Curious, does anyone have faith in Google doing the right thing with Pixel? Or do you think they will always be a year behind in what is considered the "standard"?
I haven't trusted a Google branded phone since the Nexus 6P. Honestly, nothing that Google produced since they stopped using more competent phone companies has been even remotely good. To be fair, the Nexus 5X was a disaster, too.
But aside from obvious hardware issues. Not a single Pixel phone has had a worldwide release yet, which given it's on its 4th version now, is ridiculous. Then there's the features like auto-call answering which are gimmicky, but also US exclusive so pointless. Then there's the comically bad battery life. The almost retro design with huge bezels and huge notches for no reason. The only real advantage they have over a bunch of the competition is the camera software, which have workarounds and really, it's not like there aren't other better phones with camera's that are equally as good.
There's just no reason to get a Pixel phone, not for that price.
-edit: On a personal note, After my HTC Universal broke it's screen in my pocket after less than two weeks of use (on my "fixed" device that had a non-functioning sim tray out of the box). I vowed to never purchase anything HTC made ever again, so that doesn't help sell me on Pixel's either. I broke that promise to myself exactly once though, for the Nexus 9, ironically. It overheated, slowed to a crawl, was poorly build. The worst tablet I've ever owned.