Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsThe Worst Phone I've Ever Owned
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2024
Quite a long review, even after trying to shorten it many times. So the TL:DR is that the software is buggy (even a year and a half after release), the phone is fragile (screen broke from a 2ft drop onto my foot and the volume rocket fell out) and in almost every metric is worse than the OnePlus 7 Pro I used to daily, which is a nearly 5 year old phone.
I purchased my Google Pixel 7 Pro (P7P) in July 2023, opting for the 256GB version. I'd been a OnePlus user since 2016, but decided that - on paper- Google's offering looked like a much better product for a little more money, hence I switched.
There were issues from the off. Considering the device was released in October 2022, I was expecting any software issues to be resolved. Yet somehow, the Pixel 7 Pro is plagued by bugs, random app crashes and even full device crashes from the day I first got my hands on it to now. The bugs ranged from visual glitches, to the viewfinder on multiple apps rotating 90 degrees, to apps utilising notifications (Such as Snapchat, Meta Messenger, WhatsApp and BeReal) not pushing notifications.
Hardware wise, again, the Pixel 7 Pro performs poorly. The camera, while better than my now nearly 5 year old OnePlus 7 Pro (OP7P) (Yes, that's what we're comparing the Pixel to) is far from perfect, with poor auto-focus performance, particularly in low light, and the aforementioned bugs. While operation felt smoother than the OP7P, the software bugs meant that this was short lived. The face recognition is no better than on the OP7P, while the fingerprint reader is SLOWER! Battery life, is the same, which is no good when this is meant to be a nearly 5 year newer phone. Overall, I had a better experience on the OP7P
Now is the worst part of the P7P... the design. Within 6 months of owning it I smashed the screen, rendering it completely unusable. The annoying thing was that this was from a 2ft drop onto my shoe. The screen and glass is so fragile, I dare not put it in my pocket when wearing jeans, for fear it'll break again. Baring in mind that the OP7P survived many drops like this over its nearly 5 years and was fine, I was again really disappointed. Then, to top it all off, the volume rocker popped off yesterday, a known issue that still wasn't resolved when I bought the phone, 9 months after release!
This has been by far and away the worst phone I've ever owned. From its fragility, to buggy software, to its cost, in every metric this is the worst phone I've ever owned and it will be the last I purchase from Google.