Pixel 7 or Galaxy A54?

[Azzychan]

What do you guys think?

I am looking at both to see which would be better.  I can't find any good reviews from notable tech people on YT (LTT, Marquez, Jay...no one of this caliber)

I missed it when the 7 was on sale, so the A54 is actually much cheaper.
 

[Senzelian]

The stock Android experience alone would be enough to get me to buy the Pixel 7. But let's be honest, the Galaxy is the better value for the price. I just wouldn't trust Samsung batteries. They've always had issues. 

[Marko_98]

You asked about two different devices from two different price points. Tell us more, what are you looking for in a device, for what will you use device. Then we can give you recommendation.

[Terrorgod]

As a pixel 7 pro user, there are some features I really like about the newer pixel devices, like the ability to create live translated captions on youtube, and use google translate with photos. I came from a Note 9 and two of the features im sorely missing are samsung dex and the better integration with windows phone link where I could stream my phone onto my PC very easily. The pixel 7 pro feels really buggy as well at times, something I never had with my note 9, where occasionally the phone just hangs during certain apps, gets stuck on unlock, when putting to sleep the screen stays active just long enough that it can accidentally click something when being put away, etc. The screen on the pixel 7 pro also feels way more fragile, I hadn't scratched my old note 9 in 5 years without a screen protector, but the pixel 7 pro got scratched within a week of me owning it with not drops. 

 

This is just my experience from both brands, I don't know if the A54 will get all the same love the Note did as thats comparing a budget model to the flagship, but thats my experience moving between the two brands. The different android skins honestly didn't feel that different to me other than the major android upgrades I got with the new phone, and having to teach myself the flipped back & menu button location (I prefer samsungs way).

 

I plan to return to samsung after my few years with the pixel 7 if nothing else piques my interest, but the pixel 7 will probably get better with software updates so its not to bad. 

[Kc7vwc]

On 4/26/2023 at 8:06 PM, Senzelian said:

 I just wouldn't trust Samsung batteries. They've always had issues. 

I just recently moved from a Pixel 7 to Galaxy S23 - and so far (3 weeks) the S23 is blowing away the pixel for battery life. Easily 2x what the Pixel did. 
Has there been any major issues since the Note 7? 
I haven't seen anything about it. 

[Senzelian]

9 hours ago, Kc7vwc said:

I just recently moved from a Pixel 7 to Galaxy S23 - and so far (3 weeks) the S23 is blowing away the pixel for battery life. Easily 2x what the Pixel did. 
Has there been any major issues since the Note 7? 
I haven't seen anything about it. 

Something must've been wrong with your Pixel then  

 

A colleagues S23 for example is at ~80% just after 3 hours of detaching it from the wall, even tho he's done nothing with it. (new device btw) And I made the experience that Samsung batteries start to really lose a lot of their capacity after roughly 1 year.

 

There's clearly a difference between the Pixel 7 and S23, but not double the battery life.

 

 

[Marko_98]

What I like about Pixels is clean Android. But what I don't like is they aren't available anywhere; I can't get it officially in Croatia. I mean, there are web shops that sell it, but since it doesn't have any service center here, I'd have to sent my phone to Germany or Poland for service and anything can happen until it gets there. Also, 5G doesn't work here (I'm assuming because phone isn't sold here by Google).

The other issue I have with Pixel phones is definitely the battery; Google should really do something about it. Because I'm only buying phones with great battery life and Pixels aren't in this category.

[Kc7vwc]

8 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Something must've been wrong with your Pixel then  

 

A colleagues S23 for example is at ~80% just after 3 hours of detaching it from the wall, even tho he's done nothing with it. (new device btw) And I made the experience that Samsung batteries start to really lose a lot of their capacity after roughly 1 year.

 

There's clearly a difference between the Pixel 7 and S23, but not double the battery life.

 

Suppose something could have been wrong with the Pixel 7. After leaving the Pixel 5a, with it's bigger battery & slower Hz screen, I assumed the flagship Pixels just naturally ate more juice. 

Last year, I demo'd an S21 FE and Pixel 6 for a week each, and the Samsung held up better. 

 

Today on my S23, I'm at 3h 24m of use, 1h 44m screen on time, and I'm still at 83% remaining. 

It's had about 3 weeks for the battery optimizations to learn though...

[Azzychan]

On 5/1/2023 at 5:02 PM, Marko_98 said:

You asked about two different devices from two different price points. Tell us more, what are you looking for in a device, for what will you use device. Then we can give you recommendation.

Actually, with the price that the 7 has been dipping down to, it's been close to the A54 in price.  

I did end up getting a Pixel 7 for $500 with 256 Gigs of storage.  Now though, I am wondering if I should return it for the 7a coming out in a few days.

I have a month to return the Pixel to Amazon.  I haven't transferred anything over from my Nokia 5.3 yet.

[Marko_98]

7 hours ago, Azzychan said:

Actually, with the price that the 7 has been dipping down to, it's been close to the A54 in price.  

I did end up getting a Pixel 7 for $500 with 256 Gigs of storage.  Now though, I am wondering if I should return it for the 7a coming out in a few days.

I have a month to return the Pixel to Amazon.  I haven't transferred anything over from my Nokia 5.3 yet.

Why would you return Pixel 7? I mean, it's almost the same phone; except it has different camera (not necessarily the better) and comes only in 8/128 variant. 

[Azzychan]

On 5/6/2023 at 6:57 AM, Marko_98 said:

Why would you return Pixel 7? I mean, it's almost the same phone; except it has different camera (not necessarily the better) and comes only in 8/128 variant. 

Right now, you can get Pixel Buds for free.  I don't have any Earbuds at all.

[E-waste]

On 5/5/2023 at 11:13 PM, Azzychan said:

I haven't transferred anything over from my Nokia 5.3 yet.

What does the Pixel phone do for you, that your nokia 5 can't?

 

For one, you can unlock the bootloader on the Pixel device, which is not currently known how to do for Nokia 5.3 according to

 

https://xda-developers.com

 

So if you return the Nokia, you can put LineageOS on the Pixel device and get more than five years of software support.

[Azzychan]

On 5/20/2023 at 11:02 PM, E-waste said:

What does the Pixel phone do for you, that your nokia 5 can't?

 

For one, you can unlock the bootloader on the Pixel device, which is not currently known how to do for Nokia 5.3 according to

 

https://xda-developers.com

 

So if you return the Nokia, you can put LineageOS on the Pixel device and get more than five years of software support.

I think you misunderstood.  I had the Nokia for a few years. There is no returning the Nokia.

My question was between returning the Pixel 7 and getting the 7a instead.  

This is now moot, as I am keeping the 7.  After having some issues with it, everything is stable now.

I have to keep in the Android environment because I use this for work as well, and my work software will not work with a rooted device, nor will work on anything but Android OS or iOS.