I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see all these Android phones with notches on the top, but no screen going all the way to the bottom. Apple explained they wanted an edge to edge screen, and that the notch was a compromise to achieve that goal. Now all the android devices are copying the compromise without trying to copy the goal.
For Pixel in particular it really feels like they've started copying the iPhone's hardware choices in some ways, for no real reason that I can discern. The notch, eliminating the headphone jack, etc. Then they even matched it on price (heck, isn't the Pixel actually more expensive than an iPhone if you match them on flash size?). I was a Google phone fan back in the days of the Nexus 4, but these latest attempts feel like Google trying to force their market position up rather than embracing their niche.
Yeah, Apple killed headphone jacks on the iPhone. But they also:
1) Gave you lightning headphones that work on all iPhones
2) Have 3rd party lightning headphones that all work on all iPhones
3) Gave you a lightning to 3.5mm headphone adapter that worked on all iPhones with whatever regular 3.5mm headphones you previously used with your phones
4) Made better bluetooth earbuds for moving away from wired headphones entirely
Android manufacturers have not matched that with USB-C audio. They just copied "Step 0) Remove the headphone jack."
It's pretty pathetic too after they release a whole slew of ads making fun of Apple's design choices... Only to unashamedly copy them in the next iteration.
Off topic : the launch webpage [1] is hell annoying.
Image loops, scroll-jacking, poorly thought out.
By the time I scrolled to the bottom, Chrome made 470 requests and downloaded 42.8 Megabytes (10 additional requests blocked by AdBlock plus extension) and thats just the 'Overview' tab.
I think the idea for the pricing is giving the consumer that it is not a cheap knockoff alternative to Samsung or Huawei. And Google allows heavy discount to Carriers, so consumers "saves" a few hundred dollars when they sign it with a mobile contracts. Compared to Apple you get less than 10% discount from Wholesale.
> For Pixel in particular it really feels like they've started copying the iPhone's hardware choices in some ways, for no real reason that I can discern.
Completely a conspiracy theory, but what if Google & others theorize that actively making devices worse causes an unexpected psychological response? Apple customers are devoted and willing to spend large amounts of money to upgrade flashy looking devices regularly, that's why Apple is so profitable. Making a sacrifice (the notch, high cost, lack of a headphone jack) to own an "elite" device effectively commits one to continue defending that decision, both to others (potential customers!) and through additional buying decisions later. A kind of self-induced Stockholm syndrome.
the CEO one of the chinese phone companies (i can't remember which one) just came straight out and told theverge what we all assumed: the notch isn't necessary, but consumers see a notch as "premium". So they notch the display, because that tests better in their market research.
I heard Alan Kay sum it up well in a podcast this morning where he was talking about how evolution doesn't have to evolve to be the best anything. Paraphrasing- "If you live in a stupid environment, stupid is the most fit."
A notch is necessary for the faceid sensor array. If you don’t need a foreword facing sensor array you should get rid of the notch.
If you have a finnger print sensor on the rear why not make a no-notch phone with an edge to edge display and no notch?
Do you think Apple came to the same conclusion? That a notch was a necessity to appear premium? No they didn’t because they were not copying anyone else’s phone design, they included a notch so faceid worked.
Well, there are some devices that try to inrease the screensize to the max, for example the Oneplus 6 (which has sadly a very high SAR value) or the newly "leaks" of de Mate 20.
The notch is now a status symbol. Sure, the notch is a clear usability sacrifice, but for 12 months the presence of a notch was synonymous with having [arguably] the best phone. Google's pixel offering captures this perfectly: the pixel 3 is notchless, you need to pay the money for the XL to get your notch.
I think that's ascribing Apple a little too much. This design trend would have happened with or without Apple, and their design goals aren't everybody's. Phones such as Essential had this notch before Apple was even rumoured to have one.
Apple doesn't invent anything. They let someone else invent it, then they just borrow the design and iterate. It's been their MO for more than a decade.
Release time from concept is probably ~4 years. Factories might start to be able to build notched screens earlier. There is a chance that other vendors just got an access to early version of notched screens technology.
Comes down to two reasons..
1. Its costly to manufacture a screen that bends to avoid the bezel.
2. Apple has a patent for bended screen. So, competitors have to come up with a slightly different way to achieve this.
Personally, I'd rather have a bit of bezel... nothing sucks more than using my Pixel 2 XL without a case, invariably the edge of my finger is touching part of the screen, which messes with input more often than not.
Trying to get rid of it, while looking cool actually makes using the thing worse.
The iPhone does not have front facing speakers. Now that was their choice I understand, but to think that Google couldn't do it if they didn't want to is just not true. And there's plenty of Android phones with screen edge-to-edge. Heck, the old Essential Phone has it.
I bet they're trying all kinds of crazy stuff to make their phones look newer than 5 years old while not copying the notch they have been mocking in their own commercials.
The only thing I can think of is a pop-up camera (done already) or a through-pixel camera (not done yet). If Samsung pulls off the latter the whole smartphone evolution is just done, over, finished.
I agree the notch looks really bad. But if you have the option of not having screen there vs having screen there, I am okay with the notch. You anyway have an option to turn that part of the screen off on Android? I don't know why everyone is up in their arms about this.
I guess Google really wants to stick with two speakers. And not sure about the Apple's patent about folded OLED and/or others having the expertise to do it.
Disc: Googler but don't work on the related teams.
I really don't mind small notches. My current phone has one about the same height as the notification bar. This Pixel 3 notch is absolutely hideous compared.
But Android manufacturers weren’t seeing it as “essential” until Apple did it. Same with ditching the headphone jack. The industry makes fun of Apple for doing something, then the next year, copies it
I'm a happy Pixel 2 XL user, and I definitely agree here. It almost seems like they thought the notch itself was the feature rather than just an enabler for the bezeless screen, which is the real feature.
Just as crazy, glass backs. They’re there mostly to facilitate wireless charging yet 50%+ of the phones that have them don’t support wireless charging...
Notches are hideous, and so are rounded screens (and excessively rounded designs in general -- just look at Chrome). It would be fine, though: more choice for those who prefer it, if were not for the fact that this is how "fads" and "marketing-imposed trends" work: I have no choice to buy a non-notched, square screen phone in 2018.
I pray my current phone holds for another couple years, until this fad goes away.
I find rounded corners on screens to be quite nice. I think they will be one of the big design changes over the next few years. They make screens appear more natural / organic imo.
Nah, it's all fine. The only thing better than a notch would if if/when they can go completely edge-to-edge, but short of having a protruding earpiece and not having light/prox sensors, it won't happen.
Not all of them, check out the Xiaomi Mix 2. Pictures are ok but otherwise great phone and no notch. To use the front camera you need to turn the phone around though, but for me that's a better compromise than the notch.
While I don't like the look of it myself, I'll hazard a guess as to the design thinking behind it: notifications/menu bar can now live either side of the notch without taking up 'content' space. So the screen either side of the notch is for the notifications bar/menu bar/I-can't-remember-the-android-term-for-it and the total space matches the space on the bottom of the phone, leaving a centered amount of screen space for 'content'. Because it's not most full-screen experiences are ever going to use the notch area.
In this case it's a simple reason: there are stereo speakers, which means there has to be a speaker at the bottom. That stops the screen from going all the way to the bottom edge.
Except the Apple phones don't have edge to edge screens. Currently there has to be electronics located on the edge of screens.
Apple has chosen to distribute these around their screens. Most Android phone makers have instead chosen to place them at the bottom.of the screen.
This means that in general Apple has larger edges than Android notch phones on 3 sides but no bottom chin. Android notch phones in general have a smaller distance between the edge of the screen and the edge of the phone but a larger lower chin.
The Pixel Notch is the worst looking, most disappointing phone design I've seen for a long time - from someone where I actually had certain expectations.
I can't stand the notch design band aid (the S8/9/Note just looks far far cleaner, has much greater usable screen size), and this has all but guaranteed my next phone will be another flagship Samsung.
I absolutely hate edge to edge screens. It makes for a terrible user experience when you accidentally hit something with your palm. I also hate the super thin fad. Now I just have to buy a think bumper case so I can actually hold the phone.
I don't like the notch but I don't really see the bottom bezel as any worse of a design. If you want two front facing speakers you'd need two notches and that's even more of a developer burden.
Google could have copied Vivo Apex to beat Apple in bezel-less game once for all. Instead we get an ugly notch and a bezel at the bottom. Feels premium, I really fall for it, really! :-/
It is so weird these days that 95% of the marketing and copy for new hardware is actually marketing and copy about software, not the hardware. They do however have a spec compare page for the phones: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_compare
I'm their target market then. What differentiates google for me is the SERVICES they offer: gmail, maps, search, photos, voice search, voice transcription, google voice.
Even if my perception is wrong, I picture google as a company that is better able to deliver cloud software. Since the hardware is all good enough now, what makes me consider going from Apple to Google is that I prefer google mail and google maps, and the google ecosystem. I also think google is better positioned to take on Amazon and Microsoft and Facebook. Apple is in a distant fifth place behind all those companies. And then you have Sony, which in many respects DOES have a better hardware ecosystem than Apple, for the home (speakers, playstation, cameras, televisions, headphones etc. and vue.) HomeKit and HealthKit are the two places Apple is competitive, and music/movie services are a dime a dozen at the moment, im not committing to an ecosystem if for example I liked iTunes/Beats more than Google Play. Lest we not forget Spotify and Roku are still independent beasts.
And on the other end Apples value proposition is that their store has all the flagship versions of apps (companies tend to treat iOS as their first class citizen) and privacy as a promise. That is a compelling sales pitch; to be treated as just a customer, not as something to be data mined and targeted.
Google REALLY needs to figure out Google Voice, Hangouts, Google News, Google Reader etc. Theres no reason Facebook should be a better feed and messenger, google has all the parts and talent, and cannot for the life of them unify them into a coherent simple product. Stop treating google voice like an afterthought, its a killer product. Google needs to figure out android vs chrome. Its very scary to buy into either of these product lines (at least I know my data is stored in google services regardless.)
Its a very hard decision right now to go Alexa vs Google Home, vs HomeKit. It sucks liking Swift apps, Google Photos, Facebook Messenger, DirecTV, Xbox Live, and Sony TVs. And pretty soon I'll need to have Sony, Disney, Hulu, Apple, Youtube, Netflix, Vudu/MGM, Prime, Facebook, xFinity, DirecTV/HBO/WatchTV (figure your shit out ATT). And that still leaves me without access to anything CBS/Viacom/Paramount, except what comes from DirecTV and VRV. Who am I trusting to make my multi-service experience the most pleasant; Roku, Apple, Google?
Ecosystem commitment is maddening, and paradox of choice has never made not participating more attractive.
> What differentiates google for me is the SERVICES they offer: gmail, maps, search, photos, voice search, voice transcription, google voice.
If you own almost any Android phone, you have all these services. Heck, if you own an iPhone you can still get all these services (just not as defaults).
Is there a way to deep link to a country specific google store? I get redirected to a locale that doesn't sell any of the pixel products, so they just don't exists on the product pages when I follow the links
I really wish Google would sell a good value (Nexus level prices) phone again, so I can own a phone with stock Android. You can get good hardware for half the price of Google's pixel phones; the downside is the crappy Android versions on them.
(thanks for the suggestions on close-to-stock-Android hardware)
The Android One phones (https://www.android.com/one/) are running stock Android and provide 2 years of Android OS updates and 3 year of security updates.
Christ, being happy for “2 years of Android os updates” reminds me how awful is the android ecosystem.
IPhone 5s, a phone from 5 years ago is running the latest iOS without any problem.
Keep in mind that the phone manufacture is tasked with providing those updates for Android One devices.
It was once going to be Google providing them but they changed the site a while back.... that makes me skeptical about when / if you get those updates...
Google has been struggling to get manufactures to do updates and backpedaling on Android One's updates doesn't have me optimistic.
For people who want to buy phones in the several-hundred-dollar range, 2 years of official updates really isn't sufficient. My Nexus 4 lasted 4 or 5 years, the last few on unofficial firmware - but I shouldn't have had to use third party firmware on a device that was working just fine.
I know someone who has an Android One Motorola, while they like stock Android, updates are still really slow for reasons unknown. There was also no beta during Pie.
Definitely isn't a full Nexus or Pixel experience unfortunately.
I find it really annoying that phones need so much hand holding from OEMs to keep up to date. Imagine the backlash if a Windows OEM said that: a.) you could only get OS updates from them, and b.) you'd only get 2 years of updates.
The death of the Nexus / privacy concerns is why I'm tempted to flee to Apple. I've never used an iPhone but if I'm gonna pay top dollar for a Google branded type phone .... why not consider an iPhone / the privacy concerns I have and etc too?
All the other Android manufactures have been so hit and miss I'm not really interested in them as an alternative.
If you're not constrained by the hardware, then take the time to install LineageOS (https://lineageos.org/). If you need Google's flavour of Android you can get it from OpenGAPPS (https://opengapps.org/).
I did it for my mom's phone and most recently my own (which until I hit some software issues was running Google stock). It's really easy nowadays, with some tech skills and assuming your phone isn't obscure.
I just got a Pixel 1 planning to do that very thing. I thought I was getting a great deal; they're about $200 on Amazon.
I ran into an apparently common issue where it won't connect to Windows through its bundled USB cable (or any other USB cable...).
Plugging it into my external monitor, which is also a USB hub, solved that problem. Except that in bootloader mode, it is once again unrecognized, making it impossible to unlock.
I just bought a $159 Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Android One/Stock, US ATT or T-Mobile Compatible) to replace my original Pixel XL and I can't tell much of a difference except for the Camera. It has a much smaller notch than the Pixel 3 and will receive updates I believe until 2021 or further. Some small corners were cut, but it punches way above its price point.
I have nothing but praise for Xiaomi products. They are phenomenal value.
I have a Xiaomi Redmi 4x, which cost me $140 and has perfectly smooth performance. The camera isn't terrible either, it does the trick. Best of all, spare parts are cheap and easy to find. I completely shattered the screen on my phone, it was only $20 to get a complete new screen assembly (lcd, digitiser, and frame), which I'm fairly sure is OEM. I broke the ear speaker in the process of replacing the screen, only $1 to get a new one shipped from China. I can literally make a phone from parts, I can even buy the motherboard on Aliexpress.
Xiaomi have really good build quality too, and their their custom version of Android isn't terrible.
I also have a Xiaomi bluetooth speaker that I bought for $30, which performs as well as a speaker 2-3 times the price. It's built out of solid aluminium too, so it can take an absolute beating.
Nokia could be an option: they have big range of devices in various price ranges, build quality is decent, runs near stock Android and updates are one of fastest, compared to other brands.
Sadly, not all devices have unlockable bootloader and kernel sources for some are still missing.
I think that's what OnePlus is doing these days. Not sure if you have heard of this youtuber @mkbhd he recently made a video that OnePlus 6 became his daily driver from Pixel 2. OnePlus 6 devices already run Android Oreo based OS.
Yes... but. OnePlus prices are rising at pace. I think my 3T was £309 some 2 years ago in the UK, where the 6 is £519 and the 6T is expected to be more again.
Also, where the Nexus phones were supported for at least 3 years the 3T wasn't going to get Android Pie just 2 years after release, but it seems it now will (eventually).
I agree it's been filling the segment, but I'm not sure it's continuing to, sadly. Don't get me wrong, they still seem to be beating Apple and Google in terms of bang for buck, but they're definitely chasing up the ladder after them.
I got a OnePlus 3 based on this kind of recommendation when Google discontinued their reasonably-priced-phones strategy and came out with the Pixel instead.
It works fine, but it's so large that it hurts my hand. And OnePlus appears to be committed to making only comically oversized phones. Very sad.
Just my 2 cents, I own a Nokia 6.1 and bought it for the exact reasons OP had, a cheap stock android phone. Unfortunately the hardware is really poor and I still don't have Android 9 available to me yet. The camera is really really bad, it sometimes shows a photo has been taken and when you view it later it turns out the shutter captured whatever was in view 2 seconds later. Something is also really wrong with the audio firmware, music will just stop randomly followed by a loud pop, it's like a buffer overflows or something.
One more alternative, buy used Pixels, I just bought a Pixel 2 yesterday for $325. Less than half what the Pixel 3 starts for. Sure, it is small risk but if you would prefer less risk you can get certified refurbished ones for just a bit more from Amazon or Best Buy. I live outside the US so I used ebay as they do international shipping. Lastly, you get 3 of OS and security updates (2 years from now of course since it is a year old), this is the first Google phone to get updates for this long, all previous devices were 2 years.
Using mi a2 for last 2 months. A android one phone. Stock android, no bloat, very good looking hardware.. Overall a good value, but software is slightly buggy (occasional heating, random boots) and no clear communication on software upgrade policy
A Nexus level priced value product running stock Android would cannibalize Pixel sales. Google made the Pixel a premium product specifically for those who care about stock Android. People who buy value phones don't care about stock Android.
> People who buy value phones don't care about stock Android.
What does this even mean? I mean, since there are no cheap stock-Android phones clearly anyone who buys a cheap phone doesn't only care about stock Android.
But it's absolutely possible for someone to (1) want a phone at non-"premium" prices and (2) want a phone running stock Android. The fact that they then have to pick at most one of those two because no one but Google makes stock-Android phones and Google have gone premium-only doesn't mean that they don't, or shouldn't, want both.
I bought the Nexus 7 Plus below 300 Euro. You can also get the Pixel 2 (and sometime in the future also Pixel 3) camera apk running on it in a modified version.
Side note: It has also one of the best cameras on phones in this price area.
I really wish someone would do another solid 7-8" Android (or ChromeOS) tablet. That felt like a perfect form factor - I could even still pocket it in a vest.
Alas, most of what's still on the market is either ancient (and not getting new Android updates), or cheap low-res junk, or usually both. The only exception seems to be MediaPad M5, and Huawei screwed that one up by reporting it to the apps as a phone rather than as a tablet; and then there's the whole shared antenna issue (basically if you use Bluetooth, your WiFi is an order of magnitude slower).
And I'm not holding much hope for sub-10" ChromeOS tablets. It seems that everybody just wrote that market off.
What a terrible live event. The presenters were awful. Okay not everyone is a natural presenter so if you don't have such people in your product management team just hire some!
As for the products. Groan. What is there to be excited about exactly? The new tablet (slate?) goes up to $1600(!) and doesn't even include a keyboard (an extra $200 for that). The videos of it seem to show it as a laggy mess as well. Hopefully it isn't like that on release.
The Home Hub does not interest me. At all. At least it doesn't have a camera though.
But the real let down is the new Pixel 3 is just so meh. A bizarrely large notch yet a large chin still? Two front facing cameras but still a single rear. Why? Are super selfie takes the biggest buyers for Pixel phones? I take a few selfies now and then but I would much rather a second 2x camera for proper zoom and not some fancy digital zoom powered by AI from my hand tremors.
I can't see any reason to replace my Pixel 2 XL if I am honest, especially at those prices.
Also what happened to the whole "you think you know" social media trolling Google was doing? Turns out yes we did know. Literally everything leaked. So bizarre.
I've bought the last two pixels on release day (as well as multiple Nexus before that). I absolutely loved my Pixel 1, but was actually fairly disappointed in my Pixel 2 as it feels so much more fragile and buggy that the Pixel 1. Honestly, I have been looking forward to upgrading to the Pixel 3 for probably 4 months now.
Unfortunately, after seeing what they put out today, I'll probably be looking at other models instead. This phone just looks so "meh" and yet it has such a premium price attached to it. It's almost a bit insulting that they raised the base price and dropped the value they are giving for trade-ins.
I woke up this morning expecting to spend $300 (after trade in) on a slight upgrade to my current phone and they've managed to some how managed to lose me as a customer after seeing what they offered.
> Turns out yes we did know. Literally everything leaked.
Well, rumors a few months ago were that plans had leaked for a third device that would be the spiritual successor to the Nexus line, with stock android at reasonable prices.
We thought we knew, but it seems like a jerk move for Google to make fun of us over our vain hope they'd put out something we wanted.
I've been told the Android One program is the spiritual successor to the Nexus line. Does anybody with more knowledge or experience feel like commenting on that? Do those phones get updates as reliably as a Nexus would in the past?
Also, how does one shop for a phone these days when you want plain old Android and sensible security updates but have other feature concerns as well? I don't want a flagship phone, don't want a giant phablet, and care more about offline GPS performance than data performance...
I am still carrying a Moto G4 Play which I think is borderline too big. It still lasts almost a week on one charge when I take it into the woods in airplane mode and just use the camera app and OSMAnd+ with GPS logging for 3-4 hours per day.
Same thing could have been said about the Pixel 2 but you bought one anyway. They will sell because people settle for well-known and good, not new features.
Isn't consensus that Google's phone sales volume is pretty low? I don't think that they are well-known in non-tech circles; although I would agree that's not about new features / presentation.
Okay, so. Have we reached diminishing returns with smartphones? Because it really feels that way.
I'm sure this new Pixel is better than the previous one, but we're starting to have conversations around _not_ buying the $1k phone for its camera, and instead buying two devices for $500 each that are better.
I personally feel like even four iPhone generations ago, the iPhone was "good enough" and that the software is really what needs to be improved.
The market is basically in a holding pattern. New features tend to be situational and the performance improvements are pretty modest year-over-year. What's more, even old phones are fast enough for most uses, so even when the new one is 50% faster that's not a huge deal. It's hard to justify $800 to make a webpage load in .75 seconds instead of 1 second.
I'm still using my iPhone 6 and iOS 10 (I have some 32 bit apps that I still use). I'm considering swapping the battery instead of buying a new phone. Right now I would only upgrade if I severely broke it.
In some ways it would be a downgrade, because I use the headphone jack to wire it into my car's audio when doing navigation, and plug it into the cig lighter because navigation is a battery hog. It's pretty clear that Apple has no intention of ever bringing back the headphone jack.
Maybe I could find a bluetooth adapter on a headphone jack? I wonder if it could draw enough power from the headphone jack to not need a battery? Probably not.
I upgraded from iPhone 6 to iPhone XS and if I am 100% honest I don't feel a massive difference. New screen is really nice and I am surprised that I actually like face id much more than the fingerprint scanner. But on a day-to-day activity scale ... browsing facebook, reddit, youtube, playing games, etc. ... I often struggle to notice any real difference, even in how quick apps start. I don't regret it because I know I won't have to worry about upgrades for another 2-3 years.
But I can highly recommend the battery replacement for the iPhone 6. I was luck (unlucky?) enough to get the discounted battery replacement due to mine failing. After I got that it was a significant improvement.
I have a 6s+ that I traded the battery and rear camera out at an Apple Store for less than $100 total. My rear camera was very shaky and would never focus on images so they came out blurry. I think it's totally worth a battery replacement and using your hardware as long as you can. My battery life is way better now and I'm back to going days(!) without charging.
I personally wish folks would make phone upgrade decisions with battery replacements in mind. (I am guilty of this too, of course!)
If you're happy with your phone two years on, you probably get much more bang for your buck paying $79 for a new battery than $749 or $999 or whatever for a new device.
Especially with Apple's current $29 for all recent models. Take an iPhone SE, 2016 price $400, now sells around... $100 on eBay, so that's let's say a rough $150 for an ok phone with a fresh battery. It will probably last another, what, year or two? You can browse the web with it, and install apps. I use one every day and let me tell you: it's fine. It works, it's not frustrating.
Are these new phones really $1000/$150 ≈ 6 times better?
If you're a VC or early Google employee: sure, by all means. But $1000 for a phone when $150 will do; I find it hard to stomach.
I agree. I don't want a new phone right now, I just want to keep getting software improvements. I still have the OG Pixel and I really don't want to replace it. It has a headphone jack and it still runs as well as it did day 1. Unfortunately google will probably stop supporting it soon forcing me to get a new pixel to keep getting software updates.
I think that point was reached about 4-5 years ago which is why I don't understand the prices of these phones. They offer literally nothing over a $200-$300 phone. Nothing. Diminishing returns? More like no returns and just a waste of money. Apple is a fashion brand nowadays and Google is trying to become one too. No thanks.
If you're not using iPhones, I think so. Apple is the only one adding features worth upgrading for, maybe not every year, but definitely at least every other year.
Yes. iPhone 6s is what I’m sticking with until they double the battery life (in real use, not watching a video) or do something else I might actually care about.
I upgraded from the iPhone 6 Plus to the iPhone XS Max, on a complete whim. The biggest difference is of course, snappiness of applications. The OS, not so much, because I think Apple does a good job at maintaining iOS. But Spotify used to take 8 seconds to cold boot for me on my 6 Plus, and sub-second on the XS Max.
I would love to see hardware upgrades halt for five years while we all (collectively) get our software shit together and optimize everything for performance. That'll never happen, because I think it's in our human nature to Get Things Done in the short-term with compromises that affect the long-term.
Poor software performance is our digital world's global warming.
I like how if you go to https://store.google.com/product/pixel_3_how_to_buy and click on any of the company names under "Find your phone. Get up to $300 back" you will be redirected to Google's internal corporate SSO page:
Google famously has no "internal" pages (but a lot of private pages of course).
Instead of using a VPN solution for off-site, they have a reverse proxy sitting in front of their back-office sites, the reverse proxy verifies user authentication (inc. 2F) and permissions before allowing access to the site in question (both from on Google's campus and off-site).
The theory goes that even if you break into Google's campus and plug into their corporate network, or find an employee's computer you'll still have no easier time accessing their private pages than you would otherwise.
It is actually a really interesting topic all in its own right.
I was hoping they'd release the next Pixelbook. Really wanted to try that as my next developer laptop. May be next year.
Pixel Slate is great but I can't hold it on my lap while sitting, lying on a couch or my bed. Given I spend all my working hours using my laptop, devices like Pixel Slate and Surface Pro are a no-go.
Only if they built a stronger keyboard with a adjustable latch that could hold the tablet body. I wouldn't mind the extra weight if it meant that it wouldn't need support and could be held just like a laptop in any position.
> I was hoping they'd release the next Pixelbook. Really wanted to try that as my next developer laptop.
I bought one last year to try as my dev computer and I'm back to my 2015 mac book. I'm not a fan of the keyboard on it, the battery life isn't as good as I thought it would be, I don't like having a touch screen on my dev machine, but I think the biggest factor in me switching back is that it feels like the remote development services just aren't there yet. I'd get into a coding session and then half way through have some issue with Cloud9 (or a different online IDE, I tried multiple) and it would pull me out of my flow.
I don't plan to use Cloud9 or anything like that. I want to try out native linux apps for development while using Chrome and Android apps for other workflows.
After bad experiences with hardware reliably and support on the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6p, I will not be buying another piece of Google hardware.
Although, I must say, the vanilla Android software experience is top notch. I'd just rather install / customize it on more reliable hardware with better support (my op5t has been amazing!)
I'm on my third Nexus 5x. The first Boot-looped thanksgiving 6 months after I bought it, the 2nd boot-looped during christmas the next year. The third has stayed steady, I've just avoided all holidays.
I bought a pixel (2nd hand, dumb mistake) and then it bricked itself within 3 months. Went back to my repaired Nexus 5x.
Google's hardware is awful and their support is an opaque cloud of pretty UIs and unhelpful people.
I've had every Nexus and Pixel starting with the Galaxy Nexus.
Never had an issue with any of them until my most recent Pixel 2 XL where some cables stopped charging the device. One quick open chat on the Google store and I had a replacement sent immediately for free.
Was the 5x thing Google's fault or LG's? I blamed LG and I won't buy another one of their phones for awhile.
I was going to put up with my 5x until the pixel 3 came out, but it became unbearably slow to use as of this spring. So I bought the Motorola x4 under the Android one banner and I couldn't be happier. I think I paid $150 for it after getting $100 for my 5x. The battery life lasts all day and I can use Snapchat on the phone. I regret not upgrading to a "budget" phone earlier.
Yikes, I did pretty much this. Went from two 5x's (I really love the form factor) to a used pixel one. So far it hasn't bricked - is that a known issue like the 5x bootloop?
I've loved my 6p, but it's gotten slow AF in the last year or so. I replaced the battery after it stopped lasting more than half a day, and thought that might solve the issue. But it's still intermittently slow.
I'd love to keep it, but it's gotten quite annoying to have to wait for it to respond. I guess it could be malware on it, but it could also be just the hardware not lasting as long as I would hope it would.
I'd like to upgrade, but I don't want to spend $1000+.
Anyone running a Huawei phone that they've flash with a custom firmware? I was thinking of going that route, as it's significantly cheaper.
Really? I love my Pixel 2. First phone I haven't rooted (so I can underclock and get a decent battery life). I'm curious what problems you have had (and if I might expect them. But I've had this for awhile now)
And I don't see myself buying the Pixel 3. Just seems like a $100 price increase for lower aesthetics. I can't see any meaningful differences in this new phone.
Readit News
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3284186/mobile/bring-back-th...
Yeah, Apple killed headphone jacks on the iPhone. But they also:
1) Gave you lightning headphones that work on all iPhones
2) Have 3rd party lightning headphones that all work on all iPhones
3) Gave you a lightning to 3.5mm headphone adapter that worked on all iPhones with whatever regular 3.5mm headphones you previously used with your phones
4) Made better bluetooth earbuds for moving away from wired headphones entirely
Android manufacturers have not matched that with USB-C audio. They just copied "Step 0) Remove the headphone jack."
By the time I scrolled to the bottom, Chrome made 470 requests and downloaded 42.8 Megabytes (10 additional requests blocked by AdBlock plus extension) and thats just the 'Overview' tab.
W.T.F!
[1]: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_3
Pixel 3 128 $899 XR 128 $799 XS 256 $1149
The iPhone is cool. That’s why it’s being copied.
I heard Alan Kay sum it up well in a podcast this morning where he was talking about how evolution doesn't have to evolve to be the best anything. Paraphrasing- "If you live in a stupid environment, stupid is the most fit."
If you have a finnger print sensor on the rear why not make a no-notch phone with an edge to edge display and no notch?
Do you think Apple came to the same conclusion? That a notch was a necessity to appear premium? No they didn’t because they were not copying anyone else’s phone design, they included a notch so faceid worked.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/28/17152840/oneplus-6-notch-...
Folded screen of iphone https://i.imgur.com/Vg2n5Ji.jpg
Trying to get rid of it, while looking cool actually makes using the thing worse.
Yes, they've done their fair share of copying from Apple, but lately they seem to actually believe in their own ideas.
The only thing I can think of is a pop-up camera (done already) or a through-pixel camera (not done yet). If Samsung pulls off the latter the whole smartphone evolution is just done, over, finished.
I guess Google really wants to stick with two speakers. And not sure about the Apple's patent about folded OLED and/or others having the expertise to do it.
Disc: Googler but don't work on the related teams.
https://www.phonearena.com/news/history-of-the-notch-and-bez...
I pray my current phone holds for another couple years, until this fad goes away.
https://www.whathifi.com/news/vivos-apex-concept-smartphone-...
https://mashable.com/2017/02/28/redux-phone-screen-speaker/
Apple has chosen to distribute these around their screens. Most Android phone makers have instead chosen to place them at the bottom.of the screen.
This means that in general Apple has larger edges than Android notch phones on 3 sides but no bottom chin. Android notch phones in general have a smaller distance between the edge of the screen and the edge of the phone but a larger lower chin.
I can't stand the notch design band aid (the S8/9/Note just looks far far cleaner, has much greater usable screen size), and this has all but guaranteed my next phone will be another flagship Samsung.
Pixel Stand: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_stand
Pixel Slate: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_slate
Home Hub: https://store.google.com/product/google_home_hub
It is so weird these days that 95% of the marketing and copy for new hardware is actually marketing and copy about software, not the hardware. They do however have a spec compare page for the phones: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_compare
Even if my perception is wrong, I picture google as a company that is better able to deliver cloud software. Since the hardware is all good enough now, what makes me consider going from Apple to Google is that I prefer google mail and google maps, and the google ecosystem. I also think google is better positioned to take on Amazon and Microsoft and Facebook. Apple is in a distant fifth place behind all those companies. And then you have Sony, which in many respects DOES have a better hardware ecosystem than Apple, for the home (speakers, playstation, cameras, televisions, headphones etc. and vue.) HomeKit and HealthKit are the two places Apple is competitive, and music/movie services are a dime a dozen at the moment, im not committing to an ecosystem if for example I liked iTunes/Beats more than Google Play. Lest we not forget Spotify and Roku are still independent beasts.
And on the other end Apples value proposition is that their store has all the flagship versions of apps (companies tend to treat iOS as their first class citizen) and privacy as a promise. That is a compelling sales pitch; to be treated as just a customer, not as something to be data mined and targeted.
Google REALLY needs to figure out Google Voice, Hangouts, Google News, Google Reader etc. Theres no reason Facebook should be a better feed and messenger, google has all the parts and talent, and cannot for the life of them unify them into a coherent simple product. Stop treating google voice like an afterthought, its a killer product. Google needs to figure out android vs chrome. Its very scary to buy into either of these product lines (at least I know my data is stored in google services regardless.)
Its a very hard decision right now to go Alexa vs Google Home, vs HomeKit. It sucks liking Swift apps, Google Photos, Facebook Messenger, DirecTV, Xbox Live, and Sony TVs. And pretty soon I'll need to have Sony, Disney, Hulu, Apple, Youtube, Netflix, Vudu/MGM, Prime, Facebook, xFinity, DirecTV/HBO/WatchTV (figure your shit out ATT). And that still leaves me without access to anything CBS/Viacom/Paramount, except what comes from DirecTV and VRV. Who am I trusting to make my multi-service experience the most pleasant; Roku, Apple, Google?
Ecosystem commitment is maddening, and paradox of choice has never made not participating more attractive.
If you own almost any Android phone, you have all these services. Heck, if you own an iPhone you can still get all these services (just not as defaults).
The whole range of announced products: https://store.google.com/us/?hl=en-US&countryRedirect=true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Google_Pixel_sma...
Looks like the Pixel 3 stats aren't up yet, but I assume the Wikipedia editors are working on that.
(Also very useful for figuring out what changes between iPhone/Mac revisions.)
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(thanks for the suggestions on close-to-stock-Android hardware)
It was once going to be Google providing them but they changed the site a while back.... that makes me skeptical about when / if you get those updates...
Google has been struggling to get manufactures to do updates and backpedaling on Android One's updates doesn't have me optimistic.
Definitely isn't a full Nexus or Pixel experience unfortunately.
I'm scared to root it. Because they don't provide factory images and the update process is very fragile.
It's a far cry from Nexus.
All the other Android manufactures have been so hit and miss I'm not really interested in them as an alternative.
For example, iOS doesn't let you change default apps (e.g. browser). Also their third party keyboard integration is not so great.
I did it for my mom's phone and most recently my own (which until I hit some software issues was running Google stock). It's really easy nowadays, with some tech skills and assuming your phone isn't obscure.
I ran into an apparently common issue where it won't connect to Windows through its bundled USB cable (or any other USB cable...).
Plugging it into my external monitor, which is also a USB hub, solved that problem. Except that in bootloader mode, it is once again unrecognized, making it impossible to unlock.
I have a Xiaomi Redmi 4x, which cost me $140 and has perfectly smooth performance. The camera isn't terrible either, it does the trick. Best of all, spare parts are cheap and easy to find. I completely shattered the screen on my phone, it was only $20 to get a complete new screen assembly (lcd, digitiser, and frame), which I'm fairly sure is OEM. I broke the ear speaker in the process of replacing the screen, only $1 to get a new one shipped from China. I can literally make a phone from parts, I can even buy the motherboard on Aliexpress.
Xiaomi have really good build quality too, and their their custom version of Android isn't terrible.
I also have a Xiaomi bluetooth speaker that I bought for $30, which performs as well as a speaker 2-3 times the price. It's built out of solid aluminium too, so it can take an absolute beating.
Meanwhile Xiaomi's Android One devices (not MIUI) are just 'fastboot oem unlock' without any key requests, just like good old Nexuses.
https://productdork.com/t/moto-g5s-plus-review/13
Also, where the Nexus phones were supported for at least 3 years the 3T wasn't going to get Android Pie just 2 years after release, but it seems it now will (eventually).
I agree it's been filling the segment, but I'm not sure it's continuing to, sadly. Don't get me wrong, they still seem to be beating Apple and Google in terms of bang for buck, but they're definitely chasing up the ladder after them.
It works fine, but it's so large that it hurts my hand. And OnePlus appears to be committed to making only comically oversized phones. Very sad.
https://www.android.com/one/
What does this even mean? I mean, since there are no cheap stock-Android phones clearly anyone who buys a cheap phone doesn't only care about stock Android.
But it's absolutely possible for someone to (1) want a phone at non-"premium" prices and (2) want a phone running stock Android. The fact that they then have to pick at most one of those two because no one but Google makes stock-Android phones and Google have gone premium-only doesn't mean that they don't, or shouldn't, want both.
Alas, most of what's still on the market is either ancient (and not getting new Android updates), or cheap low-res junk, or usually both. The only exception seems to be MediaPad M5, and Huawei screwed that one up by reporting it to the apps as a phone rather than as a tablet; and then there's the whole shared antenna issue (basically if you use Bluetooth, your WiFi is an order of magnitude slower).
And I'm not holding much hope for sub-10" ChromeOS tablets. It seems that everybody just wrote that market off.
As for the products. Groan. What is there to be excited about exactly? The new tablet (slate?) goes up to $1600(!) and doesn't even include a keyboard (an extra $200 for that). The videos of it seem to show it as a laggy mess as well. Hopefully it isn't like that on release.
The Home Hub does not interest me. At all. At least it doesn't have a camera though.
But the real let down is the new Pixel 3 is just so meh. A bizarrely large notch yet a large chin still? Two front facing cameras but still a single rear. Why? Are super selfie takes the biggest buyers for Pixel phones? I take a few selfies now and then but I would much rather a second 2x camera for proper zoom and not some fancy digital zoom powered by AI from my hand tremors.
I can't see any reason to replace my Pixel 2 XL if I am honest, especially at those prices.
Also what happened to the whole "you think you know" social media trolling Google was doing? Turns out yes we did know. Literally everything leaked. So bizarre.
Unfortunately, after seeing what they put out today, I'll probably be looking at other models instead. This phone just looks so "meh" and yet it has such a premium price attached to it. It's almost a bit insulting that they raised the base price and dropped the value they are giving for trade-ins.
I woke up this morning expecting to spend $300 (after trade in) on a slight upgrade to my current phone and they've managed to some how managed to lose me as a customer after seeing what they offered.
Well, rumors a few months ago were that plans had leaked for a third device that would be the spiritual successor to the Nexus line, with stock android at reasonable prices.
We thought we knew, but it seems like a jerk move for Google to make fun of us over our vain hope they'd put out something we wanted.
Also, how does one shop for a phone these days when you want plain old Android and sensible security updates but have other feature concerns as well? I don't want a flagship phone, don't want a giant phablet, and care more about offline GPS performance than data performance...
I am still carrying a Moto G4 Play which I think is borderline too big. It still lasts almost a week on one charge when I take it into the woods in airplane mode and just use the camera app and OSMAnd+ with GPS logging for 3-4 hours per day.
I'm sure this new Pixel is better than the previous one, but we're starting to have conversations around _not_ buying the $1k phone for its camera, and instead buying two devices for $500 each that are better.
I personally feel like even four iPhone generations ago, the iPhone was "good enough" and that the software is really what needs to be improved.
I'm still using my iPhone 6 and iOS 10 (I have some 32 bit apps that I still use). I'm considering swapping the battery instead of buying a new phone. Right now I would only upgrade if I severely broke it.
In some ways it would be a downgrade, because I use the headphone jack to wire it into my car's audio when doing navigation, and plug it into the cig lighter because navigation is a battery hog. It's pretty clear that Apple has no intention of ever bringing back the headphone jack.
Maybe I could find a bluetooth adapter on a headphone jack? I wonder if it could draw enough power from the headphone jack to not need a battery? Probably not.
But I can highly recommend the battery replacement for the iPhone 6. I was luck (unlucky?) enough to get the discounted battery replacement due to mine failing. After I got that it was a significant improvement.
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If you're happy with your phone two years on, you probably get much more bang for your buck paying $79 for a new battery than $749 or $999 or whatever for a new device.
Are these new phones really $1000/$150 ≈ 6 times better?
If you're a VC or early Google employee: sure, by all means. But $1000 for a phone when $150 will do; I find it hard to stomach.
I would love to see hardware upgrades halt for five years while we all (collectively) get our software shit together and optimize everything for performance. That'll never happen, because I think it's in our human nature to Get Things Done in the short-term with compromises that affect the long-term.
Poor software performance is our digital world's global warming.
https://imgur.com/a/DkmG4uL
I could be remembering wrong.
Instead of using a VPN solution for off-site, they have a reverse proxy sitting in front of their back-office sites, the reverse proxy verifies user authentication (inc. 2F) and permissions before allowing access to the site in question (both from on Google's campus and off-site).
The theory goes that even if you break into Google's campus and plug into their corporate network, or find an employee's computer you'll still have no easier time accessing their private pages than you would otherwise.
It is actually a really interesting topic all in its own right.
As for the implementation...
Pixel Slate is great but I can't hold it on my lap while sitting, lying on a couch or my bed. Given I spend all my working hours using my laptop, devices like Pixel Slate and Surface Pro are a no-go.
Only if they built a stronger keyboard with a adjustable latch that could hold the tablet body. I wouldn't mind the extra weight if it meant that it wouldn't need support and could be held just like a laptop in any position.
I bought one last year to try as my dev computer and I'm back to my 2015 mac book. I'm not a fan of the keyboard on it, the battery life isn't as good as I thought it would be, I don't like having a touch screen on my dev machine, but I think the biggest factor in me switching back is that it feels like the remote development services just aren't there yet. I'd get into a coding session and then half way through have some issue with Cloud9 (or a different online IDE, I tried multiple) and it would pull me out of my flow.
ThinkPad X1 Tablet[1] seems to fit your description perfectly.
[1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/windows-tablets/thinkpa...
Although, I must say, the vanilla Android software experience is top notch. I'd just rather install / customize it on more reliable hardware with better support (my op5t has been amazing!)
I bought a pixel (2nd hand, dumb mistake) and then it bricked itself within 3 months. Went back to my repaired Nexus 5x.
Google's hardware is awful and their support is an opaque cloud of pretty UIs and unhelpful people.
Should have gotten a 1+
I've had every Nexus and Pixel starting with the Galaxy Nexus.
Never had an issue with any of them until my most recent Pixel 2 XL where some cables stopped charging the device. One quick open chat on the Google store and I had a replacement sent immediately for free.
I was going to put up with my 5x until the pixel 3 came out, but it became unbearably slow to use as of this spring. So I bought the Motorola x4 under the Android one banner and I couldn't be happier. I think I paid $150 for it after getting $100 for my 5x. The battery life lasts all day and I can use Snapchat on the phone. I regret not upgrading to a "budget" phone earlier.
I'd love to keep it, but it's gotten quite annoying to have to wait for it to respond. I guess it could be malware on it, but it could also be just the hardware not lasting as long as I would hope it would.
I'd like to upgrade, but I don't want to spend $1000+.
Anyone running a Huawei phone that they've flash with a custom firmware? I was thinking of going that route, as it's significantly cheaper.
Only problem is I'm using Google Fi, and I'd like to keep using it. So I don't know what other type of Google Fi-compatible phone to buy.
And I don't see myself buying the Pixel 3. Just seems like a $100 price increase for lower aesthetics. I can't see any meaningful differences in this new phone.