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- Verified Buyer
BOUGHT this in May 2020!Almost May, 2022 UPDATEYES! I am STILL using this phone and am still very happy with it. Main issues STILL are crappy 101 Google app updates...DO NOT auto update it; read up, the maximum volume could be better; and I burnt the screen in on the home page, my bad. Battery hanging on; buy a good quality, fast charging cable.I bought it HERE as an open box from the warehouse and would do that again. Is now selling for MORE than I paid for it. Dropped many, many times. A decent bumper case does the job. FANTASTIC camera with no camera or Google Photos app update.17 Mo. UPDATE:This phone is still performing WELL and I keep looking for an upcoming replacement when Google pulls the plug on it. HOWEVER, it appears that I probably have 1 OS update left on it. I am getting about 8 hours out of the original battery...less if I stream radio or video.NEW development this month: the icons on the home page are now burnt into the screen. This is annoying to me.It overheats in very hot sun, and if I stream music for an hour.I have done some comparisons and THOUGHT that I had decided to replace this with a Pixel 5 when the time comes. But every comparison I do with a 4 or a 5 says this is better! I definitely got my money's worth out of this phone as it is still selling for what I paid for it here! > Open box buy on Amazon Warehouse.Warning: JUST keep auto updates turned off and carefully read the reviews for any Google provided Android app parts and pieces. They usually hurt it rather than help it. This phone runs JUST FINE without a whole list of GoogleCRAP, including turning many of them off. Do not believe those screens that say "may not work" without them.15 Mo. UPDATE to my reviews below is right here HERE:The battery no longer lasts the day, but it is not awful. The phone overheated the other day when I left it in the sun in the car and shut off. I have dropped this over and over with no damage with just a decent bumper style case. I am still fighting with GOOGLE and their half baked roll outs of bits and pieces of their software-- Do not let this phone auto update. I HAVE figured out which ones not to update and I have ended up with a stable phone. ItDOES appear that sometimes Pixel 3s are oddballs and app designers and even Google have to roll out an update of something just for this phone.Read reviews in the Play Store. I do have to clear the caches of my apps every once in a while, but I think I would blame that on the apps. The camera is still FANTASTIC and the Google camera app is way better than it was when I bought the phone..I also own a much newer cheaper Motorola (Moto E) phone (backup phone carrier) in addition to this one. The speaker volume is louder than the Pixel. The flashlight is brighter than the Pixel. Everything else-- no comparison..ALL in ALL I am still liking this phone and it appears to be holding up. When it comes time, I will probably update this phone by buying some version of the Pixel 4. However, when I read the specs on all of the other Pixels, this one still wins for me. I WOULD BUY THIS AGAIN. I am going to see how long I can keep it going. I have used this phone with TWO cell networks (Verizon + TMo) and had no issues..The call quality is much better when this is not on speaker phone. I uses several Open Source apps on this phone and they work fine (RadioDroid, AnySoftKeyboard, Simple Notes, Simple Calendar)..****************************************OLDER Reviews:I was pretty convinced of the quality and security of my iPhone and used it long past the payoff date. But Apple's bad battery, broken home button and repeated half-baked iOS releases convinced me to give this phone a try..It's not the latest and greatest, but appears to be very good quality for what I paid for it. I am getting used to the pages and pages of settings, and having to clear the cache, as it has been several years since I had an Android..I bought this from the Amazon Warehouse store and the phone appeared unused. Yeah, as some reviews state, battery life could be a tad better..10 Month UPDATE!I am still using this phone and would give it a 9 out of 10 for how much I like it. I am not a phone geek. But I do not like low end phones. I frequently use this phone for taking Ebay and Etsy photographs. I am running it on an MNVO of Verizon. I have dropped it several times with a middle of the road bumper case and no screen protector...not a scratch. Google Play Store STILL fools around with updating a LONG LIST of pieces of software for this phone at the drop of the hat. Often, their ideas are half baked. I have come to a happy medium with this by loading some Open Source apps for certain things. I WILL say that the Google PHOTO app, which was an Android 10 disaster has gotten better and better. And the Google FILES app now allows me to clean up and remove junk without paying for something else. I recently bought a Moto E phone as a backup..and compared to this Pixel, it's a piece of crap. My next phone will probably be a Pixel 4 or 4a, as I am that happy with this..6 MONTH UPDATE 12.20.20OK - So I STILL like the HARDWARE of this phone. It works well. The buttons work well. I bought an C adapter and my plug in ear buds work well. I have dropped it several times without a super monstrous case over it and it has not succumbed to damage. The battery life is not great, but still about a day unless I play streaming radio all day..BUT....Google's constant meddling and redesigning of the Android software parts is still driving me crazy. It is not just ONE system update like an iPhone. This has maybe 20 little apps that can be updated independently of each other. Often the update sucks and I have to uninstall it. Often the settings for these pieces contradict each other. Google appears to totally redesign EVERYTHING all of the time, just for the heck of it..When I gave a poor rating to the keyboard in the Play Store, Google's response (internal notes, accidentally posted publicly) was that I was extremeley negative, brand aversive and should just be IGNORED! Nice! So will I stick with Android for a while, probably. But my next Android will not be made by Google. Hopefully by then, their monopoly will be broken anyway..UPDATE 10.15.20STILL like this phone but hate Google and their hair-brained update schemes, still consisting of 20 different "parts". Totally lost respect, even though some features are very convenient. They keep "playing" with stuff. On a bright note, I have flat out droppped this phone on its unprotected face and....nuthin!.UPDATE 6.24.20I still like this phone A LOT. But Android 10 appears to be a work in progress in regard to photo handling. This is a shame because of the FANTASTIC camera on this phone. I am hoping that Android 11 solves some of this. However, every time there is an update, it is an improvement..UPDATE 7.1.20I STILL like this phone! There have been some Android and Google app updates, which have been improvements. Google keeps trying to take over my life and privacy, so I turn quite a few settings off. I still had to load an album and a photo cropping app to do some things I could do on iOS in WAY less clicks. Android is loaded with over-functionality. The battery life is tolerable; about all day with frequent use..UPDATE 7.31.20 and 8.16.20Well, I STILL like this phone very much. It's GOOGLE I hate. Every little function of this phone is a separate and constantly updated app by Google. Most updates seems to improve or add a function, while breaking something that you need to WORK. Sometimes an update breaks something on a aftermarket app, and the developer will blame my phone model. Some of these apps appear to be just Google spying..What I hate: NO square photos, more clicks to edit photos, constant cashe clearing, anything Google has privacy settings that I have to CHANGE, because they are invasive..What I like: Low light camera feature is fantastic; phone does not lag; phone has never frozen on me; contextual menus available everywhere, very convenient. (I would recommend keeping an eye on cache usage of your apps. Almost any squirrely behavior I have experienced was a badly performing app, not the phone. I am a former iPhone SE user (2 of them) and was worried about the size of this phone. If you are a SMALL person who needs a SMALL phone, this one fits the bill. Can be used one-handed.
