Pixels are like Pringles: Once you pop, you can’t stop

Why do we buy the phones we do? Allure of the latest hardware and features? Smartphone manufacturers may want to believe that shoppers are malleable, and they’re just one big, flashy press event away from dazzling all those undecided minds and winning their sales. But is the truth a whole lot more cynical than that, and have many of us already made our minds up about our next phone long before it even debuts? With this week’s Pixel 9 launch, we’ve been thinking about brand loyalty, and why we end up choosing one smartphone over another.

Senior Features Editor Rita El Khoury shared the legacy of how Pixel got its hooks in her, starting years ago back with the Pixel 2 XL, and never really letting up. For El Khoury, the initial appeal was practical — smartphone journalists need to try out lots of different phones, and interest in Pixels was starting to take off. But then year after year, Pixel after Pixel, she found herself looking forward to the next generation in a way that transcended the needs of her job — she was becoming a proper fan.

A big part of that appeal, to hear her put it, has been how truly useful Pixel features have proven themselves to be, whether they’re shielding her from spam calls, or making note-taking during a meeting a breeze. Compared to what we get from Google with Pixel models, efforts from other companies have felt more like gimmicks in comparison. Camera performance also emerged as a big draw, with El Khoury even noting that Pixel phones have turned her into a better photographer.

But what about you? Have you similarly heard the siren’s song of Google? Is your Pixel 9 pre-order already in? And what number Pixel will this be for you? We wanted to know:

How many different Pixel phone models have you owned?

With over 10,000 votes in, it is clear we have some serious Pixel loyalists in the house, and the largest share of you are already on your second or third. Considering how well-supported all these models are in software, even someone who has only gone through three Pixel phones could still have been a user going back to early generations of the hardware — these are not phones you need to replace every year.

While a sizeable fraction of poll participants are Pixel newbies, you may find yourself sticking with Google for quite a while, because even more of you are on your fourth or fifth. The numbers start dropping off pretty quick after that for the die-hards who’ve collected six or more Pixel models, but that’s still an impressively large share of users who are so committed to the brand.

Looking into the comments left on our poll, readers share some of their thoughts on why they buy Pixels. Unsurprisingly, photography pops up quite a bit, as does the appeal of Google’s clean, intuitive interface. We’ve even got some of you buying Pixel phones specifically because they’re supported by third-party custom ROM projects. But we also see trends emerging from the nay-sayers, and reliability took some hits following Google’s move to Tensor silicon. With a production change expected for the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 that could go a long way to building back that trust, maybe even some of those voices will soon find themselves considering a Pixel phone again.