GooglePixel 5 - 5G Android Phone - Water Resistant - Unlocked Smartphone with Night Sight and Ultrawide Lens - Just Black

Great phone. Really enjoying my first week with it.PROS:All the pros are fairly well documented online so I won't dwell too much on them. Loving the 90hz refresh, the comfortable size, the small bezels, the 5G, the pure Android experience, the fast wireless charging, the super quick fingerprint scanner, and the excellent battery life.NON-ISSUES (FOR ME):I had a few concerns going in which turned out to be non-issues for me:1) Gap between screen and body: There were many reports online of an inconsistent gap between the screen and aluminum body of the phone, with an especially large gap near the corner with the camera. Maybe I got lucky, but did not have this issue. There's a VERY small gap on my phone, but it's consistent all the way around, appears to be by design, and doesn't bother me at all.2) Speakers: I'm coming from a Pixel 2 which has stereo front firing speakers. While I do notice the lack of stereo sound on the Pixel 5, I found the overall volume and clarity of the Pixel 5 to be better actually. Does it compete with the best phones out there in terms of sound? Probably not. But for my purposes it is more than adequate. I also found the behind-screen speaker for phone calls to be fine. It's a little weird for the whole phone to vibrate when someone's talking, but I've already gotten used to it.3) Old camera hardware: Coming from a Pixel 2 which takes good photos, the Pixel 5 is incrementally better. It's not going to compete with an iPhone 12 Pro in all departments, but it's still good even though the main camera hardware is a couple years old. Wide-angle is nice to have.4) Midrange processor: I really haven't noticed this being an issue yet. Granted, I don't do a ton of photo processing or gaming on the phone. But for everyday tasks it's totally fine. Definitely faster and snappier than my Pixel 2, and the 90hz makes it all look buttery smooth.5) Lack of squeeze-for-assistant: I'm already getting used to swiping up from the corner. Not really missing this feature as much as I thought I would.MINOR CONS:1) The bio-resin on edges near the screen seems a little rough, and the cutout for the USB-C port could have been rounded a bit so the edge wasn't so "sharp". Neither seem like defects, but I used to use my pinky as a ledge to sit the phone on, and now that's a little uncomfortable. Just an adjustment I'll need to make. I don't use a case, so if you're planning on using one this issue will be moot for you.2) Screen viewing angle seems slightly narrow. In normal use this is not an issue, but it it's not quite as good as an iPhone XS or 11.3) No telephoto. I've never had one so I don't know what I'm missing. I think I have more use for wide-angle so it's an ok tradeoff for me, but it would have been nice to have telephoto too. If you have a Pixel 4 and use the telephoto a lot, this might not be the upgrade path for you.4) This is more of an Android 11/app developer issue, but a lot of apps, including some Google apps like Chrome, don't do a good job of showing off the small uniform bezels on the Pixel 5. You still end up with black bars at the top and bottom in most cases behind the notification area at the top and the gesture line at the bottom. They should really be transparent, especially at the bottom. Maybe that'll improve with time, but it's hard to actually appreciate the nice bezels on the phone on anything but the home screen.All in all, this is a 5-star phone for me. Looks great, and it's well rounded. Recommended.

I'm reluctant to pay this much for a smartphone as they're pretty much a consumable these days. That said, the Pixel 5 is a fantastic phone. Clean, vanilla Android, snappy performance, beautiful pictures and battery for days sum it up. The cell and WiFi radios outperform my Essential phone by a country mile. I can make phone calls on Verizon from my house, something the last three phones were not able to do reliably. It will stay connected to our spotty WiFi better than any other phone or tablet I've owned. The pictures are nicely exposed and vibrant in any but the poorest conditions. It's a great size and weight for a smartphone. The screen looks rich and smooth as silk, but not oversaturated. The fingerprint sensor isn't as reliable as I'd like, and that it's surface looks like the texture on the rest of the back of the phone means that you can't glance at it to see if it's clean. And if it's to work, it needs to be really, really clean. The fit and finish is nice, and I didn't get an example with the half installed screen. I like the texture that's been applied to the body, even if it reminds me of Plastidip. The phone feels solid, but not overly weighty. It's sits in a jeans pocket nicely. Sits nicely in the hand, too. Just enough weight. Just enough. The GPS receiver appears to be quite a bit more sensitive than any previous phone of mine. It locks in on location fast, and in many places others never see the satellites. Wireless charging is, well, nice, if not the ultimate experience. Most of that is not an reflection of the phone. It's nice to be able to just lay the phone on a charger for the night. Small, round chargers, however, leave the phone vulnerable to being knocked off the nightstand. I switched to one that's a rounded rectangle, similar in size to the phone. Happiness. And, it's easier to get the phone placed relative to the charger's coil so that it will charge. Wireless charging is slow, of course, but the Pixel 5 will charge from 15% to full overnight. Speaking of charging, the Pixel 5 is relatively slow to charge when plugged into USB-C, but not to the point of being a real problem. Just don't expect to throw 50% charge on it while you're in the shower. I'm still learning the camera app, but it's more than good enough from what I've seen so far. Portrait Light would be useful on any subject, but Google only shows the control if they think the subject is human. Yes, some of us take pictures of cats, too, and that lighting magic would be nice to have. Maybe it will develop enough over time to be used in any picture.So, all in all, the Pixel 5 is a significant upgrade, and an outstanding smartphone experience. I do recommend.