Should you’re seeking to choose up one of many finest telephones in the marketplace to your subsequent improve, and also you’ve settled on Android because the cellular working system you need to go along with. In that case, you’ll in all probability need to get one or two Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy handsets in your shortlist.
Though there are many different effective Android telephones—made by OnePlus, Motorola, Nothing, and a number of other others—Google and Samsung are probably the most high-profile Android gadget makers outdoors of China. After all, the Android you get on Pixels isn’t fairly the identical because the Android you get on Galaxys, which is what we’ll take a better take a look at right here.
We’re going to match the Pixel expertise to the Samsung expertise forward of the rollout of Android 15 and One UI 7 (which received’t change an enormous quantity). We’re additionally going to disregard the {hardware} on this specific article—which processor such-and-such handset has or what number of cameras—for a extra easy head-to-head comparability.
Pixel vs Galaxy: Interface and customization
There’s not a lot to decide on between Pixels and Galaxys concerning the fundamentals of residence screens and app drawers: Android being Android, you’ll be able to customise the house screens extensively with widgets and wallpapers (and even set up a brand new launcher). Each telephones allow you to tweak the house display grid measurement, however solely Samsung allows you to take away the Google search bar from the house display.
Each telephones assist gesture navigation or the previous three-button navigation, and Google Uncover is only one swipe to the left of the house screens. It’s also possible to set up apps into folders, rotate the house display into panorama or portrait mode, show badges on notifications, and extra.
There are a number of variations. For instance, Pixels have their very own customized at-a-glance residence display widget displaying the climate, calendar occasions, and extra (you’ll be able to form of emulate this on a Galaxy, however not fairly). They will additionally present a row of steered apps on the house display and the app drawer primarily based on what you utilize most frequently.
Samsung, in the meantime, has a number of extra built-in widget choices than Google, together with a date countdown for the calendar and a system widget displaying reminiscence and storage utilization. It additionally gives the choice of the Edge Panel, a pane that pops out from the aspect of the display and holds your favourite apps for straightforward entry.
The Edge Panel is an instance of what Samsung Galaxy telephones do rather well: It provides you a ton of choices and options to mess around with. You get extra decisions in terms of font types and colour modes on Galaxy telephones, whereas Pixel telephones are typically a bit of easier and extra minimal throughout the interface and the settings screens.
Each Pixel telephones and Galaxy telephones provide you with a large alternative of built-in wallpapers, in fact (in addition to the choice to make use of AI to create new ones), whereas each telephones additionally allow you to set the colour palette primarily based on the wallpaper (or on some other colour mixture you want). General, you’ll discover a Pixel preferable for those who desire simplicity with some intelligent touches and a Galaxy preferable if you would like as many choices and options as doable.
Pixel vs Galaxy: Constructed-in apps and options
Google has a few of the finest cellular apps within the enterprise: Gmail, Google Preserve, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Docs, YouTube, and the like. It’s troublesome to argue that the Samsung options are higher than these apps, however you get all of them on Galaxy telephones as effectively, and so they all work in the identical method.
Should you’re spending all of your time inside Google apps, you may argue that Galaxy telephones have an excessive amount of in the way in which of bloatware on them—however you’ll be able to rapidly uninstall apps like Samsung Well being, Samsung Web, Samsung Calendar, and Samsung Notes with out an excessive amount of hassle. There are some you’ll be able to’t set up as effectively, although, such because the Galaxy Retailer, Samsung Contacts, and the Samsung Gallery.
After all, there’s nothing unsuitable with preferring the Samsung apps and going with them as a substitute (and you may set up some, like Samsung Web, on any Android telephone). Should you’ve bought a Samsung laptop computer and a Samsung smartwatch, then you could need to follow the Samsung choices. Should you’re all in on the Google ecosystem, you’ll in all probability need to go for the pure Pixel expertise.
Pixels does have a number of unique methods: These embrace the Name Display screen function, which makes Google Assistant display requires you and helps you keep away from scams and spam, and the brand new Pixel Screenshots app, which is unique to the Pixel 9 collection and helps floor data out of your screenshots. There’s additionally the superb Pixel Recorder app for turning spoken textual content into transcribed textual content, however Samsung has its model within the type of Voice Recorder.
On the Samsung aspect, Galaxy telephones allow you to management the amount of particular person apps individually—one thing you’ll be able to’t do on a Pixel telephone. In addition they have a Modes and Routines part constructed proper into Settings, which implies it’s simpler on a Samsung telephone to arrange useful automation (like customizing the power-saving settings primarily based on the place you might be or the time of day). Then there’s Samsung DeX, which helps you to use your telephone as a desktop OS by way of a keyboard and monitor.
We also needs to point out Android updates: Google is answerable for the entire Android venture, so it’s no shock that Pixels get main and minor updates earlier than Galaxy telephones do, as Samsung must get the whole lot tweaked and aligned with its One UI code. If you need Android updates earlier than anybody else, that’s a motive to go for a Pixel.
Pixel vs Galaxy: On-board AI methods and instruments
There’s now a pile of AI stuff on each Pixel telephones and Galaxy telephones—and your mileage could range as to how useful all of it is. Each these handset collection assist Circle to Search, as an illustration, and its ever-growing suite of capabilities (you could keep in mind the function launched on the Galaxy S24 earlier than any Pixel telephone, actually).
Pixels have lengthy impressed when it comes to their picture and video processing, even with restricted {hardware}. You might argue they’re the perfect in the marketplace on this respect: Evening Sight for low mild pictures, Audio Magic Eraser for wiping out background sounds from video, Magic Eraser for eradicating objects from photographs, Astrophotography for capturing the night time sky, and so forth.
We’ve already talked about a few of the different Pixel AI options and instruments above, however there’s additionally Now Taking part in—which identifies all of the songs you come into earshot of routinely within the background—and the ever-improving capabilities of the Gemini assistant (which is straightforward sufficient to put in on Galaxy telephones too).
High-end Galaxy telephones have additionally been given a bunch of AI performance just lately: Instruments for summarizing notes, webpages, and paperwork, translating between languages, turning sketches into artworks, and transferring round (or erasing) objects and other people in footage. There’s already lots beneath the Galaxy AI umbrella, with extra to come back.
There’s loads of overlap between AI and apps right here, and certainly loads of overlap between Pixels and Galaxys—loads of the AI methods on Samsung telephones are powered by the Gemini mannequin that Google develops. Based mostly on the newest noise coming from Samsung, it received’t neglect about Bixby both, even when it’s not likely within the dialog so far as generative AI goes.
That’s lots to learn and soak up, and we nonetheless haven’t coated the whole lot that makes Pixel telephones and Galaxy telephones totally different. Should you’ve bought your causes for preferring one over the opposite—and for those who’ve settled on one in all these choices after making an attempt each out extensively—then tell us within the feedback.