For fun today I booted up my Pixel 3 XL and it works just fine. It was slow at first, probably as it synced a bunch of stuff, but after that it was about as snappy and useful as I remember it. Everything still works. I used that for 3 years before the Pixel 6 Pro. Before that I had a Pixel XL for 3 years. I still have that phone too in my device collection. I'm getting the Pixel 8 not because the 6 Pro has any problems (personally I've had none), but rather because I have a bit more disposable income to spend on tech and I'm excited about a phone with a 7 year software support window (with incidental coverage to support 5 years of accidental damage). If all goes well, I hope to take advantage of more than 3 years of that, assuming some insane new development doesn't happen in the interim.
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My Pixel XL here works great for scrolling at night. I'm skeptical of the "no more system updates" boogeyman; I'd love some case studies or anecdotes about the real-world threats that using an old devices exposes me to.
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I had one of those too - quite liked it. I think I got that one after I stopped using a nexus 4. I had a temp samsung galaxy s9 for about 6 months that I hated and then ended up getting a pixel XL and have only really had pixel phones since (pixel XL, pixel 3a XL, pixel 6a). I do miss the slidy keyboards on my old HTC phones - I think the first keyboard slider I got was an HTC Touch Pro still running windows mobile 6 because android wasn't a real thing then. That one required so much fiddling and rom stuff that LineageOS would have seemed like a beautiful dream.
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I wouldn't say the pixel 4 is better. My Pixel XL still works great and has unlimited google photos upload. All pixels afterwards have a time limited google photo upload (photos can only live there for so long before counting against your data limit). My Pixel 3 has been a PoS since I got it and only gotten worse over time. For example after a software update the usb-c port is no longer reversible, it only charges if cable is inserted in specific direction. I hear pixel 4 has similar Quality issues as pixel 3.
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Same here. I gave up 2 years ago and went Fedora on my laptop and Android on my phones. Currently I have a Thinkpad X1 Carbon running Fedora 25 (Gnome 3) and do not miss OS X at all. Gnome 3 is very clean. I have a Google Pixel XL. All I can say about it is wow
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As a counter data point, my Pixel XL's speakers started malfunctioning about 3 weeks after I bought it. I called customer support, waited on hold for about 10 minutes, went through a series of debugging steps with the guy on the phone ("Have you tried restarting the device?"), and then they shipped me a replacement for free. Also important to realize that the denominator matters. Seeing a murder on TV every day doesn't necessarily mean that the world is in chaos. And seeing a couple of anecdotes about an issue doesn't necessarily mean it's widespread. That said, if I were the OP I'd be pissed and blogging about it, too.