The Pixel is a vessel for Google's AI and Machine learning prowess.
And right now, you'd be hard-pressed to find a phone with a better AI and multimedia experience than the Pixel.
This is why the Pixel is better than any phone Apple has created. And will continue to be better than any Phone Apple will create moving forward.
Unless of course, AI and Machine Learning is just a fad.
We shall see.
People vote with their wallets.
You can make up all the high sounding jibberish you want. But ultimately its the consumer who decides which phone is the best for the 'real world'
We shall see how many $650 Pixel phones Google sells vs the iPhone7.
That will be the answer to which is the better phone.
The Pixel is not going to sell better than the iPhone 7. It's a new brand. And Google doesn't have the retail and supply chain expertise that Apple has.
However, if Google continues to be at the forefront of AI and Machine Learning, then within the next couple of years, the Pixel will become a serious and formidable contender to the iPhone.
Google with the Pixel brand is the only company that can topple the dominance of the iPhone. Apple should be very worried, considering that they're behind in AI and Machine Learning.
Google over the years has avoided directly competing with Apple, but now, they've just dropped the gauntlet. People are underestimating the Pixel based on specs. That's misguided.
The Pixel's nuclear bomb is AI. It has better smarts than any smartphone. Period. And those smarts are only going to get deeper and more profound as the months and years pass by.
Timing the release of their review of the Pixel is obvious they worked together to get maximum buzz.
Pretty pathetic.
Its painfully obvious that DXOMark got a nice fat paycheck from Google for that high review
Enough already, you guys always come up with conspiracy theories anytime something favours someone other than Apple. If DXoMark had given the iPhone the highest you wouldn't be saying the same for Apple. It could just be that overall the Pixel did take great photos.
The decision between the iPhone 7 and the Pixel really comes down to software. I just ordered a Pixel XL because I prefer Android, because I like the VR support, and because I prefer Google's online services to Apple's. I also like the USB C support and the standard headphone jack. Whether one phone is a bit faster than the other doesn't really matter to me.
It's not a bit faster but 2X faster. Now, just use iPhone in this context; if Apple released iPhone 7/7+ with the design and specs of Pixel, most of people will trash the damn phone and seriously I would too.
The main things Android and the Pixel have to prove is that their phones will not need to be physically reset constantly when apps or hardware cause the device to freeze. That was my main problem when I was on Verizon before the iPhone was launched on the network.
The second thing that it needs to prove, is that it three short years later the latest Android version will be made available to run on it. Again as a former Android user, that was a major factor in forgetting Android, just as Android and device makers forgot you as soon as you bought their handset. You were abandoned immediately as a concern to them as soon as you were suckered into buying.
Third, is safety. Android has a major malware and privacy problem that doesn't seem to have a solution or even seems to be a concern to Android.
So there you have it. The problem with the Pixel or any other Android device is Android itself.
The Pixel has fail written all over it as you can get a far cheaper device running Android with equal specs. For Android and the Pixel to not be seen as a second rate OS, it has to stop being a second rate OS.
Same reason I left Android as well. Got forgotten with updates and told by Motorola l have to get their newest phone at the time. Of course a pure Android phone should not have that problem but not going back.
Me neither. And i couldn't see how Motorola phones as well as other Android phones suffered while Samsung is still going at it. Of all the Android phones I ever owned, the Samsung ones were the only ones I ever felt pleased with. Reviewers at the time liked to pick on their skins, but reviewers never had to keep and live with an Android device for more than the week they were reviewing it. And word of mouth, rather than reviews by god-knows-who at CNet or whatever is what got Samsung where it is today. Battery explosions aside, if I had to return to Android it would be a no brainer to go back to a Samsung rather than the Google branded HTC Pixel.
The Motorola phones since 2013 are some of the finest that Android has to offer. If you've left Android before 2013, what experience you had is 100% not representative of what Android has to offer today. Android phones used to have lower resolution than iPHone's and was slow and clunky. Android has pretty much closed the gap in ease of use and in some ways much more full-featured than iOS.
Full feature like no encryption by default and malware favored environment? No thanks!
Wide color gamut is not a feature - If the screen is beautiful, the screen is beautiful. Nobody cares about wide color gamut.
Actually, the end result (lack of result, that is) is in the fact that Android doesn't know how to handle color management...without which a "beautiful screen" isn't gonna help, sadly. In the absense of the aforementioned CM, sRGB colors, placed in P3 color space will be oversaturated and incorrect. And, despite what you said, wide gamut along with high contrast and enought color bit depth should bring more realistic colors to PEDs, hence it is not a gimmick.
I was actually surprized when I tried to snap a picture of a flower with my iPhone. The flower had petals of that purple-blueish color, which normally gets displayed wrongly even on a professional level of equipment (like Nikon DXXX level cameras). But because CM was followed through and through, the color of the actual flower and its image were quite close. Calibrated devices, along with a working CM pipeline, is what really allows you to use a screen to its full potential.
I get it. For purists, accurate color is very important. For the majority of phone owners, I would suspect though, are more interested in colors that pop and are vivid. People love the iPhone screens because it looks nice. Never once have I heard people say "wow those colors look really accurate!". Usually it's more along the lines of "that's a GORGEOUS screen." Gorgeous typically means vivid, bright, and poppy. Also, do you really think that in a world in which Instagram users are posting photos that are filtered to oblivion that they would care about real world color accuracy?
But where it does make a HUGE difference is skin tone. That is where you need GREAT color accuracy... Without perfect color calibration photo's of people will always look a little alien.
BS. My photography and imaging gear is color-corrected and calibrated to the hilt, and recalibrated on a regular monthly basis, but I quite frequently and purposefully alter skin tones in portraits in order to please the person sitting for them. So do millions of Apple smartphone users who modify their own pics to get what they believe is a nicer image than the one their phone took.
I'm not at all downplaying the advantages of calibrated color, makes my job so much easier, but a person's "true-to-life and accurate skin tone" is often what they DON'T want. Pleasing skin-tones really can be rendered by default settings on a good but non-calibrated smartphone camera. With that said kudos to Apple for making color-calibration a priority, tho even there the skin-tones are all over the place being very dependent on reflected/ambient lighting. Just look at the images over at the iMore camera test you viewed yesterday. There's no consistency. http://www.imore.com/best-smartphone-camera
The point is using RAW files! That's what color accuracy is all about!
I think people here aren't going to like this, but iOS/Siri is more of a liability for Apple than it's ever been since the first iPhone. Pixel is basically trying to sell itself on software and artificial intelligence. They are selling this as their A.I. phone. You can giggle about the spec wars, but you're missing the big picture that Google has surpassed Apple in software years ago, and Google is going to drive their "information" advantage into a hardware war that wont be about who has the faster CPU or most RAM.
I can only imagine in 2030 it's really about what company has the bigger server farms, artificial neural networking and machine learning algorithms that determines which product makes consumers lives the easiest. Not some display resolution or wide color gamut.
Google has the long game here. We're still figuring out what Apple has besides their phone at this point.
uhh what does google have besides ads? apple's non-iphone revenue is larger than many industry players.
Google home Google cast Pixel Nest Thermostat Nest Smoke detector Nest Cameras Waze- Arguably the best mapping service for traffic Youtube- Arguably the most watched streaming platform Boston Dynamics- Robotics
Basically hitting some highlights here. Tons of other products though.
And tou know most of these above are shits right? Nest products are the worst for the price.
These Google Pixel phones will be forgotten soon. Price is very high and features are pretty much average or below comparing to other phones on market. You will be better of buying Nexus or wait 2-3 months and it will be far cheaper because of inventory build up. No one will buy at current price.
Analysts believe this particular hardware is going to drive Google's share price up to $1000 a share and I'm willing to bet it will happen sooner than Apple gets back to $130. Wall Street is always impressed by everything Google does. You don't hear any analysts and pundits saying how underwhelming or boring the Pixel smartphones are. They seem to reserve that sort of criticism for Apple hardware. All I've heard is how these Pixel smartphones are going to give the iPhone a run for the money with Google coming out ahead. No doubts were expressed about how well the Pixel smartphones are going to sell. Wall Street clearly praises Alphabet and despises Apple. Most of the internet is saying how Google is the new Apple because they're doing everything right while Apple is doing everything wrong.
There is a term for those who take their lead from reading Wall Street analysts: Suckers. If you want to know what is happening in the field of consumer electronics, the very last resource you'd want to use is the aggregate of opinion from Wall Street analysts. They're worse than tech writers, and theirs is a very low bar to hurdle.
I've not read any of these glowing comments to which you refer, but I would take them with extreme skepticism. We have had in our family over the years no fewer than 4 different Nexus phones (which were/are very much Google phones), and Google didn't have the slightest clue how to market the phones. The best idea was the Nexus 4, which sold for $400 price points.
Meanwhile, the wife's Nexus 6 still hasn't received its push for Android N, even though the software has been formally released since August. This, for a phone Google itself brought into this world, which doesn't rely upon the whims of a manufacturer or carrier to release the update. Google alone is responsible for this phone getting its update, yet it hasn't managed this simple task in the 6-8 weeks that N has been publicly available. While I know I could sideload the new OS, that's hardly the point: I'm a customer, not a pirate. I shouldn't have to resort to schemes to get what is supposedly freely available to us for this legitimate and factory-spec Nexus 6.
Meanwhile, one iPhone, two iPads and an Apple Watch were all updated within the first 4 hours the iOS update went live last month.
Think of that as you consider placing your faith in Google for future updates on a Pixel phone. I was considering replacing the wife's Nexus with the Pixel XL when I read the reports over the Summer, then realized the price/performance ratio was poor as I read the specs the day it was released. With the difficulty Google has with updating this Nexus 6, I was reluctant to reenlist for another tour of duty. The pledge to provide 2 years of updates--a pathetic pledge to a customer you're expecting to pay a premium price for your product--made me realize Google doesn't get it when it comes to selling the hardware.
The main things Android and the Pixel have to prove is that their phones will not need to be physically reset constantly when apps or hardware cause the device to freeze. That was my main problem when I was on Verizon before the iPhone was launched on the network.
The second thing that it needs to prove, is that it three short years later the latest Android version will be made available to run on it. Again as a former Android user, that was a major factor in forgetting Android, just as Android and device makers forgot you as soon as you bought their handset. You were abandoned immediately as a concern to them as soon as you were suckered into buying.
Third, is safety. Android has a major malware and privacy problem that doesn't seem to have a solution or even seems to be a concern to Android.
So there you have it. The problem with the Pixel or any other Android device is Android itself.
The Pixel has fail written all over it as you can get a far cheaper device running Android with equal specs. For Android and the Pixel to not be seen as a second rate OS, it has to stop being a second rate OS.
Same reason I left Android as well. Got forgotten with updates and told by Motorola l have to get their newest phone at the time. Of course a pure Android phone should not have that problem but not going back.
Me neither. And i couldn't see how Motorola phones as well as other Android phones suffered while Samsung is still going at it. Of all the Android phones I ever owned, the Samsung ones were the only ones I ever felt pleased with. Reviewers at the time liked to pick on their skins, but reviewers never had to keep and live with an Android device for more than the week they were reviewing it. And word of mouth, rather than reviews by god-knows-who at CNet or whatever is what got Samsung where it is today. Battery explosions aside, if I had to return to Android it would be a no brainer to go back to a Samsung rather than the Google branded HTC Pixel.
The Motorola phones since 2013 are some of the finest that Android has to offer. If you've left Android before 2013, what experience you had is 100% not representative of what Android has to offer today. Android phones used to have lower resolution than iPHone's and was slow and clunky. Android has pretty much closed the gap in ease of use and in some ways much more full-featured than iOS.
Full feature like no encryption by default and malware favored environment? No thanks!
The default setting for encryption in Android is "On" and has been since October of last year AFAIK.
To sum up: this article hit the right point: paying the same price for less. I can't believe Fandroids have the gut to defend this ugly phone which lacks of features that Fandroids often called "critical" to them like removable battery, mSD slot, water resistant, wireless charging....this got none of these...lol. Fck the Fandroids!
The Pixel is a vessel for Google's AI and Machine learning prowess.
And right now, you'd be hard-pressed to find a phone with a better AI and multimedia experience than the Pixel.
This is why the Pixel is better than any phone Apple has created. And will continue to be better than any Phone Apple will create moving forward.
Unless of course, AI and Machine Learning is just a fad.
We shall see.
People vote with their wallets.
You can make up all the high sounding jibberish you want. But ultimately its the consumer who decides which phone is the best for the 'real world'
We shall see how many $650 Pixel phones Google sells vs the iPhone7.
That will be the answer to which is the better phone.
The Pixel is not going to sell better than the iPhone 7. It's a new brand. And Google doesn't have the retail and supply chain expertise that Apple has.
However, if Google continues to be at the forefront of AI and Machine Learning, then within the next couple of years, the Pixel will become a serious and formidable contender to the iPhone.
Google with the Pixel brand is the only company that can topple the dominance of the iPhone. Apple should be very worried, considering that they're behind in AI and Machine Learning.
Google over the years has avoided directly competing with Apple, but now, they've just dropped the gauntlet. People are underestimating the Pixel based on specs. That's misguided.
The Pixel's nuclear bomb is AI. It has better smarts than any smartphone. Period. And those smarts are only going to get deeper and more profound as the months and years pass by.
Are you telling me the AI in the Pixel won't be available on $99 Android phones?
And stop acting like Google somehow discovered the AI god-child. Give me a break. Apple already has a huge AI team. IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon.
Stop acting like Google has a monopoly on AI. They don't.
And please explain to me why the average consumer would choose a Pixel phone over an iPhone based on AI? Why? 90% of iPhone users don't even regularly use Siri. Why the hell would they abandon a brand they trust for AI? Give me a break.
AI on its own is useless. It's how you use it that matters. Google is at the forefront of AI not because they're good at it, but because they've figured out how to harness it in ways that has left plenty of the industry flabbergasted and flatfooted.
A car that drove itself was in the realm of science fiction just a couple of years ago, until Google made it a reality. A computer that could defeat Go was supposed to be many decades away, until Google demolished that myth this year. Indexing the worlds knowledge and making it accessible to all made for a nice corporate mantra, until Google made it happen.
Google has consistently delivered on the promise of AI in a manner that is accessible to anybody, and in a way we take for granted today. That's why Google is better. It's no longer research for Google. They're now ready to unleash it to the world.
If you look at Google's hardware event through the lens of just specs, then yeah, there's nothing to impress. But if you dig deeper and look closely, the specs really don't matter. Google is transitioning from the web to hardware. And hardware is just a vessel for their AI.
Google Home is not out yet, and it's already better than the Amazon echo without even trying. Mind you the Echo probably has the better specs. But specs don't matter beside smarts.
Uh....Since when did Google release a self driving car? The only semi-automous car I see being sold is Tesla.
So people are going to buy hundreds of millions of Pixel phones because its AI can beat an advanced Go player? LOL.
come on dude. Just stop. AI is impressive but it doesn't sell phones.
Your bias is really ridiculous. You have not spent a single second using Google Home and you already say its superior to a well established Echo line. Really? People call Apple fans sheep. I should start calling Google fans zombies.
Google has been working on AI for over decade. And the only thing they figured out is how to sell more ads.
And why the hell are you wasting your time here?
You basic message is Google will use AI to destroy Apple, Amazon, IBM, Facebook, Tesla, ect. Sure dude. Go preach your message in an Google forum.
AI isn't the end all be all. Look at Maps. I think you would agree that Google Maps has better AI than Apple Maps. Yet 80% of iPhone users use Apple Maps. PEOPLE. DONT. CARE.
I'm confident if there was a level playing field, Google Maps on iPhone would be more popular than Maps. But there isn't a level playing field. Google Maps is after all, by far the largest mapping service in the world.
The playing field is incredibly level. Google Maps has been available on the iPhone for years. Tim Cook even recommended iPhone owners use Google Maps when Apple Maps melted down at its introduction.
The difference is, that was then, not now. The operational difference between the two is now negligible, but Apple Maps is more deeply embedded in the iOS. Nothing unfair about that. Google has been doing the same with Android OS for years.
What's interesting is that we typically defend Apple by stating that it's not just the hardware or the software that matters, but the combination of both, resulting in a great user experience. Here we are tearing the Pixel apart for having inferior hardware specs, completely ignoring Google's very vocal message that they've aimed for a great user experience, particularly with the Google Assistant feature built in. Do the specs *really* matter, or is this about Google delivering fewer specs for the same price? Aren't they delivering more *value* through their tight hardware+software approach? I don't think that can be dismissed.
Dear Rasterscan. the pixel may have 4gb of RAM but a lot good that will do when the Android OS uses up four times the RAM that IOS does. Any way you spin it, the Pixel is a terrible value and will flop.
for the record, my wife has my old Nexus 5 that is working fine. I'm open to a good value smartphone, but these pixel phones are way overpriced.
So apple finally adds features that other Android phons have had for a while and now its the best iPhone?
AFAIK Apple still doesn't make their own ram/storage, thats coming from Samsung. The Apple ARM 9 and 10 chips are also made by Samsung and TSMC.
You guys write and talk like you have something to prove.
Read an iPhone comparison on an Android site is more informative than finger pointing.
So apple finally adds features that other Android phons have had for a while and now its the best iPhone?
AFAIK Apple still doesn't make their own ram/storage, thats coming from Samsung. The Apple ARM 9 and 10 chips are also made by Samsung and TSMC.
You guys write and talk like you have something to prove.
Read an iPhone comparison on an Android site is more informative than finger pointing.
The best painter needs to make the paint by himself?
Yes, it's my first post here. But... I've used Apple products since the early 80s. I've owned more Macs than I can count and half a dozen iPhones as well as numerous other Apple items. I was a moderator on MacRumors.com for years. I've got fairly decent credentials as an Apple fan.
That all being said, I've been primarily an Android - and mostly Nexus - user for about 4 years. I do also have an iPhone SE because, well, I can't leave that ecosystem behind either (yes, I carry them both, and have a Fire Phone as a GPS in my car), but... I know enough about Android (particularly Google's version of things) to call BS on a lot that's being said here, and enough about Apple/iOS/iPhones to call BS on a lot that's being said to counter it.
Flagship-class phones on both sides are more than fast enough these days, period. I stopped caring about specs long ago, as should you all. As OSs become more complex, phones need to be faster to handle them, but both sides have phones which are incredibly fast for their respective OSs. The Nexus 6P on Nougat is no slower or faster, all things considered, than the SE on iOS 10. Both have 2015-era internals running a late 2016 OS. No issues with either. The iPhone 7 is even faster... but it doesn't much matter. Phones were fast enough years ago. I'm sure the Pixel XL I ordered will kick the butt of my 6P in benchmarks, but I won't notice.
The only important thing any more is that you get a phone with the OS and features you prefer, because any even mid-range (and most low-end) phones will give you what you need on any platform. Parity has been achieved for almost anything that matters to most people. There's no need for a pissing match about why one is better than the other. If you need something one OS or phone has and the other doesn't, then there's your answer. Most of the other things are misinformation spread over the years. Examples: Android, at least on Google/Samsung/other top-tier phones isn't any more subject to malware than iOS. Please don't tell me you think iPhones are immune to zero-days; there's been plenty of proof they aren't. Android phones don't reboot any more than iOS ones. My SE rebooted this weekend, two days after I bought it, for no discernible reason, whereas I can't remember the last time the 6P rebooted spontaneously. iPhones, likewise, aren't more expensive than Android over time because they actually retain resale value. The Walled Garden is a great thing in that it promotes phenomenal interoperability and a terrible thing in that it restricts a lot of great options.
Anyone who has truly used recent versions of either can't say that either one is perfect, nor that either one is seriously lacking. It's all a matter of preferences any more.
As I said, I'm currently on Android, at least until next year. I've ordered the Pixel XL. There are things I do not like about it - namely the lack of waterproofing (which, oddly, only seems important to iPhone users this year), the lack of stereo speakers (ditto), and the lack of wireless charging (which, I am sure, will only seem important to iPhone users next year). The camera seems excellent; I don't care if it's a little worse or a little better than the iPhone 7 Plus, because it'll be more than good enough for me when I'm not using my DSLR. The other hardware is... fine. Not amazing, not terrible. I'm glad about Daydream because there's finally a reason for the super-high-def screens.
I'll grant that it's slower than the iPhone 7, that it's not waterproof, and that it doesn't have stereo speakers. I'd also guess it's not as well-built.
However... I think the software (Google Assistant, etc.), the unlimited photos and video, the cheaper warranty, and, for me, the included Daydream VR headset make up for the deficiencies. Remember. iOS fan here, too. I dig what Apple wins at: Messages; integration; smoothness; better-looking, earlier-out-the-door, nicer apps; all of that. But... Google's Assistant is going to kick the ass of Siri, because Siri already loses to Google. Apple has no VR option, and the iPhone screens aren't pixel-dense enough to do a good job of it anyway. 24/7 online support will help those who aren't geeks use their phone (granted, mostly because they can't count on half the people around them having the same phone as they do).
And, the stuff I prefer about Android is still there (among other things, the app drawer is enormously nice in my opinion, as is the fact icons don't always have to go top-left to -bottom-right with no way to skip gaps).
So, yeah, for me it's worth it, because the hardware is more than adequate, and I'm psyched about the software. Doesn't mean I won't go for the iPhone 8. But I don't think this article did a very good job at all of doing anything other than soliciting a comment war. It's simply untrue that most Android users crave removable batteries and SD cards (a vocal minority do, true). It's untrue that Android - on top-tier phones - is any less secure than iOS unless users make it less secure by rooting, etc. It's simply a different choice.
Like I said, I carry an Android phone and an iOS phone every day. I love them both. They both have traits I prefer over the other, and things I really wish were different about them. It's like kids, I guess. I just think, though, it's unfair to paint the Pixel as a failure in the way this article did, because it's simply biased without reason, and it appeals only to those who are ignorant of the other side - and I mean today's other side, not the way it was in 2011 when you used some low-end Android phone for a week and hated it.
Daniel sure knows how to bring out the idiots from the woodwork. I can't believe these morons are defending cheap iPhone knockoffs, and the lack of privacy. Or is lack of privacy an android feature?
I noticed these low IQ media sheep keep talking about AI and machine learning. Aren't these the same morons who bashed Siri and said it was unnecessary? Wait but the same hypocrites also said touchscreen phones with no keyboards would fail. Oh and that iPhone would fail nine years
Isn't it funny that the same spyware corporation who warned Sammy not to copy Apple so much created an exact replica of iPhone themselves?
9 years later fandroids claim "google finally got it right"
While watching the keynote I kept getting annoyed how Google kept forcing the idea of "Google's first phone" upon its viewers. Do they think people are that stupid to forget their past failures? Then again their target audience doesn't quite have the IQ and education of people who could afford real iPhones.
9 years later fandroids claim "google finally got it right"
It seems obvious to me that the phone on the left has a cleaner interface, which is disappointing as a long-time Apple fan. Yes, they're both rounded rectangles, but what matters is what's on the screen, and Google's screen is cleaner. It really doesn't matter who did what first - both sides have appropriated ideas from the other. What matters is where they are now. I use both OSs daily, and Android wins on usability as an OS just as much as iOS wins with virtually every app. Messages wins. Siri loses. And so on.
Comments
There is a term for those who take their lead from reading Wall Street analysts: Suckers. If you want to know what is happening in the field of consumer electronics, the very last resource you'd want to use is the aggregate of opinion from Wall Street analysts. They're worse than tech writers, and theirs is a very low bar to hurdle.
I've not read any of these glowing comments to which you refer, but I would take them with extreme skepticism. We have had in our family over the years no fewer than 4 different Nexus phones (which were/are very much Google phones), and Google didn't have the slightest clue how to market the phones. The best idea was the Nexus 4, which sold for $400 price points.
Meanwhile, the wife's Nexus 6 still hasn't received its push for Android N, even though the software has been formally released since August. This, for a phone Google itself brought into this world, which doesn't rely upon the whims of a manufacturer or carrier to release the update. Google alone is responsible for this phone getting its update, yet it hasn't managed this simple task in the 6-8 weeks that N has been publicly available. While I know I could sideload the new OS, that's hardly the point: I'm a customer, not a pirate. I shouldn't have to resort to schemes to get what is supposedly freely available to us for this legitimate and factory-spec Nexus 6.
Meanwhile, one iPhone, two iPads and an Apple Watch were all updated within the first 4 hours the iOS update went live last month.
Think of that as you consider placing your faith in Google for future updates on a Pixel phone. I was considering replacing the wife's Nexus with the Pixel XL when I read the reports over the Summer, then realized the price/performance ratio was poor as I read the specs the day it was released. With the difficulty Google has with updating this Nexus 6, I was reluctant to reenlist for another tour of duty. The pledge to provide 2 years of updates--a pathetic pledge to a customer you're expecting to pay a premium price for your product--made me realize Google doesn't get it when it comes to selling the hardware.
The playing field is incredibly level. Google Maps has been available on the iPhone for years. Tim Cook even recommended iPhone owners use Google Maps when Apple Maps melted down at its introduction.
The difference is, that was then, not now. The operational difference between the two is now negligible, but Apple Maps is more deeply embedded in the iOS. Nothing unfair about that. Google has been doing the same with Android OS for years.
Yes, it has built-in free support, including screen sharing. Interestingly, they call it "Care by Google".
https://madeby.google.com/phone/support/
That all being said, I've been primarily an Android - and mostly Nexus - user for about 4 years. I do also have an iPhone SE because, well, I can't leave that ecosystem behind either (yes, I carry them both, and have a Fire Phone as a GPS in my car), but... I know enough about Android (particularly Google's version of things) to call BS on a lot that's being said here, and enough about Apple/iOS/iPhones to call BS on a lot that's being said to counter it.
Flagship-class phones on both sides are more than fast enough these days, period. I stopped caring about specs long ago, as should you all. As OSs become more complex, phones need to be faster to handle them, but both sides have phones which are incredibly fast for their respective OSs. The Nexus 6P on Nougat is no slower or faster, all things considered, than the SE on iOS 10. Both have 2015-era internals running a late 2016 OS. No issues with either. The iPhone 7 is even faster... but it doesn't much matter. Phones were fast enough years ago. I'm sure the Pixel XL I ordered will kick the butt of my 6P in benchmarks, but I won't notice.
The only important thing any more is that you get a phone with the OS and features you prefer, because any even mid-range (and most low-end) phones will give you what you need on any platform. Parity has been achieved for almost anything that matters to most people. There's no need for a pissing match about why one is better than the other. If you need something one OS or phone has and the other doesn't, then there's your answer. Most of the other things are misinformation spread over the years. Examples: Android, at least on Google/Samsung/other top-tier phones isn't any more subject to malware than iOS. Please don't tell me you think iPhones are immune to zero-days; there's been plenty of proof they aren't. Android phones don't reboot any more than iOS ones. My SE rebooted this weekend, two days after I bought it, for no discernible reason, whereas I can't remember the last time the 6P rebooted spontaneously. iPhones, likewise, aren't more expensive than Android over time because they actually retain resale value. The Walled Garden is a great thing in that it promotes phenomenal interoperability and a terrible thing in that it restricts a lot of great options.
Anyone who has truly used recent versions of either can't say that either one is perfect, nor that either one is seriously lacking. It's all a matter of preferences any more.
As I said, I'm currently on Android, at least until next year. I've ordered the Pixel XL. There are things I do not like about it - namely the lack of waterproofing (which, oddly, only seems important to iPhone users this year), the lack of stereo speakers (ditto), and the lack of wireless charging (which, I am sure, will only seem important to iPhone users next year). The camera seems excellent; I don't care if it's a little worse or a little better than the iPhone 7 Plus, because it'll be more than good enough for me when I'm not using my DSLR. The other hardware is... fine. Not amazing, not terrible. I'm glad about Daydream because there's finally a reason for the super-high-def screens.
I'll grant that it's slower than the iPhone 7, that it's not waterproof, and that it doesn't have stereo speakers. I'd also guess it's not as well-built.
However... I think the software (Google Assistant, etc.), the unlimited photos and video, the cheaper warranty, and, for me, the included Daydream VR headset make up for the deficiencies. Remember. iOS fan here, too. I dig what Apple wins at: Messages; integration; smoothness; better-looking, earlier-out-the-door, nicer apps; all of that. But... Google's Assistant is going to kick the ass of Siri, because Siri already loses to Google. Apple has no VR option, and the iPhone screens aren't pixel-dense enough to do a good job of it anyway. 24/7 online support will help those who aren't geeks use their phone (granted, mostly because they can't count on half the people around them having the same phone as they do).
And, the stuff I prefer about Android is still there (among other things, the app drawer is enormously nice in my opinion, as is the fact icons don't always have to go top-left to -bottom-right with no way to skip gaps).
So, yeah, for me it's worth it, because the hardware is more than adequate, and I'm psyched about the software. Doesn't mean I won't go for the iPhone 8. But I don't think this article did a very good job at all of doing anything other than soliciting a comment war. It's simply untrue that most Android users crave removable batteries and SD cards (a vocal minority do, true). It's untrue that Android - on top-tier phones - is any less secure than iOS unless users make it less secure by rooting, etc. It's simply a different choice.
Like I said, I carry an Android phone and an iOS phone every day. I love them both. They both have traits I prefer over the other, and things I really wish were different about them. It's like kids, I guess. I just think, though, it's unfair to paint the Pixel as a failure in the way this article did, because it's simply biased without reason, and it appeals only to those who are ignorant of the other side - and I mean today's other side, not the way it was in 2011 when you used some low-end Android phone for a week and hated it.
I noticed these low IQ media sheep keep talking about AI and machine learning. Aren't these the same morons who bashed Siri and said it was unnecessary? Wait but the same hypocrites also said touchscreen phones with no keyboards would fail. Oh and that iPhone would fail nine years
Isn't it funny that the same spyware corporation who warned Sammy not to copy Apple so much created an exact replica of iPhone themselves?
"It will fail because they removed the keyboard!"
9 years later fandroids claim "google finally got it right"
While watching the keynote I kept getting annoyed how Google kept forcing the idea of "Google's first phone" upon its viewers. Do they think people are that stupid to forget their past failures? Then again their target audience doesn't quite have the IQ and education of people who could afford real iPhones.
[wqad.com/2015/01/22/study-says-iphone-users-are-wealthier-and-more-educated-than-android-users/