If I buy the best that either company has to offer (Pixel 8 pro or S23 Ultra)

Which one, in your opinion, would be the best Android experience and why? Would love to know your thoughts.

  • stewie410@programming.devEnglish
    41·
    1 year ago

    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
    • 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.

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Am not really sure what you mean by “had to really fight to get it to let me use Google’s apps”? I’ve been a Samsung user for years and I have never even once ran into situation where wrong application would start. Not only that, I started using Samsung’s Email application last year because GMail stopped downloading attachments, a known issue they never fixed.

      • stewie410@programming.devEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        Part of the difficulty may have also been because it was my first foray into Android… at the moment I don’t have a specific example, but I seem to remember setting defaults was straight-forward; but either they were not always respected by certain interaction prompts, or some similar behavior.

        As for GMail, I’m also no longer using the app and instead have opted for Spark (personal mailboxes) & Outlook (exchange, work)…