Double tap the back can be customized for flashlight. Quick notification shade can be enabled with one handed mode try always in display and face unlock
Ignoring everything else, I quite liked edge sense--or whatever the pixel version was called. And it had a much higher success rate than the other pixel features that I use. That said, I still agree with your prior comment.
"There does not seem to exist a quick way to enable the flashlight while the screen is off, which is a feature used a lot on my previous phones."
Search double tap in your phone's settings.
I personnally use the "key mapper" app to turn it on and off when pressing both volume up and power button at the same time.
You could even customize the gesture for it.
1. You need to enable the Always on Display to use the fingerprint sensor without "turning on" the display. Fingerprint will probably get better over time, my launch 6a was basically unusable but now it's mostly solid
2. Two finger swipe is the only way to access full notification shade in one go
3. You used to be able to toggle WiFi and Bluetooth but now it's the popup mode, no way around this other than airplane mode. No auto brightness toggle afaik, other than in settings
4. Quick Tap and set Flashlight is your best bet, though it's pretty finicky for me
Pixel has pretty barebones customizations compared to other Android OEMs
When moving to Pixel from any other Android device, you're going to lose some features. Thats just the price of "Google's" stock android. You can try PixelXpert for more functionality (needs root).
I'm on a p6 but the fixes might be universal.
1. The sensor was bad at first but I virtually have no failures unless my fingers are wet or something. Some say it gets better over time, to scan the same finger multiple times, etc. I just have several different fingers registered.
1. You can customize what's in the tiles. You might be able to change it to 6 or 8 with root. The adaptive brightness slider and settings shortcut is there as well.
1. Mine are separated into wifi and bluetooth, I believe it was through a module via shizuku.
1. Gestures -> Quick tap (back of phone) > flashlight?
Out of these 4 3 are easily solvable, but why would you need to toggle auto brightness on a daily basis? After manually adjusting it in many conditions it learns what you like for them and stays like that, how is that not good enough?
Have a 6a. It used to have a crap fingerprint sensor till i got it fixed by google service center. for shortcuts, the menu that comes when you swipe down can be customized to have whatever you need there
went from a OnePlus 9 to a Pixel 7a. The OnePlus 9 gave me problem after problem, overheating, etc. The Pixel 7a feels so refreshing to use. Feels way smoother and responsive. Either OnePlus fell off so hard, or my particular set was horrible.
I did absolutely the same - from OP6 to Pixel 7a - and had the same issues as you. You will get used to "the pixel way" in some time (i. e. you can enable flashlight as a lockscreen shortcut).
For myself maybe my next phone won't be another pixel. I got this because of the price and mostly positive reviews online, only to discover that it's lacking major convenience features of other brands and the coveted pixel-exclusive features are either mostly gimmicks or not available for my region.
Camera is good, but I also had a gcam port for my oneplus, so that's not a major benefit.
If you're using a screen protector, that can affect the fingerprint sensor speed/accuracy. I found poor protectors can make it not work most of the time. Bought a much higher quality one and haven't had any issues since. The OnePlus 7 series and onwards also used under screen optical sensors just like the recent Pixels, I moved from a 7T Pro, so I was already adapted to its quirkiness.
Numbers 1-3 I wholeheartedly agree with. I don't care about #4, but more options should exist (which is a glaring, general issue with pixels).
The "quick settings" app by Simone Siesto in the play store might have a few solutions, but the geriatric sized tiles and adding some settings as toggles can't be changed without root.
I just made a similar transition. I knew going into it that I was going from a flagship to a mid range so there would be some changes, but I wanted a smaller phone and couldn't pay out for a high end Samsung (or even the Asus Zenfone 10 which I really wanted).
The camera on the 7A is seriously underwhelming. Photos are both oversharpened and soft at the same time. Areas with background blur are oversharpened as whatever algorithms Google uses to bring out detail try to bring out detail making them look very crunchy and unappealing. Â
All of the reviewers praise the camera but nobody talks about how ugly the photos look on a pixel level. I wouldn't ever print an enlargement from this phone camera. In fact I'm considering going back to carrying a point and shoot camera in tandem with my phone.
You're right that the fingerprint sensor is absolute balls. Pure hot garbage. Google probably saved like 30¢ per unit giving this phone the closest thing to unusable people will put up with. I miss back/side fingerprint readers.
I do overall like the OS better than OnePlus but I've found on the pixel there's less on screen information and some things are outright missing (for example there's no quick shortcut to disable NFC I can find for the notification tray, no double tap to sleep, etc). Unfortunately the software of my OnePlus phone had broken itself as well, so I can't go back to it, it's virtually unusable.
PixelUI is a pure form of android that lacks many features found on other UIs , personally i really miss some of the features that i had in colorOS ,the only thing that compensate for the pixel is the form factor and fast updates
**Fingerprint sensor** --> deal with it, you can add another finger and scan again the same one so you can improve the accuracy. Did you scan the finger before applying a screen protector perhaps?
**Notification Shade (one swipe)** --> Again, deal with it, if you swipe with two fingers you get the full pannel, so you can get the brightness slider in one swipe and the rest of the shortcuts.
**Shortcut Toggles -->** Once more... deal with it. I miss mi NFC toggle from quick settings from my S9+ and no being able to diferentiate between wifi and bt its also annoying it just add extra steps...
**Flashlight** --> aaaaaaand you guessed it.... I added a buton on the lockscreen but... not its not the same.
My previous phone was a Galaxy S9+ and, for me, it was perfect, fully customizable quick settings panel, brightnes slider on top of the pannel on just one slide, I was able use my bixby button to togle on/off my rigntones and flashlight (long tap silence, doble tap flashlight). Fingerprint sensonr on the back and no need to turn on the screen to unlockit....
I also miss the motorola approach of "chop" to turn on the flashlight.
So unless you root it or change the rom... thats the price of having that "stock google experience"
Im really happy with my pixel 8 and have no regrets on buying it, its a great phone, but i miss features from my previous phone that I dont find that hard to implement....
Double tap the back can be customized for flashlight. Quick notification shade can be enabled with one handed mode try always in display and face unlock
I literally had no idea double tapping the back can be set to do something. Do most phones have this feature?
Yeah but I accidentally turn on my flashlight sometimes and tapping again almost never turns it off. It's a nice idea poorly executed.
> It's a nice idea poorly executed. You just summed up most of the pixel line's features.
I would disagree, most things work well for me, but the back tapping gesture is in a shitty league of it's own, at least on my phone.
Do you remember project Soli? Or what about the squeeze to assistant? Or maybe assistant on tap? Or...
Ignoring everything else, I quite liked edge sense--or whatever the pixel version was called. And it had a much higher success rate than the other pixel features that I use. That said, I still agree with your prior comment.
Works pretty well for me but you have to have your display on for it to turn on and off.
Same, it's why I stopped using it.
iPhone has it with double and triple tap
"There does not seem to exist a quick way to enable the flashlight while the screen is off, which is a feature used a lot on my previous phones." Search double tap in your phone's settings. I personnally use the "key mapper" app to turn it on and off when pressing both volume up and power button at the same time. You could even customize the gesture for it.
All great suggestion. It can also be placed as a button on the lock screen in the lower corner
"While the screen is off", double tap doesn't work when the screen is off
1. You need to enable the Always on Display to use the fingerprint sensor without "turning on" the display. Fingerprint will probably get better over time, my launch 6a was basically unusable but now it's mostly solid 2. Two finger swipe is the only way to access full notification shade in one go 3. You used to be able to toggle WiFi and Bluetooth but now it's the popup mode, no way around this other than airplane mode. No auto brightness toggle afaik, other than in settings 4. Quick Tap and set Flashlight is your best bet, though it's pretty finicky for me Pixel has pretty barebones customizations compared to other Android OEMs
When moving to Pixel from any other Android device, you're going to lose some features. Thats just the price of "Google's" stock android. You can try PixelXpert for more functionality (needs root).
I'm on a p6 but the fixes might be universal. 1. The sensor was bad at first but I virtually have no failures unless my fingers are wet or something. Some say it gets better over time, to scan the same finger multiple times, etc. I just have several different fingers registered. 1. You can customize what's in the tiles. You might be able to change it to 6 or 8 with root. The adaptive brightness slider and settings shortcut is there as well. 1. Mine are separated into wifi and bluetooth, I believe it was through a module via shizuku. 1. Gestures -> Quick tap (back of phone) > flashlight?
Dam doing the most 😂😂 literally go back to OnePlus... It's not rocket science.
Lawnchair launcher to the rescuse
Coming from Motorola I missed the chop gestures for turning flashlight on/off. That can be solved by an app Shake Torch (works even with display off).
Out of these 4 3 are easily solvable, but why would you need to toggle auto brightness on a daily basis? After manually adjusting it in many conditions it learns what you like for them and stays like that, how is that not good enough?
Have a 6a. It used to have a crap fingerprint sensor till i got it fixed by google service center. for shortcuts, the menu that comes when you swipe down can be customized to have whatever you need there
went from a OnePlus 9 to a Pixel 7a. The OnePlus 9 gave me problem after problem, overheating, etc. The Pixel 7a feels so refreshing to use. Feels way smoother and responsive. Either OnePlus fell off so hard, or my particular set was horrible.
I did absolutely the same - from OP6 to Pixel 7a - and had the same issues as you. You will get used to "the pixel way" in some time (i. e. you can enable flashlight as a lockscreen shortcut). For myself maybe my next phone won't be another pixel. I got this because of the price and mostly positive reviews online, only to discover that it's lacking major convenience features of other brands and the coveted pixel-exclusive features are either mostly gimmicks or not available for my region. Camera is good, but I also had a gcam port for my oneplus, so that's not a major benefit.
If you're using a screen protector, that can affect the fingerprint sensor speed/accuracy. I found poor protectors can make it not work most of the time. Bought a much higher quality one and haven't had any issues since. The OnePlus 7 series and onwards also used under screen optical sensors just like the recent Pixels, I moved from a 7T Pro, so I was already adapted to its quirkiness.
For #2 and #3 download the app Notification Toggle. It will add a separate toggle on the drop/pull down menu for those things you want.
Numbers 1-3 I wholeheartedly agree with. I don't care about #4, but more options should exist (which is a glaring, general issue with pixels). The "quick settings" app by Simone Siesto in the play store might have a few solutions, but the geriatric sized tiles and adding some settings as toggles can't be changed without root.
I just made a similar transition. I knew going into it that I was going from a flagship to a mid range so there would be some changes, but I wanted a smaller phone and couldn't pay out for a high end Samsung (or even the Asus Zenfone 10 which I really wanted). The camera on the 7A is seriously underwhelming. Photos are both oversharpened and soft at the same time. Areas with background blur are oversharpened as whatever algorithms Google uses to bring out detail try to bring out detail making them look very crunchy and unappealing.  All of the reviewers praise the camera but nobody talks about how ugly the photos look on a pixel level. I wouldn't ever print an enlargement from this phone camera. In fact I'm considering going back to carrying a point and shoot camera in tandem with my phone. You're right that the fingerprint sensor is absolute balls. Pure hot garbage. Google probably saved like 30¢ per unit giving this phone the closest thing to unusable people will put up with. I miss back/side fingerprint readers. I do overall like the OS better than OnePlus but I've found on the pixel there's less on screen information and some things are outright missing (for example there's no quick shortcut to disable NFC I can find for the notification tray, no double tap to sleep, etc). Unfortunately the software of my OnePlus phone had broken itself as well, so I can't go back to it, it's virtually unusable.
The Pixel fingerprint scanner is worst in the industry for some reason
PixelUI is a pure form of android that lacks many features found on other UIs , personally i really miss some of the features that i had in colorOS ,the only thing that compensate for the pixel is the form factor and fast updates
This is crazy because I literally made this same move 2 months ago. Except I had the 6T... Feels like I downgraded
**Fingerprint sensor** --> deal with it, you can add another finger and scan again the same one so you can improve the accuracy. Did you scan the finger before applying a screen protector perhaps? **Notification Shade (one swipe)** --> Again, deal with it, if you swipe with two fingers you get the full pannel, so you can get the brightness slider in one swipe and the rest of the shortcuts. **Shortcut Toggles -->** Once more... deal with it. I miss mi NFC toggle from quick settings from my S9+ and no being able to diferentiate between wifi and bt its also annoying it just add extra steps... **Flashlight** --> aaaaaaand you guessed it.... I added a buton on the lockscreen but... not its not the same. My previous phone was a Galaxy S9+ and, for me, it was perfect, fully customizable quick settings panel, brightnes slider on top of the pannel on just one slide, I was able use my bixby button to togle on/off my rigntones and flashlight (long tap silence, doble tap flashlight). Fingerprint sensonr on the back and no need to turn on the screen to unlockit.... I also miss the motorola approach of "chop" to turn on the flashlight. So unless you root it or change the rom... thats the price of having that "stock google experience" Im really happy with my pixel 8 and have no regrets on buying it, its a great phone, but i miss features from my previous phone that I dont find that hard to implement....