C Scott Brown / Android Authority
In my five years, working as an Android journalist, I am known as the Samsung cow. This has been an accurate explanation, but you may be surprised to know that I used to have a nexus/pixel madness using every Google Flagship from Nexus 6 to XL. It turned towards the beginning of 2019, when I was tired of how unreliable pixels were for me in some areas Samsung phone to use specially.
Recently, I had to spend a month with Pixel 9 Pro, and six years later, the time has come for me to join Google. A lot has changed, and these are the reasons that the purchase of my next smartphone can be pixed.
Will you turn from a galaxy to a pixel, or vice versa?
23 votes
Yes – Pixel from Galaxy
48 %
Yes – Galaxy from Pixel
0 %
No, i like my galaxy
13 %
No, I like my pixel
39 %
Pixel Fort
Ryan Hans / Android Authority
Ever since my Samsung phones have been switched, there are features I have lost from the pixel experience. Now playing is something that is easy to value when you have, but I’m lost using a non -pixel phone. This summarizes many pixel experiences – subtle features that may be trivial in a space but come together to create a more complete product.
Call screening and all the functions associated with it are another example of this. Although the call screening debuted with Pixel 3 and 3 XL, which I owned by me, the UK did not access it with Pixel 6 by 2021. Samsung may now have a version of it, but it cannot be compared to what a pixel can do. For me, instruct my call, and wait for Google’s phone call experience with Samsung has done with a UI so far. Calling my doctor or hospital has a long experience to wait in line for the operator, and instead of breaking my head against the wall, there was a terrible hold music running, I can go about my day and let the Pixel handle for me.
Joe Mark / Android Authority
At one glance is one of these small but powerful features when I use non -Google phone. Certainly, I can use it as a widget on my Samsung phones, but it is not as if it are built -in, especially on the lock screen. In a glance you show what you need to know when you need to know, and its absence makes the lock screen on my galaxy phones feel lifeless.
For the first time since the introduction of an UI, I am starting to prefer how Google’s taste in Android 16 Qpr1 looks like Android’s taste 3 expressive ideas. The re -designed notifications and instant settings panels look terrific, and focuses on bonexi animations and hoptics makes a pixel phone feel alive in these ways, even on an UI 7 or 8. There are also things that I prefer about an UI – but it is not too cut and dry as it is used, and Pixel feels more fun.
Construction and reliability
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
The reason for this is that I stopped using Pixel phones first. My Nexus 6, 6P, Pixel XL, 2 XL, and 3 XL all had problems that led to a number of repairs or warranty changes for each. According to Google’s credit, their help was very good, always getting me an alternative phone in a single work day of reporting a problem. But after five consecutive years of constant problems, I would have enough. I could only tell myself that the matter would be better for the next year, and when my pixel 3 XL couldn’t even keep my music player in memory and could not take photos at the same time, thanks to RAM’s merciful 4 GB, it was time for me to move forward.
I could only tell myself that next year, matters would be better for such a long time.
I have refreshed with the pixels – my wife had a pixel 4, my grandfather had 3A, 6A, and now had 8A, and I used Pixel 6 Pro and later a few times for work. Each of these devices, while great, did not encourage my Samsung phones to have the same confidence, all of which have been flawless in addition to my S20 ultra, which needed replacement of the Mother Board after more heat.
Pixel 9 Pro feels incredible. Content and construction standards are the top and competitors of my S24 ultra, and with it I did not experience any problem at any time in my month I did with the old pixels. Tancer G4 has been sharp, even during a horrible heatwave, even when all my friends’ iPhones were showing the iPhone “need to cool down”. It did not give me any problem with the power of the signal, either, which was a particularly weak point for the previous generations of tensor. On any occasion, 9 Pro felt slow – he gained strength over everything I needed to pixel without complaint.
Battery and camera
Joe Mark / Android Authority
I didn’t expect the battery life with 9 pro it would be good, but there was no shortage. Despite the size and weight difference, the battery in the pixel is not more than one of my S24 ultra -one – 4,700mah vs. 5,000mah. Pixel 9 Pro got me in some difficult days, though I run it in Android 16 Qpr1 son for a period.
In my last two weeks with the phone, I made two visits to London. The first was a journey with friends, including a boat ride with Timus and several hours in Hampton Court. Later, I returned to London for a press briefing. The two visits stood all day, leaving the house around 7am and returning home at 6 pm. These days, almost permanent GPS use for public transport around London on the phone was difficult with plenty of photos and video captures, and music streaming. All this during a heatwave that made my S24 ultra hot, regardless of what I was doing, while 9 Pro was cool for the period. In these two days, at least 20 % of the battery I reached home, more than my S24 Ultra was arranged on similar visits.
In more worldly days, working at home and staying almost completely on Wi-Fi, I was at least 35-40 % remaining.
I always like to take photos and always enjoy this experience on the old pixels. The Samsung phones I have are all solid, except the S20 ultra, and so on the years, I forgot how the pixel camera feels like. 9 Pro reminded me of what I was losing, especially now now that Zoom Hardware really makes Samsung competitors.
Whatever the picture I took on the Pixel 9 Pro was sharp, focused, and was pleased to see. Don’t think me wrong, my S24 takes solid pictures, but I always feel the need to take multiple at a time to ensure shutter interval or miss focus, which does not deteriorate. Pixel has a point and a shoot capacity that has some phone, even more than the iPhone 16 Pro I tried last year. I may not take so much pictures like Rita, but I took enough to know that I like this camera.
Pixel also encouraged me to record more video. This is something I have never done on mobile. I hate contradictory frames, and my old and Samsung phone pixels now have problems in falling forever, especially when switching between lenses. In the upper part of it, Samsung’s tendency to faster everything depends on this topic, everything in the video seems terrible.
The video I got on the Pixel 9 Pro had no such problem, especially after the video boost’s magic work. It is naturally sharp, the colors are not mostly done, and according to the decision to decide a little between the frames lenses. Those lenses also keep the quality between them permanent. All this, combined with useful features like Edmi, makes the pixel experience more unprecedented than ever, and I have forgotten how much Google’s view on photography is.
The best part of the battery and camera experience is that I got it in a phone that is not unbearable. I love my S24 ultra, but it is big, heavy and important. If I had every time I had come out, I forced my wife to take off the phone when she showed her her memes in bed, I would have two out. Which is not too much, but it is strange that it has happened twice. Pixel 9 Pro is not small, but it is easy to use one hand, and at any point I didn’t feel like I would leave it. If the Samsung S25 Ultra camera does not bring on a small phone, especially 5x telephoto, I will be disappointed.
No one is perfect
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
There are still things that I prefer about the Samsung phone. I appreciated the battery life on the first 9 Pro, but I am not so happy with the charging situation, especially wireless charging. Samsung phones can wirelessly charge up to 15W, while Pixel 9 Pro can charge wireless up to 21W. It looks like a win for a pixel, but not. A pixel can only achieve this maximum wireless speed with a pixel stand, a product Google no longer sells. On a regular Qi Charger, which manages 15W on my S24 ultra, Pixel 9 Pro will charge only 12W. 3W does not like the difference, but the quick top -up on my S24 is enough, while it is not worth it to charge a wireless pixel.
Similarly, wired charging is very slow for my choice. 27W 4,700mAh charges faster than the battery, but my S24 ultra is faster at 45W. As long as the phone goes to a compensation, the contract is not going to break, but when I wanted to promote it fast before going out for Syria, it was disappointing.
Giving your ‘Pro’ phone 128GB storage, especially when taking so much space in photos and videos, is unforgivable.
Storage is another pain point for me. The Pixel 9 Pro is £ 1,000 and only comes with 128GB in its base configuration. The S25 series, in addition to the base model, starts with 256 GB, and Samsung regularly operates promotions that double you with no extra cost. Giving your “Pro” phone 128GB storage, especially when photos and videos take place so much space, is unforgivable in 2025.
Although I like 3 H3 in Android 16 QPR1 and specific features related to Pixel, one UI still has many things that make me difficult to give up. Vegetable steaks is something I use all the time. Like iOS, a UI allows you to stack multiple widgets in one place so you can scroll through them. This means that you may need every widget that you will need on your primary home screen and eliminate the need to scroll on multiple home pages. In my setup, I have a stack with the control of the Google Search Bar of my Galaxy Bids 3 Pro, decorated in my calendar with a tick -to -do list, and I have Google Home Light controls with a pund note in Google Cap.
Good Lock is another thing that makes me feel reluctant to get away from the Samsung phones. Good Lock offers extraordinary customization, from Android indicators from navigation to Fine toning dynamic images and icon forms.
Zack Ki Danis / Android Authority
I know it’s a clutch, but it will be difficult to leave the Samsung ecosystem. I have numerous Samsung phones, a Galaxy Watch 6, Galaxy Key 3 Pro, and a tab S10 Plus. Similarly, my wife also uses all smoked devices. There are facilities to maintain this ecosystem. The implementation of Samsung’s joint calendars is better than Google, Galaxy buds have switched audio sources without interruption between Samsung devices, and my S24 ultra can serve as a colored palette and tool picking for my tab S10 Plus when I am drawing in Samsung Note.
Am I buying a pixel?
Rita El Khuri / Android Authority
Perhaps January is an upgrade time, and based on the current rumors around the Galaxy S26 series and Pixel 10, the pixel is the one I am bent. Above all, my experience with Pixel 9 Pro made me realize that I want a phone that is small, light, and still packs the capacity of the camera by phone.
This is icing in the upper part of a phone that nails all the basic principles of what I want, and it’s great. I think I am willing to give up the features I have become accustomed to a UI. The MKBHD once called Pixel a “very smart smartphone”, and that’s true. Google’s software and a thinking approach about hardware is something I didn’t realize that I missed, and now that I have experienced it again, I remember why I loved Google phones earlier.
