I think the idea with Pixels is you offload your pics and vids to the Google Photos storage, which you get x years of unlimited for free. And presumably stream music.
They are Apple-like prices though, yes. The thing I don't like about the other phones is uncertainty over long-term support for OS updates and security. I think Samsung are usually OK at it (at least for security), I don't know about OnePlus.

It's about 18 months since the launch of my One Plus 3 and it's still getting updates. Not as quick as the Pixels, but still fairly good. Though I doubt it will be updated past 2 years or to whatever the next version of Android is. Currently on 8.0.0 so still a step behind.

OnePlus haven't got much of a track record compared to Samsung (beginning of time) and Pixel (wrote the operating system). They supply a custom distribution of Android, OxygenOS which has reached 5.0.1 (stable) and is based on Android 8.0 Oreo, but this is only on the 3T at present. On the 5T you get 4.7.6 which is Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

I've got the ancient OnePlus 2 which is OK for me. That uses Oxygen 3.6.1 (Android 6.0.1) and I'm not holding my breath for an update soon.

It's hard to tell how good they are at support and updates etc. Users and forums vary between belief that they have found the grail and accusations that OnePlus has ruined their lives by forcing them to buy a poisoned phone. My impression is that they are no better or worse than any supplier. Patches come out every so often and if full updates are slow that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Edit: What he said (points up). I sat there without posting this for an hour or so.

Yeah that's true. I could probably live with 64GB but I've recently put a 64GB SD in my Note and the extra space is nice to have.

I think Samsung still do security updates, but I have a custom ROM so not sure. And non-Samsungy ROMs are always much smoother. Another reason I want to try the Pixel.

I think these days being on the cutting edge of Android itself isn't quite so important, they've unbundled a lot of the apps so you can use them independently. Prompt security updates is maybe a thing though, depending on how worried you might be about malevolent apps and hackers. Sounds like they're probably alright to me.

Early upgrade time is now. Think I'll go for the 2 XL. Might be time to say bye to Samsung.

New phone arrived today. I opened it up and was surprised how small it was compared to my Note 4. Didn't take long for me to work out I'd ordered the Pixel 2 instead of the XL. But surprisingly I like it. The top and bottom bezels are a little big but I'm actually liking having a smaller screen :O

It's super duper quick and the camera is amazing. And I don't have to worry about having a dodgy LG OLED screen that comes on the XL.

Oh man, this phone is awesome. Even though it's tiny with its 5" screen. But after updating to 8.1 and Google giving me the AR Core and Stickers, I now have storm troopers and a demogorgon in my kitchen.

https://youtu.be/gFUWRrd5MF4
https://youtu.be/XpEM-Y-ORbg
https://youtu.be/ihVTDfq9P6A

5 inch screen is tiny? My old HTC Desire was about 3.7" :|

Just checked my curent phone (Xperia XZ Premium) and that's 5.46" and is verging on 'too big' (NJ).

You should film an X-wing from a moving car (as the passenger, obv) so that it flies along.

It is these days with most being at least 5.5", and then the smaller ones are usually low spec ones. I still have my Desire and apart from being slow I still like it.

Worth a try, although it likes to have a static surface to work on. Not sure if it will work when moving like that.

I wasn't happy about going to the 5.5" One Plus 3. It's too big for my hands :C

I still remember the first time I saw a Samsung Galaxy Note in the wild. I thought it looked truly ridiculous. It had a 5.3" screen.

People used to think I was crazy buying phones as big as 3.8" :O When I went to my Note 2 with a 5.5" screen everyone thought I was MAD. Except one girl in a house where I was fitting a kitchen who thought it was cool. And 5.7", craziness.

I was expecting to go to a larger 6" (NJ) but this 5" screen is actually much easier to hold and use.

And this is the first phone I actually don't want to root. Except one thing: ads. Is there a way to remove them without rooting?

AdBlock for Android. A bit of a kludge but it (mostly) does the job.

Is that AdBlock Plus that does proxy stuff? That is work with mobile data?

Yeah it works by proxy, don't know about mobile data I only use it with wifi.

If it works by acting as a local proxy it should block anything before it leaves the phone, and thus not count towards data usage.

Or just use uBlock Origin which is almost certainly better.

So. Phones.

Lost mine last week, just picked up a replacement at 7-11 store down the street from work for $44 (FiGO Ultra), a 5" with android 6 and ips display, actually quite an upgrade from the Blu Advance 4 it replaces. Getting through to customer service to port over the number (same provider) was a real bitch though, but I was able to keep the airtime in my account.

I bought a OnePlus 6. It is nice, but slightly more than $44

I bought a Pixel 2 XL. Got a 'pristine' refurb for £380. The mic didn't work on calls! So I contacted Google and they sent me a brand new retail boxed one as it was still in warranty. That was a bit of a result :)