Google Pixel 8 Pro: Transition Complete

With just three works days at home this week before I leave for Seattle on Monday, each packed with podcast recordings, meetings, and other distractions, time was of the essence: I wanted to get up and running with the Pixel 8 Pro and, ideally, the Pixel Watch 2, as quickly as possible. And … I did.

We flew home from Mexico on Tuesday, and after arriving home around dinner time, I wasted no time unboxing the Pixel 8 Pro and stepping through the initial configuration. Unfortunately, this configuration did not include moving my T-Mobile eSIM over to phone, as this process requires me to engage the carrier’s customer support system, which is an unnecessary time suck in its own right.

Wednesdays are always busy between Windows Weekly, which has turned into a three-hour commitment, and my normal work, but I found some time to install most of the apps I use and configure some of them. That night, we had a prior commitment, however, so I didn’t have time to complete that process let alone move the eSIM.

On Thursday, I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning, one that was further away than expected with a 40-minute drive in both directions, a meeting, and a second podcast to record, for Hands-on Windows. And that turned into an unexpected slog as well, thanks to some technical problems, and I ended up being late for another prior commitment that night, which meant I had little time to do anything with the phone. But I had at least woken up early that day, so I used that extra time to configure the Pixel Watch 2, and really needed it, as that process was surprisingly involved.

And then today came: I again woke up early, took pictures of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s I wrote up later that day, started backing up my photos to the Google Photos attached to my personal Gmail account, and began work on Ask Paul early so that it didn’t take all morning, as it often does (and failed, but whatever). So there it was: About 12:45 pm, I had less than an hour before a Microsoft meeting, and I was bulk installing my apps to the T14s as outlined in Roll Your Own Windows Time Machine (Premium), and I had a crazy thought.

Was this enough time to get the eSIM moved over?

It was, but only because my wife didn’t need her phone during this time, allowing me to use that to talk to T-Mobile customer support so that they could make the switch remotely. Which, honestly, happened in a reasonable amount of time given how tedious this can be. Less than a half an hour later, the eSIM was up and running in the Pixel—I had taken the appropriate steps to sever the links to iMessage and Facetime first, which always causes problems during such a switch—and after a surprisingly short meeting, I finally had some time to write a bit and finalize the Pixel configuration.

Or, at least get it into a reasonably workable state, I guess. Google provides a stunning array of features and options to configure in its highly optimized and heavily modified Android version for Pixels, and it will take a while before I get to all of them. (For example, one of my favorite Pixel features is humorously called “Flip to Shhh.” It’s not enabled by default, but when it is, it puts the phone in Silent mode when you place it face down on a table or other flat surface. Genius.)

But I’m doing pretty well here, and this should be relatively complete by the time I head to the airport on Monday. At some point, I installed the rest of the apps I would need, laid out the home screen—I always use a single home screen—ran and configured each app with whatever user account, phone number, or whatever each needed, downloaded some content in YouTube Music for offline use on the coming flights, and performed all the busy work that’s required on a clean install as I prefer.

And that means that tonight, when we head out again, for the third of three nights in a row, I will finally be able to take the Pixel 8 Pro with me. Between the three weeks I waited to get the device and the three further days it took me to get it fully configured, it felt like an eternity.

The Pixel is, of course, familiar. And in moving to it over the past few days, I’m reminded of those things I very much prefer on Android/Pixel, and those things that are better on the iPhone I am leaving behind. Android’s notification system is a big improvement over what Apple offers, though I will miss the elegant Dynamic Island and the iPhone’s superior gesture navigation. And AirPlay, of course.

But I use a lot of Google apps and services and very little in the way of Apple apps and services, and that eases this kind of transition. I moved to a mix of Google and Microsoft Authenticator apps, and because Google Authenticator now supports account sync, moving over all of those accounts, usually a manual and time-consuming process, happened in the blink of an eye. Wonderful.

This Pixel is also in some ways unfamiliar too, of course. The updated camera system, with its three high-resolution lenses and more complex but powerful Pro Camera app will require some time, for example. But I took the shots of the ThinkPad T14s with this phone, and am quite happy with the results, especially the portrait mode stuff. And in using the Pixel camera system, even a bit, I am reminded of all the things I prefer about it when compared to the iPhone: It just seems easier to get the picture I expect on Pixel.

Google had previously introduced a Magic Eraser feature in Google Photos, but with the Pixel 8 Pro, you get an even more advanced feature called Magic Editor that lets you select objects in a photo (by tapping or circling them) and then move or delete them. And … yikes. After just a few short tests, it’s pretty clear that this AI-based functionality is legit: the editor usually fills in the area where an object was very accurately, with no telltale smudges or other signs of an edit. This makes me want to revisit photos from the past and see what I can do to improve them.

And so I did just that, using the recent past as a test. Consider this photo of a large Day of the Dead character in Mexico City’s Zocalo, in front of the National Palace. Could Magic Editor actually remove him from the photo and accurately recreate the background?

Why yes it could.

I also noticed that the Pixel 8 Pro was charging much faster than its predecessors, something that has been a sore spot for this product line for a long time. The Pixel 7 Pro, for example, could only charge at 22 watts, and a full charge could take as long as two hours. But the Pixel 8 Pro seemed to be charging at speeds more akin to the iPhone, and so I looked it up. According to the Google Store website, the Pixel 8 Pro can charge at up to 30 watts, which is a nice improvement, and since I am using a 30-watt charger with USB-PD 3.0 (PPS) as Google recommends, I must be getting the best possible experience. Nice.

Of course, it’s not clear yet whether the Pixel 8 Pro battery life also rises to the challenge, another area in which recent Pixels have fallen short of the iPhone competition. But I’ll find out with some real-world use. (And then find out what a full charge looks like too.)

Anyway. There’s so much to examine here. And now, finally, I will.