I really haven't had a lot of time to do much with it except get my usual suite of apps installed.
It's been raining and cold here, so I haven't been out taking any pictures with it yet.
Here are the three I took on my morning commute the other day.
They were taken just at sunrise (sun rising on the left out of view). It's amazing how much detail is in the shadows along the river. Normally that stuff is just all black. It's striking how it stands out.
I hate to say this. It's almost like complaining that my Chocolate Mint Ice Cream is too chocolaty and too minty, but those pictures almost look unnatural. I mean, it was still pretty dark when those were taken, but to look a them, you'd think it was mid-morning. They really don't convey the 'Sunrise' time of day that I took the pictures.
I can't wait for a nice bright sunny day to take some bright, outdoor pictures to see how those look.
I took a couple of pictures at our office Halloween party on Friday. The picture below was taken in a large warehouse type of space that was only lit by small portable lights placed around the room (no overhead lighting at all). It was pretty dark inside, at least until your eyes adjusted.
You would think looking at this picture that there was some kind of overhead lighting. Again, it almost seems unnatural looking to me.
I suspect this low light enhancement is awesome for straight up night shots, or indoors where lighting is poor and you want the extra detail (i.e a nightclub, or other dark place). However, like in the case with my sunrise photos, it seems like it took something away from the picture. It's hard to explain.
As far as general use, the phone is awesome. The hardware feels great in your hand, the screen is beautiful. The size is perfect (I got the smaller 5" screen - plenty big enough for me, and still easily fits in a pocket). Android 7.1 has some awesome improvements (app drawer access, and notification bar pull downs are the obvious ones). I haven't really delved into any other features yet.
I run quite a few apps that are constantly running as background services for notifications. I am never far from a charger, so I haven't noticed any battery life issues. It doesn't seem like it's any better or worse than my G5 was. Just glancing at the 'battery usage' screen in settings, the screen is the biggest consumer of power (no surprise). Next is "Android System".
One excellent feature is the USB "C" charger/data port. No more trying to get the right orientation on a micro USB jack. My G5 had this as well. I had to buy some USB "C" charging cables and stash them in the obvious places (car, home and work desk, backpack, etc...), but they aren't expensive (I get them from Monoprice fairly cheap).
I use the phone on T-Mobiles network. At home I get about 70M download speeds, and 20M upload. The radio's in this thing are freaking awesome.
I wasn't able to get any kind of discount on it through work, so I paid full price through the Google store. I bought the 32G version in an attempt to save a little money. My justification was that the only real storage I use is pictures, and Google is giving unlimited storage on Google Photos with the phone. I also have unlimited space on Flickr. However, after installing my apps, and before taking any pictures or videos, I was already down to about 18G of free space. I could see getting into a jam if I was taking a lot of pictures or videos outside of coverage areas. Hindsight being what it is, I should have forked over the extra $100 for the increased storage.
Which brings me to my only nits about the phone. Firstly, it's *not* cheap. I guess you get what you pay for, and if you go for one of the promotions (Verizon or T-Mobile) you might save a little money there. No SD Card slot and no removable battery. I could understand this if they were going for a waterproof rating as marketing thing, but it's already not waterproof, so not having a replaceable battery and not having an SD Card slot seems like an odd choice. If it had these two things, the thing would be darn near perfect.
As far as comparing it to an iPhone, I really am not qualified to do that. I hate Apple with a fury. I do own an iPhone 5S. I hate it with passion. Everything I've read says the hardware is the same quality as Apples. I would say it's at least as good, and maybe better (reliability would be the only question. The camera is definitely 'better'. I am 'forced' to use some of the newer Apple products for work on occasion (testing). One thing I do know for sure. The radios in the Pixel blow everything else I've ever tested away. The caveat there is, I'm basing this on the spectrum we test and use on T-Mobiles network. I couldn't say how well it performs on AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. I suspect It's amazing on AT&T and Verizon as well. Sprint, if it works at all (no idea about their network any more), but I'd do some homework there before I spent any money.
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