I bought the Google Pixel 9 Pro

So, I've been eyeing a new phone for a while now, and the Google Pixel line particularly caught my eye. I like the pure Android experience they offer, which I used to try when flashing custom ROMs on my old phone. And the new Android 16 beta design is noticeably slicker than the old version. They have a very great camera, which is excellent, as I'm somewhat into photography (though my photography is the worst, and I rarely take photos as of now). And the best part is their design; I really love it. The phone feels premium in hand. Though, I'm scared of damaging it, so I slapped a case on it, which makes it less of a beauty.

The downside is that the software does have less customization. Not being able to hide the gesture hint is a minor annoyance, but I do find it acceptable. One thing unexpected to me was the notch; I didn't know the front camera was that big, so the notch looked large and hideous at first. Inferior performance compared to other flagships was expected when I considered buying it. In my usage, games like CODM with high graphics have no noticeable lag. But boy, I do miss fast charge. The battery usage is okay; the stats point out that mostly the mobile internet connection is eating all the battery. I did hear that Pixels have bad reception, but I don't have any issues regarding this. Oh, another thing: this phone heats quite warm during gaming, but the other day, I was doing a video call with mobile internet. After ending and grabbing my phone, it was much hotter than after playing a game. I knew that camera usage plus mobile internet would consume battery, but little did I know they're also that resource intensive.

Initially, when I bought this phone, my intention was to install GrapheneOS on it. However, I found out that Google Pay wouldn't work properly in that environment. And the banking compatibility list on PrivSec didn't mention my main banking app, so I was afraid it wouldn't work at all. So yeah, for the time being, I'll be using the built-in software. Maybe in the future, when I buy a smartwatch with Google Pay support, I'll consider making the switch.

In the end, this was a really expensive purchase that I wouldn't normally do. But I was on a spur and had some lucky side gigs that allowed me to afford it on my own, so I just went for it. I didn't regret it though.