Comment by glimshe
11 hours ago
I respectfully disagree, at least for most tasks.
3.1 Pro: while it's coding performance is mediocre, a lot of coding work requires minimum actual thinking. I use it often for light refactoring, boilerplate generation, testcase skeleton generation, code review, language questions ("is there a better way to write this code block?"). I don't have a corporation behind me so costs matter. Considering that I'm a Pro subscriber, it's quite cost effective.
3.5 Flash: excellent model for general (re)search. I use it for everyday tasks with Thinking instead of Flash-Lite. It's a much better version of Google Search for general queries like gaming tips, cooking, day-to-day first aid, tax and investment questions, etc.
Google is clearly aiming for cost-benefit here and considering that it gets bundled with YouTube Plus and Google One at $20/month, it's a killer deal IMHO.
PS: I don't work for Google and don't even like Google very much. But this is a good product.
It was a decent deal ~6-8 months ago. I had been using 3.1 pro almost since release, but it really is feeling old. After using other models more in the past two months though...I really can't go back to 3.1 pro, as I just have to explain my reasoning so damn much to get it on the right path, where as opus or fable just "get it" from the context of the project much better.
Sonnet is roughly the same level as 3.1 pro for me.