¶ Pixel sales growth
So guys, we've had some news last couple of days. It seems like every year this is happening, that the Pixel is officially... the fastest growing premium smartphone, I think in the world. I don't know if it's, yeah, in the world, from new research from CounterPoint. I mean, do we feel like this is happening every single year? Like you sell one, then next year you sell 10, that's 1,000%. Was it 100% growth or 1,000% growth? I don't know.
It seems like we're talking about this all the time, right? Yeah, so I think that what that's based on the Pixel 9 has to be. So that was a big year, fresh year, new design, catches people's attention. I don't know. Who else would it be? Yeah, who else? Who would be a premium brand? That's a really good question, actually.
Yeah, that is a really good question. How do you define what is technically a premium brand? I guess is it over a certain price point? Is it certain hardware features? I'm guessing the kind of the exit is over a certain price point, right? So let's see, Vase, I guess. I don't know. We hear things that Vase is one of the most popular foldables in the US or something. I could see them.
Samsung is Samsung. What's OnePlus market penetration in the US? You see people with OnePlus devices? In the US, I haven't, Will. No. Not really. That sounded really sad. That sounded really sad. I have known one person in my life that's not in technology that brought a OnePlus. Why? I know one person who has a OnePlus phone and it's because I gave it to them. So I don't think I gave it to them.
That's a sad indictment because I do genuinely think OnePlus have done some amazing things, especially over the past few years. And I wax lyrical about the OnePlus 12 and 13. I think, yeah, the 13 is like an incredible phone in my opinion. But I guess if we look at it more broadly, if we include OnePlus in there and they may be probably... I don't know the exact figures for OnePlus because they're not available in this data report from CounterPoint.
They're not even listed. So that's quite sad. They're kind of in the others section. Google's seen like, I think, according to this information, it's 105% growth in the past 12 months from the first, I don't know. 2024 to 2025 or 2023 to 2024. I'm not entirely sure. I'll have to check that in a moment for you. But yeah, to go from effectively...
It is a bit of a standing start for Google, isn't it, over the last few years, especially since they've reinvented the Pixel 6 series. I feel like in the UK specifically, Google has struck a chord with buyers. I don't know if you guys are seeing it more in the US. Like Android isn't as pervasive. Do you genuinely see more pixels out and about when you're kind of like just doing your daily day-to-day life?
I think I'm still at the point where when I see somebody with a pixel, it still stands out to me. So that probably answers the question. Yeah. No, I agree. I see them every now and then. And I definitely see them more. than I used to but it's also like we are you know in generation five of a design that is really easily recognizable anyway right like the camera although I guess that's about to be less true because we've we've seen other smartphones start to be like you know I like that
camera bar idea you have going on there um but like largely speaking like six seven eight nine ten all of those pixels are like really easy to to point uh at in a crowd versus you know you might recognize a samsung phone and it's you know triple lens layout usually unless it's an ultra but like you're not going to know what phone it is necessarily just by seeing someone pointed up because it could be an a series could be an s25 who knows um yeah i don't know i they're there
But they're they're certainly not like iPhone level, at least around me, like not not particularly close, which I think is what we're getting at where it's like. Google is certainly building its brand finally after, you know, literally a decade of of pixel devices. But it's, you know, these fastest growing numbers are.
coming, as you said, David, because like if you go from selling 10 to selling a thousand, which obviously the numbers are much higher, but you're going to get that huge percentage increase we're seeing here. But then I guess to play devil's advocate again.
You mentioned iPhones and it's kind of like, I mean, that was definitely a culture shock for me coming to the US. And when I went to IO, you see people walking around at a Google event with iPhones. I thought that was kind of strange, but I guess it is kind of part of the culture. The iMessage is so ingrained.
and entrenched within people's daily lives that you kind of need to play the game, otherwise you're going to get left behind effectively. But I wonder if some of this growth, in air quotes, explosive growth, is as a result of the fact that...
iPhone has reached almost market saturation. Like there are very few people who are going to make that switch now. And the rate at the way they switch, I do feel like you've... people kind of set out the stall i was one of these people who used iphone through the iphone 3 3gs
and then went to the four and then that was it. I was like, I've had enough of this now. I'm going to go to Android through the Nexus series. And that was it. I was hooked. I do wonder if there are many people who eventually make their way back. I feel like it's less prevalent. I don't know.
I'm a little bit kind of agnostic in terms of hardware, but software, it has to be Android. I still think that the biggest motivator, the biggest catalyst for that has been the Pixel Fold or other Android foldables. That's the thing that has gotten iOS users to switch. And I guess my broader question is, has it 10 years of pixel, 10 generations of pixel? I guess I've been wondering why it's been taking so long for Google to get significant numbers.
I don't see them ever reaching Samsung. I just don't. And if they do, I think that really changes the relationship between those two companies on other levels. Even to get a significant fraction of Samsung's Pi would be significant. And I guess my question is, do you think it's taking Pixel too long to get to? number two in the marketplace or is or is there always a limiter to google to how far google wants to take this i think i i know i 100 agree with you samsung
I feel like Google can't undermine their relationship with Samsung by having their devices available in, say, every single market. But I think that's one of the biggest problems. There are only 33 countries around the globe where you can go and buy a Pixel. That is... a drop in the ocean compared to, say, the iPhone or even the latest Samsung Galaxy devices at the low end and the high end as well, actually. I think most, and this is why this is obviously clearly a premium growth.
area because Pixel is positioned as a premium device. I think the biggest problem now is that with the A-series, it would make a lot of sense with the A-series to just put that in every single market where you could potentially put it because the kind of people are going to spend $500 on a phone.
And then obviously it's going to go down less and less and less. You can sell that in more markets where people potentially have less disposable income and do want an experience which is, let's be completely honest, a lot better than some of these cheaper... cheaper brands out there be that xiaomi realme i think infinix there's a few others techno maybe the the sad fact of it is is that those devices while they might have nice hardware and they throw in things as
kind of to try and sell their devices the software experience is just not as good and if ai is going to be this vehicle that helps well it's a vehicle within the pixel lineup definitely feels like just get those devices in as many hands around the globe as possible so they could yeah going back to what you said abner i don't think they ever get anywhere remotely close to samsung personally
I think being a bit part player in a market is absolutely fine. And I think that doesn't hurt Google in any way, shape or form because all these other companies have had another seven, eight to 10 years potentially in the smartphone space. And Google doesn't have the manufacturing capabilities to compete with Samsung, to compete with Apple, even to some of the other, to a greater extent, some of the Chinese manufacturers. Google does not have a manufacturing base.
that these companies have. So maybe that might hinder them in the short term as well. I don't know. I don't know how you feel about it, Will. I know that you just mentioned that iPhone is so huge. So maybe that's one of the reasons why. I, you know, I'll open this by saying what I'm about to say is probably a US centric point of view, because unfortunately, that's just going to bring to the table. But I think there's a few things at play here. Right. I think.
Google has advertised the pixel since the pixel one, but I think they really took things up a notch with their advertising campaigns with. starting around the tensor era and really into the seven and eight and and you know you can't watch a sporting event without seeing a pixel ad i feel like anytime i go to like a national chain theater not like a local theater but like a national chain theater you are going to get pixel ads in the pre-roll every time like it is it is um
It is more of a mind share thing, I think. Like people do know that Google makes a phone series called Pixels and iPhone users know that. Again, anecdotally, but talking to people, they know. I feel like when they know Android phones, they know Samsung, they know.
the pixel and then they probably know like the razor like I think that has also like been able to although that you know I think if they were advertising more it might be even better but so I think there's like a couple things at play here right I think like part of it is that I think Google is finally starting to chip away at the idea that like Samsung is Android, which I think, again, especially in the US, I think that has been a like, you know, over the last 10 years or so, as we've seen.
competitors like LG fall by the wayside I think the idea of it's iPhone or Samsung and and so Samsung people are just sticking on that side. I think that's falling away a little bit and then I think people are just kind of looking for something new and the pixel design is so specifically Google like like there isn't really I mean again there kind of is now but for the most part there really isn't a phone that looks like the pixel
In the same way. There is one. There's one. But like, largely speaking, they're like, like Google really struck its own identity with the Pixel 6 and has, you know, basically kept that core design while obviously. evolving it over the last five years four years excuse me and uh uh i i don't know i think i think it's like starting to work and i think people are generally looking for something new even if
The vast population of iOS users or even Samsung users are probably going to stick with with what they know. But but that I don't know. Like, again, I can only speak. It's hard to like. Unless your counterpoint, it's hard to go find like real polling on this. But like talking to people about smartphones, there is more of an attitude of like, yeah, I'm not like fully against switching anymore.
Even if they're probably not going to get over the hump of how annoying it is to switch platforms. You made a really good point there. Like the mind share situation. Okay, let's look at the, we talked briefly about the keynote, the Pixel 10 keynote. I genuinely think, and I don't know, this is just a theory. This is like a conspiracy theory, I guess.
I do wonder if Google played into the fact that they wanted it to be schlocky and cringy and stuff. Because effectively, the more people talk about your product online, the more your product is known by people. So the kind of people who were like, oh, go look at this cringy thing that... It was Jimmy Kimmel, right? Who was it? Fallon.
Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon. Okay. There's too many Jimmy's. Um, one of those guys, Jimmy Fallon was on, obviously he hosted it. He acted like he didn't know any, he didn't know what was going on, which I think was kind of marketing genius in a lot of ways because.
You can click that up and the kind of people who are going to click that up and put it on TikTok potentially are going to say, oh, look at this really cringy thing that Google did. But it doesn't matter because say four or five million people watch that. That's four or five million people who didn't know your product existed. Google probably knows that better than anyone. They're an advertising company first and foremost, right? So it feels very much like...
It was a win-win because the kind of people who are dunking on Google over the last 24, 48 hours, which will come on to the reasons why related to another piece of hardware, which we don't talk about very often here. I think that's a fantastic thing. Like you just mentioned it, Will. People know Pixel now. And the idea, all Google needs to do is put the seeds of doubt in someone's mind. And I do wonder if that has been kind of...
intertwined into this design change to make it look almost... I guess the Pixel straddles pure iPhone hardware, Samsung hardware, and then being its own thing in between. And I do wonder if that halfway house is going to... benefit them and it seems like it according to this if you just look at the raw information here um and don't analyze it very deeply 105 growth in a year is fantastic for any company yeah
The fact that they were struggling to sell devices prior to that, I think it was, was it the Pixel 4 is the highest selling Pixel technically to date until this, was it the 7 or 8 series that broke that record? And then...
the nine has broken it again like something's working and i do feel like that there was a lot of these things at play whether or not google stumbled on this accidentally or they've meant to do it which i'm going to give them credit and say they probably did yeah i guess only going to be a good thing right I guess to wind this up, two questions. What is Google's definition of success for the Pixel? And two, have they been meeting it?
I wonder if it's not even a sales number as much as it's a like it. And I don't think it started this way, but it is now it is just a like this is a way to get Gemini in the hands of people and to get people to use Gemini. And so Google's.
like it probably isn't even a sales figure which is why they they typically don't really share like hard sales numbers on these phones it's it's a like we want people to use gemini we are ahead on this right like we have uh this is space that apple usually thrives in where it's like oh we have the combination of hardware and software but that's google this time right in this like ai landscape we're looking at where they have you know like
one of the two most popular like llms i would say right like gemini it's gemini and and and chat gbt i would say at the top of the list and they're able to unlike open ai unlike apple they're able to like use that leverage to be like okay this is also just like a gemini phone like that's what it is first and foremost so i think
You know, I don't know if it's working, but like I would guess that their level of success is not like we sold 50 million Pixel 10s. It's we sold we sold a bunch of Pixel 10s and everybody is using Gemini on it. I think that's what they're more interested in as a company. I think that's probably the end goal, right? I guess if some of Apple's services start to loosen their grip over people...
be that iMessage, be that iCloud, whatever it is. I do wonder if obviously Google and ChatGPT are trying to bank on everyone, the iron grip of AI in the next three to four years. Like you said, Will, I think the... you're going to be using one of two LLMs, right? The two biggest. I mean, ChatGPT is far and away the biggest, but they're never going to have that hardware integration that Google can have. That Johnny Ive gadget.
Yeah, maybe. Or whatever it is. It might not even be. Who knows? I don't know what to call it. I'd love it if it was a Jacquard jacket or something like that. That'd be fantastic. I do genuinely think, yeah, that is what they're banking on. And I don't think that... I mean, the hardware sales figures sounding significant, but they're not, because...
they're smashing some of these smaller brands like OnePlus. OnePlus would probably kill for, say, 15 million phones sold worldwide on their flagship model. But I just can't see them ever doing that because the market penetration... in the in the big markets as it were be that
Western Europe and North America. It's just, it's almost impossible to break that. And they're not in carrier stores anymore. I mean, I know they have a Best Buy partnership, but like if you are not in carrier stores, you are not going to succeed in the US. And like Google has the benefit of
having good relationships with, with carriers and, and, you know, they all, you know, they, they might not carry like the foldable, but otherwise like, like the pixel 10 is on like every carrier. Like you can go buy it from not just the big three, obviously, but like. most mvno's now have like a pixel phone you can pick up and i think that is also a big thing for for google's success in this sphere
I think, yeah, Gemini as well on those stands is huge. I think people are going to tie Gemini and Pixel together quite tightly. But yeah, no, I think we've... We've sort of answered your question. I don't know. What do you think? Do you genuinely think it's the same sort of thing? Or do you think Google definitely has a figure in mind for hardware? They must have something, right? They must have, I don't know, 20 million, 50 million units a year. In an ideal world, they're in it.
the prestige um but i'm i don't know like 10 years in i feel like there is an expectation of them hitting market success monetary success every every year so i guess i i feel like as some as it matures naturally as the pixel brand matures that they want they do want to hit numbers um Pixel is the A24 of smartphones. Samsung is like a big blockbuster studio. And Google is over here making indie movies to win Oscars. I mean, yeah.
A hundred percent. I agree with that as well. I think it makes sense.
look at the the plaudits that the pixel lineup gets i mean obviously you only need to speak to anyone who's in technology that they use a pixel and it's almost seemingly the de facto android experience even though samsung is so intrinsically linked to it i think yeah it's definitely it's strange right if if plaudits sold devices and google would be probably one of the biggest selling devices on the planet like with their pixel lineup but it just doesn't seem to work like that but
Yeah, I'd be fascinated. It'd be amazing to speak to someone about what their perception of success is with the Pixel lineup. I guess it changes every year, right? Yeah.
¶ iPhone 17 compared to Pixel 10
Yeah, but let's get into something that I think, I mean, in the back of their mind, everyone's looking at this. The iPhone 17 launched, what, 48 hours ago now? the dust has settled a little bit there was quite a few phones in the lineup brand new air device which um i mean we'll talk about in a moment but i think our base model really really stands out straight away to me that
The value for money factor is fantastic. Let's be completely honest. Yeah, I think we all thought there was going to be a price increase. And no, like Pixel, they say there's no price increase. And as we were saying, they finally... The iPhone 17 finally addresses some, at least to me, long-standing complaints, like not having an always-on display on every model.
I think that was a bare minimum that they should have always hit to compete with Android. I think 120Hz is the rest of a big thing. But yeah, the iPhone 17 is very competitive. Just looking at it against this year's pixel, where do we think it stands? I think it's a I think it is confirmed a big mistake on Google's part to not have bumped to 256 gigabytes across the board because like not only is the iPhone 17 not.
it did not get a price hike you could argue it got a price decrease because if you wanted a 256 gigabyte iphone 16 you were paying 900 you're not paying 800 so you are getting more storage space you're getting The same display that's on the iPhone 17 Pro, it's like the same panel.
Is it the same panel? I believe I saw it was confirmed that it's the same 6.3 inch panel. So it's going to, like, not that the 16 didn't have, it was a good screen, but obviously it was 60 hertz and it was, it didn't have an always on display. So like.
it wasn't a bad, I wouldn't call it a bad panel. I would call it a dated panel probably. Um, aside from its like brightness rating. Um, and yeah, I don't know, man. Like I, I, I, it's it's tricky to compare this to like the the pixel 10 obviously you don't have like a telephoto a true telephoto lens like at all on this i don't care how many times apple says the word like optical grade or whatever they refer to a 2x crop as but like aside from the camera hardware like if you were if you were
operating system agnostic, which nobody is. But if you are, it's a good deal. Like, I don't think there's any other way to say it. And I think it does kind of show. Google probably should have should have upgraded the storage off the bat. Now Google is also. the pixel is always on sale so it doesn't you know in three months it's not really going to matter you can probably you'll probably be able to pick up the 256 gigabyte pixel 10 for 800 pretty regularly but
Uh, yeah. I mean, just looking at MSRP pricing, like I, I think the iPhone 17 is like by far the, the most appealing of the, of the devices Apple announced this week. Yeah. I think it's strange that we.
I mean, we talked about sales figures momentarily. I know that a few years ago, the iPhone 15, for a couple of years in a row, was the biggest selling individual device on the planet, which kind of shows that people don't always go for the pro model, even though we assume that that seems to be the case. I think, I mean, a strong Apple is good for Android, I think, personally. I think having Apple firing on all cylinders, and this is...
The base model specifically is Apple firing on all cylinders apart from obviously that personally I would have a telephoto on a base, even a base model I want a telephoto. But yeah, it's really, really hard to argue with this that Google...
with their base model pixel 10 without any sort of storage upgrade is facing a little bit of an uphill battle i mean we mentioned carrier stores a moment ago if you're going to go into a carrier store or a phone shop or anywhere where there's devices on display
and you see the 17, and yeah, you might not know about specifications, I think you're definitely going to see that there's something different between these two devices. I know performance, if you get the opportunity to play around with it, you're going to see a big performance difference as well, which...
And Apple is not shy of doing that now. I think if you go into the Apple Store, they have lots of preloaded applications that really showcase how fast their devices and smooth their devices are. Google probably needs to look at this and be like, okay, we're going to use this as a learning experiment now. And the next few generations probably make some key changes to their base model. Even though a couple of weeks ago we were talking about that base model.
256 gig version, looks like a really good product for the price. It's amazing how quickly opinion can change. I agree that specs don't matter. And I don't know how many people are really comparing these two. There will be people who do, but I don't think the bulk of people will. But there is like it is just losing out on the fact that if you walk into a carrier store, which, again, really does matter in the US, even.
even in 2025 like the carrier rep is going to tell people that the iphone 17 base model has doubled the space of the pixel 10 and that is actually almost like a more that's a harsher word double than than doing using the actual numbers because you were literally like oh so if i pay 800 for this I can keep double the photos on it. Like that is big for people. Like people do care about that. And so.
I don't know. Like I just it's a bit of a whiff on Google's part and considering how cheap storage pricing is these days, like even.
even with inflation and everything like man it just really sucks that google did not just take this opportunity to to bump space because like i i think if you eliminated that difference i think we could pretty much we could argue the pixel 10 you know with its camera setup is is superior or at the very least you know has similar uh pros and cons but like that storage thing is just a a bummer and it is gonna matter yeah i think i think um
This is the phone for the people who are wanting an upgrade for a little while. It's for my dad. My dad has an iPhone 12. I'm going to buy my dad the base model iPhone 17 and he's going to go from a 64 gigabyte iPhone. 12 to a 256 gigabyte iphone 17 with a significantly better screen and better cameras and like he will be like wow this is a big jump and and that'll be that
I do wonder what the reception will be, because I know that there's a lot of people who've been criticising the Pro tier for its design changes. Let's go to the Pro tier for a moment, because, hey, we can't deny that...
¶ iPhone 17 Pro thoughts
there's certain things that Apple has seen and clearly there's a little bit of pixel camera bar in there. There's definitely some DNA in there somehow. I mean, they're not that far apart, are they, in California? So I do wonder how... that their design principles have changed as a result of seeing Google do some pretty impressive things with their own hardware. Like, I don't know, what do you think when you've seen it?
first first hand that was kind of like it looks better than i thought would from vendors there's a utilitarianness to it that it i don't know it is a utilitarian this to it that i thought some people would give them products for not doing form over function this seems like a very functional design um the prat this prato putting um like the antenna lines on the plateau, not making the entire back glass so it's more durable with a disunibody metal construction. Yeah.
it's more function over form than usual from Apple. And I agree that it's a stark departure. And I feel like it's a bit rough in the way that like the... apple watch ultra it's like i feel like it's in that vein of whatever that design they're going for but and it looks better than i thought it would be from all these renders and case vendors and whatnot
Yeah, no, I feel this feels like Apple's Android moment. Does that make sense? Like all of the things that we kind of see on Android have kind of me shoved in together and then... apple's put their own twist on it there's definitely a lot of like i mean i don't know if you guys have seen the poco series of late there's a lot of poco in there there's a little bit i think of pixel it which ordinarily feel this feels so weird to see this from apple i don't know maybe they half.
And then they've made changes to the hardware as well. Like they've moved away from titanium. I'm guessing that was a heat related thing. So that means technically the most premium device on the market is the S25 Ultra. If we're looking at pure materials, right? That genuinely means that it is.
as i'm concerned i felt like i was losing look i i i am a sucker i i'm a sucker for an aluminum unibody i think because i loved the htc1 m7 and m8 so much and it just it does like this does remind me of it even if the design is obvious very different but there's something about seeing that like aluminum metal shell especially if you look at the like in construction version where you're like well man that reminds me of the htc i i once loved
And at the same time, I'm like, I sat through a year of titanium and of just getting the word titanium yelled at me. And then for Apple to just be like, I. I don't know what you guys, I don't know what titanium is. I forgot about this. We're, we're, we're using aluminum. I don't, I don't know what you're talking about. I also really quickly, the camera bar design on this doesn't eliminate.
the the like it's still gonna wobble on a table they like screwed it up that's like the whole but like the lens is still protrude on the left side so like they they still kind of screwed it up where like it's not gonna be terrible it will probably be better than
the the the um iphone 16 pro uh was but like i'm looking at it and i'm like why didn't you guys just go all the way and make it flush like it's it's it's if you're already doing this elevated piece of metal it's again it's function over form yeah It's actually quite revealing to see how much they prioritize having the most powerful camera system available instead of like...
going at a system that's small or whatever yeah yeah it's it's a camera device it's it is and it is for most people it is their camera so and they focus really heavily on it and like like you know they really focused on the video side of it which makes sense because you have stuff like you know um 28 years later shot on an iphone right like there's lots of movies now that are actually shot on iphone it's not just like quiet little like indie
productions on twenty dollars anymore so i get why they do that but but yeah i do wonder um some of the design choices i'm a bit kind of confused by i know you mentioned it's full it's all aluminium i'm going to call it aluminium because that's this chemical name and it was in the keynote yeah so basically I think that the the separation the weird what's the little section that looks like there's a MagSafe battery pack pre-attached like glass what's that about what's
Is that basically just for the charging option? Yeah, there's a wireless charging. Right, okay, so that was me misinterpreting things. Yeah, so they've done a unibody chassis, but at the same time they've still kept a little bit of that glass sandwich style. Is that a throwback? From a physics standpoint, like what Google had to do with the Pixel 5 to do the... Yeah, but they could have used Bioresin like a real company. That would have been a better way of doing it, right?
Yeah, I'm kind of confused. It doesn't feel like, this does not feel like an Apple device. This feels like someone's made an AI render of an iPhone. It does look like those fake, or you'd see like... Like, oh man, check out this Xbox 720. Yes, that's literally what I was thinking. Yeah, so this is the iPhone 720. Yeah, it feels a little bit weird. And then you throw in liquid glass on top. I'm like...
what are those guys smoking over there at this point in time? It's almost like they've just thrown out everything that Apple I've always known for, like really tight hardware. I mean, it probably will be great when he's in person. And hey, for my sins, I've... because I don't want to do this, I pre-ordered the white model of the Pro Max so that I can effectively see how it stacks up against the best of Android in the next 12 months or so.
Rightly or wrongly, there's going to be a lot of other Android OEMs out there that look at this and they're like, right, how can we take this and put our own spin on it? I don't think they're going to need to because, like I say, these designs are all... Yeah, it's like an e-fit of all Android phones over the last 10 years. I'm sure, like I say, I'm sure it looked better in person, but even the camera, sorry, the camera, the microphone cut out at the top.
is like you'd see on the pixel. So there's so many little things here that I'm finding really, really weird about Apple and where the design has kind of evolved over the last few years. I don't know. What do you think in terms of the colors as well? Because they've cut down on color options. This is not what Apple usually does. They usually do like five, is it, on their Pro tier? Yeah, I think it's four. I've done three this time. It's three or four, yeah.
But one fun option is really bold. This orange, whatever it's called. Cosmic orange. I don't know what makes it cosmic, but that's what it's called. It does look unapply, this shade of orange. It's a very bold orange. I mean, I don't hate the colors. I guess the difference from last year is that, besides the orange, is that there's no black, which is fine, in my opinion.
I don't know. I kind of the orange is kind of grown on me in a way I didn't expect it to. But I also don't I don't know if I would buy it. This strikes me as a color for two months. i i think i think it's gonna sound like crazy but this strikes me as a color i personally would be like really enthused about for for two months and then be like okay i wish this was a little
So like, like something else, like more subtle. Yeah, it can be vibrant, but like, I don't know. I shouldn't complain. I'm very happy to see a company doing a colorful, bold choice on a top. tier pro phone and I if nothing else I hope this prompts companies to follow suit because i i am you know the jade pixel 10 pro is very nice um if a little subtle it and it's kind of just mint in the in most lighting but um it's uh you know i i like
The fact that they're going there and I hope Samsung and Google and others like follow suit on making and we've seen Motorola and to a lesser extent OnePlus do it. So like the the movements there. But we just need to get everybody on board for sharper, bolder colors. I mean, it definitely feels like Google.
I'm calling it Google. I don't know why I'm calling it Google. The design is reminding me of so many Google and Android devices. I feel like with the Pro tier, they're not... This isn't Apple firing on all cylinders. This is Apple kind of like...
Do you think it is? I don't think it is. I think that the base model is literally them doing the most. I think this is more... I mean, because when you start to look at it and really, really delving down... I think this is the new design architecture for the next five years or whatever. I do think...
it's a pro phone in that they give up the design again it comes back this is so much more functional over form like this design is so utilitarian that i could see how they made it to allow for more premium for more pro for more hardware in general and at the expense of something that looks very strange right now but i i don't know i think this is the most utilitarian iphone to date and yeah
I think we'll eventually see how that plays out as a design that shows. Yeah, maybe. You've kind of talked me around a little bit. I do think in terms of the internals and stuff like that, I don't think there is major changes here. There is no major, major changes that are groundbreaking. No. It doesn't seem like much of a huge upgrade over the, is it 16? Yeah, 16 Pro Max. But at the same time, like you said, the hardware is very, I guess we'll call it fresh.
I guess that seems fair. But in terms of fresh, brand new devices, brand new to the lineup, Apple also introduced their Air, iPhone Air, which is, I mean...
¶ iPhone Air and S25 Edge comparison
Personally, I think this is a concept. They're running this ahead of potentially a foldable. Yeah, I agree. Can I test the waters, prove it? I mean, I don't know where I stand on this. I think from an engineering perspective. I love it from a would I buy this and use this? I'm less enthused. I, man, I made a joke when they.
I was talking to Ben shown and I made a joke during the event where, when they were talking about all day battery life and I was like, yeah, it's going to have a bunch of asterisks next to it. The asterisks is going to be like, are going to be like,
you know with the screen off and then a second asterisk is like if the screen's on the battery is not great and then the third asterisk is like you can you should probably buy a battery pack um and then the fourth asterisk is like battery packs hold separately and then genuinely five minutes later they were like and we made a new battery pack for it and i was like wow i called it i totally called that they were going to be like we've made a new battery pack for it um
Look, it's I agree with you. I don't think it's a fully like concept device. Maybe like I do think that they are trying. It's a it's a it's two things. It is the foldable thing where they are working on something internally in terms of foldables. And so they they are working on squeezing these components down to this size. So they can therefore, you know, sell a phone of this size while they continue to work towards the eventuality of an iPhone, of a foldable iPhone, which I.
maintain. We'll believe it when I see it. I'm sure they're working on it. I don't know if they'll launch it. The other thing I think is that they have really struggled to figure out what this fourth iPhone pillar is, right? The iPhone Pro series sells well. The Pro Max series sells well. The base model sells great. And the fourth pillar, they've tried the Mini. It didn't sell well. They tried the Plus. It also didn't sell well.
So I think this is mostly just them being like, well, we are working on this. Yeah, so that's a good point, that third pillar. The thing is, on paper, the Plus was a very competitive phone. I agree, but just nobody wanted it. Because the upsell for the Pro Max was so effective. That's, I think... they were so good at cannibalizing that large phone to the pro model um so to what damon was saying this is a concept phone
Full disclosure, this is the one I'm buying, but I haven't bought an iPhone in four years, so I'm on the 13 mini, and I'm going to the air. And if you're going to use it as a, it's not going to be your daily driver. abner so if you're gonna use it as like the iphone you use when you need an iphone i think this is like a fun one to to buy compared to like oh this is the my device for the next four years you know yeah yeah
If it were for the next four years, I'd be getting the base iPhone, which I think is the nicest working iPhone. I feel like this vindicates a little bit what Samsung had done with the Edge. No.
No, no, no. Do you not think it does? I think it does. I think with the edge, it looks... Is the edge thinner? How many... The edge is a little thicker, but a little lighter and has a larger display. And I think, and I have not used it or even held it, but I think it has two... speakers so that's got i was going to buy an edge i was going to buy an edge outright but then the first reviews came in and they're like why would you buy this so that's what i was ready to buy it so
that i'm putting uh money where my mouth is but so these slim phones i'm very interested in it um so concept phone i don't think this is a concept phone i see this more as a luxury as a jewelry option in the lineup yeah that it's it's you you want the futuristic thing and i'm glad that people are pushing this um this this like something that's
futuristic that isn't the pro that isn't the you want all of it because i've never been interested in buying a pro well except for the always on display but now that's solved um so i think there is a place for this phone and in the way that apple does it was going to popularize and make other people make it with the samsung with the s25 edge
I feel like that fits into the Samsung's most, let's say, unideal tendencies of seeing where the markets, of seeing where others are going and getting there first, which is... Not to say that isn't an engineering feat, but I feel like the reviews have proven that it was not a competitive device. And if they were generally doing that before they heard rumors of the iPhone...
I will applaud them. But I feel that phone is absolutely the result of rumors that Apple was doing this. And Samsung thinking that we can also do this, which to their credit, they can. They have the engineering effort. The engineering know-how to do that. I'm very curious how Apple's take, how Apple's even larger take will drive the market to, I don't know, I just think that a slim phone.
It's exciting. It's like I used the Moto Z, the first one, a very thin one. Even thinner than this. It was 5.2 millimeters. Even thinner than this. One camera. The camera is shit, though. But yeah, I do. Do you think, do you think people are going to be highly critical of this in the same way that they're going to be critical of, of Samsung? No, because I'm, I'm very like,
I do get wary sometimes of the way that people talk about Apple products in general. I think this phone is kind of review proof because of exactly... I think Abner said it. I'm sorry if you said it, Davian. I'm mixing up who said it. But I think... Selling this as a status symbol above all else is the decision that Apple has made here that I think is going to make this like at least a relative success compared to the mini and the plus models before it compared to like.
I think Samsung really screwed up by like, and they do this for everything, but by being like, well, we kind of have one design that we stick to and sure we tweak it a little bit between generations. Right. But like, if you look at the. You know, you look at the edge from the back and it just looks like any other Samsung phone. It's missing a third lens. And and I, you know, you look at the air. It does not look like any other.
iphone they've ever shipped and i i do think there is something to like the you know you scroll through the like very well designed website for this thing and it just like They're really aiming for this to feel like, oh, it's the iPhone you love, but in this like...
super fancy premium shell that all of your friends are going to be jealous of. And sure, you'll have to carry a battery pack around, but don't worry about that because you're going to be so excited about how thin your phone is. And I don't think, and I think that's why.
you're exactly right abner that the s25 edge was just a response to the the god i guess like almost two full years of of rumors about the iphone error that like they they put this together and and It's not like it's an unusable phone, but it clearly does not have the same amount of like.
I don't know. I almost want to say passion, but I'm not sure that's the word I'm looking for. It does feel like Apple is excited about the iPhone Air in a way that Samsung did not feel excited about the S25 Edge. Because like if they... The thing that Samsung should have solely concentrated on is the fold. The flip, sorry, the flip. That is their differentiator. They should have put so much more...
engineering efforts in the past two or four generations. And that should have been their competitor to this iPhone Air. I agree. And to what you were saying when you were talking about switching, I think people want something different. And I think outside of foldables, I think going thin is... something worth pursuing something see something take something a road worth exploring because i'm not sure if we've all used the latest generation ipad pro
But there is a futurism to that, that you're holding a piece of glass in terms of how thin it is, five point something millimeters. I think somebody should be doing. doing that, it makes it feel like the technology has gone away. I think that is something I'm personally that I want to see in terms of like having futuristic technology. I think in general, I think the market is better for it too.
push those advances to push like in in the quest to make it ever thinner like don't compromise on battery life but if this is this is what allows to for more battery innovations or whatever I think that's a very exciting place to take it, the technology. That's a really, really good point, Abner. And it made me like, if you think about...
you know, Apple's previous attempts. Again, the mini was just what you were already using, but smaller. The plus was what you were already using, but bigger. This does, this will feel different when you pick it up from the moment. It's like, It's like I spent spent like 15 grand getting my roof replaced almost two years ago.
Nobody has ever complimented my roof, right? I'm happy it's new. It won't leak for 30 years, right? But like nobody ever, that is a pure investment in the foundation of a house. As opposed to like, if I got my kitchen remodeled, anybody who has been to my house before would come over and be like, oh, my God, that's a new kitchen. Right. And like, I feel like the same applies here where it's like, OK.
We've tried just like offering different sizes of iPhone and they all look basically the same. And so why would anybody just. pay more for for a thing that they can just get the base model of or they can go all the way up to the pro this is its own separate thing that is going to attract
a subset of buyers who don't really care about the cameras on the Pro and maybe want something fancier than the base model. And so I think it'll be a success, even if it's not quite up to, you know, it's not the best selling iPhone ever. I think it will be. success yeah i think i mean the upside is there's definitely some nexus vibes there as well so if you're uh someone out there who has a passing interest in in old i guess precursors to the pixel um
You can relive that Nexus 6P vibes. I was going to say, this thing looks so much like the Nexus 6P. It's nuts. It's nuts. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. So, hey, I think it all comes back to... Apple are definitely paying attention to what Google are doing, no matter what happens. But yeah, I think...
¶ Pixel 10 after a few weeks
It's been a very, very Apple-centric episode. And I just want to say, I'm still really happy with my Pixel 10. I don't know if you have any updates from your experiences over the last few weeks. I know we said in the previous episode that we were going to touch on it. I just want to say, I went...
recently to germany for a couple of days i i mained my pixel 10 pro excel which is my main device at the minute i've been between that and my retail 10 pro battery's been pretty solid i mean i hate screen on time as a metric but i probably get on a good day seven hours seven and a half hours which i think is for me he's very very good um
I think it goes back to something that we said about how we thought that the Tensor, this Tensor G5 TSMC was going to be the end-all, be-all. But they've put that work into AI stuff and not the battery. It's, I think it's the, the AI is the saving point so they can prioritize what they want to prioritize, but. Battery's fine. It's fine. You're not gonna, like, it's, and it's not fine. Fine has.
changed over time right what was fine in 2020 is not fine now like like if this phone had come out five years ago i think we'd be like battery life's pretty good but like the standard continues to raise and i would i would say that google has always been a little bit behind whatever the standard is. Not again, not bad, just totally fine. I'm curious to know how you guys feel about the camera. My
I sort of walked away being like, I've gotten I've gotten some really good shots with it. And like, I'm not surprised. And as always, it is so reliable more than anything. It is. It is. I it's very rare. I get a full on bad shot. But. I continue to be like I wish the color science was a little poppier or that they just allowed me to have a little more control over it. You know, I woke up pretty early yesterday morning. And the sky was just beautiful with the sunrise. And I took a photo of it.
And and not only did the pixel capture the reflection in my window more than I expected it to, because I also took a photo with my iPhone 16 and it did not get my reflection. So but it completely.
out the orange of the sky and I was really kind of bummed with it and again it's not every photo I went to Niagara Falls a couple weeks ago and I got some like really incredible photos of like a rainbow over the falls but you know i just wish i had a little more control over how that final image looks without having to go like edit it i don't want to edit like 20 of my photos i wanted to i wanted to set it and forget it which is
how the iPhone works. And I, I truly kind of wish they would steal, uh, uh, photographic styles have surprisingly, they're, they're built in filters and basically, yeah, we're in what? two or three generations of that for the iPhone. I feel that makes that way over at this point. I don't know. It's a smart feature. I think it's really poorly implemented and like kind of confusing to use on iOS. And I think.
Google would do a better job with it. Yeah, that weird little trackpad thing that you use. It's so, it does not explain itself well at all on the iPhone in a way that like, I think Google could make it. They need to call it filters. It's what it is. I agree. Yeah.
Let me put a contrast filter on everything. That's really when I like contrasty photos. If there was an option to just like up the contrast on every image I take, I think I would probably leave it on. I feel like you're probably getting a deeper...
deeper thing. And maybe in future we'll, we'll dive into a full length podcast. I think what has happened in the last few years with a lot of camera systems is they're becoming more clinical. So your photos kind of all look a bit too. An objectivity to it.
Yeah, I think sometimes photography is very much like you capture a feeling as opposed to... just the moment i think you can do both at the same time like you said well you're capturing a sun sunrise and a sunrise will evoke certain things in your memory and also your experience of that sunrise i think as much as i love
the pixel camera experience and i don't think i think it is the best for me yeah i i love it like ardently it's so darn real like you said reliable it's just all i want is reliability i think we could definitely do with some options to tone down that clinicalness of it. It definitely feels like almost...
It's like taking a scalpel to an image as opposed to having something with it. Yeah, you can leave a little bit of Vaseline on the lens. It doesn't have to be sharp in everything. Give me some personality, you know? Yeah, I feel like that. And to be clear, the iPhone's image, because I said I took... the same photo with with my iPhone. The oranges were were I would say too deep. It was it was much more. It appeared much more orangey than the sky was in reality, but I think
I think it expresses, you know, now that it's been 36 hours or whatever, it expresses how how the sky looked in my mind, in my memory more than the pixels photo does. And at the end of the day, if I have to pick between. a little too saturated and not saturated enough. I think I'll take too saturated. I'm totally open.
for disagreements on that. But I think that's, that was what spurred me to take the photo in the first place was that it looked so pretty and so bold and vibrant. And that's not there in the pixels image. Yeah, I think HDR has one of those. HDR has a lot to answer for, I think, personally. But...
So far, so good. We'll revisit this. Yeah, it's good. I think we should do this every couple of... We'll definitely do this a little bit more regularly because I think we tried to do it a little bit last year. I'm really liking it overall, to be clear. Yeah, I think we should 100% revisit things every now and again. If anyone has any questions, by all means... Drop that in a comment or email us. I'll leave...
I'll leave my email in the show notes. Will will do that for me because he's a nice guy like that. I'll take the abuse. I'll take the abuse. But yeah, if you have any specific questions about how we're getting on with the Pixel 10, you might be not ready for an upgrade yet. So, and you might want to know things ahead of time and all waiting for a price drop.
and answer as many questions as humanly possible. But yeah, I just want to say thanks guys for joining me. It's always fascinating seeing what's going on on the other side of the fence. And while it has been an Apple-heavy episode, I think...
Like I say, having a really strong competitor to the biggest mobile platform out there, which is still technically Android, is always going to be good. And we can learn from, well, manufacturers can learn from Apple's mistakes. Google... gets a little bit of a lesson with their base model i think in reality as annoyed as it can be we can be potentially
Every day is a learning day and it's always going to make for better products later on the line. But yeah, thanks for joining me, guys. This has been episode 69. So we're getting ever close to that 100. We may have a little bit of a... I think we should have a party on the 100th episode. We should. We will. Yeah. Awesome. Right. Thanks, gents. And I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye.