It wasn't long ago that I found myself among the Apple faithful. MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPod, I had it all. But when my iPhone 7+ was knocking on death's door, I had a choice to make. Apple had just released the iPhone 8 line and the iPhone X was around the corner.
On the other hand, Google had just launched the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones, and their feature set certainly caught my eye. My carrier had a good deal running at the time, so I bit the bullet and jumped ship to the Pixel 2 XL. After a few months of use, here's what I've found.
Early reviews gave high marks to the camera performance and the phone does not disappoint. Still, photos are among the best a smartphone has to offer and the video performance is outstanding. Audio recording quality isn't as good as an iPhone's in all honesty, but it's certainly nothing to scoff at.
Battery life has been fantastic as well. As a heavy phone user, I still find myself getting a full day's use out of my phone off of a single charge. Coupled with the fast charging over the USB-C connector, refueling is never an issue.
The Pixel 2 XL's display was the topic of much criticism, as it seemed like quality-control issues left many owners with faulty displays. While I'm not discounting the numerous reports of bad displays on other units, I can happily report that my unit was free of any noticeable issues and has been nothing short of great.
The draw of Nexus and Pixel devices is that they receive Google's software updates almost as soon as they hit the public. This means a quick turnaround on bug fixes, new features, etc. On any given Sunday, this would sound like a good thing.
Unfortunately, I've found numerous bugs and glitches that have impacted my phone use. To Google's credit, most of these are addressed and rectified within weeks of the first reports. However, when you spend a month with shoddy Wi-Fi performance and the fix is only marginal at best, it's hard to be completely satisfied.
Along those lines is the Google Photos app and "service." Google offers Pixel owners two years of unlimited photo and video storage on their own cloud, but compared to the unlimited storage they used to offer, it feels like the rug was pulled out from under us. We'll have to see what happens come 2020.
There's also still no solid competitor to Apple's iMessage messaging service, which is something I sorely miss.
It hasn't been a perfect ride, but months later I find myself with no regrets. It can be hard to break free from Apple's stranglehold, but it can be done and it isn't as painful as it seems. All you really need is a Gmail account and to sync your photos, contacts and calendar events to it.
New phones are released every year from a variety of manufacturers. Whether you stay loyal to one brand or decide to branch out to another is up to you. At this point in the game, there's really no bad choice.
