It’s no secret that I’m an iPhone girl. I use theiPhone 15 Pro Maxas my main phone and I adore it for a number of reasons. That’s not to say I can’t appreciate it when the Android competition pulls something great out of the bag.
I very much enjoyed theSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 5when it was announced a few months back, not just for the sake of nostalgia, but because it had some genuinely useful features that you just don’t get with a standard phone. Last time I checked it wasn’t possible to fold the iPhone in half and use a hand gesture to take a selfie.
It’s theGoogle Pixel 8 Prothat’s turned my head this month - I know, I’m fickle. It’s perhaps fairer to say that it’s Google that has turned my head rather than the Pixel 8 Pro itself. The phone has a lovely premium design with a matte finish, and it runs a clean software experience, whilst also delivering superb camera performance, but there is nothing in that statement I don’t get in abundance from myiPhone.
But there are three features on the Pixel 8 Pro that I can’t get on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I really do want them.
The first target of my envy is Best Take, which is only available on thePixel 8 models. Now, this feature is a bit of a poisoned chalice. Best Take - for those who don’t know - uses AI wizardry to pretty much take group shots to the next level. If you have multiple group shot images on your device - whether they were taken on a Pixel 8 Pro or not - you may select the best facial expression for each person out of the images you have, to then get one final group shot with all those selected expressions. It means you could get the perfect group shot where everyone is smiling. The only issue, of course, is that it is not real and that final shot never existed. Still, most of Instagram is fake, and I’d really like to create that perfect family shot on my iPhone to send as the Christmas card this year.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
Magic Editor
Second on the list might not come as a surprise, because Magic Editor really is exceptional. Again, there’s a serious use of artificial intelligence going on and well, once again, the photos produced as a result from Magic Editoraren’t actually realityin terms of what you saw with your own eyes. But there are some times when a bin or car really ruins an otherwise beautiful photo, or there are people in the background of your amazing selfie. Magic Eraser exists on older Pixel devices, but Magic Editor adds generative AI in-fill onthe Pixel 8, allowing for the creation of incredible shots - and giving you AI editing superpowers. On iPhone, you may press and hold on objects to drop them onto another background or create a sticker of them if you want, but the editing power that is offered on Magic Editor just doesn’t exist on iPhone - and boy do I want it.
Reverse wireless charging
The final thing isreverse wireless charging. Seems like an odd one? Well, the thing that gets me about this tech is that it’s not even new. Samsung, Google and pretty much everyone in the Android world has been doing this for years - it’s not even specific to the Pixel 8 Pro. Apple finally added the ability to charge other devices with a cable thanks to the USB-C port it introduced on theiPhone 15but what I really want to be able to do is attach myMagSafe compatible AirPodsonto the back of my iPhone 15 Pro Max for a little top-up.
The magnets think about it for a couple of seconds, but then they give up and even if it did attach, it wouldn’t charge. If Apple did reverse wireless charging usingMagSafe, it could even be better than the current reverse wireless charging offered by Android manufacturers, because your earbuds cases wouldn’t be slipping and sliding all over those glass rears. But alas, that’s not happening today, tomorrow, or anytime soon.
