From my experience, Pixels are great mainly because they are just as fluid as iphones and aren't bloated with crap that basically every android hardware vendor puts on. I tried out a htc one and a samsung galaxy s4 and went straight back to iphones as the software was just so laggy and bloated. My pixel 2 feels just as fluid as the iphones I have had though.

Iphones and pixels are both great and far above the other phones I have had so I don't think you can go wrong with either. Main benefit I have with android currently is that I can sideload a wifi hotspot app without paying a stupid subscription fee and google services like assistant, photos, and maps are much better in my opinion.