ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Google’s new Pixel 10 is not well worth the improve for me.
- It comes right down to price, colour, and lack of recent killer options.
- An excessive amount of AI can be a deterrent.
The brand new Pixel 10 is upon us, and, as regular, Google needs us all to improve. For many people, buying and selling in our present mannequin for a reduction on the newer model has grow to be a yearly custom. I’ve finished it ever since Google adopted the trade-in coverage, and it has served me nicely.
Nonetheless, this yr is totally different. I cannot be upgrading to the Pixel 10. Why, you ask? Enable me to interrupt it down.
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It begins with the fee
For the previous few years, I’ve dropped between $600 and $1,000 (relying on trade-in worth and availability) each time Google has launched a brand new cellphone. In the event you add within the newest Pixel Watch, you may add roughly $400 to that whole.
It provides up.
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This yr, with the value of every part rising, spending upwards of $1,000 on a brand new cellphone/watch is tough to justify. At this time limit, the price of dwelling has precluded my potential to spend on — what many would take into account — an pointless expense. Moreover, the rising inflation has pressured me to rethink such purchases.
The price of the mixed cellphone and watch roughly equals a mortgage cost or month of hire, and I’d quite have a roof over my head than a brand new cellphone in my bag. It may finish there, nevertheless it would not.
A worthy improve?
This is the factor: My Pixel 9 Professional is the very best cellphone I’ve ever used. No, it isn’t good, however no cellphone is. Nevertheless it’s as near perfection as Google has ever produced. Is it value spending near a grand for what appears to be a minor improve?
Positive, Google is embedding much more AI into the cellphone, however that does not excite me. What excites me is extra highly effective and modern {hardware}, and in these two classes, the improve from the Pixel 9 Professional to the Pixel 10 Professional is simply too incremental to have me jonesing to purchase.
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It will take one thing fairly particular to get me to improve from the Pixel 9 Pro, and the ten would not obtain that feat.
Another excuse (and a few may suppose this foolish) is that my Pixel 9 Professional colorway has been my favourite up to now, and the provided colours for the ten don’t embrace it. Actually, the Pixel 10 Professional colorways are quite boring. I am a fan of aesthetics (and good design, and highly effective {hardware}), so in that respect, upgrading to the Pixel 10 Professional could be a downgrade for me.
My Pixel 9 Professional nonetheless performs prefer it’s model new, and that efficiency blows away all telephones I’ve used prior to now. In my opinion, Google created an issue for itself with the Pixel 9 Pro as a result of it is a cellphone that I merely do not need to let go of. I take a look at it the identical method as I do Ubuntu Linux releases: each different yr, they unleash a brand new LTS (Lengthy Time period Assist) model of the OS, and most customers skip the non-LTS releases. That is how I am beginning to see the Pixel cellphone releases.
An excessive amount of AI
Do not get me mistaken, I do not hate AI. For instance, one of many new AI options permits Gemini to connect with Maps and discover eating places, then textual content the listing to the household group chat for you. It is doable that, through Gemini, Google can then construct an much more correct profile of you and your preferences. Gemini will even make it doable to share your digicam in Gemini Stay.
No thanks.
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You will additionally get a 1-year subscription to the Gemini AI Pro plan, which is $20/month. What if Google would not make it apparent or straightforward to cancel that plan, otherwise you overlook to cancel it? I’ve had that occur to me on a number of events, and getting the cash again is not any straightforward feat.
Once more, no thanks.
There’s additionally the brand new Magic Cue function that additional personalizes AI to assist “join the dots throughout your digital life.” I personally don’t desire AI anticipating my wants, as I try this nicely sufficient by myself.
The one factor I would miss out on
I’ll say this: the new Pixelsnap feature sounds fairly cool. Basically, this function provides magnetic tech to the Pixel cellphone so you may “snap” your cellphone to equipment (corresponding to chargers). In my case, I bought a case for my Pixel 9 Professional, which has a magnetic function inbuilt as nicely, so I do not really need this. Nonetheless, if I made a decision to go with no case, I might lose the function. Not so with the Pixel 10.
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Sorry, Google, I like your telephones, however I like my Pixel 9 Pro greater than I like the thought of dropping a grand on an incremental (at greatest) improve. I will hold my pink Pixel 9 Professional till a brand new Pixel makes my present one feel and look out of date.
