I had a few phones before my first pixel and always struggled to run apps - there wasn’t much space in those days, or much in the way of processor or memory.

I think my first Pixel was in the 2 era. I remember my wife or I had a 3 - and I think it was a 3a at that, but I don’t care THAT much to remember too precisely.

I know after that I had a 4a, then a 6a, just because that’s when I needed to replace phones because the battery was starting to get annoying, or in the case of the 6a, the charge port was blocked and it didn’t have wireless charging, and financing though Fi was a better deal than trying to fix the phone.

I’ve had an 8a for over a year so far.

All of the Pixels have been good for me. I consider battery to be a normal thing - I preferred the old days with removable batteries, but this is the current life we have, so whatever.

I can’t afford to buy bleeding edge, but I like my pixels. They don’t feel bloated to me, and I’ve been able to easily disable the behaviours I don’t like, which aren’t many.

I do appreciate the camera.

When it’s time to replace this one… I’ll see what the cheaper pixel looks like and it will quite possibly be what I go with. My phone does everything I want from it. Maybe it gets a little warm while taking video or doing things that can eat battery when it gets warm, but 99% of the time, it lasts all day, does whatever I need it to - just fine.