Pimp My Pixel: reflect your Galaxy Note 7 rebel pride with Google’s Live Photos Case

I’ve done a VR hardware comparison between the Samsung Gear VR and the Google Daydream View this week, primarily because, as a pre-order customer for the Pixel XL, I received the Daydream View headset (an $80 value) for free. I do love pre-order promos.

And yet, I remember thinking to myself one night that, for all the appreciation I have for my 128GB Very Silver Google Pixel XL, it isn’t a Galaxy Note 7. It doesn’t have an S Pen or even a comparable stylus for that matter, the design is trite and an imitation of the lowest order (how low can it go?), and outside of the camera, which has what I’ve said is a “photoshop camera quality” (good at times, bad at others), the phone isn’t as compelling as the Note 7 or even a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge for that matter. I have really been missing my Galaxy Note 7.

Yes, I took the advice of my colleagues and Samsung (who sent me the Note 7 return kit with several smaller boxes, a letter from the company, and blue gloves) and sent my most-perfect phone yet back to Samsung. Every time someone tells me, “I turned in my Galaxy Note 7 today,” I respond with a call for a “Note 7 moment of silence.”

Well, I decided to become a Note7Rebel of a different stripe (and I’m not referring to the infamous “I’m not giving my Note 7 up” Facebook protest group, either) and “pimp my Pixel.” I went to the Google Store and ordered a Live Photos Case for my Pixel XL. Of course, a Live Photos Case demands a live photo, so I was prompted to search for a photo within Google Photos and local storage that I wanted for the case. After looking through my photos, I came up on the very first Galaxy Note 7 photos I took right after getting the phone out of the box.

Among them? A photo of me holding the Galaxy Note 7 with the reboot menu in black containing the words “Samsung Galaxy Note7″ and “Powered By Android” at the bottom of the screen. I deliberated between allowing just the words or the words and the phone itself in the photo. I settled on placing the words and the phone’s front-facing camera, iris camera, and home button in the photo. The Live Photos Case not only lets you select a photo for the case but allows you to use the same photo as a desktop wallpaper.  You’ll need to download Google’s “My Live Case” app from the Play Store once you get the case to bring the case photo to your desktop wallpaper.

Now, Google has a strict policy by which they’ll allow certain images and deny other images, so if you’re planning to be a little too bold, make sure you are aware of the guidelines. I thought that my Galaxy Note 7 photo would never be approved because it was a photo of a Samsung phone on a Pixel XL case, but I was contacted later by Google and my Live Photos Case order was confirmed (with my $40 payment, of course). It arrived this week, within a week of my order.

The love I have for the Galaxy Note 7 takes nothing away from the Pixel XL, but the only reason why I ended up with the Pixel XL in the first place (curiosity aside) is because I complied with the US recall to send the unit back to Samsung. I already had a Galaxy S7 edge and didn’t want a duplicate (even though the Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge makes me hopeful for the Galaxy S8). I’ve never been a fan of vanilla Android and still find it distasteful regardless of all the reasons fans give for it being the best Android experience money can buy, but all the praise heaped on the phone so far had me curious, at least.

Now, I can have the Pixel experience and still be a respectful, compliant, Note7Rebel who does not continue to keep my unit despite Samsung’s insistence to turn it in. For those who are still holding on to their Galaxy Note 7, a rebel case such as this is the best way to protest what happened without seeing carriers remove the Note 7 from its network altogether to force your hand. At this point, regardless of whether or not the Note 7 fiasco is truth or sabotage, it just isn’t worth it to hang onto the Note 7 out of sheer stubbornness.

I know, I know: I’m not being a good Google fan and Pixel user by crafting my Galaxy Note 7 memorial case for Google’s latest, but so be it. I had to comply with the recall, but I don’t have to love the Pixel. It may seem like I’m “cheating” on the Pixel XL, and it may incur the displeasure of Pixel fans, but I love the phone I love.