Google - Pixel 5 5G 128GB (Unlocked) - Sorta Sage

I’ve been using a Samsung S20 Ultra for almost a year now and the one main thing that I don’t like about the phone is that it’s huge, I mean huge “as phones go” and decided I wanted a smaller, more economical phone that would fit my budget “way overspent on the Ultra”, and when I saw Google was coming out with the Pixel 5 I had to give it a shot. Unboxing: The Pixel came in a nice company logoed box, and inside was the Pixel, Charger, USB Cable, USB to USB C adapter, sim card tray ejector tool and paperwork, “no headphones are included. The screen was covered with a protective opaque plastic film, “there’s no factory screen protector installed”. Initial Impressions: I was “am” amazed at the size of this Pixel, it’s so small compared to the Ultra but still has a 6” screen. There are barely any borders around it and the top, bottom and sides are all uniform this time, nothing uneven here. Turning around the back is a textured finish that I really like, sort of a very very fine sand paper feel to it, “think 3000 grit” which also makes it very grippy, “I still put all my phones in a case though”. There’s a dual camera setup and the rear fingerprint sensor makes a comeback. The right side has the power button “top” volume controls below it, and then the SIM tray is on the opposite side. On top there is a microphone hole, and the bottom has two slits for the speaker/microphone and a USB C port. Setting up: The first thing I did after unboxing was to charge the phone, “arrived at 75% full”, I then began the setup procedure after installing the sim I had taken out of the Ultra, “we use Mint Mobile here”. it has the normal Android setup so if you’ve set up an android phone you’ll pretty much know how that works. During the setup it asked if I wanted to transfer everything from my old phone so I went ahead and that that by connecting both together with the dual USB C ended cable that came with the Pixel. This process made it very simple to bring all my apps over from my old phone “and most of my settings”. Also depending on your carrier you may have to set up the APN for that carrier and that information is found on their website. Use: Now that everything was transferred and setup to my liking I made some test calls. Due to me having hearing problems I always have to use a headset to hear properly, but I was actually surprised that I could hear pretty good without the headset, not perfect but good enough for a quick call. I set up the multiple Bluetooth headsets I keep around and I was very surprised that all the headsets actually sounded better than the Ultra, and callers on the other end said they could hear me clearly, so that’s pass for calling. The Bluetooth distance was similar to the Ultra with all the headsets and I really didn’t notice a difference there. Luckily Mint here in W Phoenix supports 5g and the Pixel connected to that immediately on channel 66, “the Ultra connects on the same channel”. I ran a few speed tests on each one for both Wi-Fi and 5G and the results surprised me. The Ultra on band 66 was getting -106db for signal strength, with an average of 24.3Mbps down and 3.59Mbps up. On Wi-Fi the Ultra got 144Mbps down and 10.51Mbps up “our internet speed here at home is capped at 150Mbps”. Now for the Pixel 5, “also on band 66, sitting in the same location in our home office”, it was getting -108db for signal strength with an average of 33.3Mbps down and 7.57Mbps up. With Wi-Fi the Pixel 5 got 144Mbps down and 10.2Mbps up. These numbers sort of surprised me as I ran multiple tests on each phone and the Pixel 5 on 5G beat the Ultra, and was almost identical using Wi-Fi. The doubling of upload speed is what really got me. I didn't test any other bands as 5g connects and works fine around this area. Camera: I haven’t used the camera a lot, but from the pictures I’ve taken they are really good for a cell phone and does keep the Pixel reputation as one of the best phone cameras. Would I say it’s as good as the Ultra?, well the regular cameras pictures look every bit as good, and the night shot pictures look better. There’s no optical zoom with the Pixel so I really can’t compare it to the zoom on the Ultra “but there’s also a big price difference between the two”. The wide angle lens may be a little less than the Ultras but looking at shots taken from both on the screen they both look really good. Short videos I’ve taken look really good and I mainly shoot at 1080p as 4k just takes up too much room. The slow motion and time lapse settings work really well and are very comparable to the Ultra “just in a lot smaller package. I do have a GoPro if I want to shoot a lot of 4k video so I don’t shoot a lot of videos with a phone anyway. Conclusion: I really wanted a smaller phone as I was tired of lugging around the huge one and was always afraid I was going to drop it, especially when attempting one handed use. The Pixel 5 is a good bit smaller and I have no problem using it one handed and don’t worry as much about dropping it, “especially with a metal back “only the screen is vulnerable and I'm putting a glass screen protector on it. The screen is plenty bright and the added 90mhz refresh rate really helps when scrolling through a webpage or text. Battery life is great and where the Pixel really shines, the first day I fully charged it, set it up, installed apps, took test photos, ran multiple speed tests and still had over 40% that night. 95% of the time I use a wireless charger and that option works perfectly. Phone call quality is outstanding, and the phone with Mint does support Wi-Fi calling without any problems. Signal strength were we are located with 5g is comparable to the S20 Ultra, and data speeds were surprisingly stronger. The Pixel 5 is a great mid-range phone, it’s a much cheaper option that the high end phones of other manufacturers and if you don’t want to spend that much on a phone than you should be very happy with the Pixel 5

Great phone, but should have been priced lower for specs considering most features are the same on the Pixel 4a 5G, which is sold for a lot less (and adds back in a headphone jack too). Great phone overall, but for the asking price, and considering that the CPU is slower than last years Pixel 4, this should have been priced lower. Don’t get me wrong, for most people the CPU on this Pixel 5, is very solid, and most people will not notice a difference, especially if they do not play android games. While I am a big gamer, android games themselves are not for me. They do not compare to console game experiences. Luckily we now have Xbox Game Pass on Android which are cloud based streaming game services. I can report that the Google Pixel 5 works and fits the Razer Kishi controller perfectly for those that might be wondering. I am coming from a nearly 3 year old LG v30 phone, and the Pixel 5 is just way snappier, no doubt due to it having double the amount of RAM, Pixel 5 has 8gb of RAM. I have noticed no lag switching between various apps, and have not even rebooted the phone in the more than 6 days I have been using this phone. While the CPU is a bit slower than other phones in this price-range, it seems Google has done this to conserve battery power. And let me tell you this is the best phone I have owned, ever, in terms of battery power. I can start the day at 100 percent battery charge, and use the phone for calls, texting, even watching videos on youtube, and streaming, and 8 hours later, still have over 50 percent battery life. There is no headphone jack on this phone, but luckily, this phone has Bluetooth 5.0, and defaults to using the excellent quality AptX audio codec if you headphones support it. I also noticed that the bluetooth range with this device is so much better than my LG v30 ever was. With my LG v30, all my smartwatch would always disconnect if I went anywhere more than about 20 feet away from my phone, same with any bluetooth headphones. I now can go more than double that range with my smartwatch. Probably the best thing about this phone. The operating system!! NO BLOAT!! Pure android 11. This is probably the best version of Android I have seen. Way better than LG and Samsung. Those phones try to do too much, and in the process slow your phone down in my experience. Android 11 will take a little getting used to, it took me a good day to get used to using what they call “gestures”, getting away from using “virtual buttons” like other manufacturers have been doing in the past. The OS is just plain SNAPPY and RESPONSIVE!! Even though it might have a slower CPU than other phones in this price range, you would never know it switching between apps, etc. 8gb or RAM is likely how this is done. Do not buy this phone if you are looking just to get on the 5G service. I am on T-Mobile with my phone, and in all the testing I have done, it is barely faster than 4G service. Even when I am in sparsely populated areas where I have 5G connectivity, it was hardly different than 4G at all when I measured using speedtest.net. Screen size, coming from a “larger” LG v30. I was initially not sure about how I would feel coming from a larger phone. Because google has a great design here, and have hidden away the speakers under the screen, and have a “pin-hole” camera, this phone’s screen is just about bezel less. So even though the phone might be physically smaller than a previous “larger” phone, it fits nearly the exact same screen size in smaller physical device. I really am happy with this. Less bulk in my pocket. Oh, and another great thing.. This thing has a beautiful OLED screen. To my eyes, it is better than my LG v30. Speakers. They are not great, my old phone sounded better, but I cannot complain at all for things like listening to podcasts. Even music isn’t bad. Google went with a “under the screen” speaker, and it works, but it kind of gives you muddy sound for middle and bass tones. Again, it isn’t bad, and as for my personal use, it is fine. Gets just as loud as my old phone speakers. Phone calls are great with this phone, whether via bluetooth headset, or speaker phone. No one I spoke with via any method of call had any issues hearing me. “The gap”. Some people have them, and for those that do have a gap, some gaps are larger than others. There have been widespread reports, globally, that people are receiving Pixel 5s, with a slight gap between the screen and the body of the phone, most often, the gap is not uniform, and just in one corner of the phone. I unfortunately received my phone with this small gap in the top left edge corner of the phone. Google has stated that this gap is by “design”, but this more likely is just the result of during manufacturing, the adhesive used to seal the screen to the phone is just not holding down enough. Most people will not even notice the gap, but I was getting lint and dust stuck in that gap, while using the phone for the first couple of days before I moved along to a case for my phone. People on reddit have mentioned that after using the phone in a case for a few days, and the phone heating up, and pressure being applied by the case on to their phone gaps, that the adhesive likely is heating up again, and then applied with a good amount of pressure for the screen to seat down properly, as all phones should have come from the manufacturing line. I have found that this worked for me too! I cleaned out the dust and lint using a small plastic tool, and then put the phone in a case, and a day or two later, took the case off, and my top left corner gap is now gone. I really wish that google had better quality control at their manufacturing company, as this is something that should never have left their factories. After watching some breakdown videos, it seems highly unlikely that water or dust could have entered the internal sections of the phone, but when you are going to spend this much money on a device that is advertised as IP68, it is hard to see how this got back quality control on their assembly lines. Fingerprint sensor only on this years Pixel 5 model. Face unlock has been removed from last years Pixel 4, and personally, I prefer having a fingerprint sensor. It just works, and due to the current global pandemic and mask wearing, THIS IS A HUGE plus!! You don’t have to fumble around pulling down your mask if you are in public. Pixel 4 did not have a fingerprint sensor at all. The fingerprint sensor generally works fine nearly everytime, but I did notice I had to change how I applied my finger with my third party case. Once I figured that spot out with the case on, it worked pretty much as well as with no case at all, which I would say is near perfect. Cameras: These are awesome, and to be expected on any Pixel phone, and this phone is no different. Great photos from this phone, especially it’s night sight mode, and astrophotography modes! Setting photos to “portrait” in the camera app will also allow you to edit the lighting back in google photos on the phone, you can change the lighting, and even the bokeh blur in your photos this way. Overall: Again, a great phone. I don’t need the fastest CPU in the world. If you don’t game directly on your phone, you probably don’t either. What you will most likely appreciate more is that slower processor will extend your battery life during the day, something that is more useful if you ask me. I know there were a bit of dings on my review of this phone, but hopefully going forward with future hardware manufacturing runs, google can improve quality control to make sure all phones out of the box do not have a gap. They have publicly said that this “gap” was there by “design”, but given that most people that do have a “gap”, it is not uniform all the way around, I am not so sure this is accurate. So I guess if that is true, by google’s own logic, if you have one with no “gap” you have a defective phone? Most people do not have a gap if you read various threads across the internet, and youtube videos. And even those that do, the gap for most is very small. Mine sealed up after having it in a case for a few days.

I bought and gifted my mom the very first Pixel XL when it came out about 4 years ago. That phone had been holding up pretty well until now, no complaints. I got her the 64 gb version which started to max out, so it was time for the upgrade. She loved her Pixel XL so much that she didn't want to switch to any other phone and I didn't want to give her the older generation Pixel. Fortunately, Pixel 5 came out and it was perfect timing. So I got this one for her and she just can't thank me enough. It's a big upgrade for her from Pixel 1 XL to 5 without compromising on the size (pic of both phones side by side attached for comparison). She just loves it. The only thing that she's still getting used to is the lack of three virtual buttons at the bottom that Pixel 1 XL had. It will take some time but she will get a hang of it for sure. It feels so nice to hold the phone and is very lightweight. I immediately ordered a phone cover & a screen protector as I know all modern phones are so delicate that they can break even if you just dream about dropping them. Lol. Since my mom isn't too much into tech, I had to set the phone up for her and do the usual data transfer. Surprisingly, it gave me bit of a hard time setting up/transferring data. Not sure what the problem was. It would get stuck at one point during set up process, just would not proceed and eventually give up. I tried 3 times and put it aside after failing every time. I then tried it again after about half an hour and it worked right away. It was walk in the park after that. I finished the setup/transfer and explored the phone little bit. I will admit, it's a great phone in comparison with the other Pixel that she had. My dad has a Pixel 4 and even in comparison to that, Pixel 5 seems a lot more upgraded. The only feature missing from Pixel 5 as compared to 4 is the facial unlock feature. Really, I'm not sure why you would remove one of the best features from your phone. I read somewhere online that according to Google, it's ‘a good trade-off’ to enable other premium features. I don't know about that but I do miss that feature. Hence the reason for deducting a star. This phone is equipped with 5G capability but I was not much excited about this feature as we don't have 5G coverage in our area but it's a good to have feature that we can use in future. It has a 90 hz display which is wonderfully smooth. The phone feels incredibly responsive and the difference between this and the Pixel 1 XL screen is very noticeable. Gives you just as much usable space as the 1 XL, but with so much less weight/bevel. Camera is also good. Every photo blows me away and the portrait mode is so good. The lack of an absolutely bleeding-edge sensor does not negatively impact the camera at all. The lack of a separate chip for processing images means that the time it takes for a picture to be visible in perfect quality after you take it is noticeable. It's not a problem at all if you're taking three or less pictures or if you're not immediately checking to see what the picture looked like, but if you're taking a bunch at once, you may occasionally find yourself getting frustrated by the seconds it takes to actually be able to flip through all the pictures. Pixel phones are among the best, if not the best, for taking photos, hence you can rest assured that it's quite easy to take awesome quality photos, without putting in much effort. The dual camera setup, features the standard wide angle & an ultra wide angle sensor. The photo editing/touching up software that comes with the phone is pretty impressive and fast, there is the ability to change the lighting and shadows in the pic after its been taken. I have not had enough time to deep dive but the few things I've tried have worked well. Fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate, a definite improvement over Pixel 1 XL. Battery life is phenomenal. Each charge seems to last about 1.5 days of regular usage. Much better than the previous phone. Wireless charging & reverse wireless charging are super convenient with metal enclosure. Again, an added feature that Pixel 1 XL didn't have. Sound quality is nice but sounds tiny to me at high volume, this is because there are no speakers built in but uses a vibration technology to play sound through the phone. I'm not talking about midrange where most people are likely to use but at full blast. This is the best choice for a modern android phone in 2020! It has great power-efficient specs, 90 Hz display, long-lasting battery, all-screen design (no notch!), very responsive fingerprint reader (for those who cannot use face unlock). I would definitely recommend it.

I can't believe I finally went with a Google Pixel... First time I heard from then was from a friend in Brazil back in 2016. He is a tech guy and said how much he wanted the Pixel 3 (top at the moment). Last year I was drawn to the Pixel 4 due to its Astronomical camera (I'm an astronomer), however money was short and my iphone X still worked fine. My old phone screen suddenly stopped working when I was watching a video, so I decided to buy the new Pixel 5 as a Christmas treat for myself, I paid cash for an opened box which was $615, but I could tell the phone hasn't been used, someone bought it, put the SIM in it and for some reason they returned the phone, lucky me there was only one LOL. It was love at first sight. The phone transfered all the data from my iphone (didn't know I could cross data like this on different soperatiinal systems). Af first it was kinda slow because it was installing so many apps, but as soon as it finished OMG you have no idea how high this phone can fly. The camera is just unbelievably AWESOME, I use night sight even at day time since in my opinion makes the photos so much better. The screen is so vivid, beautiful and smooth. Honestly, I am never going back to apple. Google Pixel is the way!

The Google Pixel 5 has a sleek design, extremely long lasting battery life, and feels great in the palm of my hand. It's very lightweight but still solid. The OLED display is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm able to see everything clearly even when in sunny areas outside. The screen is very responsive to every touch and the fingerprint sensor unlocks my phone instantly without any issues. Since my Pixel is unlocked it didn't come with bloatware so I have more storage space for the things I actually want to have installed on it. The camera takes clear, high quality photos, even is low lit areas. The only downside I could find is the speaker quality isn't all that great. Overall, this is a great affordable future-proof option for a 5G Smartphone. Pros: Long lasting battery life Lightweight Fits perfectly in the palm of your hand Extremely responsive Beautiful screen display Does not come with bloatware Future-proof, affordable 5G Fingerprint sensor works perfectly Camera Cons: Subpar speaker quality Does not include headphones in the box

I upgraded from a pixel 3 to this phone and it feels like a huge upgrade. There's only two noticable downgrade - the front camera and the speakers - but I don't take a ton of selfies so it wasn't a deal breaker for me and I never listen to music on my phone speakers. There's a lot to love about this phone. The battery is impressively good, I regularly get between 7.5 to 8.5 of screen on time. The cameras take nice pictures as you'd expect, the bezel-less display looks much more modern than my pixel 3. I love the textured rubber on the back of the phone, no case needed! Then the nice things like the 5G, 90 Hz display, and reverse wireless charging. I notice that the phone is much better at multitasking too, probably thanks to the extra RAM this phone is running. The addition of a wide angle camera is great too! You can fake digital zoom, but not wide angle. Now for the noticable downgrades from the pixel 3. The front camera is less sharp than the camera on the pixel 3 and there's only one, rather than the wide angle plus normal selfie camera. It's also a fixed focal length rather than autofocusing which makes pictures appear much more soft. But this isn't a big deal, the selfie camera isn't anywhere as important as the main cameras. The lack of stereo speakers are also a disappointment, but not a deal breaker again since I'd rather have an edge to edge display than slightly better phone speakers.

I received this item for giving a honest review. It seems like a very nice phone out of the box ii smaller than my current phone but I like it better too. It was easy to set up and get started. I used this as my primary phone and my carrier has 5G here and was able to get a 5G signal. It was fast and make me wish I had purchased my own. All things considered it is a very good phone takes good pictures has good reception and looks nice. I would buy this for myself . This phone also came with the latest Google Software.

I've got my phone all setup & finding the different things are pretty cool. I like everything so far and having upgraded to 5G I can't really tell anything yet. But likely as time goes by. I would definitely say it's worth the value.