If I buy the best that either company has to offer (Pixel 8 pro or S23 Ultra)
Which one, in your opinion, would be the best Android experience and why? Would love to know your thoughts.
Never buy Samsung, full of proprietary trash bloat, and they crack down on people trying to get root access. Absolute no-go.
they don’t have much bloatware except preinstalled spotify, netflix and tiktok…
And adds literally built into basic system components…
i don’t see any ads on my phone?! (a52s)
(galaxy store is a notable exception (has a bit more ads than google play), but who cares about fucking galaxy store?!)I answered on another comment regarding ads in this thread to clarify what I define as an ad with that comment.
I’ve never seen an ad on a Samsung phone in any place that’s not a store. What are you on about?
The files app has built in ads to push OneDrive to the users. And yes it can be declared as advertising because you can’t remove that ad and because MS pays Samsung for it (or gives Samsung benefits for it inside Windows on Samsungs computers).
Besides that there are the same kind of ads in the settings app.
And there’s also many components of the OS that push the user into paying money like for fonts or for Always on Displays or lockscreens or whatever else. Those are not direct ads but you could declare them as auch because of the fact that a user gets pushed into micro payments for basic customization of their phone which for me personally is a no go, especially if you pay money for a flagship phone.
i won’t consider a tiny cloud icon in the corner an ad but whatever…
Is Bixby still a thing on new Samsung phones?
yes but it can be turned off. completely. go into settings and then deactivate.
won’t bother you. ever.if you have a phone with a bixby key there are numerous ways to remap it.
Too much at Spotify
The Pixel is the far superior product as far as I am concerned: Faster, more stable, no bloatware and the best camera around.
But, and this might be a big but for some, if you need repairs or service outside of insurance you are SOL. There’s not a lot of companies doing Pixel repairs and if they do the parts are insanely expensive. I needed a screen replace and it cost almost as much as the phone itself in parts and labour. And the end result is a screen that gets dirtier and a non-functioning fingerprint sensor. Not optimal.
Awesome phone, but pray you do not need service.
I’ve had so many problems with pixels it’s not even funny. Never had an issue with Samsung. I think Google makes poor quality devices.
Ah, also as a professional photographer I can promise you the cameras are better on Samsung devices.
Ah, also as a professional photographer I can promise you the cameras are better on Samsung devices.
Thanks your your feedback, that is interesting.
The one thing pixel is better at in my expeirence is the digital zoom, I can get insane detail at 20+ zoom levels that I could never even approximate with a Samsung.
Also, battery life on the 7 series is pretty bad. My old 3a had awesome battery life, but since then Google started making their own SoC. They still use some third-party chips which they don’t control, and it’s affecting power efficiency. I’ve heard rumors that they’re expected to have better control of power consumption around the 9 series.
All that being said, I love my Pixel 7a, but I frequently have to top it off to last me a full day. I can handle that, but if you don’t have access to a charger during the day I’d consider other options.
If you care about your privacy, and you should, get a pixel and install GrapheneOS.
Or get a pine phone and save $1000+
Idk what Pixel phone you’re buying that you’d save +1000$. You can get a pixel 6 pro for like 550$.
Pixels aren’t that expensive. And there are very good reasons why GrapheneOS only supports Pixel devices. Pixels are the only devices that have the proper hardware security features.
Any idea how long it will take (estimated) until you can install GrapheneOS on the upcoming devices after they’re released?
Either.
Both are programmed to harvest every single bit of information you input into it, including access other devices on your network if you use wifi.
Buy the one with the nicest camera I guess.
If you care about privacy, get a Pine phone.
Pixel with Graphene OS seems to be a good choice tbh.
Are the camera features still accessible? Or is it a downgrade on available hardware and software in exchange for privacy?
Pixel 8. No bloatware (except the Google bloat of course, but you can get rid of this easily), plus Google has now promised 7 years of updates - which is more than the iPhone. This would increase the resale value of the phone, and even if you don’t want to sell it, you could always give it to a family member or something after say 3-4 years of use, and they’d still get many years of official updates remaining. This is great for reducing e-waste whilst still maintaining a good security posture.
And if you’re privacy conscious, you could ditch the Google ecosystem completely and load GrapheneOS on it, and GrapheneOS is simple amazing in terms of privacy and security, and arguably has better battery life too (thanks to no Google bloatware running on it).
Yeah Pixel for similar reasons. Even when I paid for an expensive Samsung phone all the unremovable crap they’d loaded on made it feel like I was the product rather than the customer.
Have they fixed the 5G modem, fingerprint sensor, and overheating issues than the entire Pixel 6 and 7 lineups had?
I have a pixel 6 personal phone and a Samsung s21fe work phone and the software on the Samsung is garbage. Bloatware you can’t uninstall, weird default settings, “features” nobody wanted that I can’t disable, and more bloatware.
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If you like lots of customization options out of the box, then Samsung. If you like using a pen to write (or convert handwriting to text) or draw, then Samsung. If you want barebones Google and don’t want extra features or customizations, then Pixel. It depends what you like.
You should try both in person before deciding.
Pixel will have longer term support because of wide varieties of custom roms
This is a good point, as long as people make sure to buy versions with unlocked bootloaders.
Mine has an unlocked bootloader. I got it at Best buy unlocked
You’re mostly right, but I’m told that Pixels have features that no other Android phones have. So, in a way, Pixels also have “extra features.”
Plus for some people, “barebones” here is actually a good thing.
I have an S23 Ultra and it is a nice phone but I wouldn’t recommend Samsung to anyone because my last several Samsungs “mysteriously” got issues right before the 2 year plan ended. I won’t be getting another Samsung after this one. I really wanted the pen and it is great but I’m starting to care more about longevity.
I’m using the S10e which is 4.5 years old. Still strong. Too bad there is no small phones like it…
Maybe Asus Zenfone 10 is the way to go.
Pixel.
Oh, almost forgot, for those interested in giving buying advice, please check out our very own buying guide that we are making in the sticky post and contribute your input. Thanks.
Get a Pixel, install GrapheneOS.
Do apps requiring locked phones (Netflix, baking etc.) work?
Netflix you just can’t get from Google Play, but people report having no problem installing from Aurora (basically a Google Play store frontend).
I’m not sure how it works on Graphene as I personally just rooted my phone but didn’t take the plunge to Graphene, but there is a list of compatible banking apps here: https://privsec.dev/banking
I just installed Netflix directly from Google play, maybe it has changed 🤷♂️
It has changed yupyup. Used to be that you couldn’t do this, because play store and services wouldn’t run on the OS. Now you can.
Most do work, only apps that have stupid arbitrary Google SafetyNet requirements might have problems. It’s entirely the fault of Google though.
Not too sure how up-to-date or accurate this is, but I happened to come across this a few weeks ago and am sharing it again.
https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/
I’ve just recently switched from a Galaxy S10 to a Pixel 7 as I wanted to see the “vanilla” experience, as well as be closer to upstream for software updates. My S10 still works great, though the battery needs replacement (at the time, it had already broken the glue on the back glass and was still expanding – didn’t realize until I took it out of the case for cleaning)…
With my S10, I had to really fight to get it to let me use Google’s apps over the Samsung ones; which whole annoying is doable. So far, the only things I really miss from Samsung (and notably the UX):
- The sidebar/panel with an additional set of predefined apps
- Replaced with Panels
- The volume/silent switch in the notification shade
- The Bixby button (for custom actions)
- Physically smaller phone, but that’s not a huge deal
Overall, I’m happy with the experience so far; though I dunno if the “Pro” model of anything is really worth it.
Am not really sure what you mean by “had to really fight to get it to let me use Google’s apps”? I’ve been a Samsung user for years and I have never even once ran into situation where wrong application would start. Not only that, I started using Samsung’s Email application last year because GMail stopped downloading attachments, a known issue they never fixed.
Part of the difficulty may have also been because it was my first foray into Android… at the moment I don’t have a specific example, but I seem to remember setting defaults was straight-forward; but either they were not always respected by certain interaction prompts, or some similar behavior.
As for GMail, I’m also no longer using the app and instead have opted for Spark (personal mailboxes) & Outlook (exchange, work)…
- The sidebar/panel with an additional set of predefined apps
Samsung hardware is a lot higher quality, but the Pixel is cheaper. I’ve had to return a pixel to Google 5 times before so I don’t buy those any longer for myself.
Pixel 7 works perfectly for me. I like nearly all aspects of it. The camera is extremely good (I’ve recently made a comparison with iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone was far worse) and reliable. The battery life and performance is good. The phone feels smooth, without a lot of bugs. I don’t have a recent experience with Samsung, but I will stick with Pixel going forward.
