My recent upgrade path was Pixel 2 -> OnePlus 7 Pro -> Pixel 7. Previously I used Nexus phones as well.
All of Google’s phones seem to have at least one glaring issue. In the case of the Pixel 2, it was the skimpy RAM and low max brightness.
With the Pixel 7, it’s the crappy fingerprint scanner, poor GPU/CPU performance, and surprisingly, the UI. I used to favor Google phones specifically because they had clean UIs with no bullshit, but holy moly, Google went off the deep end with Android 13. The wasted space everywhere is absurd. You can’t even read text in the quick settings because they have such enormous empty borders on all sides. They literally use marquee scrolling, like it’s a 1990s GeoCities page. I had to change my screen DIP settings in developer options to make it tolerable.
The nav bar is stupidly large. Even the gesture bar is stupidly large, sitting permanently at the bottom of my screen while doing absolutely nothing.
The performance is noticeably worse than my last phone. I was not expecting a speed demon, but I was certainly expecting an upgrade over a 3-year-old phone. Gaming performance is bad, and made even worse by the fact that Google only allows 90fps on specific hard-coded games, with no way for the user to override it. Games that run smoothly at 90fps on my old OnePlus 7 Pro stutter at 60fps on the Pixel 7.
Aside from that, it’s a great phone. Battery life is fine. Screen brightness is good. GPS and 5G performance is good. I can still recommend it as a phone for casual use — you can’t beat the price for what you get. But it’s definitely not a phone for power users.
My next phone will likely not be a Pixel. It’s been a while, so I might give Samsung another shot next time. If I catch a good sale on an S23 Ultra I might even upgrade this year.