Pictures worth a thousand words
It's safe to say I have owned my fair share of cell phones over the years. In fact, this is only a fraction of the phones that @mrsbozz and I have owned over the years. Believe it or not, we don't upgrade our phones that often. Unlike other folks who get the new model of iPhone whenever it comes out, we usually buy a model that is a couple years old and then we use it until the battery can no longer be adequately charged before we upgrade.
I still remember my first cell phone. It was a massive bag phone that weighed about ten pounds and sat on the floor in the back seat of my car. Back then towers were pretty hard to come by, so you needed the full 3 watts of power it provided. At something like a dollar per minute it was only to be used in the case of emergency.
I don't know as though I ever actually used it.
Eventually, towers became more common and that allowed the lower power .3 watt flip phones to take off and thrive. That LG on the right hand side of the photo continues to be my favorite phone to this day. It was just fun to use and fun to hold in your hand. I'd probably still be using that thing today if it weren't for all the benefits that a smartphone offers.
Eventually texting became such a big thing that having a full sized slide out keyboard was preferred. I can still rock that T9WORD though.
I recently upgraded to a Google Pixel 8 Pro (my work paid for it, other wise I wouldn't have went so "big"), and I have to say, it absolutely doesn't disappoint. I've always been a fan of the Pixel phones. Similar to the love Apple users have for the iPhone since it is made by Apple for Apple, the Pixel line has a lot of benefits with Google keeping things in house.
First, there isn't so much bloatware like you get on the Samsung phones, also, you get OS updates as soon as they are available. You don't need to wait for your carrier or Samsung to package them up nice for you.
Finally, one of the big things Google has always focused on with their phones is the camera. They have made it their mission to always provide the highest quality camera in their mobile devices.
I'm sure there is a statistic somewhere, but if I had to guess, probably 90 to 95 percent of the photos in the world these days are taken with a smartphone. For many people, the only digital device they own is a smartphone. It's their camera, connection to the Internet, and their phone.
I was kind of floored the first time I downloaded a full quality photo from my Pixel 8 Pro and it was over 10MB in size. I cut the quality down for you so this blog post will load faster, but trust me when I say this thing takes some high quality photos. In the full quality photo above, you can see the bees buzzing around the tree in front of our house when you zoom in.
For whatever reason, it seems like many of the photos we take are in low light. Google has done a good job of rectifying that as well. With night mode, you can capture things that I never would have dreamed of getting with a smartphone. Check out the photo above, you can actually see Orion's belt and the rest of the constellation to the left of the moon.
The only reason the moon looks so blurry in this photo is because I am an old man and I can't keep my hands as still as I used to be able to.
The Pixel 8 Pro also makes macro photography a breeze too with a special lens dedicated just for that. I'm not saying this can compete with a full DSLR macro setup, but look at the photo above and tell me that isn't dang good.
If you have been following my food posts, you have likely noticed an uptick in the photo quality over the past six months or so since I upgraded to this phone.
It's actually a bit tricky sometimes to get it to focus right because it isn't sure which of the three lenses you want it to use. When it does though, you best be prepared to be impressed.
If you choose to do so, the P8P also takes photos in full RAW mode for full editing capabilities.
When I am shopping for a new phone, I always visit the GSM Arena site to get the full details of whatever phone I am looking at. That site also allows you to compare up to three or four phones side by side to see which one has the specs to suit your needs.
These are the details for the Pixel 8 Pro's cameras.
I mentioned RAW mode and editing before. What I didn't mention is the fact that the Pixel 8 Pro also has some pretty cool editing features built right in.
There is a good chance you have seen commercials for the "magic eraser" feature that is built into the Google Pixel 8 Pro phone. You might be thinking to yourself it's just a gimmick or it can't possibly be that easy.
Believe it or not, thanks to advances in AI, it really is that easy. Take a look a the photo I took yesterday as I was heading out to my truck before a storm passed through. I was really trying to get a shot of the clouds, but this photo will work for this example.
Now take a look at this photo. Notice anything missing? You should notice two things actually. Most obvious is the red car in the background, but I also removed the light pole that was sitting behind my truck. You can't really even tell they were ever there can you? Sure, the parking lines heading towards the horizon disappear a bit, but if you look at the original photo, you can't really see them to the left of the red car either.
The only relic I can see is a bit of a smudge where the red car used to be and I am not unconvinced that isn't just something on my monitor here at work!
Obviously, there are some limitations to what it can do, but as AI improves, I have a feeling those limitations will start to fade away as well. After using this phone for several months now, I have to admit I love it. I had a Pixel two phones ago, and I liked my One Plus I had before this phone, but after using the Pixel 8 Pro, there is a good chance I will never get another non Pixel phone again.
My wife currently has the Samsung Galaxy S21 Pro I think and when it is time for her to upgrade, we will likely look at a Pixel Pro for her. Hopefully the 9's will be out soon and we can pick up an 8 at a discounted price.
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I also have a drawer full of old phones 😆👌👌👌
Very nice!
Camera phones are so good. My Motorola is okay, but my other half's Pixel seems better. I think 'AI' is creeping in, so it may be making stuff up. I've heard some phones already fake shots of the Moon to look better. I just use my bridge camera when I need decent zoom.
Yeah, that is a good point. Some of it might be a little fake, but to be fair, digital zoom has been doing that for years and no one seemed to mind too much. I have a nice bridge camera that still takes amazing photos for only being 6MP.
Cellphone graveyard, not very large either, none stashed, always passed onto young folk not earning much.
Started on a Nokia as work phone, no camera. Blackberry arrived next, first with a camera available which were not brilliant to say the least. Occasionally remember to use cell phone camera never been top of my list. My sons, nieces and nephews all do rely on cellphone photography and have some stunning results with modern software offered.
I'm happy to say I never owned a Blackberry! It's crazy how much the tech has advanced in such a short amount of time.
I'm sure when first world countries show no interest they flood our market with those products !LOLZ
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I change my phone about every 4 to 5 years. I'm an intense phone user. My work forces me to use it.
And when I'm not working, I still spend a lot of time on my phone. Although I'm trying to reverse the trend. By the way, I don't do advertising, but I invite you to read my latest article, which I think might interest you... maybe.
I won't even give you the link, because I'm really not looking for advertising. Simply to discuss.
So, getting back to phones, I currently have an Oppo find X5 Pro that I got for 600€ when it cost twice as much back then. Almost two years ago.
Overall, I'm very happy with it. I had changed it because my old one had fallen and was completely broken. Just at that time, my telephone operator launched new prices to buy a new phone. I'm happy with the prices they're offering, in the sense that they're really advantageous.
So I bought this Oppo. I didn't even know the brand, but after a bit of research, it really made me want to know more. So I bought it. It was very good at photography until 3 months later when I went to a music festival on the beach and my phone's lenses didn't like being in contact with the sand in my pockets.
I've had it for 2 years now, and apart from the scratched camera, it's a really good product.
That is cool. The One Plus that I had was a really great phone, I just like the Pixel better. I have heard that Huawei is making a really good inexpensive phone now too, which doesn't surprise me.
Hmm
I think I still prefer iPhone camera to the Google pixel camera🤔
I hope that is the case with a lot of people, it will make my Apple stock go up. I'll stick with my Pixel though.
I've been using Samsung phones since I think the Galaxy S2. Currently, I have an S20+ which I got a few years ago when the S20 was the flagship. Usually I might get a slightly older model but in this case the deal was buy one get one free. It was really my wife that needed the new phone at the time but it just seemed like the best deal at the time so I got a new phone too.
Generally, I've been happy with Samsung. The S20+ still has an micro SD slot which I like. That lack of that slot was one of the reasons I didn't consider the Pixel in the past but it seems all major phones have dropped these now. I'm not sure how much longer I'll hang on to this one. Battery life is still ok but the charging port no longer works...I have to charge wirelessly. Fortunately, the SD card slot makes it easy to transfer pictures and stuff.
Oddly, there are three Samsung phones in the house that all developed this problem around the same time. Two S20+ phones (mine and my wife's) and a slightly older Note 9 that was my previous phone. Maybe there was a bad cable that got plugged into all of them at some point...that's the only thing that really makes sense to me anyway.
That could be about the cable. I know that in the past there were specific cables you couldn't use with certain devices. I think it was more the high end Chromebooks, but it could carry over to phones too I guess. I feel like my wife does nothing but complain about her S21+. I'm sure it's just me thinking that since I am the one who picked it out for her. I am overly sensitive about it.
I don't upgrade that much either, still have my Iphone X and recently got me a Note 10+ because I wanted a bigger screen, phones are so fast now days it's not necessary to constantky upgrade, tbh saw the first picture and though who is the drug dealer with all this Verizon burners jajjaa j/k ✌️😅🤣
Haha, no, I don't think I have a nefarious bone in my body! I agree with you on the speed thing. The only thing that holds me up these days is the battery life. When that starts going south, it's the end of the road for me.
I am bringing my Nokia 3210 to life. I already have a brand new charger, I am waiting for the battery to be delivered and hopefully, it will work properly. The phone is brand new but hasn't ever been used so the battery died and had a leakage. Curious to see if I can make it work... I would like that and I will also buy a separate sim card for it.
I only had one Nokia phone that I can remember and it was a long time ago.
I scrapped all of my old phones.
That's where this pile is going.
Those are some nice features. I might have to look at Pixel a little more before my next phone change. I'm like you and have piles of old phones. Amazing how they pile up over the years!
I will likely be recycling these ones. I just need to get enough stuff to fill a pallet. Shouldn't take more than a month or two.
I had a nokia phone that lasted for 6 years before I bought an Android phone. The android phone lasted for 4-5 years before I bought another upgraded android phone. Apple iPhone is just too expensive for me but I bought an iPad mini and lasted for 4 years before I bought another iPad mini. Fortunately, I bought a Samsung Galaxy A71 but I received two phones. I gave the other phone to my husband. :D
I have a big problem with the tablets and the fact that the hardware very quickly becomes obsolete. I had an iPad mini and before long I couldn't upgrade any apps or the whole OS.
yeah that's the problem now with my iPad mini, I got this in 2016. A few months ago, I couldn't use the messenger app anymore.