KPH tech blog

For the past few months, I’ve been playing Watch Dogs 2 on my Xbox One S, and I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s set in San Francisco, and even features a replica Palo Alto, and tech campus for Nudle – the in-game equivalent of Google.

The colours, the vibrancy, the playfulness, and the general feel of Google is all there, albeit under its guise as Nudle. And all of the above has influenced me.

I guess that’s why I’m more optimistic about Google’s Pixel phones this year. Especially as that playful approach to life has been missing in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and, especially in the UK, multiple lockdowns & social distancing, which has meant sitting indoors at home for most of the last 10 months.

Why do I now like Pixel?

Although I love One UI, I now appreciate why people like Pixels. It’s the back-to-basics approach: it’s stock Android, without most of the useless bells & whistles, a lot of which can be installed later via the Play Store (if you want them).

This year, at least in my view, they’re not as feature-less as they have been. Pixel owners will be quick to dismiss such a statement, but I’ve always felt like there’s been something missing from them.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Google’s mindset with these devices. But, in the past, the Pixel phones have been just too expensive for me to justify the asking price.

For the same price as I could’ve paid for the OG Pixel, I instead got the Galaxy S7. At the time (December 2016), it had more baked-in features that I found useful. It had a better quality display – 1440p at 577 Pixels Per Inch (PPI), to the Pixel’s 1080p at 441 PPI. Despite only 32GB of internal storage, unlike the Pixel it came with expandable storage – which I utilised to great effect with a 64GB Micro SD card, giving me a total of 96GB. I stored all my music & photo’s on the Micro SD card, leaving most of the 32GB for games & apps.

It was also a lot cheaper than the Pixel, especially on UK phone networks. The original Pixel was, in my opinion, contrastingly lacklustre, which was a shame as the device felt great in my hands. But there wasn’t enough ‘exclusive,’ Pixel-only features to tempt me, and even though Google were touting the Pixel’s photography as one of its best features, the Pixel brand was only in its first year.

A lot has changed, though, and the Pixel phones are now recognised as offering some of the best photo’s possible on a smartphone. The Pixel 3a in 2019 seemed brilliant, but I was only 1 year into my 2 year contract with my S9 Plus, so it was a little too late.

However, the Pixel 4a launch this summer made me sit up and pay attention. What it seems to be offering, at a third of the price I’ve paid for my S9 Plus, is fantastic.

And, as much as I love the Advanced Features of One UI, like the Game Launcher or the built-in system EQ in the Settings app – not just Dolby Atmos presets, but a fully customisable Equaliser – are those extra features worth the asking price?

In past years, I would’ve said yes; but this year? I’m not so sure…

– Chris JK.