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Phones · Google Pixel

Google Pixel 3

58owners with an opinion
69%of verdicts positive
31/12positive/negative since 2024
8 yrslongest happy owner
2happy after 3+ years

Praised for reliability and performance; criticized for battery and software.

What owners wrote

Likes itOwned 6 years
same here, got six years out of a pixel 3 and hope to get another six out of my current pixel 9. if it hadn't been for the battery life degrading I might even have hung on to the 3 for another year or two.
Likes itOwned 6 years
for me it's the hope of at least some minor degree of longevity. I used a pixel 3 for six years, until the degenerating battery finally drove me to get a new phone, and I paid whatever exorbitant amount they wanted for a pixel 9 pro which will hopefully last me another six years
Doesn’t like itOwned 2 years
Spicy pillows are basically caused by 1 of 2 things: 1. Heat 2. Being fully charged all the time Recording video consumes a considerable amount of power, leading to heat. The display less so, unless you're operating at maximum brightness all the time. #2 is what killed my Pixel 3 after only about 2 years. Once I started working from home, I had a bad habit of letting my phone sit on the charger all day and after about 3 months of WFH the pillow got spicy. For a phone that's going to be repurposed as a server, I wonder if it'd be worthwhile to open the case and attach a heat sink to the battery.
Likes itOwned 2 years
Is that feasible when the device is only supported for 3 years max? This is a serious question. Just bought a new pixel 5, because the pixel 3 I had bought refurbished 2 years ago will lose support in October. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the pixel 3, it's literally the same phone with slightly older innards and no wide angle camera.
Doesn’t like it
Not sure about iPads, but going from a pixel 3 to a pixel 5 made me feel like my pixel 3 was broken. Xr to 16 pro was similar, but that is because Xr was legit broken.
Likes it
I use and maintain an "ipod" in the form of an old pixel 3 with 128 GB of memory that has no SIM card and no software installed except for VLC. It stays in airplane mode. It has a real headphone jack.
Likes it
Surprised no one has mentioned Gemini. That's the highest value add feature for me. I have pixel watch 3, which I got cheap second hand. Gemini is a little laggy but still useful. If the experience was similar to the latest open AI voice model when used on a phone, it'd be incredibly useful
Likes it
I'm not sure if my Pixel Watch 3 is much more efficient than your 4 or if by "constant use" you literally mean scrolling through it actively for hours at a time, but I only charge mine maybe twice a week. It's on at all times, connected to my phone via Bluetooth and to my Wi-Fi network when I'm home, and I actively manage any push notifications I get from it, but otherwise it seems to idle fairly efficiently.
Likes it
I switched from a pixel 3 to a pixel 9 pro over a year ago, and I still miss the smaller form factor. the pixel 3 really was the perfect size for me and I am sad I can no longer get a smallish phone with a high end processor.
Likes it
In the US, many refurbished Pixel phones are Verizon variants which disallow OEM unlocking. When was in college and had Sprint this was a nightmare since then I wanted root for unlimited hotspot (Sprint made it easy that way), but most refurbished Pixels were Verizon variants. And I couldn't just use OnePlus because they were only designed GSM networks or later Verizon CDMA-less. Then, new Pixels were unaffordable for me, but parents insisted on using Sprint. I ended up getting a Pixel 3 off Mercari (which I still own) just to keep root. Now, I can afford a Pixel 10 Pro new (which I am right now), alongside spare Pixel 9 and OnePlus 13R units. But even then (a) my income is lower than when I worked at Microsoft and (b) The OnePlus was from a trade-in deal.
Doesn’t like it
I have a projector that can project 4k at 60hz or 1080p at 240, and I can really notice it by just moving the cursor around. I don’t need to render my games anywhere near 240 to notice that too. Same with phones - moving from pixel 3 to pixel 5, scrolling through settings or the home screen was a palpable difference. Pixel 3 now feels broken. It is not.m, it just renders at 60 instead of 90 fps.
Doesn’t like it
I had two pebble watches, and I used them daily for years. I rarely use my pixel watch 3, mainly because of charging. I only have one proprietary charger for the watch and sometime it is on my desk, sometimes near my bed, sometimes somewhere I can't find. I don't need my watch, but I do need my phone, so I charge the phone, and forget that my watch exists for a few months at a time. I think the biggest hurdle for me and watches is daily charging. I will not buy another smartwatch unless the battery is at least a week. Pebble round 2 having two week battery is great!
Doesn’t like it
Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave their phone at home. I'm not that guy. My phone comes with me everywhere, so why would I want phone-light on my wrist when my phone in my pocket can do it better? Pebble also gets battery life. Pebble's 2 weeks compared to 1 day on my pixel watch 3. Want to use that cool sleep tracking feature on your smartwatch? Guess what? Its on the charger.
Doesn’t like it
The funny thing is, I used eSIM on a Pixel 3, since it was the easiest way to activate on Sprint. Now, no big carrier will use a Pixel 3's eSIM. But then on Sprint, they tried to copy the CDMA activation system on LTE whereas everyone else just used SIM cards directly. Sprint was very progressive on eSIM even if they were slow to VoLTE. My Pixel 3 moved to a physical SIM due to switching to T-Mobile 3 months before the merger, and I've mostly used physical SIMs before the Pixel 10 Pro outside of international travel. I avoid MVNOs as my primary service because of the specter of eSIM-only phones, and that was pre-Pixel 10. And yes, if my Pixel 10 Pro had a physical SIM card slot I'd use it.
Likes it
NFC payments via Google Wallet running on my Pixel Watch 3 connected to a phone running GrapheneOS works just fine. I use this regularly. (It doesn't require Google Wallet to be installed on the phone.) At least one of my cards required Google Play Services to have the location permission when initially adding the card though.
Likes it
I have my Pixel 3 magnetically attached to my keyboard, to the left side, next to the tab, caps lock and other keys. It displays a webpage of a grid of buttons which do things when I press them, like inject the current timestamp at the cursor position, toggle my monitors on and off, launch certain apps. Because I wanted an Elgato Stream Deck but then thought that I have this unused phone.
Doesn’t like it
I'm really picky. Creaks, screen issues (got the line down the middle of the screen on a 2XL, 3, and 6), speaker went out on 5, cell radio would randomly stop working on the 8, having to reboot multiple times per day. Most recently a 9 Pro XL, flexed more than my wife's, and the screen creaked when pressed (which my wife's didn't). The camera bump falling off didn't happen to me, but I've seen it on others. If I'm going to pay Apple prices, I expect the same level of quality. I really want to like the pixel, but I can't trust Google's quality until they prove otherwise. Every generation of Pixel has had some sort of QC problem.
Likes it
I'm delighted to see that they don't make you get the biggest phone in order to get the best cameras. I've been using Pixels since the Pixel 3 and always feel like I'm making compromises in the camera department in order to get a phone that will actually fit in my hand/pocket.
Likes it
In my view Pixels have been dominating in still photos for years but their video has never been on par with iPhone. I'd put my old Pixel 3's still camera up against my iPhone 13 any day (if my Pixel hadn't bricked itself a little out of warranty like all of mine seemed to).
Doesn’t like it
used to be a long time pixel user. I had a pixel 2, 3 and 4a. 1. first one suddenly started bootlooping out of nowhere 2. second one's battery suddenly expanded out of nowhere and couldn't hold a charge more than 10 min 3. thrid one's battery started failing and woudln't turn on unless I plugged it into an external battery bank. Sll 3 times while I was abroad and they are almost IMPOSSIBLE to get repaired. they use all csutom parts so none of teh repair shops were famiilar with them. google wouldn't do a thing till I came back to the united states to get the repairs done. After 3 of these pieces of shit, I switched to an iphone. It just works. I've had zero issues with it and at least apple care won't force me to buy a ticket back to the states just to replace it.