News Google Pixel 7 is a great phone — so why aren't more people buying it?

Bone Datt

Distinguished
Jan 9, 2014
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I have the Pixel 4XL and the Pixel 7 Pro. The camera was never a huge factor in buying both phones. It was the idea of faster updates, and less bloatware that drew me to the Pixel. Now it's helpful features like call screen that keep me buying Pixels. Google needs to move away from marketing cameras only, as most flagship cameras are great now. They need to market other unique features of the Pixels, like crash detection, call screen, privacy (VPN). Reviewers too should start highlighting other Pixel specific features in their reviews. Almost every review that I read dedicate a huge amount of time to cameras.
 
Nov 13, 2022
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Share numbers exclude pixel 7. If you watch forums there is a huge uptick of iPhone migrators, I'll bet the share doubles, if not more when 4th quarter analysis happens.
 
Dec 11, 2022
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Trying to get hold of a Pixel 6 over Black Friday in the UK it seemed like everyone had been buying them, but when the best price was £299, and a few places at £349 I guess that isn't surprising.
 
Dec 11, 2022
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I have been studying phone reviews leading up to Black Friday. I have two Chinese value for money phones - Xiaomi and Oppo.

I bought the Xiaomi from Amazon and the Oppo second hand. Both were sim free and they are now about two or three years old.

I read very negative reviews about the Pixel 6a performance as a phone.

I found the Pixel 6 attractive. But there were no extra specially good deals. They were basically all at the same price.

I will keep my eye on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. But of course, other phones are getting cheaper as well.

The idea of buying a phone with good software does not particularly appeal.

1. I expect the software will become widely available.

2. I want a camera that is technically good. So if I take a shot, I can come back to it in the future.

Of course, in practice I rarely do. I have realised that ready to use photos are more useful than photos that require any sort of work.

In the end I bought a OnePlus Nord 2T. This had a genuine heavy discount and good reviews, 218 GB.

I bought it for my daughter as a stop gap measure. She is not interested in phones but requires a phone for her work.

She is careless with phones too.

So, it is not a good idea to buy her an expensive phone.

I realised after reading the reviews that my current phones are not bad. I would have to spend a lot of money to make an appreciable difference.

And then you have something you have to be careful with.

So I have read the reviews on Pixel phones. There is a tendency to favour phones that I already have some knowledge of. Particularly if it is a big one off purchase.
 
Dec 12, 2022
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First. Honesty. I'm too tight-fisted to spend £500+ on a phone. Especially when it doesn't have expandable storage.

I've got a Samsung A71. Prior to that a S7 and an ancient Galaxy 500 that run on Android Frodo.

Like what I've got. Magic Eraser sounds good, but not good enough for me to fork out the extra.
 

ember1205

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Oct 6, 2016
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First, it's important to know and be aware that the Google Pixels are not "great phones." There is a long-standing issue with SMS and phone call reliability on these devices that Google doesn't want to acknowledge, let alone fix. It's not something that affects the devices in a way that most people will even notice as it basically is a drop in reception to where incoming calls won't ring the device (or your caller will tell you it rang a bunch of times but you only heard one ring or similar), text messages (SMS specifically) won't deliver, and then things will go back to working correctly. The drop-outs have no fix and I know full well that Google is 100% aware because they ended up taking my Pixel 6 Pro back for a full refund because they had no fix.

A second, possibly related, issue is that the device goes into a sleep state where no inbound communications are received of any kind. I've had my devices sitting on my desk while working from home, connected to WiFi, plugged in, and even fully charged (while plugged in). The phone provides zero indication of texts, calls, emails, etc. All the while, I see pop-up notifications and hear alerts on my computer for emails and other incoming communications. Pick up the phone and it "blows up" with every notification trying to alert all at once like they've been queued up and waiting.

Second, the reason that Google isn't taking any market share is because they kind of can't. Apple Fans aren't going to switch because they've bought into the "blue bubble" idiocy. Samsung fans aren't going to switch because Google isn't going to actively try and compete with their biggest source of data via the Android operating system. Pixel devices are updated much more quickly than other Android devices and this is a very good thing. Samsung isn't going to take that on because of their add-in bloatware - they will leave the updates to the carriers which is a horrible approach for the consumer as devices are left unsecured (without patches) for sometimes months on end because of delays with carriers pushing them out and no way to get the updates directly for the consumer.

I've owned the 2XL, 3XL, and 6Pro - loved them all until I finally got 100% fed up with the phone/SMS issue that became an issue I was no longer to deal with when the ability to get me via phone/text became 'critical' (and I was missing calls and texts were delayed). I've since switched to a Samsung but am literally months behind on security patches because of major lag in distributing their version of Android 13 to the handsets. I use all Apple products for my compute needs and have an iPhone for work. So, there's no reason I can't easily switch to an iPhone for personal use.
 
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ember1205

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Oct 6, 2016
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Share numbers exclude pixel 7. If you watch forums there is a huge uptick of iPhone migrators, I'll bet the share doubles, if not more when 4th quarter analysis happens.

Let's say that the share TRIPLES. That's about 5% of the market. Essentially meaningless.
 

R2E

Dec 12, 2022
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Pixels are not really well supported. Google doesn't really bother to support them outside their select key markets. VoLTE wasn't supported on my carrier with the Pixel 2, Pixel 4XL and Pixel 5a 5G that I owned. The Pixel 4XL developed DRM failure after a monthly security patch that left the phone unable to play any HD streams from Netflix etc and it took then 10 months to finally fix it. The Pixel 5a 5G died after 6 months of use and suddenly shut down and unable to power up. The Pixel 4XL and Pixel 5a 5G have given me a lot of grief overheating to 42°C during use in a tropical climate with 28°C ambient temperatures, where the camera would disable features like HDR preview after shooting just 3-4 photos, and Google Photos would pause backup because the phones were too warm. And hardware is probably not Google's focus anyway when they make most of their income from selling targeted ads. So they will never be serious about it as if their survival depended on it. So we can expect more half-assed hardware from Google and more products from them heading straight to the Google graveyard.
 
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Dec 12, 2022
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Unfortunately Pixels get an unwarranted reputation from people that leave huge walls of text explaining supposed issues and repeating whatever clickbaity articles told them doesn't work on them whenever they're mentioned. I personally have had 2 Pixels (3 XL and 6 Pro) and never had any long lasting issue (bugs do occur occasionally, but find me perfect software, anywhere) and recently two of my friends bought a 6a and a 7 Pro. I've had my Pixel 6 Pro for a while now and as I said, all smooth sailing. I wonder if I'll hear about any issues from my friends, ever, or it will be business as usual and I'll exclusively hear complaints from anonymous folks on the internet, most of whom has never seen a Pixel in person.
 
Dec 12, 2022
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For me "Once burned twice shy". More than a few times since 2007 Google has entered and exited the phone market as well as other products and services. Apple on 2007 shot to the lead and never looked back.

I've been an Android user, so I have used Google SW, since the beginning. I started with Motorola, then moved to Samsung 10 years ago. I only switched to Google now with the Pixel 7 Pro since it seems like they may stay in the market. We'll see.

Other reason
No built stylis like Note series Samsung. Very useful for design sketching (ie. Napkin)
No back button or symbol. Swipe is the one and only way to go back unless the app or website has a left arrow or loop back symbol.
No edge display like Note with handy side bar app access.
Google doesn't prefill Top pulldown menu with useful tools like the Note.
No Headphone jack.
No SD card storage.
While the last two may boost short-term sales of accessories and cloud storage it doesn't endear me too Google as a vendor. Are they raising money to get their Deep Mind product to actually work, legal defense fund for Government oversight and fines or is their an Android autonomous vehicle in our self-serving Coke or Pepsi.







After reviewing this I'm glad I have 30 days to try before I buy the Pixel 7 Pro.
 

JACrazy

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Feb 4, 2016
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Im looking to upgrade from my Galaxy S10 but as much as I want a Pixel 7 phone for its camera, I dont care about the other little features that make it stand out. Looking at camera comparisons, the Galaxy S22 camera is just as good in most cases, Pixel edges out just slightly in some areas. Some call it bloatware but theres a lot of small QoL features that Galaxy phones can do over vanilla Android, so I'm compelled to stick with getting another Galaxy. I like the quick share features and the edge panel especially, plus I'll probably be getting the Galaxy watch eventually since the Pixel watch ended up being a letdown.
 

Holger M.

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May 23, 2019
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There is the elephant in the room, which media often ignores: Many users experience massive COMMUNICATION ISSUES with the PIXEL 6 PRO.

The problem is that tech media primary focus on the camera features, but do not test the phones communication capabilities thoroughly. So, the manufacturers don't pay as much attention to these vital features, either.

Google used a Broadband chip in the 6 Pro, which is so bad, that even the manufacturer of the chip, Samsung, does not even use it in their own phones. Want text messages with huge delays or loosing connection constantly? The Pixel 6 Pro is for you!

Trading-in the 6 Pro on the open market is difficult, because of its known communication issues.

Why isn't there a pile of class action lawsuit about this? Well, Google makes people to sign into an arbitration contract when activating their phones. Opting out is timely limited. Something which does not sit well with customers and may make people switch to another brand.

As the Pixel 6 Pro was released I recommended this phone to somebody who ended up buying it and struggling with it on a daily basis. I feel really bad about this and will never recommend Google hardware to anyone ever again.

These issues caused me to loose trust in Google hardware entirely. Currently, I use a 4a 5G. It worked fine for a while, but some apps started freezing on me, recently. My next phone will most likely not be a Google product.

I expect smooth operation and communication before fancy camera features. Google need to deliver on the basics, first.
 

Holger M.

Estimable
May 23, 2019
3
0
4,510
First, it's important to know and be aware that the Google Pixels are not "great phones." There is a long-standing issue with SMS and phone call reliability on these devices that Google doesn't want to acknowledge, let alone fix. It's not something that affects the devices in a way that most people will even notice as it basically is a drop in reception to where incoming calls won't ring the device (or your caller will tell you it rang a bunch of times but you only heard one ring or similar), text messages (SMS specifically) won't deliver, and then things will go back to working correctly. The drop-outs have no fix and I know full well that Google is 100% aware because they ended up taking my Pixel 6 Pro back for a full refund because they had no fix.

A second, possibly related, issue is that the device goes into a sleep state where no inbound communications are received of any kind. I've had my devices sitting on my desk while working from home, connected to WiFi, plugged in, and even fully charged (while plugged in). The phone provides zero indication of texts, calls, emails, etc. All the while, I see pop-up notifications and hear alerts on my computer for emails and other incoming communications. Pick up the phone and it "blows up" with every notification trying to alert all at once like they've been queued up and waiting.

Second, the reason that Google isn't taking any market share is because they kind of can't. Apple Fans aren't going to switch because they've bought into the "blue bubble" idiocy. Samsung fans aren't going to switch because Google isn't going to actively try and compete with their biggest source of data via the Android operating system. Pixel devices are updated much more quickly than other Android devices and this is a very good thing. Samsung isn't going to take that on because of their add-in bloatware - they will leave the updates to the carriers which is a horrible approach for the consumer as devices are left unsecured (without patches) for sometimes months on end because of delays with carriers pushing them out and no way to get the updates directly for the consumer.

I've owned the 2XL, 3XL, and 6Pro - loved them all until I finally got 100% fed up with the phone/SMS issue that became an issue I was no longer to deal with when the ability to get me via phone/text became 'critical' (and I was missing calls and texts were delayed). I've since switched to a Samsung but am literally months behind on security patches because of major lag in distributing their version of Android 13 to the handsets. I use all Apple products for my compute needs and have an iPhone for work. So, there's no reason I can't easily switch to an iPhone for personal use.

I agree with you: 3rd party update delays and the communication issues with Google's own hardware is a huge problem for Android. After Huawei was forced out of the US market*, there are not many viable options besides Apple, unfortunately.

*) Just as they were overtaking Apple in market share. Coincidence?
 
Dec 13, 2022
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Ive had 3 pixels; a pixel 1 (warranty repaired due to battery issues), pixel 4a (screen warranty repair) and pixel 6a (retuned due to hardware failure of FP sensor. Last "pixel" that lasted the full 2 years was a nexus 6a. So yes, they have a bad reliability reputation because... They are unreliable!!!
 
Dec 13, 2022
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This phone is garbage. I had it for 30 min and returned. Screen has dull, washed out colors. Worst experience I have ever encountered. I would not be using it even if I had it for free. My Oneplus is killing it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dec 13, 2022
1
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First, it's important to know and be aware that the Google Pixels are not "great phones." There is a long-standing issue with SMS and phone call reliability on these devices that Google doesn't want to acknowledge, let alone fix. It's not something that affects the devices in a way that most people will even notice as it basically is a drop in reception to where incoming calls won't ring the device (or your caller will tell you it rang a bunch of times but you only heard one ring or similar), text messages (SMS specifically) won't deliver, and then things will go back to working correctly. The drop-outs have no fix and I know full well that Google is 100% aware because they ended up taking my Pixel 6 Pro back for a full refund because they had no fix.

A second, possibly related, issue is that the device goes into a sleep state where no inbound communications are received of any kind. I've had my devices sitting on my desk while working from home, connected to WiFi, plugged in, and even fully charged (while plugged in). The phone provides zero indication of texts, calls, emails, etc. All the while, I see pop-up notifications and hear alerts on my computer for emails and other incoming communications. Pick up the phone and it "blows up" with every notification trying to alert all at once like they've been queued up and waiting.


Did you have a Verizon SKU? I think the mmwave 5g antenna was a complete afterthought.

Mmwave 5g sucks anyways but what's happening is your phone keeps trying to use the mmwave signal that is barely there.

I happened to take mine apart last week to replace a cracked screen. I unplugged the antenna for mmwave and my problems seem to be gone.

To your second point, I'm pretty sure you just had "Flip to Shhhh" turned on. It was default at launch iirc. When you put your phone face down it goes into do not disturb mode. But Google should have been able to tell you how to fix that one.
 
Dec 14, 2022
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When it comes to the global market, in a lot of countries the Pixel phones does not deliver a good value for the money.
They are not sold officially, so they are lacking 5G support, VoLTE and VoWIFI. Some of the Google smart features don't work in a lot of countries (Call Screen, Direct my call...), and others don't have a big importance if you're not a native English speaker.
In addition, they are known to not be very reliable phones. I have a Pixel 6 and in the first moths it had a lot of bugs. I really wanted to upgrade to the Pixel 7 Pro for the camera (to have an extra zoom lens), but considering all things above I just could't spend 1000 Euro on a phone with no official support and lacking features like VoWiFi or 5G, when I could have bought (and I bought) the S22 Ultra for less than 900 Euro.
In conclusion, for the global market (or at least for me), the pixel phones offer vanilla software, not quite flagship level hardware, very good cameras and a set of features that either don't work or have little importance if they cannot be used in the day to day usage scenarios. All this on a flagship level price.
 
Dec 17, 2022
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With the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 6a, Google had a very good year on the smartphone front. Yet, Pixel sales still lag other handsets. We take a closer look at why that is and how it might change.

Google Pixel 7 is a great phone — so why aren't more people buying it? : Read more
I agree though. I've gone from the pixel 3, to the pixel 6, and now the pixel 7. They are absolutely flagship phones for $500 cheaper. It's unreal how these haven't become more mainstream. The camera is absolutely top notch. Check the reviews. Beats the iphone and the Samsung.