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From Europe, at this point I don't even look at Pixels because of their sad excuse of a battery. Just buying directly from China better phones for half the price. Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi are all good, others probably too, Huawei has nice hardware but due to US ban no usable Android.

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Interesting, I didn’t realize that the ban went that far — Google can’t even put Google Play on it for European customers then?

I’m now recalling that Huawei does have their own OS that is not based on Android.

In any event, your exact sentiment reflects my feelings. Honor, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, etc etc, what is the Pixel really getting you over those options?

Huawei has their HarmonyOS but still releases Android phones too for international markets - but these can't use Google Services, so they have their own services. If it's possible to somehow install google services I have no idea.

Personally I would perhaps like to use or at least try Pixel's software (I've had some Google-software phones years ago, a Nexus I think? Maybe even some Pixel. And they were fine), but not on that HW.

Google software has changed - a lot. It used to be very strong. Not today.

This is another good point. When the pixel first came out its camera app was industry-leading. I don’t think that is true anymore.

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