagree with that. I think more general consumers should give more thought to their purchases to begin with.

One of the more thorough reviews that I read on the Pixel 3 pretty much reflect you exact thoughts. If anyone cares to read, I'll post the link below. Fair warning, it's a lot of words at 10 sections and covers the regular Pixel 3 (not the XL), but I found it to be complete and fair.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13474/the-google-pixel-3-review

That was quite a long review, but very thorough and I'd agree with a lot of it.

 

[anon(10092459)]

Re: "Why get it?"

That was quite a long review, but very thorough and I'd agree with a lot of it.

Indeed. I think we need more comprensive reviews like that. Too many reviews aren't thorough to that degree and don't offer much insight to the consumer. However, I feel that one does.

You and I have had different points of view about the device in the past, but I actually believe now that we have both been pointing in the same direction, but through different lenses. I say that because I actually agree with that review in a lot of ways as well. The Pixel 3 isn't above criticism, but it should be well thought out and laid out in a way that's without too much emotion or personal bias (looking at you, Ron).

I agree with the conclusion of your post, as well as the conclusion of that specific review. Right now, the Pixel experience isn't for everyone. IMO, the user case for a high amount of utility, at this point in the brand at least, is more specific than a lot of people may actually perceive.

 

[chezm]

I'd like to add some more items to my list as I've had it for a week

Topshot
Haptic
Overall pixel 3 (not xl) design
Speed

 

[EMGSM]

Re: "Why get it?"

The camera and fast updates are the reasons I can see to get the Pixel line of phones.

These are the reasons I went with the Pixel line.

 

[gebco]

I was a BlackBerry user for the security, first BBOS, then BB10, then BB Android for the promise of monthly updates. When they decided not to produce a slab after the Motion, I chose the Pixel 2XL purposely for the monthly security updates. The really great camera is a real bonus. I almost got a Samsung but they are slow on the updates.

 

[SteelGator]

I was a BlackBerry user for the security, first BBOS, then BB10, then BB Android for the promise of monthly updates. When they decided not to produce a slab after the Motion, I chose the Pixel 2XL purposely for the monthly security updates. The really great camera is a real bonus. I almost got a Samsung but they are slow on the updates.

I miss BlackBerry -- their handling of email still has not been surpassed. They were my favorite devices for so long. I was even suckered into liking the Storm. I did like the pressable screen, but they just fell so far behind on the other apps.

 

[gebco]

I miss BlackBerry -- their handling of email still has not been surpassed. They were my favorite devices for so long. I was even suckered into liking the Storm. I did like the pressable screen, but they just fell so far behind on the other apps.

I had the Storm 2. Surepress was pretty good. I had the apps I wanted at the time: weather, sports, games. When BB10 came, even though the big app companies didn't make apps for the platform, that came along later with the Android runtime. The nice thing with BB10 is that lots is already baked in and you don't NEED as many system level apps. It was like a beautiful middle ground between Android and iOS.
In some ways the Pixel feels like a step backwards. But for email I use the BlackBerry Hub, which works pretty well.

 

[SteelGator]

In some ways the Pixel feels like a step backwards. But for email I use the BlackBerry Hub, which works pretty well.

I'm locked into AirWatch for my company email, which is what sucks the most. BB Hub is not an option for us.

I gave up after a year the Storm 2. The allure of the app store was too much. I moved to Android then, I never cared for iOS.