The marketing page is an absolute nightmare for me on the phone. It is laggy, some links simply do nothing (broken scripts? because the browser attempts no navigation at all), clicking the trade-in button only refreshes the page, and worst of all clicking on the pre-order button entirely crashes my browser.
What's happening there?
Sadly, this message was sent from my Pixel 6 pro, which I used to browse the product page.
Does anyone know whether these 911 problems are always due to the "PhoneAccounts" bug? [1]
Or are there separate bugs that happen on their own as well, in other cases? There seems to be a "PhoneAccount Abuse Detector" app, but I am not sure if it can be trusted to tell you if you are suffering from all known 911 bugs, or just one particular one.
On my (Samsung) phone, that app reports "Your device is running a security patch from January 2022 or newer. It should not be vulnerable to this bug!".
So presumably the 911 issue is something different.
It's all in the eye of the beholder I guess. I felt forced to get the Pro Max because it was the only acceptably large phone in their lineup, and still smaller than most competitors.
Given the speaker location, would using an iPad mini as a phone be "end-talking?"
Another feature was that the speaker and microphone were located on the side edge of the phone; this often resulted in many describing it as talking into a "taco phone"[32] or "Sidetalking"
I remember when devices this size were somewhat derisively labeled "phablets". Now people want ever bigger. Apple should rebrand the iPad Mini as iPhone Max PRO, it would probably sell like hotcakes.
Unfortunately you have to give up the higher specs of the 7 Pro if you do that. One nice thing about the iPhone Pro line is the core specs are the same between the 6.1 and 6.7" models.
6.7" is huge to everybody, they're just ignoring the obvious ergonomic problem because the reality of selling phones at retail is your model has to be the biggest one.
They're going to be prying my iPhone SE out of my cold, clenched hand when I die.
actual customers tend to like bigger phones with bigger screens. You don't need to be old to remember how iphone had the 'perfect' phone with the perfect size right up until everyone was buying bigger phones and apple made iphones bigger and the majority of customers like it better.
Enjoy your SE but larger phones are not a problem for the overwhelming majority of people.
People prefer bigger houses and bigger cars and bigger phones at the point of sale but then they don't enjoy owning them. That's my point! You only have to watch someone struggle with a 6" phone for a few seconds to see how bad the experience is objectively.
Do customers actually like bigger phones with bigger screens?
Or were customers going to buy the latest phone anyways, and manufacturers are incorrectly assuming they bought the bigger phone because they wanted it?
And then the other question...when manufacturers bundle specific features with the larger size and leave them off the smaller size, are they assuming people are buying the larger phone because it's larger, and not because of the specific features of that model? Like, I bought a Pixel 6 Pro because of the better camera, not because it's larger.
>Do customers actually like bigger phones with bigger screens?
is the iphone SE the best selling iphone? We've had multiple generations for people to do as you claim and say 'na didn't like it' but instead that's not what happens. they like phones with bigger screens.
>Like, I bought a Pixel 6 Pro because of the better camera, not because it's larger.
The pro was about 5mm longer than the non pro. The size variance was basically nill. in exchange for 5mm longer phone, the pro customers get and additional ~12mm2 of screen space. The whole thing is a red herring and nothing to do with the conversation.
I'm glad there's a phone that suits you and I don't think they should stop offering large-screen phones. I'm at the 90th percentile height for adult males in the U.S., my hand spans 8", and I cannot reach the top opposite corner of 4.7" phone with my thumb while holding the phone in the same hand. On a 4" screen, I can reach it all. 6.7" is obviously out of the question for 1-handed operation.
This fact must be known to Apple and Google since they include an affordance where by double-tapping or swiping down on the screen the top half of the display moves into the bottom half. They know the median customer cannot possibly one-hand these phones.
The specs are meh, nothing to motivate me to drop using a Galaxy phone...and I doubt it will convert any iPhone users
Not clear what Google is going for here, the Pixel line offers very little
Yeah, I guess you get new Android versions first, but who cares? The core OS upgrades now only seem to deliver notification and UI changes I don't care about or consider a net-negative. I'll get them eventually on my Galaxy phone, and they won't improve my life. Security and app updates aren't impacted.
They also recently seem to be doing this thing where they pay _way_ too much for certain trade-ins.
I got a pixel 6a for $150 because I traded in my dying pixel 3a that was also losing software support, and they threw in a free pair of their wireless earbud things.
I actually went through a carrier this time because I could trade in my current device for waaaaay more than it's worth. My current phone is neither receiving OS updates nor security updates, and the Pixel 7 gives me five years of security updates and three years of OS updates.
For me it was the camera + price combo. The Samsung cameras are probably better on the flagship phones but the prices for those phones are insane. iPhone price is obviously even worse and I really don't like the camera and how iPhone applies edits automatically, even to the RAW files.
I do a lot of photography and the Pixel 6 Pro with the wide angle lens plus dedicated Telephoto 4x zoom lens covers like 90% of my needs. Other than true long exposure, super low light night shots, macro, and astrophotography, my Pixel 6 is great.
Same. And after a few days the "photos" app will post some AI enhanced versions of the good shots. Some are ok, some are not much better, but occasionally it makes the photo 100x better. It's pretty amazing.
The phone is pretty nice, good screen, long battery life ....
None of the Samsung cameras really come close to Pixels.
Owning both Pixel 6 and Galaxy S22+, the S22 has a massive problem with slow shutter, movement and dark scenes (this issue I've observed on S22 Ultra as well).
So while Samsung might look better on paper, Pixel consistently takes better picture due to more responsive shutter and less blurry pictures.
Pixel phone gets monthly Android updates, plus you can test all new feature ahead of anyone else as soon as Google push updates. You get a plain Android experience, too. But, of course, Samsung is a fine phone. I am considering getting Galaxy Flip Z 5 as 5 G is now available in my town.
I used to have a Pixel 5 and loved it. Recently switched to an iPhone 14 Pro and... frankly it sucks. iOS UX is pretty bad, IMO, and the photos are subpar. Google's computational photography is much better and faster. Android keyboards are more powerful and lets you easily type punctuation. The notification system is way more customizable. Imessages doesn't filter spam. In fact there isn't even spam filtering built in like there is on the Pixel. You have to buy a separate app. I regret getting an iPhone...
My partner has a Samsung and she's fine with it. But having their own photo and calendar apps makes things super confusing when you're trying to share with another Android user using the Google standard apps.
If I were getting another Android, which I really wish I did, I wouldn't even consider anything but the Pixels...
This is exactly how I feel about the iPhone. From the UX to the Photos.
I recently broke the screen of my of my Pixel 5 and needed to replace it. For the brief period I was going to be without the phone I needed a temporary phone.
My partner has many iPhones laying around but I simply could not deal with iOS. I bought a Pixel 2 as a temporary phone.
The point of the Pixels is that raw hardware specs don't trump good software and features.
I bought an OG Pixel at launch, really enjoyed it, and then bought a Pixel 3 XL which was... rough for a while. I preferred both and their unlocked bootloaders to TouchWiz on any Galaxy I've owned or Samsung abandoning feature updates on my model after a year or two.
If you've never owned a Pixel, they're just generally good phones. Each one has a unique gimmick, and yeah, you're their QA team, but they're ultimately thoughtful, functional devices that show you ways to add value to the things you do.
The whole Pixel divison at Google are shamelessly plagiarising Apple. Everything, from the event slides and marketing to the products themselves, are in built in the image of their respective Apple counterparts. Yikes!
Indeed, I recently switched to iOS from Android and are very happy with widgets and the swiping keyboard, because I really got used to those on Android. Grouping of notifications, also nice. Let them please copy each other's nice functions, both ways.
Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, maybe everyone is. You should try and take a moment to think about why you feel the need to defend the interest of the biggest US company. Does Google reimplementing features for iOS impact your usage of iOS in any way? Doesn't convergence help people switch ecosystem and improve competition in a 2 players market?
As a Canadian, that's never been where we get shafted. Paying over 100$ a month for < 10 GBs when you can get unlimited residential Internet for lower is savagely greedy.
I have not had data on my phone for the last 6 months and I wish everyone would do the same just for 3 months and we'd get European rates tomorrow.
You're not wrong about that, but that's not really Google's problem - our telecoms are brutal. Unfortunately mobile data of some form is also incredibly useful if not borderline essential.
I think you could use a better plan though - I'm paying what I thought were already exorbitant prices at $85 for 20 GB.
I use public mobile with a 25$/month 500mb plan and a bunch of addons (these persist) for 4GB,in case I actually need data.
It's still horrible,coming from Italy with 6 euros/month you get 50-70 GB of data, but it's better than those crappy "min 40 dollars for any data" plans,given I'm 90% of the time under wifi
Unless you're being sarcastic, Google absolutely lets the free software world make free software builds for the android reference developer hardware and they have been doing this continuously & consistently since the ancient Nexus days.
Full OS updates seem to matter less and less these days. I remember upgrading to Android 12, whose flagship feature was - a new theming system. And some rearrangement of the UI. Not really worth the downtime.
Maybe I'm just getting older. I'd rather have year over year consistency over what some committee of designers thinks is more "modern".
Pixel security updates for at least 5 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US. Updates may also include feature drops and other software updates. See g.co/pixel/updates for more information.
Its ridiculous really. I have a 6 year old OnePlus which works great, just the software isn't updated any more. Manufacturers should be supporting phones for 10 years.
It really is. I am currently rocking a Pixel 3 and it stopped receiving security updates ... a long time ago. The phone's a little long in the tooth (about 4 years old); would probably consider continuing to use it if were still getting support.
>Pixel 6 and later Pixel phones will get Pixel updates for at least 5 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US. Pixel updates include Pixel security updates, and may also include feature drops and other software updates.
Sounds like you get security updates for five years with no concrete promise of how many OS updates you get.
If we're going to include years where you only get a security update, the nine year old iPhone 5s just got another security update a month ago.
The $399 original iPhone SE got six years of OS updates and also got another security update at the end of August.
> It isn't as simple as just saying "the iPhone SE still gets updates!", context is important
Nah, it's that simple. iPhone SE got major OS updates and security updates. Yes a few features are not available (mostly camera related), but most of them are. iPhone software update adds longevity to devices that Android devices can only dream about.
I explained this pretty well in my post, but you are incorrect. Apple does not ship all new features of the OS for older phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9mBPyaA4L4
Android ships many new features via libraries, so older devices are able to use new APIs generally.
> but new features are part of libraries and included in versions 5+ years old easily
No. No they don't if you're not being completely disingenuous. Jetpack AppCompat style libraries backport app functionality that older Apple devices will get via OS updates in a strictly saner way than having to rely on a backport of a TextView...
OS-level functionality does not get backported and of course cannot come from library changes.
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Some people who don't know better try to imply that iOS tying things like the mail app to the OS means that Android should be excused... Android does the same thing.
Headline features like Assistant changes, privacy and permissions, and system UI overhauls don't end up on your old device either.
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Android's update strategy has resulted in a hellscape where Google is forced to recommend supporting a 6 year old version of their OS (that doesn't get security updates anymore!) by default.
Missing nice-to-have features doesn't make iOS's approach any less infinitely better than the Android mess.
What you're doing is like bragging that your neighbor's filet mignon is a little undercooked while you chow down on dog food.
> No. No they don't if you're not being completely disingenuous. Jetpack AppCompat style libraries backport app functionality that older Apple devices will get via OS updates in a strictly saner way than having to rely on a backport of a TextView...
This is critically important, though. Look at Compose vs SwiftUI for example–Compose works really well, and even in beta was more stable than SwiftUI, which is nearly impossible to support on iOS 13 devices without massive kludges.
> OS-level functionality does not get backported and of course cannot come from library changes.
This is true, though not super relevant IMO. What OS functionality are folks missing on Android due to being behind? Security updates are the important bit, and most devices still get those for years.
> Gmail is not the Android built-in mail app, just like on iOS Gmail is an additional app that's shipped by Google.
The built-in app isn't updated because Google moved away from that model entirely. Why even bring it up? It's irrelevant.
> Headline features like Assistant changes, privacy and permissions, and system UI overhauls don't end up on your old device either.
Good point regarding privacy & permissions, apps also need to use newer SDK versions to support those IIRC.
The UI overhaul is a weird thing to be concerned about on Android. If you care that much you will install your own launcher. And apps that care will ship the updated UI, one of the advantages of them just being libraries. I guess the notification pane won't update, but is that a huge deal? I'd guess for most folks the answer is no.
> Android's update strategy has resulted in a hellscape where Google is forced to recommend supporting a 6 year old version of their OS
It isn't perfect, but far better than supporting SwiftUI on iOS 13, for example
> What you're doing is like bragging that your neighbor's filet mignon is a little undercooked while you chow down on dog food.
Honestly this is just rude imo, no
To be clear, I think there are pros and cons to both approaches. I think somewhere in the middle would be better, but generally prefer the way Android approaches putting new APIs into older apps.
> This is critically important, though. Look at Compose vs SwiftUI for example–Compose works really well, and even in beta was more stable than SwiftUI, which is nearly impossible to support on iOS 13 devices without massive kludges.
People who need to force iOS 13 support are not representative of the development environment. iOS 14+ (from 2 years) represents 99% of the market. You couldn't target that percentage of Android devices even if you targeted Marshmallow, a 7 year old release!
> The built-in app isn't updated because Google moved away from that model entirely. Why even bring it up? It's irrelevant.
Gmail on Android is comparable to Gmail on iOS.
Mail.app is comparable to AOSP Email.
AOSP Email stopped being updated because Android devices never get updated, so it was becoming a liability. Except now realize that issue applies to _every single feature_ baked into an Android release.
But it's not nearly as powerful, assistant regularly leverages APIs that are part of new OS releases, so just like you're describing on iOS, you'll get the version but you won't get all the features
> The UI overhaul is a weird thing to be concerned about on Android
The first headline feature is about the UI changes and that's always been a thing.
> Honestly this is just rude imo, no
It's not rude, it's being real. Android's update situation is an absolute nightmare on so many levels. Millions of devices that don't get security patches anymore since even the 5 year standard is recent and Google-specific. Backporting even the most basic functionality like a simple text view to 8 year old versions.
It shouldn't be defended, Google had the power to pressure SoC manufacturers, got halfway with Treble, then just kind of gave up by not enforcing compliance via CTS. Now they want to switch to enabling updates with hypervisors, but again haven't made a peep about ever bringing down the hammer on compliance.
The same way that the AOSP Email app hasn't been updated in years so you want to compare Gmail, these manufacturers need Google to have the experience (western) audiences expect. So Google is 100% fumbling their one role at being a buffer between the wild west SoC manufacturers want where they drop new SoCs and stop updating them after 5 minutes.
> People who need to force iOS 13 support are not representative of the development environment. iOS 14+ (from 2 years) represents 99% of the market. You couldn't target that percentage of Android devices even if you targeted Marshmallow, a 7 year old release!
It is important to look at AppStore Connect and actually check the breakdown of your users. When your app has millions of downloads and even 5% are still on 13 it hurts to drop support for them.
> Mail.app is comparable to AOSP Email.
It really isn't. Nobody gets an Android phone to use AOSP email, and it doesn't come on most phones by default.
> It's not rude, it's being real.
That's not the way I see it. Like I said, there are pros and cons with both approaches. Your comments are too black and white and ignore the reality that there are a lot of advantages to Google's approach, and iOS would be improved by adopting similar tactics.
FWIW, I think it would be nice if Google strong-armed folks into longer update cycles (or better yet, manufacturers just did it!). I think if Google brings the hammer down as you suggest the anti-trust situation they find themselves in will be debilitating.
Considering all the Google shutdowns and the news that the Pixel 4 is hitting EOL after 3 years, I've pretty much written off any new Google products/services.
Good for you. A device hitting it's end of support after 3 years??? Stop the press this is unprecedented I demand that you keep selling me an iPhone 6 why don't more companies just keep selling their stuff from a decade ago?
The poster didn't say anything about the company still selling the product, only still supporting it. Which Apple has been doing for products from 5 years ago.
This has something to do with Qualcomm not providing support beyond that. Now newer pixels use Google's own chips, they will be supported for 5 years. Samsung's exynos get 5 years of support as well.
But samsung phones using Qualcomm chips will get only 2-3 years of support.
I got my 512 GB Pixel 6 Pro by having a friend but it for me in Australia and shipping it by mail. It arrived safely after a more than 17K km trip and some customs paperwork, and I'm very happy with it, but I don't think I'm going to do that again for the 7 Pro.
Sometimes I feel tempted to switch to Apple just because they don't do this market segmentation thing (or at least in the countries that I know of). If you want 512, you pay and you get it. If you want 1 TB, you pay and you get it.
Why can't we get 512 GB in Europe on a phone with a great camera that many of us use to take lots of photos and videos, Google? It doesn't make sense.
Are you sure? If I go to store.google.com/au, I can see the obsidian one for A$1,599. It's not available for the other colors, it was the same for the 6 Pro (the 512 model was only made in black).
Yeah, guilty as charged, but in my defense, I change phones often but my replaced phones go to different family members, who are happy with past generation flagships. My previous two phones are being used and all the previous ones had long lives, it's not like I just bin them.
If they sold the 512 7 Pro in Europe I might buy it and offer the 6 Pro to my mother-in-law who has a 5 or so year-old phone now (or my mother with her 4-year-old one, or maybe to my wife, and she in turn to her mother), but I don't think I will be going through the Australian workaround and the associated customs and warranty risks for that.
When I visit that link I am asked to log into my Google account.
If I open the link in private mode, I get redirected to a region picker, where Google reluctantly lets me choose US ("are you _sure_ you want to visit the US store?") From there I have to navigate to the new pixel phones, having completely lost where the link pointed.
I can't believe how difficult Google, a company that claims to have its mission to organize the worlds information, makes it to access their marketing webpages!
Sure, it is better than previous years, where they flat out refused to serve the page outside of the US, but it is still odd how much energy they put into stopping users from viewing their sales material, and effectively stopping people from sharing links.
This is the largest web company. You'd think they'd be mindful to keep basic functionality of the world wide web working on their world wide website.
It’s worth noting that kind of behavior because it demonstrates the attitude of the people that designed this web page.
They want you to be signed in to view a sales and information page or else they will waste your time for trying. That kind of regional picker nonsense needs to go back to 1999 where it didn’t belong either but at least it wouldn’t be lingering about like a zombie now.
Something weird must be happening, because I opened this link in a clean browser tab without any cookies and I could see everything without login prompts or region selectors. It works perfectly fine on my end (Firefox with stock uBlock and Container Tabs with a Boston US IP address).
When I visit the page Google knows I'm in the UK, and correctly routes me to the UK product page with UK pricing, and in a bright blue bar across the top of the page it suggests I trade in my old phone ... and get USD$400.
Google always get close when they make things, but they never quite get it 100% right.
I sometimes log in to my child's school Google account on my computer - the school holds school events by sending invites to the child's account. When I "log out", I'm not truly logged out, as shown by the popups on various websites encouraging me to log in using my child's Google account.
When I clicked this link, it said my administrator has not allowed me to view this site.
The only way out of this that I've found is to clear Google's cookies.
Correction - there is another way out: just don't visit the site. Dealing with Google is just not worth the hassle.
There’s also the fun part where you can’t organize Google accounts (e.g. which account is the default). I have two Google accounts, my main account and a professional account. My main account is where I use things like YouTube and my personal email. If the two accounts get swapped and my professional account becomes the default, the only way to fix this is by logging out of all the accounts and logging in again in the right order. Fun experience! Especially with MFA and physical keys.
I think this is the rationale for profiles in chrome. Because this is infuriating for anyone who has to juggle professional and personal google accounts.
You can also use multi-account containers in firefox [1]
Google has sort-of tried to support multiple accounts for at least a decade and it never entirely worked. Multiple Chrome profiles (or the equivalent in other browsers) is the way to go.
My company uses Google Workspace. On Google help pages (like the Sheets documentation) we can't access the embedded (public) example documents. We have to open them in an "incognito" window.
I used to have 4 android phones(all pixel) and 1 iphone in the house, over the years that old iphone still runs after like 7 years(replaced battery once), but on average the android phone was replaced twice for each user(dead phone, bad phone,etc), in the end it costs way more, plus on those sudden-death phones many pictures etc are permanently lost due to lack of backup.
now the house has 3 iphones, 2 pixel phones instead. the two pixel phone owners are using pixels for software-related reasons(job related to android to some extent, and pixel typically has the newest android updates earliest), otherwise it will be 5 iphones now.
in short, Pixel are not solid built per my experience.
You say you've been through several over the last decade. How often do you replace your phone and what was your reason for doing so, if you didn't have any issues with them?
> I've owned many of the nexus and pixel phones, never had a problem.
That seems to be the exception.
>Every time a new Pixel phone comes out, we make a whole article summarizing all the problems people have with them. We don’t do this for any other manufacturer. Google has proven over the years that its phones simply have way more issues than others.
> I've owned many of the nexus and pixel phones, never had a problem.
I've had 2 Nexus 5x and a Pixel 3a before switching to an iPhone. I can't believe the amount of bullshit I coped up with because I didn't know better.
Both Nexus died because of a well known boot loop issue that was never truly acknowledged by Google (support ghosted me twice). The Pixel died because the socket kinda broke and I couldn't charge it anymore.
All 3 phones became awfully slow after roughly one year of use.
In comparison I switched to an iPhone 2 years ago and it really is good as new: it doesn't feel slower, every single hardware or software feature works great, it's still a first class citizen when it comes to OS updates. As it goes I easily plan to keep it at least 2 to 3 more years. I've never kept an Android phone more than 2 years.
To be fair though the Nexus and Pixel were low end devices. Maybe my experience would have been better with higher end Androids.
Had the same experience with 2 Nexus phones. My Nexus tablets were fine outside of... Every Google Nexus and Pixel device I've owned, going back longer than I can remember, had had sharp battery decline around 16-18 months with not-heavy but daily usage. I'm also looking at an iPhone as my next smartphone, and I've been on Android since the original G1. I've also had issues with Project Fi "support" in the last year or two despite the fact that I vastly prefer their pay as you go and international service.
I own a pixel 3axl that I'd like to continue using but google intentionally eol'd it by refusing to continue updating the os. [1] That's actual data, not anecdata. Which, to be fair, is their choice -- but Apple happily updates 3 year old devices.
I actually STILL have a Nexus 5x, running LineageOS. I use it as a white noise generator.
This week I finally turned it off. After leaving it plugged in constantly for several years, I noticed the battery was swollen and there was a notable bulge behind the screen.
That said, I had another Nexus 5x that did die prematurely due to some kind of storage related problem.
Since the Nexus line, my wife and I have only bought Pixel phones, and have never had a hardware defect in any of them.
Similar experience for me. I had iPhones from 2008-2018, they were rock solid - I upgraded when I felt like it, not when the phones broke.
I bought a Samsung S9 in 2018. After a year the case was kind of coming apart, but I’d come to like Android and so I replaced it with a Pixel 4 and hoped first-party hardware would be better. Nope. After like 6 months the NFC stopped working, which I tolerated. After a year the back case adhesive was failing and the case was, again, coming apart. I replaced the back case and adhesive. It held for almost another year, then failed again.
I bought an iPhone 13 mini and it’s been less than a year but so far it seems just as reliable as my previous iPhones and much sturdier than either Android I had. There were a lot of things I liked about Android, and I realize I’m a sample of one but after back-to-back poor hardware experiences I’m skeptical of Android phone quality even for flagships.
I’ll be sad if I can’t get a similar mini form factor when I do eventually need to upgrade, but Android phones weren’t getting any smaller either so that’s a whole separate thing.
Allow me to counter your experience with my experience. I don't know about the Pixel, but my Samsung phones last yeeeeeeeeeears. Wife and I use Android phones, kids use iPhone. The kids have been through way way way more iPhones. My Samsung Galaxy S7 was used from approximately 2016-2020 until I finally updated to the S10e which has been equally - if not more - reliable than the S7 before it. In fact I was honestly looking at this thread and wondering why people bother upgrading to these latest and greatest devices so soon when these older phones last so long.
BTW that Galaxy S7 still works. I only upgraded because all the updates to Google Maps, Gmail, and other newer versions of software were understandably too slow for the device.
Well, presumably you as an adult take better care of your devices than children do? So I’m not sure it is fair to take anything away from it.
As a more objective, non-anecdotal data point, second (and often third-, fourth-) hand market of apple devices is always blooming, not giving way to such a device churn as all the androids do (but again, it is not a fair comparison as most android is not high end out there)
My father purchased a Galaxy S7... and within a year and a half, it was so slow, that we were just trying to eek it along until the 2 year mark. A software reset didn't do the trick either. Turns out the chip inside (Snapdragon 820) was pretty notorious...
We then purchased a Galaxy Note9. And same story - within a year and a half, super inexplicably slow, closing apps at random, eeking it along until we can get a new phone from Verizon. Then it started dropping phone calls after a botched software update. Plenty of complaints on the forums - no response from Samsung. Software resets had no effect on that issue if you were effected. At that point, replacing the phone was a business necessity. [And my dad isn't doing anything intense - 90% of his work is in Outlook and the web browser.]
This time, iPhone 13 Pro Max. We'll see how it goes. Been almost a year, performs like ever. Seems to be holding up...
On that note, we were also angry at Samsung because we bought a Samsung kitchen. The Stove broke after a year, the replacement also broke, switched brands. The Dishwasher lasted 6 months... and broke, switched out with Bosch. The Microwave hasn't broke... yet... but the electronics are in the door and the repairman warned us those only last a few years before the circuit board snaps from the impacts, so be delicate. At that point we swore off Samsung for everything.
EDIT: If you are wondering if this was due to battery problems... a battery replacement on the Note9 made no discernible difference.
FWIW, that was not my experience. I had my Pixel 2 for years, loved it, and honestly felt very little reason to upgrade. The only reason I did eventually upgrade to a Pixel 6 is because it stopped getting OS updates, but Google has rectified that I believe (I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they now get 5 years of OS updates, they used to just get 3 IIRC).
I still use my Pixel 2 as a standalone device and it still works great.
While I’ve had no issues with either my iPhones or Pixels there is one big difference, long term support.
I got a Pixel 2XL and an iPhone XS Max back in 2018. The Pixel no longer gets major Android updates and hasn’t for over a year. The iPhone just got iOS 16 and will almost certainly get iOS 17.
I know Google have said they will support devices longer and I hope that is true but who really knows with Google. They said two months ago Stadia wasn’t going anywhere too.
> I know Google have said they will support devices longer and I hope that is true but who really knows with Google. They said two months ago Stadia wasn’t going anywhere too.
As part of their sales documentation they have said they will support software for 5 years. That's not something they can renege on without serious legal consequences. It certainly doesn't mean they're guaranteed to provide support for all future Pixel phones for that long, but it does for the 7.
I don't understand how anecdotal experience is considered noteworthy. It always comes across as subversive advertising. Even if everyone on this site had pixel/iphone/whatever issues it wouldn't mean anything significant compared to the millions of devices sold.
I'm using an 11 year old Motorola Defy daily, using the original battery which still lasts for 3 days. It is used as a netcast player (using dSub which connects to the Airsonic server under the stairs), messaging client (mostly Telegram, Conversations (XMPP client) as backup) and phone. It is waterproof, shockproof and with its 3.7" screen small enough to fit in the breast pocket of most shirts.
I never had a Pixel so I can not comment on their reliability. We have never had to return any of our devices... except for the one iOS device we had in the house when my daughter got an iPad from school - it just died and needed to be replaced. Comparing that device to the host of Android devices (all running AOSP derived distributions) we use showed just how many restrictions iOS puts on the user so we did not miss it when she had to leave it back. The school obviously felt the same since they ditched the iPads for Chromebooks.
My daily phone is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 from 2019, running LineageOS. Next to that I use the mentioned Motorola Defy from 2011, a Samsung Galaxy Tab III (10.1") from 2013 and a Teclast x80 Pro from 2016. I used to use a Samsung Galaxy SIIIneo from 2014 but that one suffered a broken screen when it fell from the roof while installing solar panels. The thing still works but I actually prefer the Motorola Defy over it due to its more compact size. Notice the age of these devices, they're "ancient" by most measures but perfectly useable.
Most people I talk to dislike the camera hump on the back, but Google insists on it. I guess it is their new design language. Sad, because I think the simple design from the Pixel 4 to 5a was quite nice. But from what I hear, the series 6 hasn't been that much of a hit as they had anticipated it. I even once saw an ad for it in a cinema, which surprised me as non-internet Google advertisements have been rare in my experience. Not sure if the 7/7 Pro will be better, or if they will just throw everything away in a year or two, and start all over again.
Then again, the only reason I was even interested in following the development was because I had been considering to buy a new phone after 5 years to use Graphene OS.
I don't mind, every phone has that now anyway. The big deal is that it isn't so asymmetrical, which I quite like visually and has practical benefits too (you can use it lying on a table).
I have a 6 Pro that I got in November. AccuBattery says my health is at 99%. I use my phone for probably an hour a day and charge every other day.
You don't let your phones sit on their chargers while at 100% battery, do you? I'm fairly sure that's what killed the batteries of my last two phones. My Pixel 3 was working fine until I started working from home and the phone rarely left the charger. After 3 months, the battery started swelling.
I ended up returning my 6 for a 6a in order to get a phone that was just "too big" instead of "gargantuan."
The 6a's biggest downside is that it still doesn't fit in a normal pocket. Its second biggest downside is dated camera hardware. The 7 would fix that second gripe, but it's even bigger than the 6a.
Am I really so much in the minority in wanting a reasonably-sized phone? Like 2.75"x5.5"?
Low sales from smaller phones is more likely because the smaller phones aren't just smaller, they have fewer features.
It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Going from a 6 Pro to a 6 doesn't just mean it's smaller, it means going from a 120 hz screen to 60 hz and losing the telephoto camera, ultrawide front camera, 512 GB storage option, and ultra wideband support.
Going from a Pixel 6 to a 6a gets a lower-quality, 60 hz screen, loses the 256 GB option, and gets only a 12 MP front camera.
Put all the features of the 6 Pro into the 6a form factor, and THEN you can have the apples-to-apples comparison and decide if people actually want large phones.
Depends on your pocket. I've had the 6a for a while now and it fits in my pockets just fine. Though I know basically no phones fit in my wife's pockets anymore, so there's that.
It's so sad that companies are ditching smaller devices. I liked my Pixel 3 as I can perfectly use it with one hand given its convenient 5.5 size. Now that I am considering upgrading to Pixel 7, I just can't shake the feeling that I might not enjoy a 6.3 display.
Yeah, I got the Pixel 6 when it was on sale a couple months ago. Amazing camera and buttery OS, but damn that thing was just huge to me. Also the on-screen fingerprint reader was only about 90% accurate which was just frustrating enough to make me hate it.
Ended up sending it back and getting a refurbished Pixel 5. Not state of the art, but the size/weight is perfect and the physical fingerprint reader never misses a beat.
Really, really hoping they bring back a sensible model to the Pixel line for people that just want a nice, clean, lightweight phone.
When I first bought one, I disliked how the curve distorted the first and last character on every line of text. I thought I'd get used to it. The opposite happened. I found that my eyes subconsciously avoided looking at the edges and stayed focused on the middle of the screen. After a week, the struggle between my conscious choice to read and my unconscious desire not to look at the edges was giving me a pounding headache within twenty minutes of picking the phone up. I sent it back and swore off curved screens forever.
The marketing page is an absolute nightmare for me on the phone. It is laggy, some links simply do nothing (broken scripts? because the browser attempts no navigation at all), clicking the trade-in button only refreshes the page, and worst of all clicking on the pre-order button entirely crashes my browser.
What's happening there?
Sadly, this message was sent from my Pixel 6 pro, which I used to browse the product page.
Camera (and their camera software, which I think is only on google phones?), no carrier bloatware, 5 years of updates, no weird third party hardware tweaks. That's a pretty good package.
If I buy a new iPhone every 3-4 years (I went from an iPhone 7S to an iPhone XR to an iPhone 13 Pro Max), I'm buying the camera upgrades, which are very noticeable. I have a kid, we travel a lot, so I take a lot of photos and videos... for me, it's a no-brainer.
I heard this on a podcast a while back "You'll never look back and remember the screen/battery/etc jump from X -> X+1 and those changes all run together in the end but your pictures are only as good as the camera they were taken with".
It's for that reason (and because I like playing with new tech) that I upgrade yearly (upgrade program, I'm just perpetually paying a monthly fee for my phone). I'm well aware that this is "wasteful" or not the best financial decision for most people but it's a cost that I am happy to pay because upgrading and playing with the "new hotness" is fun for me. Also I always know I'm getting the best picture I could be getting (I'll never carry a dedicated camera so it's my phone or nothing).
Hedonistic Adaptation. People love the photos of themselves from the 90s, 80s, 70s and every previous decade before that. You're definitely on the bleeding edge of that adaptation. For most people, phones from 5 years ago are already extremely goood.
I mean, that's what people claim is what sold them on a new phone, but I can't really tell the difference anymore. Looking back at my old pictures, I can't tell when I upgraded phones. Even pictures from 2016 look amazing.
I can definitely tell a big difference in colors and details (sometimes a tad too much) from a 2016 iphone 6 to a 2020 Pixel 4 eg. But the jump from the Pixel 4a 5G to the 6 Pro wasn't that big, maybe 10-20% subjective improvement. I expect the new generation's improvement to be even more marginal and won't update.
There’s a lot that goes into it. I’m mainly talking about iPhone, because I’ve personally only been disappointed in expensive Android phones.
Camera, as you mentioned. But also the build quality, the display, the longevity (software updates last for years, so you can wait 4 or 5 years to upgrade). Personally I much prefer the software experience of iOS vs Android. The speed of the device, where you’re never waiting for something to respond.
But I once you go to the high levels, and looking between the normal and ‘Pro’ versions of flagship phones, it’s just the camera that separates them.
It's also performance. Everyone in my life that's got a budget phone (I'd say less $400 MSRP) has always had major issues with that phone. My wife only streams videos on her phone, so we got a budget phone for her since even the cheapest phones should play Netflix right? Wrong. The video would lag to the point where it was unwatchable. It got so bad that we ended up getting her a Pixel 6 when they were on sale and it was a night and day difference. Between the camera and how much better the performance is, I think it is worth it, especially if you use it constantly.
they are definitely priced like high range, last one i got would heat up if I played a game or recorded a video, returned it. if i'm gonna pay $$$$ then might as well get something that is built like one. Btw all phones are overpriced.
Also the Pixel Watch is being announced today. It's got some interesting design compared to the other two main smartwatches on the market (Apple and Samsung).
Personally, it being circular with a curvy screen appeals to my watch aesthetic sense.
Shame that they said it's a "24h" battery life device. My old Fitbit lasts something like a week. I wish these more advanced watches had battery life closer to a week than a day. It would be a hassle to charge it every day.
I sleep with my watch, I charge it for ~1hr every day at 11am->12pm while I'm at my computer (reminders to start/end charging handle everything I need).
Personally I think I almost prefer charging "daily" because with my old Pebble watch it would last 2-4 days or so and since I wasn't in the habit I would always get caught with low battery. Even if the watch lasted a week I'd probably still charge nearly daily (maybe skip the charge if I'm not at my desk or on the weekend).
I like the round design (I used to own the original Moto360) but those bezels are massive. The actual screen on it is a really small part of the surface area.
I am a long time user of Pixel (and Nexus) phones, and the quality control has never been that great, but some of the recent issues I see reported in online spaces like https://reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/ have me strongly reconsidering other options. The pace of updates is only worth it if the updates don't come with serious bugs. For example, there have been users reporting that the Android 13 update bricked their phone. I have learned to treat major version upgrades with suspicion, and so I only upgrade after a few patches have been released. Mind you these phones are expensive. Imagine spending $900USD on phone, only to have critical functionality break on update.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 186 ms ] threadWhat's happening there?
Sadly, this message was sent from my Pixel 6 pro, which I used to browse the product page.
https://reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/xwjnf2/pixel_6_pro...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32713375
Or are there separate bugs that happen on their own as well, in other cases? There seems to be a "PhoneAccount Abuse Detector" app, but I am not sure if it can be trusted to tell you if you are suffering from all known 911 bugs, or just one particular one.
[1] https://medium.com/@mmrahman123/how-a-bug-in-android-and-mic...
So presumably the 911 issue is something different.
Another feature was that the speaker and microphone were located on the side edge of the phone; this often resulted in many describing it as talking into a "taco phone"[32] or "Sidetalking"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Gage_(device)
I would not be surprised if iPhone SE 2024 would be an iPhone Mini form factor.
Please, Pro shouldn't mean bigger and chunkier. Do what Apple does: standard, Max, Pro, Pro Max.
They're going to be prying my iPhone SE out of my cold, clenched hand when I die.
Enjoy your SE but larger phones are not a problem for the overwhelming majority of people.
You're just wrong.
Do customers actually like bigger phones with bigger screens?
Or were customers going to buy the latest phone anyways, and manufacturers are incorrectly assuming they bought the bigger phone because they wanted it?
And then the other question...when manufacturers bundle specific features with the larger size and leave them off the smaller size, are they assuming people are buying the larger phone because it's larger, and not because of the specific features of that model? Like, I bought a Pixel 6 Pro because of the better camera, not because it's larger.
is the iphone SE the best selling iphone? We've had multiple generations for people to do as you claim and say 'na didn't like it' but instead that's not what happens. they like phones with bigger screens.
>Like, I bought a Pixel 6 Pro because of the better camera, not because it's larger.
The pro was about 5mm longer than the non pro. The size variance was basically nill. in exchange for 5mm longer phone, the pro customers get and additional ~12mm2 of screen space. The whole thing is a red herring and nothing to do with the conversation.
Sales Data and Survey suggest yes. They are simply using it like a mini tablet.
This fact must be known to Apple and Google since they include an affordance where by double-tapping or swiping down on the screen the top half of the display moves into the bottom half. They know the median customer cannot possibly one-hand these phones.
Not clear what Google is going for here, the Pixel line offers very little
Yeah, I guess you get new Android versions first, but who cares? The core OS upgrades now only seem to deliver notification and UI changes I don't care about or consider a net-negative. I'll get them eventually on my Galaxy phone, and they won't improve my life. Security and app updates aren't impacted.
A phone should be $300-400 not the ridiculous prices they're going for now.
I got a pixel 6a for $150 because I traded in my dying pixel 3a that was also losing software support, and they threw in a free pair of their wireless earbud things.
I do a lot of photography and the Pixel 6 Pro with the wide angle lens plus dedicated Telephoto 4x zoom lens covers like 90% of my needs. Other than true long exposure, super low light night shots, macro, and astrophotography, my Pixel 6 is great.
The phone is pretty nice, good screen, long battery life ....
Owning both Pixel 6 and Galaxy S22+, the S22 has a massive problem with slow shutter, movement and dark scenes (this issue I've observed on S22 Ultra as well).
So while Samsung might look better on paper, Pixel consistently takes better picture due to more responsive shutter and less blurry pictures.
My partner has a Samsung and she's fine with it. But having their own photo and calendar apps makes things super confusing when you're trying to share with another Android user using the Google standard apps.
If I were getting another Android, which I really wish I did, I wouldn't even consider anything but the Pixels...
My partner has many iPhones laying around but I simply could not deal with iOS. I bought a Pixel 2 as a temporary phone.
I bought an OG Pixel at launch, really enjoyed it, and then bought a Pixel 3 XL which was... rough for a while. I preferred both and their unlocked bootloaders to TouchWiz on any Galaxy I've owned or Samsung abandoning feature updates on my model after a year or two.
If you've never owned a Pixel, they're just generally good phones. Each one has a unique gimmick, and yeah, you're their QA team, but they're ultimately thoughtful, functional devices that show you ways to add value to the things you do.
I have not had data on my phone for the last 6 months and I wish everyone would do the same just for 3 months and we'd get European rates tomorrow.
I think you could use a better plan though - I'm paying what I thought were already exorbitant prices at $85 for 20 GB.
Great news --- long overdue!
Bastards.
Pixel 7 & 7 Pro aren't listed yet, but it's hard to imagine they aren't going to show up here: https://source.android.com/docs/setup/build/running
Maybe I'm just getting older. I'd rather have year over year consistency over what some committee of designers thinks is more "modern".
Sounds like you get security updates for five years with no concrete promise of how many OS updates you get.
If we're going to include years where you only get a security update, the nine year old iPhone 5s just got another security update a month ago.
The $399 original iPhone SE got six years of OS updates and also got another security update at the end of August.
Apples and oranges here, as yes they get updates but are missing features supported in newer devices.
Whereas Android does not get updates but new features are part of libraries and included in versions 5+ years old easily.
It isn't as simple as just saying "the iPhone SE still gets updates!", context is important
Nah, it's that simple. iPhone SE got major OS updates and security updates. Yes a few features are not available (mostly camera related), but most of them are. iPhone software update adds longevity to devices that Android devices can only dream about.
Android ships many new features via libraries, so older devices are able to use new APIs generally.
It isn't as simple as your comment claims.
> but new features are part of libraries and included in versions 5+ years old easily
No. No they don't if you're not being completely disingenuous. Jetpack AppCompat style libraries backport app functionality that older Apple devices will get via OS updates in a strictly saner way than having to rely on a backport of a TextView...
OS-level functionality does not get backported and of course cannot come from library changes.
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Some people who don't know better try to imply that iOS tying things like the mail app to the OS means that Android should be excused... Android does the same thing.
Gmail is not the Android built-in mail app, just like on iOS Gmail is an additional app that's shipped by Google. This is the Android Email app and it hasn't been updated in 3 years: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Emai...
Headline features like Assistant changes, privacy and permissions, and system UI overhauls don't end up on your old device either.
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Android's update strategy has resulted in a hellscape where Google is forced to recommend supporting a 6 year old version of their OS (that doesn't get security updates anymore!) by default.
Missing nice-to-have features doesn't make iOS's approach any less infinitely better than the Android mess.
What you're doing is like bragging that your neighbor's filet mignon is a little undercooked while you chow down on dog food.
This is critically important, though. Look at Compose vs SwiftUI for example–Compose works really well, and even in beta was more stable than SwiftUI, which is nearly impossible to support on iOS 13 devices without massive kludges.
> OS-level functionality does not get backported and of course cannot come from library changes.
This is true, though not super relevant IMO. What OS functionality are folks missing on Android due to being behind? Security updates are the important bit, and most devices still get those for years.
> Gmail is not the Android built-in mail app, just like on iOS Gmail is an additional app that's shipped by Google.
The built-in app isn't updated because Google moved away from that model entirely. Why even bring it up? It's irrelevant.
> Headline features like Assistant changes, privacy and permissions, and system UI overhauls don't end up on your old device either.
Assistant receives updates via the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
Good point regarding privacy & permissions, apps also need to use newer SDK versions to support those IIRC.
The UI overhaul is a weird thing to be concerned about on Android. If you care that much you will install your own launcher. And apps that care will ship the updated UI, one of the advantages of them just being libraries. I guess the notification pane won't update, but is that a huge deal? I'd guess for most folks the answer is no.
> Android's update strategy has resulted in a hellscape where Google is forced to recommend supporting a 6 year old version of their OS
It isn't perfect, but far better than supporting SwiftUI on iOS 13, for example
> What you're doing is like bragging that your neighbor's filet mignon is a little undercooked while you chow down on dog food.
Honestly this is just rude imo, no
To be clear, I think there are pros and cons to both approaches. I think somewhere in the middle would be better, but generally prefer the way Android approaches putting new APIs into older apps.
People who need to force iOS 13 support are not representative of the development environment. iOS 14+ (from 2 years) represents 99% of the market. You couldn't target that percentage of Android devices even if you targeted Marshmallow, a 7 year old release!
> The built-in app isn't updated because Google moved away from that model entirely. Why even bring it up? It's irrelevant.
Gmail on Android is comparable to Gmail on iOS.
Mail.app is comparable to AOSP Email.
AOSP Email stopped being updated because Android devices never get updated, so it was becoming a liability. Except now realize that issue applies to _every single feature_ baked into an Android release.
> Assistant receives updates via the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
Yeah and Google assistant is on iOS... https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-assistant/id1220976145
But it's not nearly as powerful, assistant regularly leverages APIs that are part of new OS releases, so just like you're describing on iOS, you'll get the version but you won't get all the features
> The UI overhaul is a weird thing to be concerned about on Android
https://www.android.com/android-13/
The first headline feature is about the UI changes and that's always been a thing.
> Honestly this is just rude imo, no
It's not rude, it's being real. Android's update situation is an absolute nightmare on so many levels. Millions of devices that don't get security patches anymore since even the 5 year standard is recent and Google-specific. Backporting even the most basic functionality like a simple text view to 8 year old versions.
It shouldn't be defended, Google had the power to pressure SoC manufacturers, got halfway with Treble, then just kind of gave up by not enforcing compliance via CTS. Now they want to switch to enabling updates with hypervisors, but again haven't made a peep about ever bringing down the hammer on compliance.
The same way that the AOSP Email app hasn't been updated in years so you want to compare Gmail, these manufacturers need Google to have the experience (western) audiences expect. So Google is 100% fumbling their one role at being a buffer between the wild west SoC manufacturers want where they drop new SoCs and stop updating them after 5 minutes.
It is important to look at AppStore Connect and actually check the breakdown of your users. When your app has millions of downloads and even 5% are still on 13 it hurts to drop support for them.
> Mail.app is comparable to AOSP Email.
It really isn't. Nobody gets an Android phone to use AOSP email, and it doesn't come on most phones by default.
> It's not rude, it's being real.
That's not the way I see it. Like I said, there are pros and cons with both approaches. Your comments are too black and white and ignore the reality that there are a lot of advantages to Google's approach, and iOS would be improved by adopting similar tactics.
FWIW, I think it would be nice if Google strong-armed folks into longer update cycles (or better yet, manufacturers just did it!). I think if Google brings the hammer down as you suggest the anti-trust situation they find themselves in will be debilitating.
my Pixel 4 will be being replaced with an iPhone
(the manifest v3 changes really piss me off)
The poster didn't say anything about the company still selling the product, only still supporting it. Which Apple has been doing for products from 5 years ago.
This was known from when it was first released; this wasn't some surprise "hey, we're dropping this, good luck!"
With the 6 and later they switched from 3 to 5: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=...
But samsung phones using Qualcomm chips will get only 2-3 years of support.
I got my 512 GB Pixel 6 Pro by having a friend but it for me in Australia and shipping it by mail. It arrived safely after a more than 17K km trip and some customs paperwork, and I'm very happy with it, but I don't think I'm going to do that again for the 7 Pro.
Sometimes I feel tempted to switch to Apple just because they don't do this market segmentation thing (or at least in the countries that I know of). If you want 512, you pay and you get it. If you want 1 TB, you pay and you get it.
Why can't we get 512 GB in Europe on a phone with a great camera that many of us use to take lots of photos and videos, Google? It doesn't make sense.
My first thought that the higher storage phones need to be repriced due to strong USD.
If they sold the 512 7 Pro in Europe I might buy it and offer the 6 Pro to my mother-in-law who has a 5 or so year-old phone now (or my mother with her 4-year-old one, or maybe to my wife, and she in turn to her mother), but I don't think I will be going through the Australian workaround and the associated customs and warranty risks for that.
If I open the link in private mode, I get redirected to a region picker, where Google reluctantly lets me choose US ("are you _sure_ you want to visit the US store?") From there I have to navigate to the new pixel phones, having completely lost where the link pointed.
I can't believe how difficult Google, a company that claims to have its mission to organize the worlds information, makes it to access their marketing webpages!
https://store.google.com/magazine/google_pixel_7?hl=en-US
When a customer provides feedback its an opportunity to improve your service, not complain about them.
This is the largest web company. You'd think they'd be mindful to keep basic functionality of the world wide web working on their world wide website.
They want you to be signed in to view a sales and information page or else they will waste your time for trying. That kind of regional picker nonsense needs to go back to 1999 where it didn’t belong either but at least it wouldn’t be lingering about like a zombie now.
Google always get close when they make things, but they never quite get it 100% right.
Google has a history of trying to block users who they don’t ship to, from viewing item details in their online stores.
When I clicked this link, it said my administrator has not allowed me to view this site.
The only way out of this that I've found is to clear Google's cookies.
Correction - there is another way out: just don't visit the site. Dealing with Google is just not worth the hassle.
You can also use multi-account containers in firefox [1]
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...
[T] https://www.androidpolice.com/pixel-6-slow-fingerprint-senso...
now the house has 3 iphones, 2 pixel phones instead. the two pixel phone owners are using pixels for software-related reasons(job related to android to some extent, and pixel typically has the newest android updates earliest), otherwise it will be 5 iphones now.
in short, Pixel are not solid built per my experience.
My kids own iPhones, they haven't had a problem with theirs either.
In short, I've got nothing really to report.
Modern technology works just fine in the general case, aside from anecdotes of failures. News at 11.
That seems to be the exception.
>Every time a new Pixel phone comes out, we make a whole article summarizing all the problems people have with them. We don’t do this for any other manufacturer. Google has proven over the years that its phones simply have way more issues than others.
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-biggest-proble...
I've had 2 Nexus 5x and a Pixel 3a before switching to an iPhone. I can't believe the amount of bullshit I coped up with because I didn't know better.
Both Nexus died because of a well known boot loop issue that was never truly acknowledged by Google (support ghosted me twice). The Pixel died because the socket kinda broke and I couldn't charge it anymore.
All 3 phones became awfully slow after roughly one year of use.
In comparison I switched to an iPhone 2 years ago and it really is good as new: it doesn't feel slower, every single hardware or software feature works great, it's still a first class citizen when it comes to OS updates. As it goes I easily plan to keep it at least 2 to 3 more years. I've never kept an Android phone more than 2 years.
To be fair though the Nexus and Pixel were low end devices. Maybe my experience would have been better with higher end Androids.
[1] https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en#z...
This week I finally turned it off. After leaving it plugged in constantly for several years, I noticed the battery was swollen and there was a notable bulge behind the screen.
That said, I had another Nexus 5x that did die prematurely due to some kind of storage related problem.
Since the Nexus line, my wife and I have only bought Pixel phones, and have never had a hardware defect in any of them.
I bought a Samsung S9 in 2018. After a year the case was kind of coming apart, but I’d come to like Android and so I replaced it with a Pixel 4 and hoped first-party hardware would be better. Nope. After like 6 months the NFC stopped working, which I tolerated. After a year the back case adhesive was failing and the case was, again, coming apart. I replaced the back case and adhesive. It held for almost another year, then failed again.
I bought an iPhone 13 mini and it’s been less than a year but so far it seems just as reliable as my previous iPhones and much sturdier than either Android I had. There were a lot of things I liked about Android, and I realize I’m a sample of one but after back-to-back poor hardware experiences I’m skeptical of Android phone quality even for flagships.
I’ll be sad if I can’t get a similar mini form factor when I do eventually need to upgrade, but Android phones weren’t getting any smaller either so that’s a whole separate thing.
BTW that Galaxy S7 still works. I only upgraded because all the updates to Google Maps, Gmail, and other newer versions of software were understandably too slow for the device.
As a more objective, non-anecdotal data point, second (and often third-, fourth-) hand market of apple devices is always blooming, not giving way to such a device churn as all the androids do (but again, it is not a fair comparison as most android is not high end out there)
We then purchased a Galaxy Note9. And same story - within a year and a half, super inexplicably slow, closing apps at random, eeking it along until we can get a new phone from Verizon. Then it started dropping phone calls after a botched software update. Plenty of complaints on the forums - no response from Samsung. Software resets had no effect on that issue if you were effected. At that point, replacing the phone was a business necessity. [And my dad isn't doing anything intense - 90% of his work is in Outlook and the web browser.]
This time, iPhone 13 Pro Max. We'll see how it goes. Been almost a year, performs like ever. Seems to be holding up...
On that note, we were also angry at Samsung because we bought a Samsung kitchen. The Stove broke after a year, the replacement also broke, switched brands. The Dishwasher lasted 6 months... and broke, switched out with Bosch. The Microwave hasn't broke... yet... but the electronics are in the door and the repairman warned us those only last a few years before the circuit board snaps from the impacts, so be delicate. At that point we swore off Samsung for everything.
EDIT: If you are wondering if this was due to battery problems... a battery replacement on the Note9 made no discernible difference.
I still use my Pixel 2 as a standalone device and it still works great.
I got a Pixel 2XL and an iPhone XS Max back in 2018. The Pixel no longer gets major Android updates and hasn’t for over a year. The iPhone just got iOS 16 and will almost certainly get iOS 17.
I know Google have said they will support devices longer and I hope that is true but who really knows with Google. They said two months ago Stadia wasn’t going anywhere too.
As part of their sales documentation they have said they will support software for 5 years. That's not something they can renege on without serious legal consequences. It certainly doesn't mean they're guaranteed to provide support for all future Pixel phones for that long, but it does for the 7.
I'm using an 11 year old Motorola Defy daily, using the original battery which still lasts for 3 days. It is used as a netcast player (using dSub which connects to the Airsonic server under the stairs), messaging client (mostly Telegram, Conversations (XMPP client) as backup) and phone. It is waterproof, shockproof and with its 3.7" screen small enough to fit in the breast pocket of most shirts.
I never had a Pixel so I can not comment on their reliability. We have never had to return any of our devices... except for the one iOS device we had in the house when my daughter got an iPad from school - it just died and needed to be replaced. Comparing that device to the host of Android devices (all running AOSP derived distributions) we use showed just how many restrictions iOS puts on the user so we did not miss it when she had to leave it back. The school obviously felt the same since they ditched the iPads for Chromebooks.
My daily phone is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 from 2019, running LineageOS. Next to that I use the mentioned Motorola Defy from 2011, a Samsung Galaxy Tab III (10.1") from 2013 and a Teclast x80 Pro from 2016. I used to use a Samsung Galaxy SIIIneo from 2014 but that one suffered a broken screen when it fell from the roof while installing solar panels. The thing still works but I actually prefer the Motorola Defy over it due to its more compact size. Notice the age of these devices, they're "ancient" by most measures but perfectly useable.
Then again, the only reason I was even interested in following the development was because I had been considering to buy a new phone after 5 years to use Graphene OS.
No way, if you go caseless, it's so much better than the asymmetric camera bump. If you use a case, it doesn't matter either way.
I've had battery discharge problems with the Pixel 4 and 5 just a few months out of warranty. Hope that's been fixed in more recent generations?
You don't let your phones sit on their chargers while at 100% battery, do you? I'm fairly sure that's what killed the batteries of my last two phones. My Pixel 3 was working fine until I started working from home and the phone rarely left the charger. After 3 months, the battery started swelling.
Yup guilty, I'm a bit neurotic about keeping things charged in case I need it later, didn't realize this affected battery life
TIL, thank you
The 6a's biggest downside is that it still doesn't fit in a normal pocket. Its second biggest downside is dated camera hardware. The 7 would fix that second gripe, but it's even bigger than the 6a.
Am I really so much in the minority in wanting a reasonably-sized phone? Like 2.75"x5.5"?
Your best bet might be Samsung Galaxy S22.
It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Going from a 6 Pro to a 6 doesn't just mean it's smaller, it means going from a 120 hz screen to 60 hz and losing the telephoto camera, ultrawide front camera, 512 GB storage option, and ultra wideband support.
Going from a Pixel 6 to a 6a gets a lower-quality, 60 hz screen, loses the 256 GB option, and gets only a 12 MP front camera.
Put all the features of the 6 Pro into the 6a form factor, and THEN you can have the apples-to-apples comparison and decide if people actually want large phones.
there was a project about making a smaller phone that got #1 in HN a few months ago. wondering what is the progress on it.
https://smallandroidphone.com/
Sign up to help pressure OEMs to build something reasonably sized!
Ended up sending it back and getting a refurbished Pixel 5. Not state of the art, but the size/weight is perfect and the physical fingerprint reader never misses a beat.
Really, really hoping they bring back a sensible model to the Pixel line for people that just want a nice, clean, lightweight phone.
*This rationale is seriously why the XBox 360 wasn’t the XBox 2. Which makes the XBox One all the more confusing.
What's happening there?
Sadly, this message was sent from my Pixel 6 pro, which I used to browse the product page.
https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_7-11903.php
I personally never spend more than 170-200€.
Is it the quality of the camera? What am I not seeing?
If I buy a new iPhone every 3-4 years (I went from an iPhone 7S to an iPhone XR to an iPhone 13 Pro Max), I'm buying the camera upgrades, which are very noticeable. I have a kid, we travel a lot, so I take a lot of photos and videos... for me, it's a no-brainer.
In my experience cheaper ones tend to have performance and battery issues much more quickly, than high end, and in the end aren't cheaper.
I heard this on a podcast a while back "You'll never look back and remember the screen/battery/etc jump from X -> X+1 and those changes all run together in the end but your pictures are only as good as the camera they were taken with".
It's for that reason (and because I like playing with new tech) that I upgrade yearly (upgrade program, I'm just perpetually paying a monthly fee for my phone). I'm well aware that this is "wasteful" or not the best financial decision for most people but it's a cost that I am happy to pay because upgrading and playing with the "new hotness" is fun for me. Also I always know I'm getting the best picture I could be getting (I'll never carry a dedicated camera so it's my phone or nothing).
"Upgrading" a device can very easily be a regression...
Camera, as you mentioned. But also the build quality, the display, the longevity (software updates last for years, so you can wait 4 or 5 years to upgrade). Personally I much prefer the software experience of iOS vs Android. The speed of the device, where you’re never waiting for something to respond.
But I once you go to the high levels, and looking between the normal and ‘Pro’ versions of flagship phones, it’s just the camera that separates them.
Like most things, you get what you pay for.
CPU performance, which in turns means overall system responsiveness as well as better web performance.
Memory, multiple App usage.
4G+ and 5G features. Their are differences, despite HN not knowing much about the subject.
Software update, do your 200 Euro phone get software update for 5+ years?
Camera, as others have mentioned already.
A lot, a lot of other minor details.
Personally, it being circular with a curvy screen appeals to my watch aesthetic sense.
Personally I think I almost prefer charging "daily" because with my old Pebble watch it would last 2-4 days or so and since I wasn't in the habit I would always get caught with low battery. Even if the watch lasted a week I'd probably still charge nearly daily (maybe skip the charge if I'm not at my desk or on the weekend).