Low Bow Tech

Google’s Pixel phones aren’t as cutting-edge as Samsung’s flagship Galaxy phones in terms of hardware. Yet, they deliver a superior Android experience, all thanks to features you won’t find on other Android devices, including those from Samsung.

1 On-Device Voice Typing

All Pixel devices launched since the Pixel 6 in 2021 feature on-device voice typing. As the name indicates, this allows the Pixel to process voice typing commands on-device, leading to a faster and more accurate voice-to-text experience. You won’t experience any lag converting your speech to text.

Despite this feature being around for a few years now and the advent of AI, none of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy phones have a similar feature. They all still rely on cloud-based voice typing, which provides a vastly inferior experience.

Once you get used to the on-device voice typing experience on a Pixel phone, there’s no going back. So, it is puzzling to see the feature missing from Samsung devices despite packing more powerful hardware.

2 Pixel Screenshots

Pixel Screenshots is the perfect example of how Google is far ahead of Samsung in using on-device AI. The feature analyzes all the screenshots on your Pixel phone using Gemini Nano. This allows you to organize and search for content within a screenshot using natural language. The Pixel Screenshots app can also help you set reminders based on an image’s content.

Pixel Screenshots is only available on the Pixel 9 series and in limited countries. Still, it’s a great feature if you take many screenshots of important items throughout the day. Despite Galaxy AI offering several useful features, Samsung phones do not provide similar functionality.

3 Pixel Studio

Pixel Studio uses generative AI to create images from text prompts. You can modify the generated image using prompts, change its tone, add or remove elements, and more. You can even add stickers and captions to a generated picture to spice it up further.

Samsung offers several generative AI features as part of Galaxy AI, but it’s not a direct alternative to Pixel Studio. You can use generative edit in Photo Assist to move objects, reframe, and remaster your existing pictures. However, it cannot generate new images based on a prompt.

4 Video Boost

Samsung phones pack a more versatile camera setup, but if you want a more reliable shooting experience, Pixel phones are the way to go. While Samsung phones trump Pixels in video quality, Pixel phones have a trick up their sleeves: Video Boost.

On the Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro series, you can enable Video Boost with Night Sight while shooting in low-light scenarios. It allows the phone to capture high-quality raw video, which is then uploaded to Google Photos for processing. This process may take a few hours, but the final result will be significantly better than videos other phones can capture, including those from Samsung.

Video Boost is the ideal example of what Pixel phones can achieve with their deep Google integration. Samsung phones might let you shoot videos in 8K resolution, but they don’t offer a feature like Video Boost to improve the final video output.

5 Face Unlock as Biometric Authentication for Payments

All Samsung and recent Pixel phones ship with facial recognition. However, on Pixel 8 and newer models, Face Unlock is classified as Class 3, which is the “strongest Android biometric class.” So, you can use Face Unlock on the Pixel 8 and 9 models to unlock banking apps, password managers, authenticate payments, and more.

This is not possible on Samsung phones. You are limited to using Samsung’s Face Recognition to unlock the phone, and that’s about it. You might think this is not a big deal. But once you get used to the convenience of Face Unlock on a Pixel phone, there’s no going back.

6 Pixel Recorder

There are voice recording apps, and then there is Pixel Recorder on Pixel phones. It offers text transcription, transcribing the recorded audio to text in real time. Even better, it can automatically detect and label multiple speakers for easy identification. You can export the transcription, search through it, or modify it as required.

Google’s Recorder app also backs up all your voice recordings to your Google account, which you can access from the Pixel Recorder website.

Samsung’s Voice Recorder app is good but misses out on real-time text transcription. It can only transcribe once you stop recording. And while your recordings are saved to Samsung Cloud, you cannot access them from your PC. Pixel Recorder is one of the reasons why many people keep buying Google Pixel phones.

One unique feature on Pixel phones is that you can directly copy content from within images and apps from the Recent Apps screen. This makes sharing content much faster, as you can directly select the desired text or image from the Recent Apps screen and bring up the share menu to take further action. You can even take a screenshot of an app from the multitasking menu.

Samsung allows you to use Good Lock modules to customize the Recent Apps screen. However, it does not provide an option to copy or share items from this screen directly.

8 Call Screen

Call Screen is one of the best Pixel-exclusive features. It automatically screens incoming calls, asking the person why they’re calling you. And if that’s impressive enough, there are several other handy features in Call Screen. A good example is Hold for Me, where Call Assist will wait for you when the other party puts you on hold and notifies you when they reconnect.

This feature is handy when contacting a company’s support, as there’s usually a long wait before you can talk to an agent. There’s another feature, Direct My Call, which can guide you through a business’s automated IVR menus. It transcribes what the automated machine says along with the menu option on the screen, which you can tap to take action.

Lastly, you have Call Notes, an AI-powered feature that generates summaries of your calls, which you can review later.

Samsung offers Bixby Text Call on its Galaxy phones, which allows you to answer calls by typing instead of speaking. However, the feature is nowhere near what Pixel phones achieve with Call Screen.

As you can see, Pixel phones pack plenty of features you won’t find on a Galaxy phone. But that doesn’t mean you should skip buying a Samsung phone and get a Pixel instead. Samsung phones have their own advantages, including a faster processor, more versatile camera setup, and longer battery life. Plus, One UI is more customizable and packs features that could help power users.