initial phone compare

 Pixel 2 XL (128GB)

Moto g stylus 2021 (128GB)

Samsung Galaxy A53  (128GB)

Single statement:

Pixel initial price was 3x too much.

Stylus is the real deal for the money.

A53 very smooth.

 Best by category

Pixel - best at copying iPhone.

Stylus - best value overall 

A53 - best experience 

More 

Pixel 

•  Quality, solid overall 
• Size, pretty big 
• Performance, good
  
• Camera, good, scenic shots weak 
• Finger print, on back, best for me
  

Stylus 

•  Biggest, bigger is better 
• Performance, good enough 
• Screen, little better than pixel 
• Camera, ok 
• Price, great when on sale 
• Finger print, on side, very good
  

A53 

• Size, smallest but still big 
• Screen, the best
  
• Camera, don't know yet 
• Price, good as locked phone 
• Finger print, front screen, not for me
  

 phone for me 

Motorola 

Why? It's big, good screen, cheap on sale, big battery, performance good for price. SD card, 3.5 jack.

Weakness, camera. Scenic shots are poor. Some pictures grainy. (Not a big deal to me)

Phone industry in general

The iPhone and Android operating system have done the same thing for the last 10 years. They have a very similar look and feel you open up to a homepage you click on icons you run apps and you do stuff. Wi-Fi was there 10 years ago, Bluetooth was a new thing somewhere in there. But I think basically the rest of it has been the same. All the big players are getting rid of the extra jacks. And everybody's pushing to get you to do online backup so they can charge you for it.

It seems like the hardware has gotten much much faster and better but these phones haven't really gotten that much slicker. You can play video games that are much more intensive, but the overall experience of just using the phone seems almost identical to 10 years ago. You could watch videos 10 years ago you could listen to music 10 years ago.

Overall my impression is that the super expensive phones are very similar to the $400 phones. Now I haven't used a $1500 phone so maybe I'm wrong. But people using $1,000 phones look similar to my phone experience.