Why you should say "no" to Google Pixel 4 and "yes" to OnePlus 7T Pro

The decision was made in my mind, Google. All you had to do was stick the landing.

This is a direct sequel to my previous letter. Read that before carrying on.

You danced your way into the club, didn’t make things awkward when I came to say “hello” to you, and followed me to the smoking area where we could actually hear one another.

But then, you gave me a 20-minute powerpoint presentation on why an ultra wide lens is “fun, but not important,” showed me a radar system that (while cool) doesn’t really provide any real-world usefulness beyond being a little gimmicky, and then passed out way too soon because that 2,800 mAh battery isn’t going to keep you going all day.

...OK the metaphor got a little lost there, so I’ll stop it here. 

Believe me, after being an iPhone person for the better part of a decade, I get that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - the marriage of software and hardware matters more than specific specs. 

However, both sides need to be good to necessitate an ideal smartphone, which just isn’t the case here. To give it credit, the processor and RAM is more than enough for the average consumer, the pictures coming out look fantastic, and the design (while not my cup of tea) will be more than satisfactory to most…. That’s about it! 

The entire industry has moved to three cameras. Pixel has not. The entire industry has moved to far larger batteries than what is present here. Pixel has not. The vast majority of the industry is offering more than a pithy 64GB of storage. Pixel is not. And what’s more, most are offering all of these at a lower price than what is on offer here.

Plus, let’s talk about that camera - I thought this was Google’s whole M.O and it does deliver in some areas. Google’s computational power pumps out photos that can sometimes rival (even beat) the current crop of iPhones. But it baffles me when I see that the actual hardware is so restrained.

This telephoto doesn’t actually qualify as telephoto if we look at SLR standards (the zoom would be 45mm, which is nowhere near “telephoto”). There is no ultra-wide lens (that stings a little, given the price they’re asking for). And they’ve not done anything to even remotely address the poor performance on video.

In a year where every smartphone company seems to have listened to the users, Google did not.

When all else was lost, someone else walked through the door…

The front of all display caught my gaze immediately. Oxygen OS 10’s intuitiveness and grace felt great to the touch. If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m talking about the OnePlus 7T Pro, and I’m picking mine up soon. Expect a review!

And yes. In some situations, the camera is not as good as the Google Pixel 4, but in most where it matters, it is just as good (pictures below). Plus, it’s a future-proof phone built for not just the pro user with its Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GB RAM and massive display, but also for the everyday person with its ridiculously affordable price of £699.

So, finally, I thought it would be worth taking stock of just how difficult the choice has become. All you have to do is look at previous blogs from years ago on this site, where I rallied against Android - preferring an iPhone that “just works.” Turns out the competition has gotten just as good, and the transition between the two couldn’t be easier (thanks to a couple of backing up tools like Google Drive and Photos).

This turn is baffling to me, but it’s one that ultimately makes sense, both for my tech geek urges and bank balance.