I’ve used Pixel and Galaxy phones for a decade, and Google wins in one aspect every time

I’ve been using smartphones since 2011, and they’ve all been Samsung and Google devices (aside from a few other brands due to my job). Both companies have come a long way over the years, and while the S24 Ultra is my phone of choice for now, that may soon change for one reason. Pixels and Galaxy phones each have their strengths and weaknesses, but one thing I’ve always found Google is best at is customer support, while Samsung has more reliable devices.

As I think back on my experience with both, I’ve started to reevaluate which of those things is more important to me. Do I want a phone that’s less likely to be a problem and accept that it’ll be a fight if something does go wrong, or the inverse?

I’ve owned a lot of Samsung phones over the years. I started with the Galaxy S2 and S4, and then after a dip into the Google ecosystem, I’ve had the Galaxy S10 Plus and every Ultra from the S20 to the S24 series and a smattering of foldable review units. Of the eight Galaxy phones I’ve personally owned, only one has had an issue.

Being in the UK, I’ve had to endure my fair share of Exynos-powered phones, and my S20 Ultra was by far the worst, suffering from an unfortunate failure in the summer of 2020. It got so hot during a video call with my then-fiancé that it cooked its motherboard. Samsung covered this on warranty, so I didn’t have to pay for any repairs, but the process was a joke.

Samsung has a repair-at-all-costs policy in the UK. Because of that, my S20 Ultra was gone for six weeks while they replaced the motherboard, two of the rear cameras, the battery, and the rear glass, which cracked during removal. Replacing the phone would’ve been much simpler, but Samsung insisted on repairing it. To make matters worse, the phone got lost in shipping for another week. In total, I was without my phone for nearly two months.

The experiences get worse when we look at my wife’s phones. She’s had the Z Flip 4, 5, and 6, and so far, only the latter has endured a full year with no more than an in-store screen protector change.

The Flip 4 had an unfortunate encounter with our fish tank, so I arranged a repair through our Samsung Care policy. Due to Samsung’s insistence on repairing rather than replacing, the phone was initially gone for five weeks, during which time it had its motherboard, screen, hinge, frame, rear glass, and all of its cameras replaced. The only part of the phone that stayed the same was the cover display.

The issues began when the phone came back. My wife was at work, so I started the phone up, intending to sign in for her and restore her data so she could switch back to it during her lunch break. Imagine my surprise when the phone defaulted to French out of the box and said “Z Flip 4 Maison Margiela Edition” on the bootloader. That was a special black and white version of the phone, only sold in France, and the device in my hand was still Bora Purple. The phone was a mess once I got it started, with constant UI crashes, warnings, and an OS build several months old, with the software update screen not working.

I called Samsung and learned that the repair center had flashed the wrong software build onto the phone after it was repaired, and I would need to send it off to be reflashed. A simple software flash sounds like something that could be done quickly, but it was gone for another three weeks.

If I’m being realistic, those two instances aren’t that bad. My S20 Ultra repair was in the middle of the pandemic, which certainly would have contributed to the longer wait. With the Z Flip 4, mistakes do happen in isolated instances. Unfortunately, things only got worse the following year with the Z Flip 5.

It’s been over a year, and my blood still boils whenever I think about it. Aside from the Flip 4 that slept with the fishes, my wife and I baby our phones. They are always protected by a case and screen protector, and we take them out of those cases for a thorough cleaning at least once a week. But in February 2024, the Flip 5 died. It had never been dropped or banged, but the screen destroyed itself. The culprit? One of the rubber seals at the side of the display, along the hinge, came loose and got caught in the hinge mechanism.

Rather than send the phone away, we took it to a Samsung Store. The employee inspected the device and then told us that while it was clear the phone was in pristine condition, we’d need to pay for the repair. According to Samsung’s repair guide for the Z Flip 5, that component was “engineered not to fail.” Last time I checked, most things aren’t engineered to fail, but it sometimes happens anyway. Thankfully, our Samsung Care plan meant it cost £90 rather than the full repair cost, but even so, this was a low blow.

My experience with Google devices has been the opposite. I’ve owned the Nexus 6, 6P, Pixel XL, 2XL, and 3XL, and each of them had to go through warranty at least twice. Two of my Nexus 6s popped their rear panel, four Nexus 6Ps either bent or had the display pop out of the frame, two Pixel XLs developed dead speakers, one 2XL got dead display pixels while the other decided it didn’t want to take pictures anymore, and my 3XL couldn’t record video without crashing. The latter was in its return window, so I sent it back and got an S10 Plus instead.

That’s a terrible track record to be sure, and my Android Authority colleagues tell me I’m the unluckiest guy on the planet because nothing this terrible has ever happened to their Pixels, especially this frequently. But something impressed me during that time: Google’s support really looked after me. I purchased all of those devices through the Google Store, and it replaced each of them with either a brand-new phone or a freshly refurbished unit in less than 48 hours of my reporting the issue.

Google’s warranty policy, at least in the UK, is to replace the faulty phone right away to minimise the impact on the user. Then the defective device gets repaired and fully refurbished so that it can be used as a replacement for someone else who makes a warranty claim. It’s an efficient process that made me feel cared for as a customer. Google’s customer support is always friendly and (usually) asks questions and offers troubleshooting steps that make sense.

I had another solid experience with Google support in the last few weeks. Pixel 6a battery problems are widespread, and my Grandfather’s 6a developed a swollen battery. In the UK, phones get a two-year manufacturer’s warranty, but this 6a was over three years old, so Google didn’t have an obligation to do anything. Still, I reached out to support, and in less than 12 hours, a refurbished 6a that had a brand new battery and display arrived at my door. Aside from the support agent encouraging me to use the charging brick that came with the phone in the future (the 6a doesn’t come with one), the support experience was perfect, and everything was sorted via a live chat in less than half an hour.

Another thing to consider is that Pixels have improved over the last few years. My cousin has had a Pixel 6 Pro since launch, and it’s never let him down. A friend has a 7a and loves it, and several people I know have various models of the Pixel 9 series and couldn’t be happier. Phones from all manufacturers will have issues at times, but from the experience of those around me, it seems that Google’s reliability has improved, and users aren’t facing frequent issues like I did in my early Pixel days.

Pair the improved reliability with fantastic customer support, and I’m left wondering if I should go back to using a Pixel. I still love Samsung’s products. I’ve had the S24 Ultra since it launched, and it’s never once let me down. The Material Expressive redesign of Android 16 looks fantastic, but I still prefer One UI overall. However, no matter how much I love One UI or the phone it runs on, I always have that fear that if something does go wrong, getting it fixed would be an uphill battle with Samsung, and until the company changes that, it could be time for me to move on.