More memory, faster CPU, better GPU, and most important to me - best camera on the market.

The Oneplus 3 is four times the size, the firmware running on it tends to be buggy, and the battery life is nothing close to the same.

I get it - if you're on a budget you can probably do better with the Oneplus 3. But there are a MILLION options in the budget space. Pixel is about showcasing a high end Android phone WITHOUT all the bloat that Samsung adds. I can just about guarantee if Samsung would relent and just run stock android, Google would end the nexus/Pixel program overnight.

It has 2GB less ram, and the same processor (slightly higher clock speed) and same gpu, vs the oneplus 3

> the same processor (slightly higher clock speed)

So... not the same. Also the GPU is faster too.

I'll agree with you that it's silly that they're still trying to pass a 1080p screen and lack of SD card as high end though.

The phone vendor always sets the frequency the snapdragon processors run at - some vendors choose to run their processors at higher clock speeds than others because they have better cooling, some get a better binning, but it's the same processor.

That's my problem with the phone - premium price but not premium feature set.

Flagship SoC (SD821 vs SD808) and a metal body are the main things that make it worth the price to me.

yeah, i understand that it's better than the $300 nexus 5X that's a year old. that goes without saying.

but since the Nexus 5X was released, there's been a bunch of metal bodied phones with the SD820 released that only cost $399 - the oneplus 3, zte axon, honor 5x, xaoimi mi5... and there's nothing to differentiate the pixel from those phones, other than a 40% higher price.

Oneplus 3 not available on verizon

That's a problem for you, not for most people; therefore not google's problem.

Verizon has 140 million subscribers in the US, or about 35% market share. So you're right, that's not most people.

4GB RAM