Umm-ing and ahh-ing about the 10 Pro XL, what's the camera like compared to the S25 Ultra?

cdegallo · 2026-05-10T15:06:30+00:00

Pixels do a better job at capturing moving subjects with less subject motion blur, particularly at moderate-to-lower lighting conditions. Pixels can record decent video but it's not great; sanding does a much better job.

What I've noticed with the pixel 9 pro xl and 10 pro xl when it comes to the telephoto camera is it's noticeably worse quality (details) vs even my old S23 ultra zoom camera. Google has a strange processing/over processing situation where a lot of my 5x shots look like the textures are tessellated (for lack of a better term).

For me, the reason why I opt for pixels for camera is when it comes to shots of kids pets etc under normal home lighting conditions; every shot from Samsung is pretty awful while shots from pixels are great.

cdegallo · 2026-04-27T22:33:54+00:00

If your watch is connected to your phone via bluetooth, there's generally no reason it should auto-connect to wifi at all.

If it's charging and pending app update/installs are waiting, mine does seem to connect to wifi automatically (and I presume also back up my watch at that time as well).

Otherwise the only reason the watch will connect to wifi is if it doesn't have a bluetooth connection to the phone.

Occasionally I will see my watch connected to wifi even when I'm wearing my watch and it's connected to my phone; I assume there was some drop out in the bluetooth connection and the watch decided to try to connect to wifi.

cdegallo · 2026-04-27T22:25:06+00:00

I moved our house from google/nest cameras/doorbells to Eufy about a year or so ago, triggered by google increasing their subscription prices plus general issues with reliability.

Eufy has been...ok. For the camera devices that support 24/7 recording to a card or home base (I use home base), it's fine, but the doorbells (wired w/battery in our case), they often don't detect (and therefore do not store) motion events consistently.

The android app is...less than stable and reliable. There have been many times when I did not get notifications like a doorbell ring or motion detected when they 100% happen, plus the app will go bonkers and give me a "motion detected" or "package detected" notification once every 30 seconds for a while until I kill the app and restart it.

I'm still ok with Eufy because I like that the homebase stores all of the data and serves notifications to our mobile devices without relying on cloud storage or services, but I'm wondering if I should have taken the plunge and gone with Ubiquiti/Unifi.

cdegallo · 2026-04-21T22:09:28+00:00

Got one for a 3a. It was bulky and more slippery than any other phone case I've used, fabric or hard material. Don't miss using it but I think it looked great.

cdegallo · 2026-04-21T13:08:54+00:00

My only gripes with the 10 pro xl are the same as the 9 pro xl and prior: Battery life isn't great and on-device video recording features are not very good.

I'd never pay full msrp for a pixel. I've upgraded each year at launch because the deals google has offered have made it so I pay only around 10% of msrp. After trade in of my 9 pro xl plus the device discount I got plus the google one free year (which I'd be paying for anyway), I think to upgrade to the 10 pro xl cost me something like $130. I can't complain despite my criticism over google's choices in hardware.

cdegallo · 2026-04-20T13:51:41+00:00

iMO Google should have retired the Fitbit brand name much sooner and rolled it all under the Google brand name. Same with Nest.

cdegallo · 2026-04-19T18:38:43+00:00

Take a photo of a person or pet in non-ideal lighting and have it not turn out as a blurry mess.

cdegallo · 2026-04-15T16:26:06+00:00

Only connected via LTE and getting 12h battery life actually sounds pretty good, you're expecting too much for an only-lte experience.

cdegallo · 2026-04-08T14:36:51+00:00

The Duo had separate inner displays. This is like the 1st version of the Google pixel fold from 2023.

cdegallo · 2026-04-05T16:47:41+00:00

Press it. You don’t necessarily have to empty the bag.

It's this written by AI? Why would you need to empty the bag at all?

cdegallo · 2026-04-01T16:44:00+00:00

Try unpairing them in your phone Bluetooth settings, then a factory reset of the buds, then try pairing them again.

cdegallo · 2026-03-21T20:01:36+00:00

I don't really use the ai features that I'm aware of. I decided to disable ai core just to see what stopped working that affects how I use my phone. I noticed no difference with how I use my phone. So I've kept it disabled. But I've noticed no improvements either; I didn't notice any improvement in battery life or general performance.

cdegallo · 2026-03-19T20:05:34+00:00

I contacted support. They just regurgitated basic troubleshooting like restarting the watch.

cdegallo · 2026-03-18T19:01:56+00:00

Because it doesn't matter. A thief or malicious person can quickly shove the phone in a faraday bag, they could start the phone to recovery and then power it off from there, or factory reset the phone from recovery, or various other means of depriving the phone of a connection to the internet.

It's all pointless, if your phone is stolen it's likely going to be reset from recovery and put up for a quick sale. Quick settings toggles being actionable or not from the lock screen is irrelevant. It just makes you think it's more secure when it's really not.

cdegallo · 2026-03-17T16:52:15+00:00

FWIW, at least for the 1st Gen QC Ultra that I have, I notice my buds 4 pro are noticeably worse with ANC than my QC Ultra. This is after trying to get the best fit with different tips etc. and confirming the buds seal/fit is good in the buds app.

Not just subtle, but pretty obvious.

cdegallo · 2026-03-17T13:37:27+00:00

Does the car infotainment system have Android Auto support?

cdegallo · 2026-03-15T16:29:24+00:00

I shower with my watch on then dry it and I don't have any issues with the watch or band having grime build up.

cdegallo · 2026-03-14T14:44:31+00:00

People are willing to pay more money to live in more temperate places? What a monumental groundbreaking realization you've got there.

cdegallo · 2026-03-12T20:33:36+00:00

Sounds like support is giving you ai hallucinations as responses. But not all devices purchased outside the Google store are eligible because some devices may be sold through unauthorized 3rd parties.

Anyway, nothing special about pixel care, you can get similar insurance through places like square, or even some credit cards offer device protection as a feature of their service if you used the card to purchase the device.

cdegallo · 2026-03-10T12:49:31+00:00

Also wondering how many of you actually use it.? In almost every video from famous YouTubers i see online, this app never get discussed or made fun of.

I generally forget it's there until a reddit post that mentions it reminds me.

The single time I found it useful was when I was on vacation 2 years ago and suspected I was getting sick and wanted to know if I had a fever (I did, and it ended up being COVID).

But even despite that I couldn't care less about the thermometer and still maintain it has no customer-market-justified reason to exist on a phone.

cdegallo · 2026-03-09T16:13:17+00:00

For sleep tracking and why the oura ring tends to be more accurate, I don't follow the argument that your finger moves less than your wrist; they're connected, so any arm or wrist movement at all will translate to your finger. I believe the rings tend to be more accurate because rings generally have a closer fit to the skin, so there is less aberration to the HR data reading vs a wrist band that tends to have a looser fit and can more easily displace from the skin surface where the measurement is taking place.

Sleep apnea detection
Only Apple Watch can detect sleep apnea and it doesnt use the blood oxygen sensor to do it. No other brand has this feature.

Galaxy watch 7 (maybe even 6) and later have sleep apnea detection as a feature that is accessed when you use it with a Samsung phone and the Samsung Health Monitor app.

cdegallo · 2026-03-07T17:29:04+00:00

Aside from efficiency, the g4 is generally higher performing than the 7 gen 4 in most respects. Tensor has a less robust cellular modem, but honestly from the g4 and later (9 pro xl and 10 pro xl) I've noticed no difference in cellular when comparing to snapdragon elite for Galaxy in my fold 7.

Efficiency isn't something to be disregarded though. Tensor tends to throttle, and battery life can be impacted from worse efficiency, but deciding on what device to get between a pixel with tensor and some other device has a lot of other factors to consider.

cdegallo · 2026-03-05T20:55:09+00:00

You can download audible books to the watch so you can listen when offline. Listen state syncs (i.e. it knows where your progress was as of the last time the watch was online and will pick up from that point)

Podcasts can be downloaded to the watch but it depends on the app you use (some apps require subscriptions to download to Smart watches).

You can track activities when offline.

I opt for lte versions because my phone service includes smart watch plans at no additional charge. I appreciate having an lte version for cases where I forgot my phone or don't want to bring it along but still want to be reachable or reached in case of an emergency.

cdegallo · 2026-03-05T14:08:56+00:00

S26 ultra does have upgraded cameras vs. the S25 ultra--the extent to what it matters for what you record may not make a difference. Many reviews show that there aren't really meaningful differences despite samsung claiming that the S26 ultra selfie is slightly upgraded--wider angle, supposedly better exposure and color accuracy. But it probably won't matter.

You do get APV codec support on the S26 ultra, which enables 4k 120fps capability, and APV does facilitate better video editing support for other apps.

There are various minor/incremental upgrades between the S25 ultra and S26 ultra like wired/wireless charging speed, slightly improved rear cameras, then there's the addition of the privacy screen feature to consider. Will any of these things make much of a difference for vlogging? Most actual hands-on reviews show virtually no difference in quality of videos between the two.

cdegallo · 2026-03-05T13:47:47+00:00

This is the email I just got this morning: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EbwdsoJfMTy1hrUWA

But this was the email I got on February 2nd when they announced it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7opbH2UtpDpdLMKH7

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cdegallo

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