GooglePixel 8 - Unlocked Android Smartphone with Advanced Pixel Camera, 24-Hour Battery, and Powerful Security - Rose - 128 GBECOLOGOECOLOGO

Probably the best phone I have ever owned. Purchased new (obsidian, 128gb, first time Pixel user) for $400 on prime day. I think the only phone that might compete price/hardware wise is the Xiaomi14, but at $400 the pixel 8 is a much better value for me personally(compared to $700+ Xiaomi14).This phone is really fast. Really fast. So far it has handled all of my playstore games and emulated games really well. Can even run ps2/dolphin just fine. The battery is great, charges really fast and doesn't drain fast even when gaming. The adaptive battery feature has already proven to be a life saver as well. Reducing how fast the device charges when over 80% (especially for people who charge over night) should help to keep the battery's charge for a while. I switched from the original A50 that I purchased for $300 in 2019 and the difference is night and day. The A50, a value oriented phone with great features, drained power incredibly fast even when brand new.The camera+screen quality is probably the highlight of the phone for me. The camera has a ton of features and very sharp and crisp looking photos. However what really shines about the 8's camera is its photos in low light/night time and the ability to edit photos/videos easily with just a few button presses. The 120hz screen and actua display competes with just about any other flagship phone and really makes the phone much more responsive and expressive.The few cons to this phone aren't enough to warrant knocking any stars, but I will still mention them. When holding/operating the phone, at-least for my hand, its very easy to smudge your camera lens with your fingers on the back of the phone. While not needed, I opted for a glass screen protector that makes any smudges easy to wipe off. Also, being a phone produced by Google, the Pixel sports a google search bar at the bottom of the screen that you are unable to remove, move, or resize. While not a big deal, I did find it odd that non of the video reviews I watched for this phone mentioned this. However I do understand its been a part of Pixel for a long time and most likely was covered for previous models. Having not bought a new, nice phone in 5+ years, I was also very bummed that a charging block was not included. While this is listed clearly on this page and is easily visible, it has been frustrating to track down a power block that can really deliver the 27w to the phone. So many blocks might be advertised as "high speed power bricks" but often I find you don't receive the full listed wattage. Especially if the block has multiple outlets. Even if the price needs to be higher to compensate, with mobile devices becoming more power hungry, new phones should be shipped with both a charging cable and power brick. Google obviously isn't alone in this practice and appears to be part of the cost of upgrading to a new phone.Over all, switching from Samsung to pixel has been incredibly simple and easy. After a couple weeks I have completely taken to my new phone and probably have been converted to a Pixel user for life. I have now become the picture taker in my relationship and can no longer say "yeah but my phone is bad!" to avoid taking them haha. The promise of 8 years of updates, 7 now that the 9 is out, has me excited to keep this phone for as long as possible as well.

I've been using it for almost two weeks and it has been great so far. Camera and screen are incredible, it was definetly sealed and new, it's unlocked and worked with my company right away, and has a great performance even with games. It also updated right away to the last android version. I think it's the best phone you can get for this price.

I have been using Google phones since the Nexus 5 years ago I am an Android lover and my Pixel 8 pro is the best and smartest phone I have ever owned, great built, software updates every month, stable running OS and all day battery life. Overall a great phone that fits all my current needs.

It's by far the nicest phone i've ever had, and it feels quite premium. The smooth aluminum side makes it a bit tricky to grip, I was afraid of dropping it before getting a case.The screen is very nice, the OLED looks very rich and it gets decently bright for outdoor use. The fingerprint scanner is hit or miss, but mostly does the job.The camera is also quite capable. I have had some issues with exposure in dark settings, but all in all I'm quite satisfied.Speakers are really nice I think, a bit step up over my old phone for sure. I normally use earbuds though.One thing i've noticed is the google assistant voice volume just sorta randomly changes itself, sometimes It's hard to hear, sometimes it's fine, other times it cranks the volume way up for no reason. strange.The connectivity is fine, but I will say it seems like it uses a whole lot of battery life on the wireless receivers. The battery life in general is rather so-so for a brand new phone. My old phone did have a larger battery, but even after 4 years I feel like it has better battery life than this phone has brand new. That's not the best but if I needed to I could go 2 days without charging with moderate use. Still a bit of a bummer to use 30%+ of my battery life with only 1.5 hours or so of screen time throughout the day. This is with it aggressively killing off my podcast app and requiring multiple tries to play or pause what I have going, which honestly i don't know if I should blame the phone or the app. I believe is the wireless modems being battery hogs too, but i'm not certain.The software is pretty nice, a lot of cool features they include in their version of android. But I do miss some of the things Samsung had going on. It wasn't until last year that Pixels could limit their charge max percentage, even. But it's a trade off I can live with.One thing that bothers me a lot though, is the wireless charging simply stopped working one day. My wireless charger works fine, my phone simply doesn't seem to charge on it anymore. I suppose i will contact google support about that soon. I don't need wireless charging but it's a feature it used to have and i'd like it back.all in all, it's a nice phone. Not my perfect phone perhaps but it's got plenty of support years left and performs fine for the price I got it ($400).