Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Full Pixel ecosystem for UNDER $1,000?! | Google Pixel CHALLENGE!”.
This is my Google ecosystem phone watch, headphones audio chomecast and if I told you you could get all of this for under $ 1,000, I think a lot of people would be interested before we start, though, if you like the latest and greatest from Android and Android Authority is the place to be so make sure you subscribe to the website. So you don’t miss out on anything that we upload – let’s just say, right off the bat here that this is not going to be the latest and greatest. So it might not be for the biggest Tech Enthusiast we’re not going to see a pixel 8 Pro here or maybe even a pixel tablet, because they are just too expensive and we’ve got $ 1,000 budget. And if we get any of them, it will just blow that budget right out the water. So we want to get as much as possible for as little money, I’m also not going to say, go and get something like a Google pixel 5, because that is really not worth using every single day.
I have a couple of caveats for this Challenge and the caveats are a the stuff that we buy has to be supported for at least another 2 years, and it has to not feel like you’re compromising on getting the latest and greatest from Google. In terms of features and to try and get all of this for under that $ 1,000 budget, secondhand is going to be our best friend here. So looking at the likes of eBay, let’s start at the heart of any ecosystem that you’ll use every single day, and that is the phone when you think about a budget phone from Google. Your first thoughts turn to the pixel 7A, which is the cheapest available phone.
At the moment – and I think that this actually is a really good starting place for our ecosystem. The reason for this is It’s only around about a year old and with that latest pixel drop. It brings features like Circle to search to the 7A, which is brand new on the new Google pixel 8. It has a really good size display as well, it’s 6.1 in and it’s also 90 HZ. So it feels like you really are missing out massively from getting one of the latest and greatest from Google. There was some thoughts in this challenge of getting maybe a cheap, secondhand, pixel, 8 or maybe pixel 7 Pro. But again we want to try and get as much for as little as possible, so the 78 seems like a really good, solid place to start. Another reason for this is it has a slick always on display, and it has some really decent cameras with a 64 map Main and a 30 map Ultra wide, and I mean these stack up really well against the likes of the pixel 7 and the pixel 8.
There are a few compromises when you go and have a look at that 7A. For example, the battery isn’t the best battery in the world and its bezels are a little bit thick for 2024. But I mean these are compromises that I think we can live with. And if you have a look here at some of the prices that you can get one of these for and just going through this – I found one here for about $ 250 or so condition seems quite good. That’S something you just need to check, but, okay, let’s do this, let’s go with the pixel 7A, so that’s $ 250 out of that $ 1,000 budget that we had to start with so phone secured and what’s next, if you get your phone, you need to get Some headphones as well and again, there’s a couple of options you can think of for your budget ecosystem. Here.
You’Ve got two choices, which is the pixelbuds a or the pixelbuds pro, and I want to go pixelbuds pro here because of that noise, cancellation and all all around they’re just a much better experience, and we want a good experience for under $ 11,000. Even though the pixel buds a are much cheaper, I just think you’re going to get a far better experience when you get the pixelbuds pro. So if we have a look at how much these are going for, you can see that they’re going from between $ 7 and $ 130 as we’re going through eBay and if you’ve never used these before. I have to say that they are fantastic, that comfortable. The active noise cancellation is really good and if you haven’t ever tried, noise cancellation headphones before. This is something that, as soon as you try them, you won’t be able to go back to just regular headphones and they last up to 11 hours of listening as well, and they’ve got wireless charging, which makes them even better and the pixel buds a don’t have That wireless charging – and they only have around about 5 hours of listening time when they’re outside of that case so going through, I think $ 100 here – is not a bad option for getting some pixel buds Pro. So let’s get that in the bag as well. So now what we’ve got is a pixel 7A and the pixelbuds pro and so far we’re only 350 into that Google pixel budget ecosystem, but there’s something else.
I think you need to elevate that ecosystem a little bit more, and that is a watch again. You have a couple of options here. You could go with something like the Fitbit scent too, but I think that the best option is just a pixel watch, so pixel watch one or the pixel Watch 2 and there aren’t loads of differences either between both of these pixel watches they’re, both the same size, Essentially, they’re the same design as well, and a lot of the features that you get on: Pixel watch 2. You actually do get on Pixel watch one and you’re not missing out on too much that you don’t get.
A lot of the things that you will miss out on are things like skin temperature, sensing stress notifications and a few other similar features, but nothing that stands out massively. If you look at the price secondhand between both of these, this is probably going to be. The biggest Crux from stopping is getting that pixel Watch 2, because this is about a $ 100 difference here and obviously, if money wasn’t an issue, then we would get the pixel Watch 2, but we do want to try and get as much for as little as Possible so let’s have a look at the pixel watch, one I actually love pixel watch and as we’re going through looking at the prices, you might think. Oh, maybe I don’t need a pixel watch here, but it’s something you could live without, but once you get it, it ties you into an ecosystem. You can unlock your phone. You have map navigation on the watch and you’re able to just use the Google Wallet without getting your phone out, so it becomes so convenient and once you’ve used it, I feel like you can’t go back, and this is what starts to tie the ecosystem all together And when you look at the price for the pixel watch, one, it ranges from maybe 100 to $ 50, but I’ve got this one for $ 15.
So let’s get that in the bag and we have got it secured. So now we have a pixel 7A for $ 250, your pixel buds Pro for $ 100 and pixel watch first gen for $ 125, which gives us $ 525 left and we could just stop there and that actually is a really good intro to the Google ecosystem. But when you start to add your smart home devices again, that’s when it starts to take it up a step or two. So things like your nest speak because your chomecast all that sort of stuff we want to try and get under that $ 1,000 budget, and the first thing now we’ll look at is adding chomecast to this. Chomecast has got really good over the past couple of years and again with Google, you get two options: an HD version and a 4K version, but one of the biggest caveats remember at the start of this challenge was to feature proof everything that we get for the Next couple of years, so this is why I don’t think you should go in buy the chomecast, HD and 4K is probably your best friend here and I feel like chomecast is so underrated as well, because if you even have a smart TV, you might think. Well, I don’t need a chomecast, but Smart TVs are really frustrating. You need to switch between apps constantly when they’re, slow and just not intelligent and with chomecast. It’S just all in one place it’s across all of your devices, and you can just pick up where you left off and get suggestions on other shows and films you might like to watch and you can even use your pixel phone as a remote. So this is where you can see the ecosystem starts to come all together. This might be the first product that we actually go and pick up brand new rather than second hand, and the reason for this is just look at the prices that you can see. There’S not a huge amount of savings here and if you go to the Google store, you can pick up a chomecast 4K for $ 59, which sometimes is just a better deal. You know it’s not been used before and it even has the warranty that comes with it. If anything was to happen, so let’s not go secondhand on this one. Let’S treat ourselves and we’ll go brand new with the chomecast from the Google Store at $ 59, and that is in the bag and trust me once you’ve used chomecast. You won’t go back to just using your smart TV, because this is infinitely better okay, that ecosystem starting to look pretty good now.
But the next thing we need to look at is some Nest. Speakers, because we’ve still got a load of our budget left. So when you have a look at Google Nest speakers, you get a few options. Youve got that Nest, mini second generation Nest Hub Second Generation and Nest audio, and you can pick up Nest minis for a ridiculously low price on eBay. But the issue is that they’ve been around a long time and the second gen came out in 2019 so 5 years ago, and while it’s still getting updates, I don’t think it future proofs it enough, and on top of that, the sound isn’t actually that great.
So our best stop is going to be getting that Nest audio, and these come out in 2020. So, a year later than the nest mini second generation, they sound infinitely better and even though they do cost a little bit more secondhand, they don’t cost a huge amount. More the sound quality on Nest.
Audios is actually surprisingly good, and if you get more than one, you can actually create a stereo pair, which gives you a more immersive experience when you’re listening to music on Spotify or YouTube music and connect it to your phone and going through eBay. You can see that they range in price, but if you have a look, you can pick up a couple of these for around about $ 50 to $ 60, and I found a listing here where you can get them for $ 50 each so with them being So cheap, let’s get in two of them: let’s put them in the bag and then we can actually create that stereo pair those n audios were way cheaper than I thought they were. So, let’s treat ourselves to something else now, which I think really does take it to the next level, and that is that Nest Hub. I love nest Hub and it’s to sat on my bedside table and being able to see what Google assistant is telling. You works. Really well, if, if that’s weather, you want to access your smart controls or you want to watch YouTube or see your photos at a glance, then Nest Hub.
Second generation is something that you can add to your Google ecosystem and it doesn’t cost a huge amount of money. This is one of those nice tabs, but if you go through eBay, you’ll see that second hand. These are really well priced, they’re, about7 to $ 80, and if you search well enough, you can find them for around about $ 70, like the one that I’ve got here.
They did come out a couple of years ago, but they’re still very much getting. Software updates and will do at least for the next couple of years, so these again future proofed exactly what we needed and $ 70. So let’s get them in the bag, and I think that is a really good starting place for everything to start a Google ecosystem. Let’S go through what we’ve got right: we have a Google pixel 7A, which cost us $ 250 pixelbuds Pro for $ 100, the pixel watch first generation for $ 125. We ended up getting the chomecast 4K for $ 59, two Nest audios for $ 50 each and we even added that nest, tuub second generation for $ 70. So if you add all this together, our intro into the Google ecosystem has cost just over $ 700.
For all of that – and it gets you a really good experience as your first intro into a Google ecosystem. In fact, we could go on and keep adding to this. If you wanted to spend all $ 11,000 like you could get a nest doorbell and you could get a more powerful Google pixel if you wanted, but we wanted to try and stay under that $ 1,000 budget and we have and you’ve got change. You have three $ 300 that you didn’t need to spend and you have got some of the best Google hardware for a Google ecosystem. But let me know what do you think of our budget? Google ecosystem challenge? I really enjoyed this because I didn’t think you’d be able to get as much as you can for the money and if you did enjoy it, why not subscribe to the Android authority YouTube channel before you head off as well, so you get the latest and greatest Videos on all Android device and news – and if you do that, then we will see you in our next article .