Cameras are no longer the main reason I choose a Pixel; this is

I bought my first Pixel, the 2 XL, in 2017, and I fell in love with it, so I’ve had nearly every major Pixel phone since then (I only skipped the Pixel 3 series). However, my reasons for choosing a Pixel have slowly morphed over the years.

At first, a Pixel was my gateway into early Android betas and releases. It was also a purchase of necessity: this was the Android phone my job required me to have if I wanted to remain employed and stay on top of what Google was doing. Then, a Pixel became synonymous with exclusive smart features that Google wouldn’t release for any other phone. It was the best way to benefit from unique options like At A Glance, Now Playing, and the dozens of call-enhancing features.

Finally, it was the camera that won me over. Excellent night shots before other brands did that, astrophotography before anyone else copied it, and great zoom shots that came in handy at every sports game, concert, or during years of frequent travel; the Pixel camera has been tremendous through it all. I’ve taken stunning photos with my Pixel phones over the years — thousands and thousands of perfect snaps that made me fall in love over and over again with the Pixel camera.

Lately, though, it’s not that great camera, the Pixel-exclusive features, or the early Android 16 beta that have kept me firmly on Team Pixel. No, the reason is much less sexy to talk about, but it’s safety.

Safety was clearly the least of my concerns when I was 34 years old and tandem-paragliding in Pokhara with a Nepalese guide who’d clearly had a few too many puffs from a fun cig. But things slowly shift in your mindset as you approach 40, whether you want to or not. At first, it’s a sudden, fleeting fear of altitude when walking the Dolni Morava suspended bridge in high winds. Then it’s a creeping thought of “maybe I shouldn’t be hiking alone on the coast of the Agriates Desert, where any ambulance would need to drive for one hour on a rocky path to get to me.” Adventures that used to appeal to my careless young adult version now make me pause a bit to consider if they’re worth doing. I still do them, mind you, but very cautiously.

Age is one part of the equation; losses are another. The longer you live, the more people you love, the more people you lose. That’s life in a nutshell. I know bitter truths are not what you came to read here at Android Authority on a weekend, but I’m going through a major loss now, and, well, yes, safety is on my mind. A lot.

When I put this and that together, I realized that the features that have most impressed me — even excited me! — in the Pixel line-up in recent times have been tied to safety. I know they’re boring and that this is usually the part of the press conference or blog announcement where we all zone out or scroll past, but this is the real life-changing stuff right there!

My life won’t change if I can zoom to 4x or 5x, if there’s a bit less noise on that photo than the other phone’s photo, or if I can snap a better macro or not. I had a lot of fun testing the Pixel 9’s new Add Me mode and I love the better panorama mode, but did they make my life significantly better? No. Car crash detection, though? Oh, sign me up. I want that running on every phone I own. Loss of heart rate detection on the Pixel Watch 3? Yes, a thousand times, yes! If my phone or watch can call emergency services and save me or the people I love from a silly, silly death, then I’ll take that a million times over a slightly faster processor, better zoom, or some good photo filters.

And look, I don’t want to use any of these safety features. I haven’t needed them, and I don’t want to ever need them, either. But I’m so glad they are there because safety and health, as you slowly realize with time, are the most abstract but also most valuable things you could ever have.

I’ve racked my brain trying to think of other phones that treat safety as a first-class citizen in their feature set, but I can’t. Apple’s iPhones come close with their safety check, emergency SOS, and car crash detection, but there really isn’t any other phone that regards safety as highly as Google’s Pixel phones do. For me, this includes both physical and digital safety.

Pixels today have a big suite of features and services that I can trust with my budding paranoia and extra heaps of cautiousness. Like other Android phones, they alert me of a crisis or an earthquake, offer safety checks with timed check-ins when I’m out alone, and can trigger an emergency call and share with a quintuple tap on the power button. But they go a step beyond by bringing in car crash detection, which Google has yet to offer to non-Pixel Android phones. I love that this feature is running in the background and could technically save me, whether I’m riding the subway, a high-speed train, or driving a car.

Pixels are also some of the few phones (along with recent Samsung Galaxy S models) that offer emergency satellite messaging in Europe. Given my tendency to go on hikes and adventures in the middle of nowhere, this provides a bit of extra peace of mind.

On the digital side, I’ve come to appreciate even more of the Pixel’s features. I turn on the free VPN by Google every time I’m in an area with bad reception and need to connect to the local Wi-Fi network. I use Private Space to hide sensitive apps and quarantine privacy-hogging apps. I always keep Theft detection enabled to lock my phone in case it gets snatched from me and stop thieves from stealing my personal data. I rely on the Pixel’s spam and phishing detection to keep bad callers and messages away. I also have Find My Device enabled to locate my phone even if it’s been turned off and send the command to erase it.

Some of these features may not be completely exclusive to the Pixel line-up, but when you add up all the Pixel-only features to the rest, the tally certainly tells a positive story for Google’s phones.

It’s quite clear that I highly regard safety in my phone decision today, but would I pick it above all else? Not really — not yet, anyway. If you packed all of the Pixel’s safety options in a big, bulky, and slow phone with a bad camera and an outdated Android experience, I wouldn’t choose it. I need my phone to be functional and provide a good overall experience. All other things equal — or semi-equal — though? Yes, I would definitely privilege these extra safety features.

Even the Tensor processor, one of the biggest weaknesses we highlight in the Pixel line-up year in and year out, isn’t a dealbreaker for me. Phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm’s latest and best chip, are faster, more powerful, and more efficient, with longer battery life, while the Tensor G4 on the Pixel 9 series feels antiquated in comparison. I couldn’t care less, though.

Phones have come such a long way now that a slightly faster processor won’t make much of a difference in my daily life. Other factors, such as software experiences, camera performance, and AI benefits matter more to me. But there, again, most of today’s flagships are on rather equal footing. So, with all other things being nearly equal, I’m picking the Pixel for its extra dose of safety options and hoping I never need them. I still like the camera, too, of course; these three concert photos I recently snapped a chef’s kiss.