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Tig Bitties

macrumors 603
Sep 6, 2012
5,517
5,692
That's good to know, the one thing I really liked about Samsung is the amount of customisation.

I will absolutely agree on that, even though I haven't owned a Samsung phone in years ( I'm very tempted to get the S23U ) the customization Galaxy phones offer is bar none the best. Especially with apps like Good Lock and Theme Park.

I do wish the Pixel phones offered more of that, sometimes I feel the Pixel UI is a bit too minimalist.
 

edubfromktown

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2010
844
712
East Coast, USA
That's the beauty of Android. You can use an alternative launcher like Nova. Tons of features. The default Pixel UI is itself a launcher, so it is very easy to replace it with another.
Yuppp, Nova has been and remains awesome. One of my favorite things to do is put ClockView analog on my home screen.
 

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Dave245

macrumors G3
Sep 15, 2013
9,852
8,079
I will absolutely agree on that, even though I haven't owned a Samsung phone in years ( I'm very tempted to get the S23U ) the customization Galaxy phones offer is bar none the best. Especially with apps like Good Lock and Theme Park.

I do wish the Pixel phones offered more of that, sometimes I feel the Pixel UI is a bit too minimalist.

Samsung have definitely got better over the years. I had a S4 many years ago and it was terrible, laggy touchwiz, I ended up selling it.

Fast forward and I’ve had the S22 Ultra which I kept and traded in for the S23 Ultra (which I later sold and returned to the iPhone). The S23 Ultra I feel Samsung got right! Battery life was great, camera was great and it was very customisable.

I don’t regret trying the S23 Ultra, I hope I feel the same about the Pixel Pro 8.
 

Bkdodger

macrumors 68040
Jun 6, 2019
3,624
6,055
Im thinking lol let’s see what trade in offers come in …before sell my iPhone 12 Pro maybe Google steps up with a better offer and lures me in

Btw they need to get this battery endurance resolved I feel that the current reception is the only nitpicking other than customization
 
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840quadra

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 1, 2005
9,489
6,385
Twin Cities Minnesota
Powered up my pixel 3, first time since after my 7 was stolen, and moving to a 7a. Wish Google would break the mold and introduce a small phone with full camera features and stick it to Apple and Samsung.

I am not super pumped about the 8 pro size.

Im thinking lol let’s see what trade in offers come in …before sell my iPhone 12 Pro maybe Google steps up with a better offer and lures me in

Btw they need to get this battery endurance resolved I feel that the current reception is the only nitpicking other than customization
Battery is a significant item for me to consider on these phones. Even with a fresh 7a, I feel the overall daytime battery life is less than stellar. Hoping OS optimizations, battery chemistry, and other factors improve the 8 Pro.

Doubting I will get anything other than trash for trade-in value for my 7a if I decide to take the plunge on a new 8 or 8 Pro.
 

scgf

macrumors 6502
Aug 12, 2003
418
409
Market Harborough, UK
Yuppp, Nova has been and remains awesome. One of my favorite things to do is put ClockView analog on my home screen.
The first thing I do is de-google my home screen and make it more like iOS. I run Nextcloud on a Synology NAS and have my own contacts an calendar server. The only Google services I use are Google Photos and Google Maps.

Screenshot_20231002-065445.jpg
 

Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,934
3,826
Doubting I will get anything other than trash for trade-in value for my 7a if I decide to take the plunge on a new 8 or 8 Pro.
It’s tough to say. Last year Google gave me $299 for my Pixel 4a in trade and I paid $349 MSRP for the phone. It all depends how aggressive they want to sell the Series 8 phones. Last year they were aggressive, this year it’s anyone’s guess.
 
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edubfromktown

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2010
844
712
East Coast, USA
Powered up my pixel 3, first time since after my 7 was stolen, and moving to a 7a. Wish Google would break the mold and introduce a small phone with full camera features and stick it to Apple and Samsung.

I am not super pumped about the 8 pro size.


Battery is a significant item for me to consider on these phones. Even with a fresh 7a, I feel the overall daytime battery life is less than stellar. Hoping OS optimizations, battery chemistry, and other factors improve the 8 Pro.

Doubting I will get anything other than trash for trade-in value for my 7a if I decide to take the plunge on a new 8 or 8 Pro.
Agree however Google will likely follow the same vehicle sales tactics as Apple and Samsung: each model other than the top end offering does not quite tick all the boxes.

I caved on a larger phone a few years ago (OP 8 and 8T). Then decided to kick the tires on an S23+ (and settle for less camera capabilities than the Ultra). So far it is "still in the running". The things that may squelch my urge to go 8 Pro:

  • Custom Snapdragon Gen 2 performs very well
  • Mobile 5g signal quality/reception is stellar (not sure if Google has that one figured out yet)
  • Battery charge times are tolerable (not as good as OP). P8's may improve upon the current snail's pace with +4W charging increases
  • Power management and SOT time are exceeding expectations
  • The Expert RAW camera app can default to using Adobe Lightroom for Samsung photo editor tool. So I can use the regular camera app to shoot JPEG and Expert camera to shoot RAW without having to mess with settings. I've used LR since v3 on Mac's so the "enhanced" editing features in the editor tool are already included in my $9.99 monthly subscription
  • I don't use 90+% of Knox secure mobile platform... just Secure Folder. It is quite slick in how apps and associated data along with whatever else you choose to store within it are encrypted and isolated from the rest of the OS

The only downside so far is that it took some effort to disable 80+ unnecessary Samsung bundled blowatware parasites (using adb). There are GUI and text mode tools that make the process somewhat easier for those who are less tech savvy.
 

Supersonicc

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2016
809
1,850
8 Pro unboxing:
I think it looks great in black.
The black matte back does look cool this year. Though I'd like to see Google release the higher memory version, like 512GB, in a different colour other than black.
 

Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,934
3,826
My favorite color is blue but that matte black looks sick. That would be the color I’d get this year, if I decide to get an 8 Pro.
 

Supersonicc

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2016
809
1,850
Apparently both the pixel and pixel 8 pro still use optical fingerprint scanners 😵
Is that the leak source from the unboxing video? I'd prefer to wait for something more official than an unboxing guy. It's always around this time just before a launch, a lot of bs leaks appear.

I use face unlock so the type of fingerprint sensor doesn't really bother me although I'd prefer to have Soli for face unlock as per the Pixel 4XL, that was great.

Maybe the standard 8 will have the optical fingerprint sensor. If it is true, Google should now really update to an ultrasonic sensor, especially for the 8 Pro.
 
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Supersonicc

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2016
809
1,850

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,074
19,069
US
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