One thing My Pixel 9 Doesn't Do That I Miss

A little over a year ago, I upgraded my phone from the old Note 20 to a Pixel 9 Pro XL. I don’t miss all the Samsung crap that is installed, and I never used the pen. The only reason I bought that phone was because of the larger screen.

It served me well for years until the charging port started getting wonky. That was really the only reason I upgraded. I thought about getting it fixed, but I knew Samsung was going to stop security updates this year, so I bought the Pixel. In almost every way to me, that phone was better. There weren’t all the preinstalled Samsung copies of stuff and the other bloatware Samsung adds.

The camera is worlds better, I think, but it’s generations ahead, so it should be. The one thing I noticed quickly, though, is it doesn’t do so well zooming in on closer things. Being visually impaired, at some point I learned with the old Note 20 that I could use my phone as a tool to read things. I used it countless times to look at menus. That is a lot quicker than using my magnifier, but the magnifier is fine for that too.

One place we went to in Florida had less-than-ideal lighting, so I couldn’t really read the menu there, but it worked out.

The place that I really learned to find it helpful is looking at items on display in a store. They’re too big to actually use the magnifier or the monocular. Particularly, it was useful on price tags.

The other day my girlfriend got a new Samsung phone, so I checked out the camera. Guess what? It worked as the old one did with being able to use it to read things and such. I guess the fact that doing that is what I tried is really telling of how much I missed that. Until then I didn’t have the upgrade bug at all.

I guess I will keep an eye on Swappa. Prices are very high there still. Another option is to keep an eye on 4 of July sales and stuff and go from there. I hate to spend on it considering my Pixel is fine aside from that one little thing that turned out to be very useful to me.

I think maybe the newer version of the Pixel might be able to do that too, but I have no way of testing it. I miss the days when stores like Best Buy might have more of a variety. Now they basically have Samsung and Apple and a few cheap ones, possibly.

I am not planning on upgrading, but usually when I get these thoughts in my head, it happens pretty quickly. My Pixel is new enough at least that it seems like it could be worth trading in for a discount. Sometimes I hate being so cheap.

Every so often I wish the cheaper Chinese ones were more available and usable here. Don’t get me started on the power that be hiding behind security because Google makes a business out of tracking. If you think that’s not being sold to the government, I have a bridge to sell to you. I don’t know what the quality of them is, but competition is always a good thing.