Starting tomorrow, the Pixel 2 series loses support for a key photographic feature

If you still use the Pixel 2 or the Pixel 2 XL as your daily driver, you might notice that the devices are slowing down tremendously. This writer used a Pixel 2 XL for a couple of years before putting it into retirement last February for the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Whenever work calls on me to write about Android 11 and I blow the dust off of the Pixel 2 XL, it seems impossibly slow. Some of this is no doubt due to the fact that yours truly is now used to the faster speed of the A13 Bionic over the Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform. Some of the lagging is just due to old age and lack of support from Google.

As 2020 came to an end, the Pixel 2 series lost support from Google (yes, we just wrote that at the end of the previous paragraph). This means no more system updates, no more monthly updates, and no more quarterly feature drop for Pixel 2 users. If you've been thinking about upgrading to a new Pixel model, this is a good enough reason to do so. And Google's support page says that starting tomorrow, January 16th, Pixel 2 owners will no longer have unlimited back-up storage of photos and videos in the original quality. As Google says, "You get unlimited free storage at Original quality for all photos and videos uploaded to Google Photos from Pixel 2 through January 16, 2021. Photos and videos uploaded on or before that date will remain free at Original quality. After January 16, 2021, new photos and videos will be uploaded at High quality for free. If you upload new photos and videos at Original quality, they will count against your storage quota."

Starting on Sunday, January 17th, photos and videos from Pixel 2 devices can be stored in "High Quality" which compresses photos and videos, or shell out to continue storing the images in "Original Quality" using Google One storage. Every Google Account comes with 15GB of free storage that is shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. You can purchase 100GB of additional storage for $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year. 200GB will cost you $2.99 monthly or $29.99 annually, and 2TB of storage is priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 for the year.

Get ready to open your wallet. Google will stop offering unlimited compressed photo and video storage for the Pixels next year which means that all uploads will count toward your storage cap starting in 2022 even if they are not stored in original quality. And here's an early reminder for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL users; that model was the last to come with unlimited free original quality storage of photos and videos and this perk will end on January 31st 2022.