REVIEWS / AI CHATBOTS / OWNER INSIGHTS
🦉 WE READ 113 OWNER COMMENTS
Google Gemini Advanced: what owners actually say
Owners report Gemini Advanced regressing with recent updates and lagging badly behind Claude, with almost no sustained enthusiasm in the sampled comments.
What owners complain about
- Recent versions are a regression SOME
Multiple owners report 3.1 and 3.5 are worse than the 2.5 preview, with one stating 'they have only gone backwards ever since then' and that paying now feels like 'paying for less than we had June last year.'
- Gemini 3.5 Flash called garbage by multiple users SOME
More than one commenter independently used the word 'garbage' or 'trash' to describe Gemini 3.5 Flash, with one accusing a positive reviewer of not actually testing it.
- Rollouts silently degrade capability FEW
An owner who used Gemini Pro for data analysis for 3 months says 'everything worked nicely' until a new rollout 'changed a PhD into a third grader,' rendering it 'virtually worthless.'
- Hallucinates and writes fake code FEW
A user reports that after several hours of agentic use, Gemini 'lies, hallucinates and writes fake code.'
- Lagging far behind Claude FEW
A long-time Google ecosystem user says Gemini is 'embarrassing' compared to Claude including Opus, likening it to 'giving a kindergartener an advanced calculator.'
What owners love
- Deep research feature has appeal
One commenter specifically cites 'deepsearch' as the feature they are most interested in when considering Gemini Advanced.
- Smartwatch integration feels futuristic
A user finds it 'very helpful for the watches' and says it makes them 'feel like James Bond or something,' while still noting 'the AI isn't really there yet.'
- Data analysis worked well — before updates
An owner reports 3 months of effective data-file analysis with Gemini Pro before a rollout broke it, confirming the underlying capability exists.
Surprising patterns
- Owners fear updates more than welcome them: the most detailed positive use case (3 months of data analysis) was destroyed by a silent rollout, suggesting capability is not stable over time.
- Review credibility is openly doubted: multiple commenters accuse positive Gemini reviewers of being sponsored or paid by Google, indicating low trust in third-party assessments.
- Even the few defenders hedge heavily — the smartwatch enthusiast praises the feature but immediately adds 'the AI isn't really there yet.'
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Buyers who need reliable, consistent performance for coding or professional data analysis should skip it, per owners who report hallucinated code, version regressions, and silent capability downgrades.
Synthesised from 113 real owner comments across 3 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →