I’m back on the iPhone XS after 4 days on Android and I’ve got a lot of thoughts. I’ll be posting up these in a series of posts in the coming weeks but in summary
I’m not a huge fan of cases but the fabric finish of the official Google case hooked me in.
I picked up two colors
Unboxing these is fine, good to see the packing almost all recycling friendly.
The inside of the case is soft microfiber that will keep your Pixel in top condition.
We then have plastic buttons with the same colour accents as the phones.
There are cutouts for the camera and fingerprint reader.
The only downside with this case is that hole for the fingerprint reader. It’s actually deeper than it needs to be and not big enough. I’ve come to like swiping down on the reader to show notifications. This is tricky with the case on. It’s also not so comfortable to unlock.
For £35 it’s not a bad price for these cases, I really like the fabric finish and maybe it’ll soften over time. It’s going to offer drop protection and protect the screen as it has a raised lip on the front.
Switching back and forth between the iPhone and Pixel I was struck with how much narrower the Pixel felt to me when going back to my XS.
Now here’s the Pixel 3a
They are both great displays to my eyes but the aspect ratio of the Pixel and on visual inspection with the 5.8” of the iPhone, the iPhone is both wider and taller. For me this makes it more comfortable to type on.
What helps Android though for me here is the fact I have a swipe keyboard so I’m not tapping keys but still I prefer the screen real estate of the iPhone XS over the Pixel for general day to day comfort.
Colour wise they both looks excellent to my eyes and I’m not seeing the price difference.
You can’t go wrong with the Pixel 3a at £399 for the quality of the OLED it’s packing in my opinion.
I’m a big fan of the AirPods and as nice as it is to have a headphone jack on the Pixel it’s also nice to not have to get wires caught in stuff. I hadn’t even thought of pairing my AirPods. Well the good news is that they work (to a point), you obviously don’t get Siri and tapping them doesn’t seem to do anything but I don’t do this even on my iPhone. The one that annoys me a little is them not pausing when I remove one AirPod but that’s not a big deal for me whilst I just use them to go for a walk or whilst I’m doing stuff at my desk.
When I fired up Apple Music and started listening they were automatically connected.
I’ve been struggling to get my head around Android but something finely clicked yesterday. It’s overwhelming trying to figure out everything straight away but here are a few tips that have helped me.
There’s no home button on either the pixel or iPhone these days but coming from iOS I wanted to get my head around what the home button was on Android.
No matter which app you’re in tap the little white pill shaped object at the bottom of the screen to go home.
Double click the power button to quick launch the camera. If it doesn’t work make sure it’s turned on in settings, system, gestures.
When you swipe up from the bottom you get to app switching. There’s a little list of apps here that Google assistant thinks you might like to launch.
I’ve gotten into the habit of using this and 9 times out of 10 it shows me the correct app.
What are your tips?
Now I have the Pixel 3a in hand my main driver is photography so expect to see a few posts this week just covering my views on the Pixel. I’ve wanted to try one for ages but now I can get one for under 400 pounds it was a good opportunity to jump on board.
For these shots I used a range of zoom ranges and speaking of zoom I’ve really missed the 2x zoom from the XS and had to resort to digital zoom on the Pixel. I found that if I wanted something closer it would ask me to go back a bit to focus. Any edits I.e. crops were done with Google Photos.
Pixel 3a
IPhone XS
Pixel 3a
IPhone XS
Pixel 3a
IPhone XS
Pixel 3a
IPhone XS
Overall I’ve been impressed with the Pixel in these shots against the XS. I’ve missed the 2x zoom and that’s why some of the images from the XS to my eyes are clearer. For the money this Pixel has an amazing camera and isn’t 600 pound inferior to the iPhone.
Not immediately obvious for me but to save a screenshot on the Pixel you press and hold the power button and volume down for a couple of seconds.
I’m still getting to grips with Android but here’s my setup.
It’ll most probably change a bit daily but here’s my starting point.
I’ve had the Pixel 3a for an evening and wanted to share some really quick good and bad things I’ve found about it. This is coming from someone that’s been on iOS since the original iPhone and only uses Android on my day job phone.
From a device perspective I’m happy, from a software perspective I’m still getting my head around it. All my negatives so far are from my lack of experience with Android.
Next up is camera testing.