Phones Google Pixel 8/8 Pro

[Bkdodger]

Mixed usage, wifi when I’m at home or at work. 4G when I’m on the train or out in public. Signal strength is at 1 bar compared to 3 on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.

My usage is making calls, using WhatsApp, internet browsing, taking pictures, listening to Apple Music.

It could be your signal in areas where you frequent..if you truly want to test the phone if possible try a day on Wi-Fi completely if possible and see how it drains ...I get to the end of the day most days easily ..I'm on Wi-Fi a good amount of days when working from home but I do have good battery too on days away from home and I use YouTube music for gym and music during the day ..plus Android Auto

 

[Dave245]

It could be your signal in areas where you frequent..if you truly want to test the phone if possible try a day on Wi-Fi completely if possible and see how it drains ...I get to the end of the day most days easily ..I'm on Wi-Fi a good amount of days when working from home but I do have good battery too on days away from home and I use YouTube music for gym and music during the day ..plus Android Auto

Yea I need to do some more testing on it, the battery certainly doesn't last as long as my 15 Pro Max. That thing lasts all day with around 40-50% spare, which is an improvement on the 14 Pro Max I had.

The thing is I need to use both 4G and wifi, modern phones should be able to do it without draining the hell out of the battery. Sometimes I can sit and watch the percentage go down

 

[Bkdodger]

Yea I need to do some more testing on it, the battery certainly doesn't last as long as my 15 Pro Max. That thing lasts all day with around 40-50% spare, which is an improvement on the 14 Pro Max I had.

The thing is I need to use both 4G and wifi, modern phones should be able to do it without draining the hell out of the battery. Sometimes I can sit and watch the percentage go down

Agree not expecting you to be on Wi-Fi exclusively just trying to troubleshoot if you have an abnormal device ..it will not be in the same area as the IP or S24U since those phones IMO are top of the line for battery ..also I feel early stages with a phone I tend to use them more than normal as I'm testing stuff and figuring things out ...how many days now ? I think you need more time too for the phone to settle in..

 

[Dave245]

Agree not expecting you to be on Wi-Fi exclusively just trying to troubleshoot if you have an abnormal device ..it will not be in the same area as the IP or S24U since those phones IMO are top of the line for battery ..also I feel early stages with a phone I tend to use them more than normal as I'm testing stuff and figuring things out ...how many days now ? I think you need more time too for the phone to settle in..

Certainly needs more time to settle in, I go the phone on Saturday so it's only been 4 days so far. The phone does get hot on 4G, that's without any gaming since I don't game on my phone (I have consoles for that). I will see how it goes by this time next week.

 

[Bkdodger]

Certainly needs more time to settle in, I go the phone on Saturday so it's only been 4 days so far. The phone does get hot on 4G, that's without any gaming since I don't game on my phone (I have consoles for that). I will see how it goes by this time next week.

I'm the same way of no gaming.. I do find this phone to have better reception than the Pixel 7 Pro that I had previously...and I didn't like the battery life on that one either ..this one has been an improvement for my usage overall in both categories.. hopefully it works out for you ..do you have a long window to decide before return ?

 

[Tig Bitties]

Battery life has been the Achilles heel of Pixel Pro phones since the beginning. They've never once been on par with an iPhone Pro Max or Galaxy Ultra phone in terms of battery life. And that's been one of my biggest gripes year after year with the Google Pixel, they just can't seem to get good battery life.

But I will say my Pixel 8 Pro is much better than the 7 Pro and 6 Pro for battery life, the 7 Pro especially had terrible battery life. So of the three phones: the 6 Pro, 7 Pro, and 8 Pro, for sure the Pixel 8 Pro has the best battery life of them all.

I recall my fav phone almost ever was the Pixel 4 XL, gosh I loved that design, and feel in hand, and for it's time was a super smooth and fluid phone, and just a joy to use, except the battery life, the Pixel 4 XL had TERRIBLE battery life.

Using the S24 Ultra this week again, and the battery life is just so much better on this phone, by a good margin.

 

[Dave245]

I'm the same way of no gaming.. I do find this phone to have better reception than the Pixel 7 Pro that I had previously...and I didn't like the battery life on that one either ..this one has been an improvement for my usage overall in both categories.. hopefully it works out for you ..do you have a long window to decide before return ?

I’ve got until the 24th to return it (next Sunday). This time next week I’ll make the decision and should have a review by then on what I think.

 

[Dave245]

Battery life has been the Achilles heel of Pixel Pro phones since the beginning. They've never once been on par with an iPhone Pro Max or Galaxy Ultra phone in terms of battery life. And that's been one of my biggest gripes year after year with the Google Pixel, they just can't seem to get good battery life.

But I will say my Pixel 8 Pro is much better than the 7 Pro and 6 Pro for battery life, the 7 Pro especially had terrible battery life. So of the three phones: the 6 Pro, 7 Pro, and 8 Pro, for sure the Pixel 8 Pro has the best battery life of them all.

I recall my fav phone almost ever was the Pixel 4 XL, gosh I loved that design, and feel in hand, and for it's time was a super smooth and fluid phone, and just a joy to use, except the battery life, the Pixel 4 XL had TERRIBLE battery life.

Using the S24 Ultra this week again, and the battery life is just so much better on this phone, by a good margin.

Is it weird that my Pixel 8 Pro is making me appreciate the Samsung S23 and S24 Ultra more?

Thats not to say I don’t like the Pixel 8 Pro, I do. I like how clean the UI is. But Samsung is way more customisable, the battery life is miles better (so far compared to my Pixel 8 Pro which could improve over the next week).

 

[Bkdodger]

Is it weird that my Pixel 8 Pro is making me appreciate the Samsung S23 and S24 Ultra more?

Thats not to say I don’t like the Pixel 8 Pro, I do. I like how clean the UI is. But Samsung is way more customisable, the battery life is miles better (so far compared to my Pixel 8 Pro which could improve over the next week).

There's one thing for me that I can't get away from with the Pixel ..text to dictation and overall AI daily interactions..I know Samsung is headed towards it but Google is so spot on..call screening and hold for me ..I'm on the phone alot with work and personal.. everyone has different use cases... I'd love Samsung customization but this trumps it on the list.

 

[Dave245]

There's one thing for me that I can't get away from with the Pixel ..text to dictation and overall AI daily interactions..I know Samsung is headed towards it but Google is so spot on..call screening and hold for me ..I'm on the phone alot with work and personal.. everyone has different use cases... I'd love Samsung customization but this trumps it on the list.

There are features missing here in the UK, automatic screen calling isn't available for example. Best take is a nice feature to have but realistically it's not something I'm going to use all that often, also you have to take multiple pictures in order for it to work properly.

AI is very much a gimmick at the moment, at least in my opinion. Circle to search is good, altho I prefer it with the S-Pen on the Samsung than just with my finger for some reason. Also the Magic Compose feature doesn't work in other messaging apps at the moment on the Pixel. On the S24 Ultra Magic Compose works within WhatsApp, so I'm not sure why Google can't do the same thing.

 

[Harthag]

There are features missing here in the UK, automatic screen calling isn't available for example. Best take is a nice feature to have but realistically it's not something I'm going to use all that often, also you have to take multiple pictures in order for it to work properly.

AI is very much a gimmick at the moment, at least in my opinion. Circle to search is good, altho I prefer it with the S-Pen on the Samsung than just with my finger for some reason. Also the Magic Compose feature doesn't work in other messaging apps at the moment on the Pixel. On the S24 Ultra Magic Compose works within WhatsApp, so I'm not sure why Google can't do the same thing.

It seems like your decision may be easier than you thought...You folks in the UK get a raw deal when it comes to the Pixel's lack of features, I can't make sense of it. You're not getting a true Pixel experience.

 

[Bkdodger]

Yeah it's a shame and you should have the full effect everywhere...

 

[Dave245]

It seems like your decision may be easier than you thought...You folks in the UK get a raw deal when it comes to the Pixel's lack of features, I can't make sense of it. You're not getting a true Pixel experience.

Yea it’s like we don’t get the full Pixel experience.

 

[twdawson]

Yea it’s like we don’t get the full Pixel experience.

The call screening on my pixel keeps disappearing from the settings of the phone app every time I restart my phone.
I have to uninstall the update of the phone app, clear cache and then set it up again.

So unreliable I have just given up with that feature but I would love to know why we don't have automatic screening in the UK.

 

[Dave245]

The call screening on my pixel keeps disappearing from the settings of the phone app every time I restart my phone.
I have to uninstall the update of the phone app, clear cache and then set it up again.

So unreliable I have just given up with that feature but I would love to know why we don't have automatic screening in the UK.

Agreed, i don‘t see why we can’t have all the features, especially when Samsung give us all the features and all they are doing is using Google’s In an agreed partnership.

Call screening for me doesn’t work most of the time, i got one of my friends to try calling me, i then got his sister to call me, it didn’t work at all on either occasion. Magic compose doesn’t work either, yet with Samsung the Magic Compose features works not only in Google messages but also in WhatsApp, it’s strange that Google neglect those of us in the UK.

 

[twdawson]

Agreed, i don‘t see why we can’t have all the features, especially when Samsung give us all the features and all they are doing is using Google’s In an agreed partnership.

Call screening for me doesn’t work most of the time, i got one of my friends to try calling me, i then got his sister to call me, it didn’t work at all on either occasion. Magic compose doesn’t work either, yet with Samsung the Magic Compose features works not only in Google messages but also in WhatsApp, it’s strange that Google neglect those of us in the UK.

I bought a pixel for the reason that Google would be the first to give us all of the features.
That was a mistake obviously.

I can't rely on call screening so I don't even bother trying to make it work anymore.

 

[The Game 161]

Is it weird that my Pixel 8 Pro is making me appreciate the Samsung S23 and S24 Ultra more?

Thats not to say I don’t like the Pixel 8 Pro, I do. I like how clean the UI is. But Samsung is way more customisable, the battery life is miles better (so far compared to my Pixel 8 Pro which could improve over the next week).

samsung devices are more customisable due to the galaxy store and good lock but downloading nova you can really customise the pixel just as much to be fair. the stock experience is limited.

it's why I'm using nova full Time now on my pixel 8 pro

 

[atiffarooq]

samsung devices are more customisable due to the galaxy store and good lock but downloading nova you can really customise the pixel just as much to be fair. the stock experience is limited.

it's why I'm using nova full Time now on my pixel 8 pro

I've never really used a launcher? Does using Nova have any detrimental impact on battery life compared to the stock launcher?

 

[Dave245]

samsung devices are more customisable due to the galaxy store and good lock but downloading nova you can really customise the pixel just as much to be fair. the stock experience is limited.

it's why I'm using nova full Time now on my pixel 8 pro

I've never done that, I don't like the idea of it in case I mess it up. The most I've done is tinker about with GoodLock when I had a Samsung phone.

 

[The Game 161]

I've never done that, I don't like the idea of it in case I mess it up. The most I've done is tinker about with GoodLock when I had a Samsung phone.

It's easy to go back to default pixel launcher

 

[Tig Bitties]

Midnight portrait shot on my 8 Pro;

 

[Dave245]

Midnight portrait shot on my 8 Pro;

The pixel definitely does take great portrait shots.

 

[edubfromktown]

I've never really used a launcher? Does using Nova have any detrimental impact on battery life compared to the stock launcher?

3rd party launchers haven't caused issues for me or consumed any noteworthy amount of resources or additional battery power.

The main reason for me is to have a consistent launcher setup across multiple Android hardware/operating system platforms.

I've used Nova Launcher on OnePlus (OneUI 10 - 13), Pixel (4a, 6 Plus and 8 Plus), S23+ (OneUI 5.1 and 6.0) and S24+ (OneUI 6.1).

 

[Bkdodger]

If anyone or friend thinking about buying one please share it

The offer still stands. Give $50. Get $50.

You and a friend can each still get a $50 Google Store coupon code when they buy a Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8, or Pixel 7a.

Just share the code below by 6/30/24

J3Q030OWRCMNWYNJWDMYM1Y

 

[Bkdodger]

Update incoming