Oscar Piastri’s Influence: Is the Google Pixel actually better than iPhone?

Oscar Piastri is one of the best drivers on the Formula 1 grid and is far and away my favourite driver, so when he showed up in a Google Pixel ad talking about “When I see a chance to get ahead, I will change things up.” I thought, why not change things up.

So that’s what I did. I switched from my reliable iPhone 14 Pro to a Google Pixel.

I’ve been an iPhone user since 2020 and prior to that was on cheaper Android phones, so this change is different but not a trip into the unknown. I’ve been using a Pixel for the past two weeks with a Pixel 10 for one week and a Pixel 10 Pro Fold for the other. I started out with the Pixel 10 as it was a fairer switch than going from the iPhone to a folding phone and I immediately found a lot of differences both good and bad.

The phone itself felt really nice, not too heavy and a nice size. I personally am a big fan of the Pixel’s design in general with the staple camera bar and subtly rounded flat edges.

Android itself has taken many leaps since I was a user. The OS itself is very smooth and feels refined at a comparable level to iOS and Google apps are obviously integrated a lot better.

After the first week I made the bigger switch, going to the 10 Pro Fold. I’ve always questioned what the benefits of a folding phone could possibly be, and my first thought was obviously video games and watching videos, and at first that was all I was using it for.

But slowly I moved from using the inner screen 5% of the time to now around 25% of the time, which in part is because the outer screen is amazing, with a normal 20:9 aspect ratio and almost identical specs to the Pixel 10 screen. The inner screen became used for productivity tasks and tasks like photo editing, split screen work, and even just reading the news.

I’ve always heard it said about folding phones, but you truly do get an extra motivation of productivity whilst it’s unfolded.

And although the specs of the camera are lower, I found it perfectly bearable for a phone, especially one that folds.

In terms of the overall switch from Apple to Android, I can see how both parties have taken features from each other and are making it so much easier to switch yet so much harder to leave.

What I liked

In terms of Android features one of my new favourite features is the personal and work profiles. Having all my work apps in a separate section that I can easily mute whenever I’m not working as well as being able to have accounts for social media, emails and calendar on what is almost a separate phone is super useful.

Since the last time I used Android the experience has become a much more refined and premium one with the customisation of themes, colours and icons, a big plus compared to the default liquid glass, and slight icon changing options available on iOS; the customisation is in my opinion, one of the best and coolest features of Android.

Airdrop is now natively available on Pixel’s with other Androids to gain the feature later this year. I didn’t think I would ever see the day that huge ecosystem barrier was broken. 

The flip to silence is such a cool feature too and allows me to quickly pause distractions just by placing my phone face down. This immediately puts me in do not disturb mode with a small vibration to indicate it’s on and when I pick it up, it exits that mode and another little vibration lets me know its off.

Qi2 wireless charging is a new feature on all Pixel 10 phones and is a huge incentive to those switching as I personally love MagSafe so having all my accessory correspond over to the Pixel is very handy and I’m sure a prominent reason that Google included it into their line of phones.

The ability to have both fingerprint and face scanning to unlock is great, although I found the face scanner wasn’t as smooth as Apple’s but thats why I always rely on the fingerprint scanner. The in screen fingerprint scanner was really nice on the Pixel 10 but on the Fold it is in the power button which is still very seamless and worked about 99% of the time.

The swipe gestures are really nice and the swipe right to go back feature is muscle memory for me now. The use of the gestures as home screen buttons is a very good feature in order to make switching to Android a whole nicer and easier.

As my iPhone is worn down and the battery is at an un-attractive 77% battery health I feel it is unfair to look at battery life as a generalised factor but the Pixel has regularly lasted all day even with the max charge of 80% feature turned on, which in itself is a very cool feature to extend the life of the Pixel and especially for someone like me who works in an office I can just charge it up as needed to get through the day.

What I disliked

One thing I found tricky to adapt to, is the notifications. The grouping feature is very clever but I was finding that many notifications were going unnoticed if they weren’t in the main category..

In Australia RCS messaging still isn’t available so the messaging app is not one that I use often anymore and I’ve moved WhatsApp with some friends as according to my partner “green is a violent colour.” For me personally, I’m not too fused but it does seem to be a repetitive topic brought up whenever some messages via that app. However using the messages app to message another Android user is a lot smoother with RCS so hopefully Australian telcos can adopt it soon.

The one thing that was a general annoyance was the google search bar at the bottom of the home screen. I learnt to use it for those one time question and leaving searches and webpages I may want/need to look at later to browser apps like Chrome or Arc instead of the Google app.

Of course a frustrating part of the change is losing all in-app purchases but I do suggest looking at subscriptions as I almost got caught out on a subscription that I didn’t have on my Pixel. So if you do plan on switching make sure to keep an eye out on that.

As an AirPod user I do miss that seamless connectivity; Put them on and they are ready to go. They do still do work with the Pixel as regular bluetooth headphones and they connect pretty quickly, just not iOS quick which I’m sure using Pixel Buds would solve.

And if like me you use the sign in with Apple feature, that will oftentimes not be an option. Most apps that require this have options to change logins if you still have your Apple device. I feel this is a very good example of Apple trying to keep people locked into their ecosystem and a clever way to force users to stick to iPhone’s without them even noticing.

Will I stick with the Pixel?

Although there are many things I love on my iPhone there are plenty other things I would miss from the Pixel if I went back to Apple. That’s why I will be sticking with the Fold Pro 10. The folding design does easily give it a big leg up on the iPhone. I think the phone itself is very good with an elegant design and top level features I have no big reason to go back other than to stay apart of the Apple fanbase.

In saying that, I think even if I hadn’t used the Fold, I would probably still go with the Pixel 10. I think the generalised move itself did bring a new experience and with my day-to-day use, the Pixel’s do suit me better.

Whilst it is a case by case for others thinking of switching, I think the door is wide open jump ship to both sides and with the new Pixel 10A pre-orders opening on February 19th, now is a great time to look at switching.

So Google was successful in using Oscar Piastri to make me switch, as Piastri said “When I see a chance to get ahead, I change things up… It’s why I switched to Google Pixel” and I guess I have to agree.