Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsHow could Google go this wrong?
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2022
I previously had the Google Pixel 3XL and loved it. I constantly gushed about how great their phones were. So how, in just a couple years, has Google managed to completely screw up a good thing?
The first issue, which seems to be problematic for many users, is the fingerprint sensor. It used to be on the back of the phone and worked flawlessly. Someone decided to put it on the front screen and it doesn't work at all. The phone rarely to never recognizes that I have even picked it up - so I need to hit the power button just to get my sign on screen. Once there it gives me the fingerprint sensor. I touch it. It recognizes the touch ( I can feel the phone vibrate), but it will NOT unlock. I touch it again. Nada. AGAIN. Still NOTHING. After trying the sensor at least 3 times (getting the vibration each time) it then simply gives me a PIN screen and then I need to manually enter my PIN (with my old phone I would already be browsing the internet or speaking to whomever I was calling). Once I have the screen open, the active edge is gone, so I can no longer squeeze the phone and request to call someone. I set up the voice command "Google assistant" to help shorten the frustration. I give the command "Hey Google" and then have to wait for the assistant. When it finally responds and I give my command, it tells me it cannot find that person in my contacts (even though they are there). So then I have to fiddle with that. By the time I deal with all of this and get a call through, I would have already had a conversation and hung up with my 3XL. Yes, I have adjusted the sensitivity settings. Additionally, when I am browsing websites, I have to repeatedly touch links, commands, etc. You can tell that the phone is recognizing the touch (by either vibration or it highlights whatever I am clicking on), but it doesn't "launch" anything (for lack of proper terminology). So, I end up sitting on a page, repeatedly trying to click on things to open it, all to no avail. By the time I fight the fingerprint sensor and manage to get to a website, it's nearly impossible to navigate the website. It also takes longer for pages to open or respond (whether I am on wi-fi or data). The extra time it takes to do the simplest tasks is absolutely maddening.
I also set up the face recognition so that I could just skip the darn fingerprint sensor, but that works maybe 10-20% of the time (if I am lucky).
Scrolling between windows was also nearly impossible. Just like the fingerprint sensor, it rarely to never recognized my attempts to slide up to scroll my windows/pages. Most of the time it wouldn't recognize the request to scroll. I finally found a setting that gave me a "three button navigation" (back arrow, home button and to scroll windows). I can't say I love it, but at least I can navigate.
It has multiple other glitches that make me crazy. I was listening to Pandora and closed it. The music continued to play. I tried mutiple way to close it. I ended up closing ALL windows (even though I didn't want to and shouldn't have had to) and the music was still playing. WTH?! I couldn't find a way to turn it off. I finally told Google Assistant to "Close Pandora!" and it finally did. These are just a couple of issues, I've only had the phone for a couple of days so I suspect my list will grow longer each day. My dogs hate the phone more than I do because I spend most of my day yelling and cursing at my phone while my dogs run for cover. I've seriously come close to pitching this thing across the room.
I was the biggest Google phone fan already, so this should have been a slam dunk - but Google laid an egg with this one. If you're listening Google, here is a suggestion; "If it ain't broke - don't fix it."
****Adding more as I find more.
I'm also finding it impossible to set a different notification sound for email and text messages. Why, for the love of God, would anyone from Google feel the need to do that? This is a major frustration for me. I don't want ONE notification sound for ALL of my alerts.
Opening pages takes longer than my old 3XL as well. My new.phone has twice the memory, so it's certainly not that.
Everything with this phone takes twice as long to accomplish with twice the frustration.
I also use Google's texting app (which I had on my 3XL as well). Now, on my 7, if you accidentally archive a chat, the "un-do" button at the bottom has disappeared and takes many more steps to retrieve it. If it sounds like I am venting all of my frustrations with Google, you would be correct. I'm hoping someone from Google reads this review, takes it to a developers meeting and revisits these poor decisions. Until then, I'll be waiting for updates to resolve these issues and will update my review accordingly.
