This certainly didn't deserve it's own thread and I didn't know where to post it, so I thought I'd share it with my friends of this thread [emoji6] It's off topic, so I apologize ...
Curiosity got the better of me and I purchased a Google Pixel XL from my local Best Buy. Been having Android withdrawals, I have to admit. My thoughts were - if I like it sell my iP7+ on Swappa and keep the Pixel XL and chalk up this dabbling with iOS as a failed experiment, if I don't like it, return and pay BB's $35 restocking fee and "rent" the phone for a few days. Well, got home last night and set it up and man, am I very underwhelmed!
First it doesn't feel premium IMO, not sure if it's because I'm coming from the iP7+ by way of the S7 Edge (both super premium feeling phones IMO), but it just lacks that premium build quality feeling.
Second the camera - by the time I got home it was getting dark, so I played outside with some dusk shots and inside with not so pleasant lighting conditions and 9 times out of 10 the iPhone 7+ pictures looked better to me (IMO I don't think neither phone can touch the S7 Edge low light pics).
Third - the speaker ... just plain TERRIBLE! Obviously no comparison to the dual setup on the iP7+ but pretty certain the S7 Edge was a touch louder and clearer (don't have the S7E anymore to do a side-by-side).
Finally the software - and this may be a combination of spending a long period of time on the S7 Edge followed by the iP7+, but it just felt ... blah. Which is hard to say coming from a guy that loved the "Vanilla" Android experience; there's just no real "wow" factor IMO. Perhaps seeing how Samsung got their feature-rich OS tweaks running smoothly as they did with the S7/S7 Edge spoiled me or perhaps it's because I opt not to root/ROM my Vanilla devices any more, but for the first several hours of playing with the Pixel I couldn't help but think to myself, "this is it?!".
Not trying to completely bash the device as it's certainly very fast and fluid, but I do think Google is out of their mind with the price point! This phone should be $400/$500 TOPS , not $800 ( and that's the 32GB XL variant no less! Tack on another $100 for the 128GB [emoji849]).
That all being said, there are still somethings I miss about Android... mostly the ease of getting what I want where I want and getting the files I need/want on it with ease. Had all my custom ringtones and notification sounds downloaded from Google Drive to the device and assigned to their respective contact/app in about 10-15 minutes. A feat that's proven to be time consuming and cumbersome on iOS (at least for this noob). Also, setting for apps within that particular app just makes more sense to me ... having to leave an app to change a setting and then having to go back to said app just seems silly.
Anyways, that's all ... just felt the need to share my experience [emoji12] Take it as you may LOL