Pixel 8 Pro Conversion Story

Wanted to post my experience converting to the Pixel 8 Pro. Maybe someone will find it useful.

I used Android phones 5+ years ago and my last Android was a Pixel 2XL in 2018ish. I transitioned to an iPhone at the time because the iOS was superior to Android at the time and it offered much better integration with the rest of my family who were using iPhones. Earlier this year in April, I upgraded from an iPhone 12 to and iPhone 14 pro and was very disappointed in the lack of progress in iPhone development. I also had some weird cellular connectivity issues with the phone. In June, I purchased both a Pixel 7 Pro and an S23U at the same time and kept them for about 3 weeks and swapped my sim card back and forth to test. I really liked the Pixel 7 Pro at the time but it ran much hotter than the S23U and would occasionally have massive battery drain in certain locations with poor cell reception. I liked the software on the Pixel 7 Pro but just felt like the hardware was too inferior so I sent the Pixel 7 Pro back.

Over the past week, I took advantage of the early black friday deals on the Pixel 8 Pro and I have had a great experience with it. I took a ton of family pictures over Thanksgiving with my family, including a baby who was in constant motion, and the pictures were always great. The Pixel Android experience to me is just smoother and more polished than One UI 6 on the S23U. I know that others will disagree with me and prefer the customizations available in One UI 6, and thats fine, its just my preference. There are times where the Pixel 8 Pro runs hotter than the S23U but I have never had the Pixel 8 Pro give an overheating message or excessively throttle performence. I don't plan any games on any of the phones so I can't speak to that. I live in a rural area with Verizon and my Pixel 8 Pro cellular reception is just as good as my S23U if not faster in certain cases. Concerning battery life, my gut feeling is that the S23U has 5%-10% better battery life than the Pixel 8 Pro but again, its not a deal breaker because I can charge the Pixel 8 Pro for 10-15 minutes.

Overall I have been very happy with the Pixel 8 Pro. In my assessment, the hardware of the phone finally caught up with the software to make the switch worth it. Today I posted my S23U for sale on Swappa.

Feel free to message me if you have any other questions.