ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Google’s new Pixel 10 is not well worth the improve for me.
- It comes all the way down to value, shade, and lack of latest killer options.
- An excessive amount of AI can also be a deterrent.
The brand new Pixel 10 is upon us, and, as typical, Google needs us all to improve. For many people, buying and selling in our present mannequin for a reduction on the newer model has turn out to be a yearly custom. I’ve finished it ever since Google adopted the trade-in coverage, and it has served me properly.
Nevertheless, this 12 months is completely 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 associated 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. Should you add within the newest Pixel Watch, you possibly can add roughly $400 to that whole.
It provides up.
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This 12 months, with the value of every thing rising, spending upwards of $1,000 on a brand new cellphone/watch is tough to justify. At this cut-off date, the price of dwelling has precluded my capability to spend on — what many would think about — an pointless expense. Moreover, the rising inflation has compelled me to rethink such purchases.
The price of the mixed cellphone and watch roughly equals a mortgage fee or month of lease, and I might reasonably have a roof over my head than a brand new cellphone in my bag. It might finish there, but it surely does not.
A worthy improve?
This is the factor: My Pixel 9 Professional is the very best cellphone I’ve ever used. No, it is not good, however no cellphone is. However 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?
Certain, Google is embedding much more AI into the cellphone, however that does not excite me. What excites me is extra highly effective and smooth {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 could take one thing fairly particular to get me to improve from the Pixel 9 Pro, and the ten does not obtain that feat.
One more reason (and a few may assume 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 embody it. Actually, the Pixel 10 Professional colorways are reasonably boring. I am a fan of aesthetics (and good design, and highly effective {hardware}), so in that respect, upgrading to the Pixel 10 Professional can 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 previously. 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 wish to let go of. I have a look at it the identical means as I do Ubuntu Linux releases: each different 12 months, 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 unsuitable, I do not hate AI. For instance, one of many new AI options permits Gemini to hook up with Maps and discover eating places, then textual content the listing to the household group chat for you. It is potential that, through Gemini, Google can then construct an much more correct profile of you and your preferences. Gemini may even make it potential to share your digital camera 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 does not make it apparent or simple to cancel that plan, otherwise you neglect to cancel it? I’ve had that occur to me on a number of events, and getting the cash again is not any simple feat.
Once more, no thanks.
There’s additionally the brand new Magic Cue characteristic 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 properly sufficient by myself.
The one factor I would miss out on
I’ll say this: the new Pixelsnap feature sounds fairly cool. Basically, this characteristic provides magnetic tech to the Pixel cellphone so you possibly can “snap” your cellphone to equipment (similar to chargers). In my case, I bought a case for my Pixel 9 Professional, which has a magnetic characteristic inbuilt as properly, so I do not really need this. Nevertheless, if I made a decision to go with no case, I would lose the characteristic. 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 concept of dropping a grand on an incremental (at finest) improve. I am going to hold my pink Pixel 9 Professional till a brand new Pixel makes my present one feel and appear out of date.
