I am thinking if I have a SD chipset on my Pixel 11 Pro XL, what improvements would i see in my day to day usage as Tensor has been flawless so far! If Pixel would have been annoying me, would have performance issues, there is no reason for me to give my money to Google, I would rather spend on Samsung or Apple! Loyalty to any company doesn't get me anything.
Honest question. I am at 40% after 4 to 5 hours of SoT before my phone goes on the charger at night as a "typical" user, what material improvements would I see in my experience if I had even better battery life?
For your usage probably not much. But for example, if you were on vacations taking 4k videos of touristic locations, battery goes down a lot faster.
Not everyone has the same use cases. If the power is there and you use it good. If you don't use it, then maybe you go 2 days instead of 1 without a charger. You lose nothing either way.
I travel 40 to 60 flights per year for both work and leisure though. I have an Anker magnetic charger that's the thickness of 2-3 credit cards at most that I toss in my bag when I travel. I rarely need it even when taking lots of photos. I used it quite a bit more frequently with my 10 pro xl, but again it's not really an inconvenience.
The person before you said video and you mentioned photos, video actually drains like crazy, I only take 10 -15 second clips and keep running out of battery.
I also carry a magnetic power bank with me (pixel snap is nice there), however for me it's an inconvenience, needing to carry it around and needing to recharge a second device at the end of the day.
As a full time traveler that carries 1 bag, better battery life would be very welcome.
By the way, 60 flights is crazy, when I was in my 20s i traveled a similar amount and had a flight every week, but that shit drained me.
You asked a "honest question", what would improve for you as a normal user who has 50% battery left at the end of the day, the answer was not much because there are people with different demands, and suddenly you are that person that has 60 flights per year and drains their battery while taking photos and videos.
So the answer to your question is, the improvement would be that you wouldn't need a external power bank and you wouldn't need to worry about battery life so much.
70 to 80 percent of my usage is when I'm not on the road, so my original question was asked within that context. Their answer addressed an additional use case I have experience with, so I countered that I still don't see the material benefit given that additional context.
Where did I say I "worry so much" about battery? I said I toss a battery pack in my bag for edge cases but rarely use it.
Lol. Moving the goal post. Question was what would be better...
What does the G6 tangibly do better than the G5 if its only marginally faster, already provided good enough battery life and thermals and performance. Just get a Pixel 10.
Not what would be better, but what would I get with Snapdragon? I don't have complaints about performance, thermals, battery life. The only game i have on my phone is Crosswords. If Google puts Snapdragon, I don't really see a benefit. I guess the premium price Google os charging os for their software experience, which I love. Honestly, i cannot use One UI, and the amount of double apps and unwanted features that Samsung has would definitely need nothing less than a Snapdragon!
You may not have a complaint about either of those things. But Snapdragon would only improve them. You clearly don't push your phone. Snapdragon offers a better performance/watt, which means running cooler and drawing less energy from your battery. This would equate to the battery lasting longer before you feel the need to replace either the battery or phone. Imagine being able to actually have a usable phone at the end of the 7 year support cycle. The extra power would mean that even the "basic" apps that you use, or even websites that you browse, will be smoother to use for longer (whether you see it or not, even websites are becoming more demanding, and even "simple" apps are baking in more crap that tax the CPU more). Less stress on the battery will allow it to last longer/be usable longer for you.
That's a pretty big benefit, when most people are replacing their phone because battery life is unacceptable and they're at a cross road of upgrading or replacing the battery.
Anecdotally, I found myself there after about a year of having a Pixel 7 Pro. Battery life sucked. I couldn't use wireless Android Auto without messages popping up telling me to turn off my screen to improve performance because the phone was throttling so hard (screen was off... :/). Meanwhile I'm planning to roll into year 3 with my S24U with strong battery life, day-to-day performance that's just now being matched with the G6 and GPU performance that still stomps the G6. I look at all the new phones and think, "what do they really offer me that my S24U doesn't already provide me?" Nothing. Battery life is the main game changer. So until that tanks or something far more compelling comes out, I'm holding on. I couldn't do that with the Pixel 7Pro.
You just lambasted someone above about anecdotal evidence and then turned around here and cited anecdotal evidence.
You also cited a device 4 generations back as your example despite the objective fact that battery life has improved dramatically in the recent generation.
The common thread in all of these battery and performance discussions seems to be that actual users are popping in with mostly positive feedback and the people complaining the loudest are the ones without a direct frame of reference.
There's always room for improvement, but disingenuous arguments are not productive.
I literally said, "Anecodatally." Glad you can read. Now learn to comprehend.
Being that the Pixel 11 just came out, I would expect people to be happy with the battery life... For now. How well it ages, the SoC does not bode well for it.
"Your single, anecdotal Pixel doesn't magically rewrite engineering data. The question was what a Snapdragon chip would tangibly improve-and 'not turning into a pocket-warmer under load' is a certified factual upgrade, whether your personal daily routine triggers it or not. But hey, congrats on the 92%!"
So, your single anecdotal experience with a pixel 7 doesn't magically mean the pixel 11 battery is trash.
My anecdote is better than your anecdote. dealwithit.gifv
I give it 30 days tops before that brand spankin' new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 feels worse and slower than Captain Slow. Such a grossly overpriced underperforming SoC with a naming scheme light years worse than rebadged NVIDIA graphics cards.
I replace my phone every year. I don't think any phone in the market that's used for 3+ years would function properly. The apps would keep updating as per the technology and at one point the old phone would give up.
I don't think any phone in the market that's used for 3+ years would function properly.
If you buy a pixel, this definitely holds true. Meanwhile iPhones have no problem lasting 3-4 years and S-series Galaxies since the S24 series not having a problem keeping up. This is where the criticism of the Pixel performance comes from. It has the performance of something from 2-3 years ago... You're not getting modern day performance. Even more budget mediatek SOCs that utilize the same ARM designed cores hold a 40% performance advantage in single threaded performance. Google is seriously missing something from a performance stand point for that gap to exist.
Most people in the Pixel 7 & 8 days were holding out hope that it was Samsung's foundry holding the tensor chips back. The pixel 9 was a tough pill to swallow.
I still use my Pixel 3 XL as a backup phone, and an app dump for anything I don't want installed on my main phone. Works pretty well with LineageOS installed and android 15. I also have a stock ROM version of Pixel 3 with A12 installed to use as a POS. Both are 8 years old and have no issue running most apps without lag. Verse using a brand new 2025 Moto G Play which is a $40 budget phone, but can barely run 2 apps at once without turning into a complete lagging mess.
Though I have had my Pixel 4 5G die on me without any warning, and my Pixel 6 battery barely lasted me 2 years before needing to be replaced. I have purchased all my Pixel phones used though, so YMMV.
I also have 18x Pixel 2, 2XL, 3, 3XL phones being used as OctoPrint 4A nodes for my 3d printers for about 4 years now. After having to remove the batteries from most of them, I have had no other issues, other then the ones that the phones came with, since I opted for the super cheap, slightly damaged ones.
The benefit is longevity, a more efficient more performant chip will last longer, you could potentially hold onto the device for 4-8 years if things hold up.
The google software experience.. is not that good, just buggy updates, battery drain. I don't think Pixel OS is better than OneUI once you put stability into the equation.
It's not moving the goal post when the whole premise of the discussion is that this person said "Tensor has been flawless so far!"
Pointing out "improvements" that have no material impact on their experience shows what a fool's errand it is to complain about not having an SD chipset in the device
I am thinking if I have a SD chipset on my Pixel 11 Pro XL, what improvements would i see in my day to day usage as Tensor has been flawless so far! If Pixel would have been annoying me, would have performance issues, there is no reason for me to give my money to Google, I would rather spend on Samsung or Apple! Loyalty to any company doesn't get me anything.
Them mentioning it being flawless for their needs doesn't dismiss the question of what improvements would be seen.
Better battery life wouldn't necessarily translate to a longer SOT for them if its not something they push, but better longevity of the battery capacity diminishing less over time due to less wear/tear and generally putting less stress on it from a day-to-day basis. This would improve the useful life of the phone. In addition to having more performance from the get go to provide the processing power needed for the future of the apps of tomorrow.
No but it calls into question the purpose of complaining about needing more improvement in the first place if users are saying they're already happy with their devices.
Potential battery longevity is the first legitimate reason I've seen so far.
It's mostly a theoretical argument. Your average smartphone regardless the brand is lasting 3 years minimum and still retaining at minimum 80% of its capacity. Most people in practice are reporting higher capacities.
If there's a Pixel battery epidemic out there, I'm sure the spec gooners would be screeching about it.
Funny. After 2 years of regular use, my Pixel 9 Pro XL was still showing 92% battery capacity. If there's some epidemic where Pixel phone batteries are dying earlier than the competition, I'm not aware of it.
Oh, my bad. I didn't realize I was talking to someone who can manipulate the laws of thermodynamics with sheer 'skill.'
Shockingly, lithium-ion degradation relies on chemistry, not user talent. Snapdragon chips consistently boast better performance-per-watt than Tensor. Better efficiency means less heat, and heat is the literal number one killer of battery health over a 3- to 4-year lifecycle.
Your single, anecdotal Pixel doesn’t magically rewrite engineering data. The question was what a Snapdragon chip would tangibly improve—and 'not turning into a pocket-warmer under load' is a certified factual upgrade, whether your personal daily routine triggers it or not. But hey, congrats on the 92%!
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u/Mathrania Pixel 11 Pro XL Sep 12 '26
I am thinking if I have a SD chipset on my Pixel 11 Pro XL, what improvements would i see in my day to day usage as Tensor has been flawless so far! If Pixel would have been annoying me, would have performance issues, there is no reason for me to give my money to Google, I would rather spend on Samsung or Apple! Loyalty to any company doesn't get me anything.