7 things I love about the Google Pixel 2, even though I'm an iPhone user for life
1. Google Pixel 2 lets you make custom shortcuts, which can save you a lot of time.
Imagine being able to create an icon on your screen that takes you directly to the text conversation with the person you talk to the most.
Now, imagine being able to do that with practically any app: an icon for your route home, and another to visit your favorite website.
This was something I had heard a lot about: Android fans tout customization as one of the key reasons Android is better than iOS, in the same way iPhone owners tout iMessage.
After a couple of days using the Pixel 2, it was difficult to deny the time-saving power of these widgets.
2. The Pixel 2 camera blows the iPhone X out of the water.
Google Pixel 2 set a high bar for what I expect from my next smartphone camera. It has portrait mode on its front and rear cameras just like Apple's iPhone X (although I preferred the more realistic coloring on the Pixel 2), and Google’s new co-processor even improves the quality of images in social media apps.
I’ve used friends’ iPhone X cameras and seen the stuff they post. I do believe it’s an impressive smartphone camera, but based on my experience, the choice here is a no-brainer. Google's Pixel 2 camera gave me more detail, better color, and a better "bokeh" effect, where the background appears slightly blurry. I couldn’t stop using it, as you can probably tell from this very mundane shot of almonds, which was actually taken through the Snapchat app.
3. Charging your phone — especially from 0% — is much less of a hassle.
I distinctly remember a time when I could turn my dead phone back on as soon as it was hooked up to the charger, and the Pixel 2 brought that small pleasure back to me. Those minutes when my iPhone is starting up feel like they fall somewhere between a microwave minute and a treadmill minute — it’s infuriating.
Google Pixel 2 also charges a lot faster than my iPhone 7 did when it was brand new. As for battery life, I didn’t actually find the Pixel 2 to be much better or worse, but it's nice to not have to wait as long for your phone to re-energize.
4. All your favorite Google apps are pre-installed.
Some of the first apps I download on every new iPhone I get are Google apps: Chrome, Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Drive. I didn’t have to do that on the Pixel 2, which just makes the thought of switching over for good less daunting.
On the other hand, I do feel less of a need to switch because I can access these apps on an iPhone, where I also get iMessage and iCal, neither of which can be downloaded on an Android phone.
Another nice perk of owning a Pixel 2 is the unlimited storage of "original size" photos in Google Photos (until 2020, when users will only be allowed to store unlimited "high-quality" photos). iPhone owners can only store unlimited "high-quality" photos on Google Photos.
5. Google's messaging platform even has a couple of distinct advantages over iMessage.
There were only two things I liked about Android’s messaging platform more than iMessage:
1. You can mark a text as read if it comes in while you're doing something else.
2. It differentiates conversations by color, which I found gave me one less less thing to think about.
You can change the color of the conversation, too. I made one for family and one for professional contacts to train my brain to associate those colors with my best behavior.
6. Google came up with clever ways to take advantage of the Pixel 2's OLED screen to save you more battery life in the long run.
Notifications on my iPhone are distracting and battery-consuming. The Pixel 2 takes advantage of its OLED screen, which doesn't require any additional power for black pixels (unlike an LCD screen), by staying black with the exception of the time, date, and notification.
The default lock screen on the Pixel 2 is simple: It only shows the time, date, and icons, but I turned that off to save even more battery.
This is one of those things that made so much sense — like putting the weather next to the time — that I couldn't understand why my iPhones have done it any differently.
7. The Android interface on the Pixel 2 is more intuitive than most iPhone owners would think.
I wanted to turn Bluetooth off as soon as I got the phone, so I swiped up like I would on an iPhone. When that didn’t work, I simply tapped on the Bluetooth icon in the top bar and it pulled down a menu with options to adjust everything you see up top, including Bluetooth.
Google clearly takes into account what a user would do if he or she had never seen a smartphone before, which is something I can get behind since that's why I fell in love with Apple in the first place.
Android takes it one step further than iOS did though. To come full circle to customization: If you don't like something, you can actually just change it.
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