Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsSimply the Best Phone I Have Ever Owned
Reviewed in Canada on February 17, 2024
I upgraded from a Pixel 6 Pro to this phone. While some might call moving from the 6 Pro to the 8 Pro an incremental change, I would disagree. The 6 Pro is a fine device, but everything about the 8 Pro is just appreciably better. As a matter of fact, the Pixel 8 Pro is simply the best phone I have ever owned (among Google, Motorola, Samsung, Blackberry, and OnePlus phones).
The transfer of data from the Pro 6 and setup of the new Pro 8 was remarkably quick and simple (I am amazed at how far we have come from the “good old days” when it sometimes took hours to successfully move everything from one phone to another and then many more hours to get your new phone functioning and looking like your old phone).
What I like: Sophisticated, premium look and feel (love the rounded corners, matte back, brushed aluminum frame and nicer looking camera bar); bright, vibrant screen; stable, accelerated performance; smooth swiping and scrolling; faster charging; better battery life; better phone call reception; call screening; real-time language translation; face unlock (also works with banking apps, Google Pay, password managers, etc.); multiple SIM functionality (including multiple eSIM and dual-SIM capability); louder, richer and more balanced speaker sound; fantastic cameras with advanced AI tools (for all intents and purposes, puts a portable version of Photoshop on your phone); AI-infused audio and video; pure Android experience (missing the irritating crapware found on many other Android phones); Android OS and security updates (along with future feature drops) for a minimum of seven years; and a flat screen that works better for screen protectors than the curved screen of the Pixel 6 Pro.
What I don’t like: The price for Pixel phones is relatively high in Canada and there appears to be few of the deals regularly available in the U.S. (Canadians being shortchanged and taken for granted by U.S.-based multinational corporations again! What else is new, eh?); resale or trade-in value for used Pixel phones appears to be ridiculously low in Canada (even Google, itself, offers a much lower trade-in value for Canadian buyers than for U.S. buyers) and their value seems to depreciate more quickly than some other phones.
If you are an Android user and are willing/able to spend $1000+ CAD (as I write this, $1350) for a premium phone, you'll probably love the Pixel 8 Pro.
