[Review] Pixel 5

[v0id]

TL;DR at the very bottom

 

I wanted to share my thoughts on the Pixel 5 to hopefully help any prospective buyers looking for an Android phone for 2021. It should be noted that while I consider myself more or less tech savvy, I'm by no means an expert and consider myself just an average user looking for the best bang for the buck. What's important to me may not be important to you, and the kind of user I am might be the opposite of who you are, so bear these in mind as you read through this review. I'm hoping not to make this a giant word sandwich and bore people to death, but I also don't want to leave anything out that may help someone make a decision. I've broken down this review into sections based on what factors I considered when deciding to purchase and also gave a score out of ten so readers can tell at a glance my thoughts, with a paragraph following to explain my score. Below are some quick facts to get us started and as always YMMV.

 

Purchased: November 2020

Color: Just Black

Manufacture Date: September 2020

Build Number: RQ1D.201205.012.A1

Updates: December 2020 Security Update | October 2020 Google Play Update

Location: Medium Metropolitan City, Midwest, United States

Carrier: Verizon

Usage: Light - Moderate (banking, general Internet, Netflix/Youtube/Hulu, texting, phone calls, Bluetooth streaming)

Previous Phone: Pixel 3a

 

____________________

 

Build Quality 10/10

In the hand the phone feels great and well put together. While it can't compare to true metal and glass, it still is refreshing knowing that I wouldn't have to handle it like an egg since the back is mainly a bio-resin (plastic) with an aluminum sub-frame. While not rated for shock I do feel better about small drops and general day to day life because of the build materials Google chose, and therefore consider durability to be rather high. I still decided to get a clear case and screen protector, but that's more for long term cosmetic damage prevention as I plan on keeping this device until the support cycle runs out and want it in the best possible trade-in condition. The front sports Gorilla Glass 6 which is very respectable and merges seamlessly with the chassis. One handed use is very easy even though it's a six inch display, and overall just feels very solid and easy to manipulate. I think it was rather ingenious of Google to have a cutout for wireless charging while keeping the rest of the frame aluminum (100% recycled for the environmentalists out there) and covering it in that bio-resin. Additionally, the back is matte so fingerprints are basically non existent which is a definite plus; I care about how my phone looks and little things like that matter to me. Just for fun, check out JerryRigEverything's durability test to see how the 5 stood up; I for one was impressed as hell. My man dug into the back of the phone, tore gashes into it, peeled away layers to expose the wireless charging, dipped the phone in acetone (which removes adhesive), punctured the battery, applied extreme heat and THEN tried to bend and break it. Spoiler alert...it didn't break! And after he went back to do a teardown, the phone POWERED ON even after the battery was punctured. I mean come on, Google deserves at least a little credit for building this thing.

 

Battery Life 10/10

For my uses, this battery is a friggin' champ. My Pixel 3a easily got me through an entire day, even after a year of use, so jumping to 4000mAh was just that much better for me. After a typical day I'm around 50% by the time I climb into bed, and actually because of that I don't charge it until I wake up, where I unplug it pretty much the moment it gets to a 100% so it's not sitting on the charger forever. Keep in mind I do not game on my phone at all, it's mainly used for phone calls and texting with Bluetooth music streaming and Youtube/Netflix sprinkled throughout the day. I keep adaptive brightness on and the screen timeout settings are all at their default. There isn't a whole lot to say about the battery since it's brand new, and new large batteries generally perform great for the first several months. The true test will of course be time and how fast it degrades so we'll see how well Google sourced their battery materials and if their quality is high or not. If the forum allows, I'll update in several months if there are any changes worth noting.

 

Camera 10/10

I know Youtubers get a hardon for the camera, but honestly I really don't use the thing very often. And frankly most cameras today are just fine for people; I use the auto function and the pictures are clear and I can tell what I was taking a picture of, so yeah. You can find a million pictures and video of what this thing can do, so anything I put here would be quite redundant. I'm not looking to be the next Picasso, just take pictures of my cat for Internet points and the lulz.

 

Audio 7/10

Probably the most 'controversial' aspect of the phone, I found the audio experience to be adequate for my needs. The speaker, as most us are aware, is under the display so it vibrates the screen to achieve something akin to stereo speakers coupled with the bottom firing one. Of course if you cover the bottom one the top speaker does sound tinny and pretty much has zero bass. But when you let the phone operate under normal conditions (ie don't cover the speaker), they actually sound pretty good especially after the most recent update. Phone calls seem pretty clear, and while yes there isn't a whole lot of bass overall it doesn't bother me and has served my needs just fine. I don't use my phone for jam sessions very often and I didn't buy a phone to have a stellar audio experience. I need it to be clear and audible which these speakers do. They are a step down from traditional front facing speakers, obviously, but Youtubers have blown them out of proportion - your average person isn't really going to care, and after a few days I don't even notice the lack of bass. And on a more positive note, you don't have to worry about a speaker grill collecting dust and grime or coming unglued after months or years of use, so it's not all terrible. Of course I'm no audiophile so if you are one of those who really does care about the audio experience, you may indeed be disappointed with what Google has come up with. For everyone else they'll be fine for day to day use.

 

Display 10/10

The display is vibrant, colorful, touch accurate, plenty bright and overall pleasant on the eyes. I'm using the 'natural' setting in the display, although honestly I can't really tell a difference between them. The 90Hz is a great addition and coming from a 60Hz panel, you can instantly tell the difference. People complained it wasn't 120hz and I facepalm...first world problems amirite? 90Hz is a great compromise between battery life and smoothness, and frankly anything above 60hz will be an upgrade so people will enjoy the experience of using the display. My unit had no dead pixels, excellent viewing angles and no color shifts as far as my eyes could tell. The lack of bezels is pleasing to the eye as well, minus the hole-punch camera but honestly I stopped noticing it after just a couple days, and it only really comes into focus with extremely white/bright backgrounds.

 

Connectivity 9/10

Wifi and Bluetooth has been stable and consistent (except an Android 11 bug where Bluetooth randomly just stops and you have to manually continue playback), and speeds have been in line with specifications. This is a 5G capable phone and I have been getting speeds well above 200Mbps, but I do not live near millimeter wave so I cannot test those speeds. 5G is nice of course but it was not the reason I bought the phone, it just happened to be a feature. Anyways, cell service has been stable throughout my travels and have experienced no dropped calls; others report hearing me loud and clear on their end, whether on speakerphone or using the internal mic. There have been a few rare occasions where my cell service will completely disappear for like 5 minutes before reconnecting, but I'm not sure if that's the phone's fault or Verizon's or maybe a combination of the two. I won't gripe too much since this is still a fairly new phone using a fairly new technology, but if this keeps happening six months down the road then we got problems. The Wifi as well will sometimes take its time connecting, where I'll be home for example for at least 20min, check my phone and notice I'm not connected. Then after checking I'll suddenly get connected, so when the phone is locked sometimes it won't connect automatically. Maybe this is a normal but I don't recall my Pixel 3a doing that. So I knocked a point off for a few random connection issues, but I feel software updates could be a solution.

 

Software 9/10

Most of us know Google's software is very clean, minimalistic and lacking 'fluff'. I'd definitely agree, as I consider most third party manufacturers to add a bunch of apps and settings that just take up space. Sometimes they have a few handy features that Pixel's don't have, but overall it's useless. They double up on apps and it just ends up becoming bloatware. So Google's approach is very nice and refreshing to see, as there are very few apps preinstalled. My gripes are tiny and not deal breaking, but I do wish I could move the Google search bar or the weather/calendar on the screen. Or if I could shrink it to a small bubble like on my old LG G6. And Google lets you choose a 'grid' for your homescreen depending on how many apps you want at the bottom, but as you select fewer and fewer apps to show, the size of the apps gets larger and eventually becomes HUGE. Like, what the hell Google? What if I want smaller icons but just want...fewer of them? I feel like you don't need to blow them up so the blind can see them just because I want three icons instead of five. And I do wish I could organize the app drawer by combining like apps into folders like I could on my older Samsung. But again these are minor and cosmetic, and overall the software experience is great and will be supported until 2023, which is something I wanted in a phone. It lacks Face ID, which I don't use, and gets rid of the 'squeeze to assist' feature found in other Pixels which I also don't use, so those two omissions don't impact my experience.

 

Gripes/Misc Stuff/Random

No headphone jack and there is no dongle in the box. The price is a little high but not outrageous, something like $649 or $599 would have been perfect (yes I know millimeter wave is why it costs more). I would have preferred a quad mic set up but I do enjoy that the camera bump is barely noticeable. Another color option would have been nice but I know it's cheaper to manufacture the fewer SKUs ya got so I get it. As stated above in the software section, I wish I just had a bit more freedom in icon size and placement of the on-screen widgets along with creating app drawer folders. Also there is no FM radio and my OCD wants the camera to be in the center of the phone above the fingerprint reader (I know, I know). Fingerprint reader is fast and accurate and I prefer it on the back. There is no obvious way to search through your apps like how Samsung does it, where I can just start typing an app and it'll find it for me. Adaptive brightness can be hit or miss and sometimes is way too sensitive. Smart lock is also hit or miss depending on what mood the phone is in, like I have it set to remain unlocked while connected to my car yet every so often it refuses to do so.

 

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TL;DR

The Pixel 5 isn't a flagship. It doesn't have microSD expansion, Face ID, true stereo speakers, a 120Hz screen nor is it made out of glass and metal. There's no stylus, no quad cameras or in screen fingerprint reader and the SoC is not an 800 Snapdragon series. It won't stand out in a crowd and it won't 'wow' you by its looks. But honestly, what it does have is a great price to performance ratio. Now to be clear, there are specific use cases where a $1000+ smartphone may be required, but let me assure you the majority of users do not need the hardware that those phones provide, regardless how much marketing is trying to convince us otherwise. I can't tell you how many people are rocking $1000 phones that have been reduced to fast and snappy Facebook machines. Their power is wasted and for what? Most people (read: most) will be JUST FINE with the 765G that dwells inside the 5 along with the 8GB of RAM. Waiting an extra second for something to load won't kill you, trust me. The Pixel 5 is snappy and does daily tasks without breaking a sweat. For the simple man or woman that just wants a no frills approach to Android, this might be a phone to consider. It has compromises (most phones do), but honestly it hits the nail on the head where it counts: a clean and minimalistic style with a functional design that checks most of the boxes people care about it, like a great software experience and intuitive features that won't break the bank. Plus you can be satisfied in the knowledge that Google will support you for the next three years, both on the security front but also with new features; in fact, this past update added things like adaptive charging and connectivity, an extreme battery saver option and fixes for audio. It's nice knowing a company is at least attempting to give a shit about its past products, even if they are spying on me all the time

 

I will be available for specific questions or comments if someone actually made it this far and read my entire review. Just my attempt at giving back to the community!

[dizmo]

You failed the number one thing about reviews....there's no pictures

 

Other than that I take issue with giving anything 10/10. Nothing's 10/10. Interestingly, 120hz really doesn't affect battery life that much as long as it's properly coded.

I had high hopes for the Pixel line this year, and thought I might try it out again, but they didn't make an XL version with a decent screen size so I wasn't interested.

 

Glad you liked the phone though, I find the Pixel phones a little too boring for my own taste

[Senzelian]

10 hours ago, v0id said:

The Pixel 5 isn't a flagship.

 

The Pixel 5 is in fact Google's flagship. Flagship is such a misused word.

The flagship was originally the commanding ship of a fleet. Didn't even need to be the best or largest ship.

 

//rant over

 

 

Edit:
But it's a good phone. I have one myself. Anything else can suck it. Tho my USB port seems to be dying. Probably a rare issue.

[v0id]

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

You failed the number one thing about reviews....there's no pictures

I mean once you've seen one I figured you'd seen them all, like mine wouldn't be much different than any other 5 right?

 

7 hours ago, Senzelian said:

The Pixel 5 is in fact Google's flagship

I meant in regards to having the latest hardware, like most Youtubers tend to use the word. I agree it's misused but the general consensus that I got is the term was reserved for real high end devices, like the S20 Ultra 5G or something like that. In that sense the Pixel is not and has been classified as midrange to my knowledge. I guess it's neither here nor there, I just got tired of Youtubers bitching that the Pixel 5 doesn't have "flagship" specs and I was merely highlighting they are correct, it was never supposed to be. But your point is well taken anyway my good man, and I agree with it.

 

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

Other than that I take issue with giving anything 10/10. Nothing's 10/10

For my uses I really wouldn't improve upon anything, that's what I mean by giving it a ten. It doesn't mean it's perfect or anything, just that it accomplishes what it set out to do.

[dizmo]

2 hours ago, v0id said:

I mean once you've seen one I figured you'd seen them all, like mine wouldn't be much different than any other 5 right?

 

For my uses I really wouldn't improve upon anything, that's what I mean by giving it a ten. It doesn't mean it's perfect or anything, just that it accomplishes what it set out to do.

Haha, still. Without pictures it's kinda meh.

 

Ahhh...odd. It's almost universal that 10/10 means perfect

 

I'd give the Pixel 5 camera closer to an 8. It's decent, but it's since been eclipsed by other brands and they really need to replace that sensor with something newer. You can do a lot with software, but eventually you'll reach the limits, and they have. Front facing camera quality is kind of meh. Battery life should be better; the S20 FE smashes it, has a higher refresh, and a larger screen.

 

It was so close, but there's lots of tiny things that added up to kind of a lackluster device that's about $100 more than it has a right to be.

 

 

[v0id]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I'd give the Pixel 5 camera closer to an 8. It's decent, but it's since been eclipsed by other brands and they really need to replace that sensor with something newer. You can do a lot with software, but eventually you'll reach the limits, and they have. Front facing camera quality is kind of meh

You're probably right but I didn't care how the camera fared since I don't really use it. As long as it took decent photos that was good enough for me, hence why it was ten cuz it accomplished what I wanted it to, and it was one of the least important aspects on my list when choosing a phone. Decent was all I ever wanted.

 

6 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Battery life should be better

Interesting. I can go two days if I wanted to on this thing, and even heavier users report being able to get through an entire day without a problem. What could be better about it? Not trying to be a dick btw, genuinely interested here.

 

8 minutes ago, dizmo said:

S20 FE smashes it, has a higher refresh, and a larger screen

Refresh rate is higher sure, but a larger screen is not always a positive thing. Some people want smaller screens and I'm in that camp. And I'm not a fan of Samsung's approach to Android nor did I want to wait for them to push updates to me. But hey, that's what's great about all these phones on the market, we get to choose one that fits what we want.

 

9 minutes ago, dizmo said:

It was so close, but there's lots of tiny things that added up to kind of a lackluster device that's about $100 more than it has a right to be.

Yeah I'd agree with ya there. I was glad I picked it up for $499 at my local Best Buy. And as I stated even $599 would be passable but pure MSRP is a bit high...as with most things though, never pay MSRP if you can avoid it

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, v0id said:

You're probably right but I didn't care how the camera fared since I don't really use it. As long as it took decent photos that was good enough for me, hence why it was ten cuz it accomplished what I wanted it to, and it was one of the least important aspects on my list when choosing a phone. Decent was all I ever wanted.

 

Interesting. I can go two days if I wanted to on this thing, and even heavier users report being able to get through an entire day without a problem. What could be better about it? Not trying to be a dick btw, genuinely interested here.

 

Refresh rate is higher sure, but a larger screen is not always a positive thing. Some people want smaller screens and I'm in that camp. And I'm not a fan of Samsung's approach to Android nor did I want to wait for them to push updates to me. But hey, that's what's great about all these phones on the market, we get to choose one that fits what we want.

 

Yeah I'd agree with ya there. I was glad I picked it up for $499 at my local Best Buy. And as I stated even $599 would be passable but pure MSRP is a bit high...as with most things though, never pay MSRP if you can avoid it

If you look at GSMArena, the Pixel is a solid 18 hours more overall time, and an extra hour and a half of WiFi browsing (which I generally consider most relevant as it's what most people do, it also encompasses social media etc). 13.5 hours on WiFi would be the bare minimum I'd consider acceptable (S20 FE got 13h40m) these days, and I expected the Pixel to do better since it has a much smaller screen and a lower refresh rate. Since every user is different, benchmark tests like those done by large review sites are more representative of actual results when compared to other phones since they all go through the same tests.

 

Indeed. I've never really understood the Samsung hate though, Pixel launcher isn't a whole lot better. I always install Nova Launcher immediately, so the only place you'll notice the difference is the odd time you'll go into the menus Security updates are still fast, and I don't really care about OS updates.

 

It really doesn't make sense considering the 4A 5G has the same SoC, same storage (which in itself is a couple years old), same cameras...so for $250 you get wireless/reverse wireless charging, a smaller 90hz panel, an IP rating, and 200mah more battery. That's horrible value. I only paid $220 US for my S20 FE after incentives, and it's been everything I've missed. Though I look forward to next years Note.

[Senzelian]

4 hours ago, v0id said:

I meant in regards to having the latest hardware, like most Youtubers tend to use the word. I agree it's misused but the general consensus that I got is the term was reserved for real high end devices, like the S20 Ultra 5G or something like that. In that sense the Pixel is not and has been classified as midrange to my knowledge. I guess it's neither here nor there, I just got tired of Youtubers bitching that the Pixel 5 doesn't have "flagship" specs and I was merely highlighting they are correct, it was never supposed to be. But your point is well taken anyway my good man, and I agree with it.

I agree with what you're saying, that the Pixel 5 was never meant to be a high end phone which is reflected in its price tag, but I wouldn't listen to what these sorts of people say. I wouldn't trust Linus with a phone review. Same with Unbox Therapy or Hardware Canucks or MKBHD.

[v0id]

18 hours ago, dizmo said:

I've never really understood the Samsung hate though, Pixel launcher isn't a whole lot better

Well I certainly wouldn't term it 'hate', I just have a preference and the Pixel launcher to me is that preference.

 

18 hours ago, dizmo said:

so for $250 you get wireless/reverse wireless charging, a smaller 90hz panel, an IP rating, and 200mah more battery

Not to mention a slightly different build, that being aluminum. And a smaller panel that's faster than 60Hz would be appealing to some people, as would an IP rating. And I believe it's only $200 less (MSRP), but honestly I think we can agree to disagree here. No use splitting hairs, I think we both know what we want and some people won't see any value in the Pixel 5 and that's totally cool. We all won't see value in the same things just like I don't think the FE is anything to write home about it. To each his own my good sir

 

18 hours ago, Senzelian said:

I wouldn't trust Linus with a phone review. Same with Unbox Therapy or Hardware Canucks or MKBHD.

Funny, they're usually the ones I listen to first