Android

I don't have a great answer for you as I haven't used the Pixel 8 Pro yet.

I have owned a Pixel 7 Pro alongside my Motorola Razr+ and my S23 Ultra and, personally, found the S23 Ultra to be leagues better in software features and hardware performance (I know I'm going to get voted down to hell for saying it). I ended up selling it to a friend.

BUT...based on the current P8P information, it may finally change my mind. I definitely plan to pick one up and use it as my DD for awhile and see. I'm legitimately hopeful.

Samsung is using by far the worst OEM Rom, Pixel has by far the best. Go for the Pixel

Pixel = stock Android, latest firmware, able flash to more privacy oriented rom.

Samsung = Long support and feature rich, but can also be bloated.

I really like both. This round I ended up going with Samsung. Yeah it's a little more bloated but there's just SO much more customization with good lock modules. I have an audio module that lets me choose a second audio destination. So for example I can be playing music through Bluetooth on my stereo system and then I have my system notifications set to the phone speaker so that they don't interrupt the music

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.

I'm going to get an S24 when they release, have pretty much always used Samsung when on Android.

FWIW, I understand all the complaints about bloat from duplicated applications, but a significant amount of that blame should be on Google as well. I don't use the GMail app, but I can't uninstall it, so it's system bloat.

I've been on one plus phones for years and then switched to pixel 4a 5g, then pixel 6a.

I just switched to a samsung galaxy s23 ultra and I am loving this device.

I uninstalled a bunch of the Google and samsung bloatware.

Neither?

I moved from Samsung to Sony. I gave the Pixel a try, but it's basically the same arbitrarily cut down hardware. Sony is making the last remaining flagship with a headphone jack and expandable storage.

I miss having Dex from Samsung, I miss having a more effective software for point and shoot picture processing. Other than that, I'm not looking back.

https://flash.android.com/welcome

Nothing like is available for other OEMs.

Pixels historically have a lot of weird hardware issues, like the modem underperforming, bad antennas, poor fingerprint sensor, overheating, and so on.

I don't know if the Pixel 8 lineup has them too, but I would search around pretty heavily on that and see first.

Pixel has the smoothest experience in terms of animations, but they also have the shittiest hardware. Samsung is okay, and the snapdragon versions have usable battery and modems. Pixel's SOC is hot garbage (though time will tell for pixel 8)

Samsung only for Samsung dex

I wouldn't buy a Samsung in my right mind

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.

There should be an inherent time frame people think about, phones from 8 or 9 years ago are not relevant in any aspect to todays talking points for both sides of the aisle.

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.

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.