If you know anything about me, you know I’m a big fan of Samsung’s smartphones. In fact, next March willmark the fifth anniversary of my move to Galaxy devices. I’d spent most of the 2010s using Nexus and Pixel devices, but on the heels of the Pixel 3, it was time for a change. While I’ve kept Google’s hardware around primarily to test out upcoming Android releases, I’ve never felt the temptation to return — that is, until I laid eyes on thePixel 8.
I’ve been using aPixel 8 Profor two weeks now, and after spending this much time with it, I need to decide if I’m swapping sides to Team Pixel. TheGalaxy S23 Ultra and Pixel 8 Proboth have a lot going for them, but only one can win my heart.
Display: Brighter isn’t always better
The display on the Pixel 8 Pro is gorgeous. My S23 Ultra never struggled in sunlight with its 1,750 nits, but the 2,400 nits available to the Pixel sets it apart. While I don’t mind curved displays, the flat screen on the 8 Pro is a welcome change, especially as Google kept the sides of the glass slightly curved for more comfortable gestures. I also appreciate the rounded corners, which are more comfortable to hold, even if they lead to some awkward spacing in the status bar. The Pixel 8 Pro’s screen would be the obvious winner if it weren’t for two complaints: a less reliable optical fingerprint scanner and no stylus support.
Samsung’s ultrasonic fingerprint scanner got off to a rough start when the Galaxy S10 launched, but the sluggishness has been absent since the S21 Ultra improved the scanner hardware. The optical unit in the Pixel isn’t bad, but it has a higher failure rate and is almost guaranteed not to work if my fingers are wet. The S23 Ultra unlocks fast all day, every day. As for stylus support, this is something few people care about. I do care, though, because I use my phone to keep several pain/migraine/medication diaries up to date, and the stylus makes it a breeze.
Both phones also support face unlock in addition to their respective fingerprint scanners, using the front-facing cameras rather than any special sensors. Google’s implementation, however, is secure enough on the Pixel 8 to be used with banking apps and password managers. Still, it isn’t perfect. It barely works at night, and my sunglasses often confuse it. Samsung’s version, while less secure, maxes screen brightness to illuminate your face at night and unlock your phone, and you may train a second face model with your sunglasses on.
I also found the Pixel’s auto brightness settings aren’t reliable. It takes ages to react to a change in light, and when it does, I almost always have to adjust it manually anyway. Samsung devices are far quicker to react, and far more accurate when adjusting to my surrounding conditions.
Software: Smart features or infinite customization?
Google’s Pixel UI and Samsung’s One UI both look great visually, but I have my fair share of complaints about both. The notification shade and quick settings panel is a definite win for Samsung. I dislike wasted space, and limiting a display as large as the Pixel 8 Pro’s to two columns of giant quick settings toggles is something I still dislike after two weeks of use. I also hate the positioning of the brightness slider. For starters, One UI lets you add the brightness slider to the notification shade for easier access, and it’s in a more accessible position to reach. Both of these phones are massive, and reaching up to the very top to adjust brightness is painful.
Frankly, there are a lot of features in One UI that I wish the Pixel had, but I’ll narrow them down to just four.Good Lockis something I’ve spent a lot of time writing about, and with good reason. Three of the four items we’ll discuss here are part of Samsung’s optional Good Lock suite, in fact, proving just how essential it’s become to any power user with a Samsung device.
QuickStar lets you modify your notification shade and quick settings. I mainly use this for hiding status bar indicators so that everything looks cleaner. I always have a smartwatch connected, and my phone is always on mute, so why do I need to stare at a Bluetooth and mute icon all the time? Annoyingly, this used to be possible on Google’s phones back in the Marshmallow days, but Google removed these options a few years later.
Good Lock also lets you apply icon packs from the Play Store system-wide. It’s a small bit of customization, admittedly, but one I value nonetheless. You can also mess with Android’s gesture navigation, which I miss every time I swipe to go back on the Pixel. I have things configured so that a short swipe takes me back, a short swipe diagonally up opens recent apps, and diagonally down triggers the home button. If I swipe out and hold, I can access quick tools, a widget panel, or one-handed mode.
Finally, we have modes and routines. These are as well-integrated in One UI as Siri Shortcuts are in iOS, and there isn’t anything close to an alternative on the Pixel 8 Pro. With the touch of a button, I can make my phone mute itself, enable dark mode, and activate the blue light filter if I get a migraine. When I go swimming, my GPS location will put the phone in do not disturb and change the face on my Galaxy Watch 6 to something more exercise-orientated.
It goes both ways, though. Call Screening is something all Pixel users love, and now that I’ve used it, I don’t want to go back. When I last used a Pixel as my daily driver, this feature was exclusive to the US and Canada, but that isn’t the case anymore. Screening calls, navigating menus, and sitting on hold on my behalf is something I use constantly.
Meanwhile, Now Playing was one of my favorite parts of the Pixel experience in the past, and it’s no different in 2023. Its ability to identify songs accurately, even in noisy environments, is nothing short of impressive.
While I’ve only listed two Pixel features here, they point out acritical difference between the software experience on both phones. The S23 Ultra has a feature for almost everything, and they’re nice to have. The Pixel, on the other hand, has fewer features that feel more important. They’re nice to have, yes, but more than that, they feel like things I wouldn’t want to ever lose, even for a brief amount of time.
Battery life and performance: Smooth or dependable?
Samsung made my year when they released the Galaxy S23 series with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 worldwide instead of limiting the UK and other regions to inferior Exynos chips. My personal Galaxy S22 Ultra was a disaster because of the Exynos 2200, which never offered consistent performance and always got far too hot for daily use.
I expected the Pixel to be closer to the Exynos than the Snapdragon in that area. Thankfully, Tensor G3 is much improved over its predecessor — although it isn’t perfect, my Pixel 8 Pro has never had a problem with raw performance or smoothness. Benchmarks are meaningless these days; the experience of using a device is what matters. The Pixel 8 Pro is the smoothest phone I’ve ever used, even more so than my S23 Ultra, though it lacks Samsung’s level of consistency.
My Pixel has stayed cool most of the time, but there have been several occasions where it’ll heat up despite the fact it isn’t under load. I spent an hour hammering the camera system while streaming music over 5G, and it stayed cool to the touch. The next day, while waiting for a haircut and listening to a podcast over Wi-Fi, it got red-hot. Tensor G3 does stay cooler than Tensor G2, but it still has seemingly random blips.
My S23 Ultra has only gotten warm once. It was the day I got it, which meant it was under particularly rough conditions: 45W fast-charging, signing into various accounts, downloading apps downloaded in the background,andstoring 20GB of YouTube Music offline. That is not a typical use case, and since then, it has never once gotten so much as warm, let alone hot.
Speaking of charging, things are equal in my experience. The S23 Ultra can charge wirelessly at 15W and 45W over a PPS charger. The Pixel 8 Pro only charges at 10W wirelessly unless you have the Pixel Stand that boosts it to 23W, and it charges over USB-C at 30W. I wirelessly charge overnight, so the slight difference there doesn’t matter, and for wired charging, the two phones feel about the same in practice. The Galaxy S23 Ultra only hits 45W in a short burst before settling down to around 30W, so all the charging speeds are about the same.
Cameras: A choice between consistency and fun
First: Pixel 8 Pro. Second: Galaxy S23 Ultra
The cameras on the S23 Ultra aren’t perfect. Shutter lag is an issue if you keep the scene optimizer switched on, and shots from the 10X telephoto lens can look a little soft. Despite those shortcomings, it’s one of my favorite phones to take photos with. The lens selection motivates me to be more creative with the images I take. Many people dislike the saturated colors from Samsung’s processing, but I prefer that look overall. The real issue with the S23 is that it isn’t always reliable. I always hit the shutter button three times in case the phone misses the shot on the first attempt.
The Pixel has fewer options, even with its new pro mode, but it’s a more reliable camera system. Each lens is lightning-fast, and it always nails dynamic range, contrast, and focus. I don’t like the colors, though. Sure, they’re more true to life, but I find them dull, especially this time of year when everything is gray. That can be fixed in editing, of course, but it’d be nice if I didn’t need to tweak every shot. It’s worth pointing out that Google Photos would show the “fix lighting” button for all of the photos from the 8 Pro but not my S23 Ultra.
I don’t take many selfies, but I tested them out anyway. My complexion is more accurate in the photo from the S23, and I prefer the portrait mode blur as well. Technically, the Pixel does a better job of cutting out my hair, but the more subtle blur and lighter colors from the S23 more than makeup for it.
Which side do I pick?
I’ve gone back and forth a lot here. There are things about the Pixel 8 Pro I love, but I feel the same about the Galaxy S23 Ultra for different reasons. Picking between them is difficult. If I were locked in a room and told I couldn’t leave until I decided whether to go with team red or team blue — thecolors of my respective phones— I’d ask if I could pick purple instead.
The truth is, I’m fortunate enough at the moment that I don’t need to pick. I have both phones in front of me right now, and I can swap between them as I please. But if I were in a shop trying to decide which phone to drop over a grand on, I’d still pick the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
My heart tells me I should go back to Team Pixel, but my head wins out with sensibility. Pixels in the past have often started just fine,only for problems to arise later. I’ve had my S23 Ultra since February, so I’d know by now if new problems were a risk on the horizon. As much as the Pixel 8 Pro has impressed me — as much as I’ve fallen in love with it over these past few weeks — it hasn’t done enough to earn my trust yet. So, while I’ll be sticking to my own status quo for the foreseeable future, I’m looking forward to whatever Google does next. It’s safe to say the Pixel 9 will have my undivided attention on its launch day.
