Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsBought with confidence... now I regret buying off of false hype.
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2023
I bought the Pixel 7 Pro 4 months ago (new... not used or from a 3rd party seller), and it has incrementally been causing me to regret buying it. Either I didn't do enough deep-dive research on this phone, or the hype that's been building with the Pixel brand of phones over the years has been fabricated. Either way... lesson learned.
My issues with this phone have thus far been:
1) No matter how much adjusting of the screen & display setting, the screen randomly-to-always responds to finger and/or other pressure sensing to cause the screen to light up. Even in my shirt pocket it will randomly "activate", and by the time I have pulled it out, the phone has various apps opened. For transparency, I'm one who prefers to not have a screen lock, therefore I shouldn't have to have one set just to prevent what I just mentioned from happening. Screen lock is supposed to be for security reason... not because the device is glitchy and whatnot.
2) More times than not, when I plug the phone up to a proper charging cable & adapter, or better, it will ding and screen light up every few seconds indicating it's charging like when it is first connected to the charger. Seems like it isn't charging correctly or there's a malfunction in the phone's circuitry. I have tried numerous chargers & cables... same thing. But it isn't every single time... just most of the time.
3) Many times when I am ready to close an app, I have to tap on the bottom screen controls numerous times until it finally responds and does what it's supposed to do. And I do not use a screen protecting cover... just a case enclosure to protect the body and to keep the phone feeling like a wet bar of soap slipping from my hand when holding it.
4) Installing the monthly security updates takes freaking forever! A 40MB - 500MB update should not take very long to install on a current model flagship spec'd phone. It takes so long that the screen timeout feature set to longest possible of 30-minutes (which is absurd that one can't have the option to choose longer like the good ole days). Once the screen times out, the update is paused until you turn the screen back on, which in turn causes the update process to assume you're using your phone and states that the update can't proceed while the phone is in use. You'd think telling the update process to resume would just pick up where it left off and maybe hopefully finish, right?... Nope! It starts all over again! The only way I can get the monthly update to install is to stay in front of my phone to keep an eye on it and to press the Volume up or down button every so often to prevent the screen from timing out and to not accidentally "use" my phone by tapping on the screen or whatever else. It generally takes 1-2 hours to install the update, which is ridiculous! The download part happens smooth & quick, so it's not a Wi-Fi or using cellular connection scenario... it's the installation part.
EDIT to #4... God forbid any app on your phone throws up just a simple notification at the top. For instance, today April 10th 2023 while trying to get the 40.97 MB monthly update to install, after an hour went by and it was (is) still installing, my Amazon app had a notification come through, without popping up over the update process mind you... just the icon in the upper left corner, the daggum install process "paused" claiming it can't process the update while the phone is in use. WHAT?!?! So tell me, Google... are your customers expected to have to turn off any & all app background operations, disable all possible notifications/reminders/alerts/etc., text everyone we know to not to attempt to contact you in any way prior to trying to install a month 40 MEGABYTE file that takes 1-2 hours to install?... and every month at that?
5) Bluetooth connectivity... over the past month or so, the Bluetooth will be a 50/50 if it'll connect to any of my Bluetooth devices when it never had a problem before. Even removing & repairing the devices doesn't fix it. I have to try & try many times most of the time now for the phone to connect and stay connected to the devices. Even power cycling the phone (rebooting) doesn't help.
6) Also, over the past couple of months I have noticed that when I video call with someone, it has been getting worse on the battery during those times. What I mean is, when plugging the phone in to recharge while still using the phone. It used to recharge, albeit slowly, while I would be videoing with another, but now it will either just remain at the battery level its at when plugging it in, or even still drop a % or two. Even my older phones still re-charge while in video call use. Understandable that the re-charge would be slower due to device usage of video calling, but now being stagnate or even still discharging?
7) And now, the phone has begun to overheat rapidly when using the phone since the March 2023 security Update. More so when video calling to the point where the phone cuts off... even with the case removed. It'll be so hot I can't even hold the phone until it cools off. I have ruled out the Messenger & Skype apps being the issue since I have other Android phones with the latest app version updates of those, and no battery re-charge drain or overheating issues with those. But it'll also overheat when using other non-video or intense processing apps too in a short amount of time when it never did before. And I always clear out background running apps when I'm done using them every time... so that's not the issue either.
What makes this even more astonishingly absurd to me is, Android is a Google OS software and the Pixel line of phones are a Google hardware product... but yet the Android driven Pixel phones are the ones who seem to be arguably suffering the worst in many critical areas. It's almost as if they want to punish customers who chose to pay them money instead of going to a competitor. I'm beginning to think Google is now being ran & operated by BARD.
The rest of my complaints are more or less personal nit-picks like... can't remove the date & weather nor the Google search at the bottom from the home screen, can't increase the screen timeout time longer than 30-minutes, no LED indicator when the screen is off if there are new notifications or if the battery is done charging, random out of the blue phone restarts for no rhyme or reason even when there is no updates... to name a few.
Sadly, I can't return this purchase given that it's been over 30-days, and Google support is of no help either. So much for having a warranty when they won't honor it. I highly recommend staying away from Pixel phones.
