[OnePlus 3 Questions & Answers] oops_mr_gumby:
I found myself at the OP3 order page a number of times since last week, Monday and Tuesday's visits were quite telling.

Monday night: shipping within days.

Tuesday night: shipping within 4 weeks

I guess I'm not the only one who took a look at the Pixel pricetags and said f that s. In Canada, a OP3 is $520. A Pixel XL 32GB is $1050. The

32GB

is $1050! And let's not forget that this phone is basically adware. Google is root on most people's phones and they use everyone's (phone's) resources for their own ends, to generate and collect lucrative data about everything you do, all in order to better serve you...ADVERTISING. There's no way in any reality that even the 128GB Pixel XL is worth 100% more than a OP3. Google billionaires are a bunch of whacked out crazy town no grip on reality loonies*.

I don't run Google/Play services on my phone so absolutely nothing about their cloud computing data mining utopia remotely appeals to me, and none of those features will work for me anyway. However, as it will all be on every phone before long anyway, and considering it's all fueled by advertising, I don't see how any of it can be used to justify the price. Oooh ahh unlimited cloud storage, wow! Are they giving away free data plans too? I'm sure lots of average people would use the support, OK, but if they're going to put their name on the thing and make such a big deal about it's all them this time, shouldn't they be supporting their customers anyway?

There's the new stepping of the same SoC the OP3 has. Only it's been downclocked to 820 speeds. I doubt I'd mind the downclocking, I'd do it myself, but it must surely negate any performance advantage the 821 might otherwise offer and leave it with just a bit more efficiency as it's only selling point.

The XL has a 1440p display. I don't personally think there's any need for nearly twice as many pixels (ie: more than 1080p) on a device that fits in your hand. I don't care how slight the difference, the GPU has to drive more pixels, there are more pixels to operate, more resolution = more battery use. The part itself can explain a (somewhat) higher price, but as I don't think it's neccessary, I also don't think it justifies that higher price. If someone else does see value in it, that's fine too.

Pixels have a super awesome fancy pants camera that's totally gonna be way better than all the super ultra crappy cameras Google put in all their previous phones. Apparently the OP3 has a pretty nice camera that takes pretty nice photos.

Hopefully I've covered all the really substantive differences, at least in relation to cost and why the Pixels' is completely insane. There's no way a slightly more efficient but otherwise identical SoC, a higher resolution display and a fancy camera(compared to an apparently quite decent camera) can possibly justify a 100% price increase. No chance I'll ever waste that kind of money on a device I have to wrestle Google for control of.

Oh and actually, there's a little more. The prices (and storage options!) are just exact copies of iPhone prices!? And the phone looks like an iPhone clone? Sure, I thought billionaires could be crazy and out-of-touch, but pathetic wannabe copycats? As if it wasn't bad enough that the prices have zero basis in reality, the reality of the prices is actually that they just copied Apple's pricing verbatim, because... what exactly? WTF?

I will buy a OP3 as soon availability improves a little. I will put FreedomOS on it and not install gapps. I will undervolt it as much as I can and maybe achieve efficiency equivalency with those downclocked 821-packing Pixels. And I will surely spend too much time being annoyed by the stupid, stupid camera bump, hoping that somehow a replacement, bump-less back is sold in a kit with a slightly larger battery. Because...

I don't think the OP3's (or any other phone's) camera bump is even remotely defensible. I hate it with a passion, camera bumps are the dumbest thing ever. The camera lens should not be the part that sticks out the most, full stop. The case should stick out just past being flush with the lens, so that when you place the phone on a surface, the lens has at least a tiny bit of clearance and isn't rubbing on anything, hopefully ever. And then they should use whatever space is left FOR HOWEVER MUCH MORE BATTERY FITS IN THE SPACE THAT'S LEFT. If it's Xmm thick, except for the bump where it's Ymm thick, THEN IT'S Ymm THICK! I am flabbergasted that this isn't 100% obvious to phone designers. Designers are IDIOTS!

Oh oh oh, one more thing, last one I swear! I can't help but think the back is a stupid place for a fingerprint reader (edit: but I would have sucked it up and bought a fairly priced Nexus/Pixel with one all the same /edit)

* Bah! It'll probably work out for them, the masses love to spend twice as much as they need to on stuff they don't actually need and only started wanting after a commercial played in front of their drooling, vacant faces. Keep hammering them with commercials, Google. They'll lap it up!