Ever since their debut in 2016, Google Pixel phones have been beloved among Android enthusiasts thanks to their cameras and software. While I fully agree Pixel cameras are indeed great — some of thebest smartphone cameras on the market — I find Pixel phones' software, particularly the UX, to be overrated.
In the first couple of years, the Pixel software was bland and generic, basically vanilla stock Android. Then the Pixel 3 introduced, in my opinion, the single most terrible navigating system in the history of mobile devices. It used so-called pill navigation that was such a flop Google ditched it for the Pixel 4. Thankfully, Google finally added some liveliness and whimsical animations to the software with the Pixel 6, now widely known as Pixel Launcher.
And while I don't dislike the Pixel Launcher per se — I prefer it over, say, Vivo's FunTouch — I still think it's inferior to Samsung's One UI or Oppo's ColorOS. I am aware that I'm in the minority. Most people, especially my peers in the tech media space, put the Pixel Launcher in high regard. However, I think it's missing crucial features that almost every other Android phone offers, and it takes on some bad Apple habits. I still like the Pixel phones a lot, and I think thePixel 7 Pro is still among one of thebest phones around, but there's room for improvement.
1 There are two homescreen widgets you cannot remove
One of the biggest selling points of Android, especially for XDA readers, is its customizable nature. Whether you're talking about Android skins, app icon packs, or different ROMs, there are just a lot of changes you can make to your Android phone to make it stand out, especially compared to iPhones. But that's why it's annoying to me that Pixel phones have not one but two persistent widgets on the homescreen that you can't remove or resize. I'm talking about the At a Glance widget at the top of the homescreen and the Google search bar in the bottom third.
Android enthusiasts generally enjoy setting up their homescreen exactly the way they want. I have a specific setup that I use across all my Android phones, where I populate the bottom third with apps (for easy thumb reach) and leave the top two-thirds of the screen clean for wallpapers and maybe a specific calendar widget. But Pixels won't let me do this. I instead get a crowded homescreen that looks just as crowded as aniPhone's.
Now, to be fair, the At a Glance widget can be helpful from time to time. The widget cansometimes show me relevant flight information, like my departure gate, when I'm getting ready to fly. I say sometimes because Google just pulls the information from my Gmail, and it's not always accurate (it's confused other people's flights as my own before). Still, when it works, it's pretty clever. Sometimes, it also feeds me relevant weather changes, but these moments are few and far between. Ultimately, whether the widget is useful doesn't matter. We should be able to remove or resize widgets on our phone homescreen.
2 No floating app window
Split-screen multitasking has been an option on Android phones for years, but with smartphone screens becoming larger and phones having as much RAM as some laptops, most Android skins now give us the option to launch apps in a resizable floating window. This is a superior way to multitask since you're not locked to a grid.
Virtually every other Android software skin I can think of, from Samsung to Xiaomi, Vivo to Oppo, Asus to Motorola, has the ability to launch apps this way — but not Google. The Pixel Launcher only offers conventional split-screen multitasking. This problem only gets more absurd on the Google Pixel Fold or Pixel Tablet because they have larger screens that would greatly benefit from a floating window.
I know some Pixel fans prefer split-screen method, and that's cool. However, the point is to give users options, and the Pixel Launcher doesn't provide that.
3 No double tap to lock, a problem made worse by the bad power button placement
This one seems like a nitpick, but Google Pixel phones don't support any type of shortcut gesture to lock the phone and turn off the screen; you must physically press the power button. This wouldn't be a big deal were it not for the fact the last several Google Pixel phones have an unusually high power button placed above the volume rocker. No other major phone brand I can think of does this.
I hold my phone with my left hand, and I can't reach the power button with my normal grip (as seen in the photo above). I need to readjust my grip and wriggle my hand up a couple of inches to hit the power button just to turn off the phone. This problem could be solved if the software gave us the ability to lock the phone/turn off the screen via a double tap, a feature available on almost all other third-party Android skins, from Samsung's One UI to OnePlus' OxygenOS. Either that or don't put your power button in an unusual location!
4 Google Photos is great for archiving and searching, not as a native photo gallery
Pixel phones also don't have a conventional local photo gallery app the way other phones do. Instead, they use Google Photos, essentially a cloud service for photos. I actually love Google Photos because it allows me to quickly find old photos, even ones taken on devices from a decade ago.
But Google Photos has problems as a default gallery app. One, it isn't really designed as a local photo album. Instead, the default view aims to show your entire cloud library, including photos taken from other devices. If you use multiple smartphones or tablets like I do, this could quickly lead to confusion when you see a photo on your Pixel that wasn't snapped by it. There is an option to get Google Photos to show you just photos on one device, but it's not the default. Another problem is that once you're on Google Photos, you're constantly asked to turn on photo backup, and if you're not subscribed to a Google storage plan with lots of space, you could run out of storage fast.
Finally, Google Photos is just a slower app than many default gallery apps on other phones. Even basic tasks like trimming the length of a video take longer. Part of it is the Tensor chip not being the most efficient, but it's also because Google Photos is constantly trying to interact with the cloud instead of just being a local image storage app.
Ultimately, Pixel phones are still great
Before Pixel fans go and grab their pitchforks, I want to reiterate that I like the Pixel phones. I think the Pixel 7a is probably the best buy for casual smartphone users right now, and the Pixel 7 Pro still sits near the top of mybest Android list. I also really likethe Google Pixel Fold, even if that phone's hardware is quite rough around the edges.
And as much as I just nitpicked about the Pixel software, there's a lot to rave about, such as the scary accurate on-device voice dictation, the awesome Now Playing feature that actively identifies music playing nearby, and the Pixel Launcher's always-on display. But the four things I listed are constant annoyances, and the fact that virtually all other Android phones are free of those issues should back up my point that they are legit gripes.
- Brand
- SoC
- Tensor G2
- Display
- 6.1-inch FHD+ gOLED @90Hz
- RAM
- 8GB
- Storage
- 128GB
- Battery
- 4,385mAh
Google's latest mid-ranger brings several improvements over last year's model, making it a great option for the budget conscious. The Pixel 7a packs the flagship Tensor G2 chip, flagship-tier cameras, an improved 90Hz display, more RAM, better durability, and wireless charging support.
- Brand
- SoC
- Tensor G2 with Titan M2 co-processor
- Display
- Front: 5.8-inch 2092x1080p OLED @120Hz Internal: 7.6-inch 2208x1840p OLED @120Hz
- RAM
- 12GB LPDDR5
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB UFS 3.1
- Battery
- 4,821mAh
The Google Pixel Fold is a feature-rich device with a compact form factor, flagship hardware, impressive cameras, and a phenomenal software experience.
