It’s no surprise to me: I want every new phone that comes out. I’m a sucker for good marketing and smartphone launches have some of the best marketing going on. Whether it’s a new feature like a telephoto lens, a bigger battery, a more vivid display, or an entirely new form factor, I get a bad case of the fear of missing out almost every time. This is why I often find myself buying the most expensive model, despite it not being the case In fact Is required.
So, while the recent launch of the Google Pixel 8 Pro left me a bit confused, I didn’t feel like I wanted the phone. Or rather, I did, but the desire was tempered by another emotion: irritation. I’m annoyed by the Pixel 8 Pro, but not for the reasons you might think.
Figuring out why I was so angry was a real journey. Here’s how I feel about the Pixel 8 Pro and Google overall — and why I ultimately won’t buy the phone.
Is it because I own a Pixel 7 Pro?
My current experience with Google was the first place I started, and honestly, it’s a good place to look. To say the least, I’ve had a rough time with the Google Pixel 7 Pro. It’s a great phone, but my experience was marred by a number of bugs that made me feel like I should never have bought the Pixel 7 Pro.
Most of these bugs didn’t break the phone, but they were extremely annoying. Wi-Fi will drop off and need to be manually reset, and the phone will sometimes refuse to unlock. A lot of these bugs have been fixed, but in the meantime I’ve encountered a new problem: the slightly glitchy charging port.
I too was not alone in this. The problems varied from person to person, but it was clear that the Pro line as a whole had problems. As far as the team goes, it was the worst of times for mobile editor Joe Maring, who experienced black screens while playing games, entire panels breaking, and ominous shadows appearing on the screen after quitting Twitter. . Andy Boxall didn’t encounter any of these issues during his time with the Pro, his model was a little sporadic when it came to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, but it all underlines the fact that the Pixel The 7 Pro needs more time in the oven.
Does that sour experience still linger on my tongue? Not necessary. Although I can’t speak for all Pixel 7 Pro users, Google has dealt with a lot of the bugs that affected me, and my phone is now working pretty much as it should. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect by any means, but the good ultimately outweighs the bad.
So, with the Pixel 7 Pro largely in the clear, I moved on to interrogating my next suspect: the Google Pixel 8 Pro.
Is it because of the Pixel 8 Pro’s new toys?
There’s no way to hide it: If I was angry with the Pixel 8 Pro because it’s better than my current phone, I have a serious case of sour grapes.
But I was also convinced that this was not the case. Frankly, when you take a good, long look at the Pixel 8 Pro, there’s really not much to be angry about. The temperature sensor is an interesting addition, but it’s hard not to see it disappearing, like the Google Pixel 4’s Motion Sense movement-sensing technology. The design has been changed slightly, which is easy to miss, and the same is true for the display, which is now down to 1Hz instead of 10Hz. I can understand why I want this, but does the lack of it keep me up at night? Absolutely not.
Now, we move on to the areas that register some elements of FOMO, and it’s the Magic Editor that sits at the top of that list. Magic Eraser is pretty much everything, but Magic Editor takes it to a whole new realm. But honestly, if I use the Magic Eraser, I’m likely to use the Magic Editor a few times before I eventually forget it exists altogether, so I’m really I’m not too angry about it.
so far so good. But this is where I encountered my first real irritation: updates. Yes, you read that right – the hardest fix to ignore is the seven-year commitment to updates.
Honestly, this was the part of the phone’s announcement that took my breath away. Seven years is a very long time. If the earlier Google Pixel phone had been receiving updates for seven years, it would have stopped receiving Android updates this year. What a huge commitment this is from Google, and if it’s able to keep it up, it’s a solid reason to buy the Google Pixel 8. That said, Google’s record on support… isn’t good.
But for some reason, only the Pixel 8 range benefits from this huge update promise. It’s infuriating that the Pixel 7 Pro only gets three years of major Android updates, less than half that of the Pixel 8 Pro. Why? Due to arbitrary cutoff. It would cost very little for Google to extend this update promise to some of its recent smartphones. In a way, I feel like me to be eligible This is to address a bug-ridden glitch that plagued the initial Pixel 7 Pro.
Sure, Google made a lot of improvements to the phone, but it took the better part of a year — or about a third of my phone’s effective lifespan. It took me more or less until the Pixel 8 Pro became available to feel like I had a working Pixel phone. A longer-term update commitment from Google would have gone a long way in making me feel more positive about struggling with a broken smartphone for so long.
But that was not the point. That was not the real source of my irritation. Yes, that was part of it, but I had to dig a little deeper to find out what was really bothering me. It was there, deep down, that I finally found it. But really, it shouldn’t have taken me so long to figure it out – because the reason was right there, on Google’s own store.
It’s because Google doesn’t care about me
The Google Pixel 7 Pro, despite some teething problems, is a great smartphone. Heck, it’s a flagship smartphone from last year, which means it’s powerful and extremely capable, and is likely to deliver solid performance for years to come. I figured if I wanted to trade it in for a Pixel 8 Pro, I’d get a pretty penny for it.
After all, why wouldn’t Google want loyal customers to move to the latest device? Google’s UK store advertises up to 700 British pounds off trade-ins, and hey, it’s last year’s top Pixel device! I am definitely all set. So, I put my smartphone in the trade-in window for the Pixel 8 Pro, expecting to pay a few hundred British pounds to get the new device.
It wasn’t even close. Trading in a nearly pristine 256GB Pixel 7 Pro netted me a total of 347 British pounds. For a smartphone that costs almost three times the price.
Maybe Google sent someone to my house to press my feet. Frankly, this is an insult. A small part of me was happy; Clearly, the Pixel 7 Pro was a disaster that even Google doesn’t want to take back. But a big part of me was disappointed. To make sure this wasn’t a UK problem, I checked the trade-in offer at Google’s US store, and it got even worse: $299. Taking into account the British trade-in amount of about $420 after conversion, it turned out that I was getting a better Bargain compared to my American cousins.
But the question arises: who does Want a phone from Google? You probably won’t be surprised to know that these are Apple iPhone users. Trade in the 128GB version of the iPhone 14 Pro, and you’ll get 660 British pounds for it. Half the storage, close to double the trade-in value.
I went down the list to find out which iPhone Google considers to be closest in value to its previous flagship phones. This is Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. That four-year-old device will run you three British pounds more in trade-in than the 2022 Pixel 7 Pro.
All phone companies are stingy to some degree when it comes to trade-ins, but Google treats its own products much worse. Samsung has set a trade-in limit of 500 British pounds for its phones and Apple phones and even offered 500 British pounds for my Pixel 7 Pro. Apple only takes its own phones into the business, but clearly values its own phones highly – though strangely, not as much as Google, which will offer more than Apple for an iPhone.
I understood; It makes good business sense to appeal to competitors and motivate them to switch. After all, having a Pixel user remain a Pixel user doesn’t increase your numbers. But appealing to Apple fans shouldn’t mean kicking your loyalists in the face, And This should not mean deliberately devaluing your products. As far as Google is concerned, a 2019 Apple device costs basically the same as its 2022 flagship device.
It doesn’t show a lot of confidence in your own product, Google, and it doesn’t make me feel like I should have much. As a longtime Pixel fan, it drives me crazy that Google thinks so little of its range. It makes me angry about the Pixel 8 Pro, about the entire Pixel series, and at myself for having so much faith in the company. So, no – I won’t be buying the Pixel 8 Pro, and Google only has itself to blame for that.
