You need to use one for a while to see the benefits of a nexus/google phone, a 5 minute session in the store doesn't reveal much.jdh799 wrote: ↑Oct 23rd, 2017 4:00 pmI've used Nexus/Pixel phones before, and I would contend that about 95% of the so called software experience that you get from a Google branded phone over a Samsung/LG/HTC/OnePlus/Moto can be obtained on any Android phone by customizing the launcher, default apps, etc. Meanwhile, there's no similar way that you have of mitigating the lack of hardware features, and terrible quality display on the Pixel 2. I typically choose not to go with Google phones because I find they are lacking in hardware and overall features at the same price point as other flagships.
That is the same reason that most of the youtube reviewers fall back to the pixel as a daily after playing with all kinds of phones in the market, even though it's nowhere as flashy as many of the flagships last year.
Slapping a launcher on a samsung again is just a shallow look at the same issue. If you think as long as it looks the same, they are the same, then you are not looking at this correctly. There are tons of optimizations under the hood that completes the experience.
Not to mention the pixel 2 phones will have the "Pixel Visual Core" in another word a completely different SOC for imaging applications compared to majority of the flagships this year, but again this is under the hood so it might not interest the average consumer.