It's safe to say I have owned my fair share of cell phones over the years. In fact, this is only a fraction of the phones that 
I still remember my first cell phone. It was a massive bag phone that weighed about ten pounds and sat on the floor in the back seat of my car. Back then towers were pretty hard to come by, so you needed the full 3 watts of power it provided. At something like a dollar per minute it was only to be used in the case of emergency.
I don't know as though I ever actually used it.
Eventually, towers became more common and that allowed the lower power .3 watt flip phones to take off and thrive. That LG on the right hand side of the photo continues to be my favorite phone to this day. It was just fun to use and fun to hold in your hand. I'd probably still be using that thing today if it weren't for all the benefits that a smartphone offers.
Eventually texting became such a big thing that having a full sized slide out keyboard was preferred. I can still rock that T9WORD though.
I recently upgraded to a Google Pixel 8 Pro (my work paid for it, other wise I wouldn't have went so "big"), and I have to say, it absolutely doesn't disappoint. I've always been a fan of the Pixel phones. Similar to the love Apple users have for the iPhone since it is made by Apple for Apple, the Pixel line has a lot of benefits with Google keeping things in house.
First, there isn't so much bloatware like you get on the Samsung phones, also, you get OS updates as soon as they are available. You don't need to wait for your carrier or Samsung to package them up nice for you.
Finally, one of the big things Google has always focused on with their phones is the camera. They have made it their mission to always provide the highest quality camera in their mobile devices.
I'm sure there is a statistic somewhere, but if I had to guess, probably 90 to 95 percent of the photos in the world these days are taken with a smartphone. For many people, the only digital device they own is a smartphone. It's their camera, connection to the Internet, and their phone.
I was kind of floored the first time I downloaded a full quality photo from my Pixel 8 Pro and it was over 10MB in size. I cut the quality down for you so this blog post will load faster, but trust me when I say this thing takes some high quality photos. In the full quality photo above, you can see the bees buzzing around the tree in front of our house when you zoom in.
For whatever reason, it seems like many of the photos we take are in low light. Google has done a good job of rectifying that as well. With night mode, you can capture things that I never would have dreamed of getting with a smartphone. Check out the photo above, you can actually see Orion's belt and the rest of the constellation to the left of the moon.
The only reason the moon looks so blurry in this photo is because I am an old man and I can't keep my hands as still as I used to be able to.
The Pixel 8 Pro also makes macro photography a breeze too with a special lens dedicated just for that. I'm not saying this can compete with a full DSLR macro setup, but look at the photo above and tell me that isn't dang good.
If you have been following my food posts, you have likely noticed an uptick in the photo quality over the past six months or so since I upgraded to this phone.
It's actually a bit tricky sometimes to get it to focus right because it isn't sure which of the three lenses you want it to use. When it does though, you best be prepared to be impressed.
If you choose to do so, the P8P also takes photos in full RAW mode for full editing capabilities.
When I am shopping for a new phone, I always visit the GSM Arena site to get the full details of whatever phone I am looking at. That site also allows you to compare up to three or four phones side by side to see which one has the specs to suit your needs.
These are the details for the Pixel 8 Pro's cameras.
I mentioned RAW mode and editing before. What I didn't mention is the fact that the Pixel 8 Pro also has some pretty cool editing features built right in.
There is a good chance you have seen commercials for the "magic eraser" feature that is built into the Google Pixel 8 Pro phone. You might be thinking to yourself it's just a gimmick or it can't possibly be that easy.
Believe it or not, thanks to advances in AI, it really is that easy. Take a look a the photo I took yesterday as I was heading out to my truck before a storm passed through. I was really trying to get a shot of the clouds, but this photo will work for this example.
Now take a look at this photo. Notice anything missing? You should notice two things actually. Most obvious is the red car in the background, but I also removed the light pole that was sitting behind my truck. You can't really even tell they were ever there can you? Sure, the parking lines heading towards the horizon disappear a bit, but if you look at the original photo, you can't really see them to the left of the red car either.
The only relic I can see is a bit of a smudge where the red car used to be and I am not unconvinced that isn't just something on my monitor here at work!
Obviously, there are some limitations to what it can do, but as AI improves, I have a feeling those limitations will start to fade away as well. After using this phone for several months now, I have to admit I love it. I had a Pixel two phones ago, and I liked my One Plus I had before this phone, but after using the Pixel 8 Pro, there is a good chance I will never get another non Pixel phone again.
My wife currently has the Samsung Galaxy S21 Pro I think and when it is time for her to upgrade, we will likely look at a Pixel Pro for her. Hopefully the 9's will be out soon and we can pick up an 8 at a discounted price.
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or