Phoning It In ⭐

Each year, I try to stay current with the smartphone market by reviewing at least a few new handsets. This is complicated by the cost of doing so, as I don't typically get review phones these days, and certainly not from the three phone makers that matter most to me: Apple, Google, and Samsung.

Why those three? All the obvious reasons. Apple and Google are unique among smartphone makers because they also create the software platforms that those devices run on. And Samsung is the best selling smartphone maker and the super power in the Android world, so it is obviously of interest as well. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each year brings something new.

This year is different for all kinds of reasons, with the rising prices triggered by the AI-induced component crisis being the most obvious. But this is also perhaps less problematic given how central these devices are to our professional and personal lives and how long we use them now. And it's notable that the 2026 price increases never reached the levels many feared. Somehow, Apple, Google, and Samsung are all charging roughly $100 more per model than they did a year ago, though in some ways, with non-Apple devices, we're also seeing minor steps backward in categories like base RAM. Still, it's interesting that Google was able to hold the line on price increases given how minor a player it is.

In any event, I had to decide which, if any smartphones to buy this year, though I seriously entertained skipping this generation entirely before coming back to my senses. The goal here was to go minimal. Which was why I started with the Pixel 11 Pro, the least expensive of the Pro-level Pixel 11 series phones.
Pixel is as Pixel does
Because I could trade in a previous generation Pixel 10 Pro I didn't pay for and get $600 in trade-in credit, the Pixel 11 Pro seemed like an obvious choice. And it went well ... until it didn't. Google inexplicably decided to give me $0 on that trade-in despite it agreeing it was mint condition, and so I had to return the Pixel 11 Pro just ahead of a week-long trip to Berlin. Google later apologized and admitted to its mistake, and after waiting for that week to see what it did with that Pixel 10 Pro I had traded in--either send it back or just let me keep the Google Store credit--I finally just purchased a Pixel 11 Pro XL, trading in my Pixel 10 Pro XL for $650 in credit.

Before I did that, I did of course check to see what I would get for my iPhone from Google. And when I selected the iPhone 17 Pro Max for the trade at the Google Store, I was prompted to provide the amount of storage the device has (the base 256 GB) and its condition (excellent). And Google would give me $850 on trade, which is pretty impressive. Doing so would lower the price of a Pixel 11 Pro XL to $449, or $12.50 per month for three years. Of course, iPhone-to-Pixel switching has to be a relatively minor real-world shift, but it's there if you want it. I do not.

But...