Bought 2 Pixel 9 (XL and reg-non pro) - Initial Review.

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Initial thoughts on the pixel 9 series...
Best Buy had a great pre order trade-in deal on these so we upgraded.

S23 ultra > pixel 9 pro xl 1099-1099 trade in.
Cost was TAX on $440 or $29.71 due to the way they bill the phone with coupon and GC.
they also include a $200 BB Gift card so if you treat that as money its a $170 profit.
Fun fact I had a BB GC in my wallet that covered the tax on both phones.. so no "cash" was ever used.

S23 5G >>Pixel 9 reg(non pro) 799 - 799 trade in = cost of tax on 239 or about $15 and you get a 100 BB Gift card.. so net $85 profit

Setup has been smooth. I really like the new phones so far.
they fit better in the hand and no stupid curved screen edges (s23 ultra)
so you can use tempered glass screen protectors.

The screens look great. Battery life is reported to be impressive.. we will test that.(sorry project farm)

Total setup on the pixel 9 XL took about an hour as I had a couple issues migrating my microsoft authenticator.
transferred 12GB and 90 apps, updated 40 apps, and a security update for phone.

Also put on the camera protector, screen protector, and otterbox commuter case..
The Case I really like because it covers the charging port so no dirt and crud gets in there.

Final thought:
Nice getting back to the pixel non-bloat experience... after a few samsungs.
I wasn't really looking to get new phones but with this deal couldnt pass it up.
current phones were aprox 1.5 years old and going strong.. although the wife's would barely make it through the day
so the 3900 to 4700 mah battery upgrade might be a nice for her.. I'll report back on battery life after a week or so.

off topic:
Used some of the BB GC's to upgrade my antique nest 2 thermostat to an ecobee premium (gen 4?)
wanted remote sensors since the thermostat lives next to the TV corner and gets warm. Set it to average the temp between the sensors
and it works pretty good.
The nest would also randomly Disconnect for 5 min a few times a day.. even with a C wire.

EDIT: Fixed some typos.
 
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I'd upgrade from my pixel 6 but it's aging far too well and by looking at this trend I'm pretty sure I'll skip the 10 and maybe get the 11. Or who knows maybe I'll get the 12 if the battery still lasts long enough at least and isn't slow or laggy and that could be possible unless something happens to it. I'm amazed this is still as fast as when I got it new.

My last 3 galaxy's would all get slow and laggy in 2 years or less and the battery life would get terrible. This has somehow improved since when I first got it. This software is so good it just doesn't bog down, best all round phone I've ever had. I loved the galaxy s7 edge I had especially in that incredibly beautiful titanium silver but my goodness was the software pure trash. It was the one that degraded the fastest, became super slow and laggy after just 1 year.
 
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I've been pretty happy with my Pixel 5, but it no longer gets updates, so I'm thinking of getting the 9 to replace it.

BB shows trade-in value for my 5 as $225.
 
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Wow the screen is bright 😎
My P7P was never the best in bright sunlight

Assistant got me moved over in minutes
I'll have to see when I'm out and about tomorrow how the camera and modems fare 🤔
 
The sound is better on the 9 pro xl vs the 7 pro xl. It fires from behind the glass at my face, as opposed to down from holes in the bottom.

For the old phone, go into settings, system, backup, and turn it off once you’ve migrated. That’s the easiest way to delete the cloud-based blob of backup, which would otherwise hang around eating up Google cloud storage.
 
I've been pretty happy with my Pixel 5, but it no longer gets updates, so I'm thinking of getting the 9 to replace it.

BB shows trade-in value for my 5 as $225.
Yeah there's no deals now. It was during the pre-order. They had specific phone trade-ins that were pretty crazy might want to check direct from Google prices.
 
Yeah there's no deals now. It was during the pre-order. They had specific phone trade-ins that were pretty crazy might want to check direct from Google prices.
Google's trade-in values are comparable. But my 5 is an old phone, so I wouldn't expect to get a lot for it.
 
I'll chime in, I had the Google pixel Pro 8 and outside of the camera being stellar, the size of the phone was not to my liking just a little bit too big like the iPhone 14. The phone did weird things with certain photos and YouTube videos. It would often lock up and I would have to reset it to release it. Then of course all of the Google's AI stuff started to get in the way, and of course I was prompted weekly with new AI features that drove me mad. It was relentless. So I traded up for the new Galaxy Z flip 6 and could not be happier. I'm totally over the whole brick type device. I don't care how good the camera is; portability is number one for me
 
I'd upgrade from my pixel 6 but it's aging far too well and by looking at this trend I'm pretty sure I'll skip the 10 and maybe get the 11. Or who knows maybe I'll get the 12 if the battery still lasts long enough at least and isn't slow or laggy and that could be possible unless something happens to it. I'm amazed this is still as fast as when I got it new.

My last 3 galaxy's would all get slow and laggy in 2 years or less and the battery life would get terrible. This has somehow improved since when I first got it. This software is so good it just doesn't bog down, best all round phone I've ever had. I loved the galaxy s7 edge I had especially in that incredibly beautiful titanium silver but my goodness was the software pure trash. It was the one that degraded the fastest, became super slow and laggy after just 1 year.

I love my pixel 6 also. I can't believe it's been nearly 3 years but the phone still feels like new.
 
I love my pixel 6 also. I can't believe it's been nearly 3 years but the phone still feels like new.
Yeah it's what surprises me. It hasn't showed down at all nor has the battery gone down. A galaxy would be unbearable by now.
 
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