Hey guys I just thought I would post this here in case anyone wants a semi unbiased opinion on the iPhone vs. Pixel battle. I am a huge Android fan, love it to death, but continue to use iOS because of the ease of use and the ecosystem. I have two kids, I take a TON of photos and videos of them and also like to video chat with them when I am away from them. I am not an Apple household, have a Windows PC, and iPad, Google Home Mini, Echo Dot, basically everything under the sun as far as manufacturers go. I also have an addiction to tech, specifically smartphone. Hi my name is James and I have a problem. Hopefully this mini comparison can help someone decide on the Pixel or iPhone if they were on the fence. I'll break it down to 5 categories: Design, screen, camera, UI, and intangibles.
Design: How the phone looks and feels and its ease of use one handed. Both phones have their strengths and weaknesses here, most notable the notch and the Pixel 2 XL size and Pixel 2's bezels. The iPhone design is amazing though, the stainless steel is heavy and has a great weight to it that I love plus the glass looks amazing. The notch isn't...awful? Don't like it much but I got used to it sort of. The Pixel 2 XL has a bit more of a top and bottom bezel than the iPhone, but has dual speakers which is awesome and they sound good and don't distort much at high volume. The squeeze feature does tend to activate too often but maybe I had it set too sensitive. The soft touch back is a nice touch too and it still has a fingerprint sensor on the back. The Pixel 2 you can say all of the same things except those bezels are awfully big. This goes to the iPhone because of the quality of materials and the feeling of holding a screen in your hand.
Screen: Speaking of screen this one is pretty easy. The Pixel 2 has a 1080p screen while the XL is a 2K screen (or close), both being OLED. The XL has a blueish hue to it but it never bothered me and now it has the new screen modes but they seemed a bit too warm. The Pixel 2 has the better of the 2 screens in terms of color reproduction and lack or burn in but the XL has less bezels and so melts into the phone a bit more. There is also a slight curve to the XL, making adding a screen protector a challenge, especially tempered glass. The iPhone has a slightly higher than 1080p OLED display that looks great. Colors are sharp but not too sharp and everything just looks fantastic. Watching videos is amazing and the fact the screen at 5.8" fits into almost an iPhone 8 sized device makes this the winner in this category.
Camera: This was a hard one. The Pixel 2 and XL have the same camera so I'll lump them together here. I loved the OG Pixel camera, it worked all the time and the Pixel 2 is still great. I found it weird taking pictures at first because so much post processing is done on the Pixel 2, you can actually watch it happen real time if you are quick enough and view the photo immediately, making it weird to see the image you think you're taking and the final result. This makes the camera a bit of a struggle at first but once you trust it, it's wonderful. The video camera is also good, borderline great but it caps at 30fps in 4K. The portrait mode gets better with time, it starts off good and then gets to amazing within a few days. The UI could use some tweaking, swiping right to get to Portrait mode then clicking the button for it is one more step than the iPhone, and when you have kids it's usually that step that makes you miss the shot. The iPhone X has 2 cameras, making zoom shots a bit better and I tend to like the portrait mode on the back camera more on the iPhone. The front camera portrait mode looks bad most of the time though and so the front camera goes to the Pixel. 4K at 60fps and 240 fps 1080p slo mo on the iPhone make it the ideal video shooter but overall I think the Pixel 2 is better, slightly. Can't go wrong with either, unless you're taking a front selfie...then go Pixel.
UI: I used to hate Android UI, it used to be slow, laggy, hard to navigate, but Google has done a wonderful job with Oreo. Notification specifically are awesome on Oreo and the UI on the Pixel is snappy as hell. Google Assistant is much better, to me, than Siri and the squeeze feature is a cool touch. The settings menu is much more minimized than iOS's mess and widgets are still cool to me. iOS 11 is still iOS, but it works. Nothing too new to add other than it's snappy and that it works. I'd like a night or dark mode, I'd like to be able to move my icons wherever I want them but alas. Winner is the Pixel.
Intangibles: This is where it gets hairy. Both phones feature a few intangibles that the other phone doesn't and both have things that other phones have that they do not. The iPhone and Pixel are both water resistant, IP67, both have stereo speakers, both have glass on the back and both have fast charging, that's where it mostly ends. The Pixel has FRONT FACING stereo speakers while the iPhone has a bottom facing speaker. The Pixel also has that squeeze feature which I have mentioned before that launches the assistant and it's awesome and horrible at the same time. Every time I picked it up off my desk it would activate, but again that might have been my fault. Finally the Pixel has AR stickers, which are exclusive for now, and are very cool. My daughter loved "Pwayin that game on my phone" and it works very well but obliterates battery and causes the phone to basically light on fire. The iPhone includes wireless charging, FaceID, the W2 chip (more on that in a second) and Animoji. Wireless charging is a cool thing but far from necessary. FaceID is hit or miss at first but after maybe a week it's very reliable. It unlocks my phone almost before I look at it. It also allows for all of your passwords to be saved to your face (similar to TouchID) but the Pixel also has this tied to it's FP sensor. The W2 chip to me is amazing. Have another Apple accessory or device with a W1 or W2 chip in it? Bring it close the your iPhone automatically tries to pair with it. It makes setting up a new iPhone incredibly easy, pairing Apple branded BlueTooth headphones a breeze and also expedites the Apple Watch setup process. It's also more efficient than normal BlueTooth so that's cool. Finally the TrueDepth camera allows for Animoji which are fun for a minute but, like AR stickers, kind of lose their luster to anyone but kids within a week. Apple also has FaceTime and iMessage which is mostly unchecked on Google's side. I'd also like to add in Smart watches as an intangible because, for me, the Apple Watch trumps everything Google or Samsung has to offer. The functionality is unrivaled and the hardware is impossible for Google to emulate. Samsung does an okay job but I'd rather the Apple Watch 10 times out of 10. This goes to Apple.
So who wins? It's based on preference but I think the iPhone wins out. The camera experience is better for me on iOS, even though the Pixel's final results are mostly better. The intangibles are close but to me Apple wins with the few extras they offer. Hopefully this helps someone decide, they are both great phones but to me the iPhone takes the cake.
Design: How the phone looks and feels and its ease of use one handed. Both phones have their strengths and weaknesses here, most notable the notch and the Pixel 2 XL size and Pixel 2's bezels. The iPhone design is amazing though, the stainless steel is heavy and has a great weight to it that I love plus the glass looks amazing. The notch isn't...awful? Don't like it much but I got used to it sort of. The Pixel 2 XL has a bit more of a top and bottom bezel than the iPhone, but has dual speakers which is awesome and they sound good and don't distort much at high volume. The squeeze feature does tend to activate too often but maybe I had it set too sensitive. The soft touch back is a nice touch too and it still has a fingerprint sensor on the back. The Pixel 2 you can say all of the same things except those bezels are awfully big. This goes to the iPhone because of the quality of materials and the feeling of holding a screen in your hand.
Screen: Speaking of screen this one is pretty easy. The Pixel 2 has a 1080p screen while the XL is a 2K screen (or close), both being OLED. The XL has a blueish hue to it but it never bothered me and now it has the new screen modes but they seemed a bit too warm. The Pixel 2 has the better of the 2 screens in terms of color reproduction and lack or burn in but the XL has less bezels and so melts into the phone a bit more. There is also a slight curve to the XL, making adding a screen protector a challenge, especially tempered glass. The iPhone has a slightly higher than 1080p OLED display that looks great. Colors are sharp but not too sharp and everything just looks fantastic. Watching videos is amazing and the fact the screen at 5.8" fits into almost an iPhone 8 sized device makes this the winner in this category.
Camera: This was a hard one. The Pixel 2 and XL have the same camera so I'll lump them together here. I loved the OG Pixel camera, it worked all the time and the Pixel 2 is still great. I found it weird taking pictures at first because so much post processing is done on the Pixel 2, you can actually watch it happen real time if you are quick enough and view the photo immediately, making it weird to see the image you think you're taking and the final result. This makes the camera a bit of a struggle at first but once you trust it, it's wonderful. The video camera is also good, borderline great but it caps at 30fps in 4K. The portrait mode gets better with time, it starts off good and then gets to amazing within a few days. The UI could use some tweaking, swiping right to get to Portrait mode then clicking the button for it is one more step than the iPhone, and when you have kids it's usually that step that makes you miss the shot. The iPhone X has 2 cameras, making zoom shots a bit better and I tend to like the portrait mode on the back camera more on the iPhone. The front camera portrait mode looks bad most of the time though and so the front camera goes to the Pixel. 4K at 60fps and 240 fps 1080p slo mo on the iPhone make it the ideal video shooter but overall I think the Pixel 2 is better, slightly. Can't go wrong with either, unless you're taking a front selfie...then go Pixel.
UI: I used to hate Android UI, it used to be slow, laggy, hard to navigate, but Google has done a wonderful job with Oreo. Notification specifically are awesome on Oreo and the UI on the Pixel is snappy as hell. Google Assistant is much better, to me, than Siri and the squeeze feature is a cool touch. The settings menu is much more minimized than iOS's mess and widgets are still cool to me. iOS 11 is still iOS, but it works. Nothing too new to add other than it's snappy and that it works. I'd like a night or dark mode, I'd like to be able to move my icons wherever I want them but alas. Winner is the Pixel.
Intangibles: This is where it gets hairy. Both phones feature a few intangibles that the other phone doesn't and both have things that other phones have that they do not. The iPhone and Pixel are both water resistant, IP67, both have stereo speakers, both have glass on the back and both have fast charging, that's where it mostly ends. The Pixel has FRONT FACING stereo speakers while the iPhone has a bottom facing speaker. The Pixel also has that squeeze feature which I have mentioned before that launches the assistant and it's awesome and horrible at the same time. Every time I picked it up off my desk it would activate, but again that might have been my fault. Finally the Pixel has AR stickers, which are exclusive for now, and are very cool. My daughter loved "Pwayin that game on my phone" and it works very well but obliterates battery and causes the phone to basically light on fire. The iPhone includes wireless charging, FaceID, the W2 chip (more on that in a second) and Animoji. Wireless charging is a cool thing but far from necessary. FaceID is hit or miss at first but after maybe a week it's very reliable. It unlocks my phone almost before I look at it. It also allows for all of your passwords to be saved to your face (similar to TouchID) but the Pixel also has this tied to it's FP sensor. The W2 chip to me is amazing. Have another Apple accessory or device with a W1 or W2 chip in it? Bring it close the your iPhone automatically tries to pair with it. It makes setting up a new iPhone incredibly easy, pairing Apple branded BlueTooth headphones a breeze and also expedites the Apple Watch setup process. It's also more efficient than normal BlueTooth so that's cool. Finally the TrueDepth camera allows for Animoji which are fun for a minute but, like AR stickers, kind of lose their luster to anyone but kids within a week. Apple also has FaceTime and iMessage which is mostly unchecked on Google's side. I'd also like to add in Smart watches as an intangible because, for me, the Apple Watch trumps everything Google or Samsung has to offer. The functionality is unrivaled and the hardware is impossible for Google to emulate. Samsung does an okay job but I'd rather the Apple Watch 10 times out of 10. This goes to Apple.
So who wins? It's based on preference but I think the iPhone wins out. The camera experience is better for me on iOS, even though the Pixel's final results are mostly better. The intangibles are close but to me Apple wins with the few extras they offer. Hopefully this helps someone decide, they are both great phones but to me the iPhone takes the cake.
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