I'm really glad to see both the partnership with iFixit and the 7 years of support. Because everything else seems mostly meh to me, and while I'm upgrading this year from a Pixel 6 Pro, the continued diminished returns make it seem likely that 2-3 years from now I won't have as much reason to.
My impression is that the flagships have become fairly interchangeable (aside from perhaps the new Xperia, which still has its own character to some extent) and which one "is the one to buy" is now mostly down when you're in the market to buy.
As in, this one is debuting the new Samsung GN2 cam sensor and I think the SoC manufacturing process node, ahead of whenever Samsung and the others post their new updated devices. So for a few months this is probably the one to get, until a competitor drops the next set of updates from the HW supply chain, and so on.
Three years of updates and iFixit are great and could be differentiating for now, but hopefully the rest of the ecosystem will catch up to that standard.
Oh, do you have a source? The pre-release coverage still talked a lot about the GN2 even days ago, and to me it was more or less the defining new HW drop in this phone.
It's a lot less exciting without a sensor upgrade and would be mostly playing catch-up otherwise.
Except for stylus support --- Samsung is thankfully continuing with S-Pen support (which also works on the Kindle Scribe and Wacom One and various other devices).
Did you purchase your phone from T-Mobile? I'm on T-Mobile but I always buy my Pixels direct from Google. All updates have come direct from Google, no T-Mobile involvement at all.
In this particular case, yes, but the update can still be blocked by the carrier. People have been successful in updating the device by temporarily putting the SIM from another carrier in the phone.
My daughter's Pixel 5a update, for example, was delayed but it was purchased from Google.
To be clear, the update _does_ come directly from Google but the device won't show that the update is available until the carrier gives the green light. The factory image can still be sideloaded.
The P7P is the first phone that I've not purchased outright, and that's because TMO was willing to give me a ridiculously generous offer to trade in a OnePlus 7t.
I agree, that's how I ended up buying the P7P through TMO -- it was a ridiculously generous offer.
With the Pixel updates, at least, the updates come through Google but the carrier (at least TMO) can prevent this from happening even if the phone is unrestricted.
While the downloads do come directly from Google, they work with the carriers, who can delay the updates until they have a chance to look at it and ensure they're happy with it... whatever that means.
IIRC you can download the images from Google via web browser and flash manually, but not sure if you can still do that, and I've never tried it myself.
>IIRC you can download the images from Google via web browser and flash manually, but not sure if you can still do that, and I've never tried it myself.
My experience with my own pixel 7 pro and a pixel 5 has been that these devices are an order of magnitude lower in build quality than Samsung or iPhones. I really, really wanted to be happy with them but they've been a never ending source of frustration.
My pixel 5 just stopped turning on one day about 2 years in, and my pixel 7 pro had the volume and power buttons fall out about 3 weeks in (not due to a drop, after googling it's apparently a very widely seen issue).
The service with iFixit was unhelpful, they told me "We keep seeing this and Google says this is wear and tear. We can't submit it for a warranty repair, and if we try we end up eating the cost". After finally complaining on twitter I was contacted by some support person who said to give iFixit this email and they would fix it. They still refused, and after a few more rounds of interactions like that I eventually bought some replacement buttons on Amazon, popped them in, and put a case that covers them on it. I'm fully expecting this to randomly die some time before 2 years is up.
Combine that with Google's extremely strong tendency to abandon everything, promises like these seem well, worthless.
Meanwhile my daughter is using my wife's old iPhone from 8 years ago. My Samsung note 3 and my s8 still boot up and work just fine (though I cracked the screen on one about 5 years ago). It's just so obvious that these phones are very low priority to Google, while other companies base their business around their phones.
I have had a pretty similarly bad experience repairing my pixel 4a the other month. Purchased a new screen and kit from ifixit for 1/3 the cost of buying a new phone, even had to get a heat gun to unglue the old screen, and guess what? she dies a week later anyways due to some other issue.
The problem with all these phones is that they're kind of built to be disposable. They're just glued together plastic. And even if you can repair the phone or it survives 5 years or so, the vendor is just going to stop supporting the chipset anyways.
Just got a fairphone 4, optimistic but the build quality is shit and they're already rolling out a fairphone 5 now... whatever, I use AOSP. I can't stand samsung anyways with all the crapware they put on stock android.
Yeah. I didn't want to buy a Google phone but they're the only ones supported by GrapheneOS. From what I've read they've got pretty good reasons for supporting them too. Why can't Samsung step up and offer the same security features and firmware update schedules? I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and it's been excellent for many years but it doesn't matter if it doesn't run the software I want.
With respect to grapheneOS on samsung, I don't think it's about security. It's about openness, there is already samsung knox (or whatever it is called, samsung dex?) so clearly they know how to make a secure enclave it's just that samsung wants to keep their stuff proprietary.
In general samsung and others (huawei, etc.) are trying to get a grip on android, and open-source seems to oppose that.
I don't know what motivates google to lean in so hard with open-source ( maybe trying to prevent fragmentation or avoid future antitrust or set a "clean" example standard for stock android with their pixel brand ), but we do currently enjoy its fruits.
You're right about that. Google seems to be a lot more open with its hardware compared to other manufacturers. This attitude apparently even extends towards their laptops. It's certainly something I've come to appreciate about Google.
Bare minimum support horizon (no, a self-compile repo doesn't count) combined with small but numerous hardware demerits:
flashlight, overheating, extremely slippery which mandates a case, small chance of screen lines, no personal need for SD, weird camera choices e.g. focal length of telephoto, notification LED, waterproof but unusable in the rain, I think one vendor sells a screen protector that isn't total garbage, no personal need for Qi charging, basic photography mode has always been awful, antenna/battery/amp/side sense/night mode is nothing special, previous gen microphone config had echo and/or gain problems on Signal calls, and the list goes on and on...
Biggest selling point: photography, right? Sony continues to develop amazing hardware and then takes the most leisurely and conservative approach toward camera firmware/software. Both auto modes on an a6000 are head-and-shoulders above this year's Xperia auto mode, despite being nearly a decade older. The fanboys continue to defend manual mode photography as if every serious picture taker wants to dial in focus, white balance, shutter speed, etc. all on a touchscreen while their toddler hangs from a branch for his/her first time; as if every photo should go straight into Lightroom Mobile before getting sent to grandma or the friend group or onto social media.
Beyond that, the update schedule is suboptimal (Hello, Pro-I!?) and so fast-paced, you're always hoping the next generation or surprise mid-year model fixes most of the details you dislike.
The 5 V comes out and totally eliminates the telephoto which you loved and frequently used. Not only that, everyone compares it to the 5 IV (60 mm) when Gen. II had a 70 mm shooter and Gen. III had a 70--105 mm (which, as most non-prime lenses, was quite soft at the longer range). "You get literally the same detail because 52 MP!" Sure, dude. Now explain why every comparison review of the 5 V telephoto has significantly less detail than even a lowly 3x zoom, even factoring in how 1/9th of 52 is 5.8 MP? (Notebookcheck.net supposedly lets you downscale its comparisons to 2 MP and 4 MP, and the closest-to-Xperia-quality but still better shot belongs to the 3x Galaxy S23.)
You remember being disappointed when the 1 V bundle was WH-1000XM5 and you already owned well-worn WH-1000XM3s. You're even more disappointed when the new 5 bundles inferior cans rather than buds or something wired from Sony's Pro Audio division. The 5 price is always the same as the 1 price when the 5 drops in September, so you wonder why not get the 1, which is superior in nearly every way?
Oh, right, because you know it only gets one more OS upgrade (Material You: Yuck!) and you probably won't get whatever new APK comes standard in the next gen's Xperia 1, plus you've already missed your chance to order and resell the bundled headphones, so the now-300-off price of the 1 is just the same that you would've paid by selling the bundle plus a little depreciation.
Also, where the hell IS this Pro-I successor? Is _that_ going to have a real telephoto and less of Xperia 5's wacky design changes and 4 to 7 years of software support and a screen bright enough to use as a flashlight because, let's face it, Sony will close its mobile division before letting its users put more current through the rear LED. Plus, who knows, maybe next year they finally release crimson or that same sweet shade of orange that sits at the base of their true flagship full-frame mirrorless??
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Cost, within reason, is not an issue for me. I would get another Xperia---any model---if it ticked most boxes. My main reason for ignoring Sony as a serious contender? Sony continues to nerf two peripherals or APKs for every one feature they improve, and then I continue to wait for actual improvement while my Zenfone 8 and a6400 slowly age. Every few months, I wonder what phone I would get if I needed a replacement today, and Xperia drops further down the list.
My wife and I have apparently been lucky enough to buy the 6 variant then- we've had nothing but good luck with ours, and we haven't been babying them either.
I miss some of the nice touches LG added on top of stock Android, but the hardware has met all expectations so far.
> My experience with my own pixel 7 pro and a pixel 5 has been that these devices are an order of magnitude lower in build quality than Samsung or iPhones.
Subjective, I am at my third Pixel phone in six years and I never had an issue.
I'm a Pixel owner, and the phone quality has been stellar IMO, but I would never use any phone that couldn't get security updates - zero days, and sometimes zero days that require no or very little user action, are too common with cell phones. Which is why I think the 7 year support announcement is great news.
I am biased, as I've had every pro/xl but the Pixel6 and the google nexus phone's prior to that.
With that being said i've only had questionable build quality on 2 occasions. The Huawei 6p which was covered under a recall, and the Panda Pixel 2XL where there was some lamination issues.
That being said, the build quality and materials (mostly) really stepped up initially in the Pixel 4, and then noticeably again in the P7. They are quite nice. I don't really find them lacking in quality, fit, or finish these days.
> Don't you think that three phones in six years is the issue?
One (P3) ended with me having it in the back pocket of my jeans and literally jumping in the backseat... yeah, not smart.
Another (P4a), I tried to open to swap a new battery in and it did not end well. I'd still happily be with the 4a if it was not for my dumb self. It's perfectly working and I use it to listen to some music while biking or at the gym. I just did not reattach the speaker cable.
Would you still be with it, though? Someone upthread claims the phones just don't last. Maybe if you hadn't broken your phones, they still wouldn't've lasted much longer anyway.
Having said that, I'm still using my 4-year-old Pixel 4, and it's in great shape. I'll probably get a new phone this year since it's no longer receiving security updates. Which is stupid, because I'm otherwise perfectly happy with the phone. And hate that they get physically larger every year.
Idea was to stretch the P4a until the end of security updates.
The reason is that it is much, much more compact and it's perfect to carry around when on the bike as it does not wedge into my quad when pedaling. And it's easier to hold with my gloves on. Well, it's living a second life full of music and OsmAnd maps.
I can't say about the 7 (the upthread you are referring to), but my Pixel 3 XL is my daughter's daily driver now, replacing the hand-me-down Pixel first gen that just didn't have enough memory to live up to today's requirements 6 years later. My current 6 Pro has been a champ, I'm seriously conflicted about upgrading. The 6 is perfectly fine, but I'd enjoy an upgrade, and look to be able to sell the 6 pro for $350 if I wanted to go that route.
For fun today I booted up my Pixel 3 XL and it works just fine. It was slow at first, probably as it synced a bunch of stuff, but after that it was about as snappy and useful as I remember it. Everything still works. I used that for 3 years before the Pixel 6 Pro. Before that I had a Pixel XL for 3 years. I still have that phone too in my device collection.
But the lack of security updates makes the XL and the 3XL, though still functioning as expected, not acceptable. This thing has far too much access to my life to actively use it on the Internet every day.
I'm getting the Pixel 8 not because the 6 Pro has any problems (personally I've had none), but rather because I have a bit more disposable income to spend on my tech enthusiasm and I'm excited about a phone with a 7 year software support window (with incidental coverage to support 5 years of accidental damage). If all goes well, I hope to take advantage of more than 3 years of that, assuming some insane new development doesn't happen in the interim.
I find people have wildly differing opinions on what normal wear and tear on phone is so it's hard to judge from anecdotes if it's a build quality issue or if they're rough on their phones or on the other side if I'm personally very delicate with my phones.
For my contribution to this anecdata the only Pixel phone I've had die is my Pixel 3 XL that started having weird charging issues and refuses to turn on and charge unless I let it completely passively drain then recharge it after that it only works for a bit, that happened after about 2 years maybe. Tried having it looked at by uBreakIFix and they had nothing. Other than that my Pixel 6 is doing great but I keep it in a case 99% of the time and don't abuse it.
I don't really mind; it concerns only updates of core system, not apps. Apps are still updated, so I get updated browser, mail and other apps, that could be attacked; they are not locked to the system. It makes the attack surface vastly smaller.
There are risks to leaving an Android OS out of date, too. That can be mitigated somewhat by keeping Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off when away from home, but it's not foolproof.
My Galaxy S10's bluetooth modem just said no 3 months in. My pixels have only failed me by losing support from Google prematurely.
This is all anecdata.
I'd guess you aren't seeing the build quality issues as frequently because you replace your phone more often. Three phones on six years sounds like a lot to me
Why doesn't really matter for OP's observation, the point is that your phones don't last long enough to manifest the possible problems. It'd be like if you were in the habit of totaling each car you own at about 50k miles. You might have really enjoyed it for those 50k miles, but you're not qualified to comment on how durable the car is in the long run.
I didn't have any problems with my 4a or 5, but my 6 is only about a year old and I no longer can use the USB-C port. I have to charge it wirelessly. The battery life is crap as well.
I had one Pixel 2 that lasted five years. I had another that lasted only six months before the screen just stopped working at all. We'll see how long my current Pixel 5a lasts.
My wife's 5a was bit by a common "screen" completely dies for no reason bug. It's more like the phone is stone dead, but that's how Google describes it. Even though she was well past the 1 year warranty they replaced it free under a special warranty program due to how common it is.
And by replaced it, I mean they sent a different phone that had lots of wear and she lost all her non-cloud data.
The 5A's have some kind of mass motherboard defect and the warranty was quietly increased to 2 years. I know 2 people who recently went thru a bunch of hurdles (must go to Asurion/ubreakifix to get special request submitted) and got replacement phones sent outside of the extended warranty, because both the phones failed days after the 2 year mark.
My 5a's camera routinely crashes the phone and reboots when attempting to take a photo in bright light conditions (e.g. in broad daylight) -- it's infuriating, google says the phone is out of warranty so apparently I'm SOL.
With Asahi Linux I'm now considering going back to all-Apple hardware after 12 years away.
The Nexus One was built by HTC. The Galaxy Nexus was built by Samsung. The Nexus 5 was built by LG. Pixel is in house, of course, but IIRC, Google bought a fragment of HTC some time ago.
My friends regularly have to have their Pixels replaced/retired due to hardware failures around the 2 year mark. The 7 years of support is nice, but these phones don't last anywhere near that long.
I had a Pixel 2 XL that was replaced this year not because it was broken, well the screen was bit that's hardly the phones fault, but because my carrier had an offer on a Pixel 7 that was too good to be true. The Pixel 2 is still working so, even if there are no more OS updates anymore.
4a 5G was my favourite phone since Nokia N9. Fast and lightweight, great photos, fingerprint reader in the back.
I switched to Pixel 7 so that my partner can get the 4a 5G to replace their aging device. But this 7 is clearly heavier and while a good device, I just don't like it quite as much.
I must be lucky. I'm still rocking a pixel 3. It's got multiple breaks in the screen, the back of the phone is pretty cracked, the camera cover is completed smashed out. Hey somehow this thing still works and takes ok pictures.
I got rid of my Pixel 3 because I wanted the new-sexy... I wish like hell I'd stayed. Best phone I've owned since the dumbphone days. I hate pressing my thumb to the print reader on a screen; feels so wrong compared to the little divot on the back.
>My pixel 5 just stopped turning on one day about 2 years in
My Pixel 3 stopped working because Google fucked up it's kernel boot and mechanical design. They placed a laser focus IC, that's a bare die mounted on a tiny FR4 shim to get it closer to the backpanel, on top of the main PCB. When this tiny laser focus IC inevitably breaks off or loses contact with the pads due to mechanical forces on the back panel, the Pixel 3 linux kernel ends up panicking during boot because the driver can't communicate with it.
I could see this because I had the bootloader unlocked before it bricked and could get the boot logs coming out. In fact it could boot into recovery just fine too but what a PITA to fix this at that point.
I agree with you about the build quality, but also from a software perspective.
I've been a long time Pixel user, and have had the Pixel, Pixel 4 XL, and currently have the Pixel 6 Pro.
On every device, there has been one or several glaring software bugs that haven't been fixed for months, or have required a really, really nasty workaround.
A good example was the bluetooth stack on the Pixel 4 XL. We got a security software update one day, applied it, and then found that the bluetooth connection to loads of devices was suddenly broken. Google took months to get the issue fixed, despite a few hundred pages of complaints on their forums. Instead someone (not from Google) worked out that if you went into developer mode, you could swap out the bluetooth stack for a previous version, and it might work again.
Is this sort of blasé approach to quality assurance and lack of urgency around fixing user reported bugs that really, really irritates me about Google's hardware devices.
The 6 Pro is an ok phone but also has it's problems (painfully slow and somewhat unreliable fingerprint unlock). I think I've had enough and I'll probably give a Samsung device a try.
It's a mix of good and bad. The iPhone is generally very good, and the integration with other Apple products is unmatched.
...but my Android runs Firefox with uBlock Origin. I forget that cookie banners exist until I use my iPad. It also runs two background apps pretty reliably: a GPS logger and Syncthing. It respects my default web browser and music player choices.
Quality is subjective. For my specific needs, I prefer Android. If those things were solved I would have an iPhone.
Same situation. I have both, my work phone is an iPhone. I just don't like using it. There's nothing major, both operating systems are capable, but there's little reminders everywhere that Apple is the one dictating how the phone can be used. Can't organize home screen icons. Uncontrollable notification spam by the system. Apple's apps mostly don't have individual privacy controls. Apple maps. Limited optical zoom. Having to find and use a special cable.
All of these are minor gripes (and the latter even resolved going forward), but why pay a premium for a device that irritates me?
These downvotes for a genuine question (-3 points at time of writing) are why I don't participate in HN tbh. And maybe they're exclusively for my parenthetical request for feedback, in which case, still, like, come on guys. Those downvotes are why my posts and comments always shadowbanned in the first place. And they all started with downvotes for genuine questions. The typical response from HN is "I dunno, maybe post better content." But I post the best content I have in both submissions and comments. So yeah, I guess this community is not for me, that's all I can conclude.
(I imagine you did get some downvotes for your request for feedback because it's off-topic)
Your request is honestly a little difficult for anyone to answer. "As a long-time Apple user I've long suspected that despite the public specs, Android phones are crap. Can any long-term Android users confirm for me whether their phone is crap?"
If there is a long-term Android user out there who finds Android phones to be crap I'd assume they would have long since switch to a different type of phone.
> If there is a long-term Android user out there who finds Android phones to be crap I'd assume they would have long since switch to a different type of phone.
That's a wrong assumption to make. I think there are a lot of reluctant Android users around.
I'm one of them, and I've been using Android phones for well over a decade now.
I don't mind Android itself and the selection of apps, but I've never liked the phones themselves.
The Android phones I've used weren't sensibly sized, or had quality and reliability issues, or were generally tolerable except for one fatal downside (like a bad camera, or limited storage), or were too expensive for what was being offered.
The iPhones I've used have generally been decent, from a hardware perspective. I find the software situation to be terrible, however.
For me, a bad Android phone with tolerable software is at least kind of usable.
A great iPhone phone with unsuitable/insufficient/frustrating software is unusable.
Given that those have been the only viable options for a while now, I resort to using Android phones, even if I've consistently disliked the phones themselves.
My guess is that your question isn't seen as relevant to the post (it's more of a general Android topic) and it has an ad for your failed submission which could be seen as manipulation, which is highly frowned upon on this site. There's a bias against the stereotype of Apple users too.
You posted an opinion suggesting that Android isn't the best in a thread about an Android phone. You inadvertently poked an audience self-selected to dislike questions phrased as yours was.
I was a long time iPhone user for about 15 years - never had an Android. My iPhone 8 Plus finally reached end of support for OS updates and I'd heard great things about Samsung Dex so I ordered a Samsung Ultra S22 last week and I absolutely love it. Once you get it set up and used to it, I've found the experience to be superior to the iPhone. I just find it quicker to do the things I want to do because of the way it's set up. Things like editing the settings is just way better thought out - the search works really well in the main settings app and if you want to change the settings for a particular app (e.g get rid of the notification badge) you simply have to long press on the app, hit the "i" button on the pop up, and you're taken straight to the settings for the app.). And Samsung Dex is fucking awesome, especially if you've got a pair of AR glasses. My entire computing setup now fits in a small reporter bag. I'm now going to sell my Macbook and use the Ultra as my sole device which means I will have completely exited the Apple ecosystem. In the early smartphone days, I think iOS was superior to Android but I really don't think that's the case anymore.
Yeah, Samsung collects data and sells it. So does every other company. Not going to stop me using the phone. At least Android actually asks me every time if I want to opt into a service or not. If Apple want me back, they can:
- Build a Dex competitor
- Allow apps to communicate outside their sandboxes if I allow them to
- Make it quicker and easier to edit settings
- Stop doing ridiculous things like borking USB-C ports on non-pro models
I'm adding another comment and eating humble pie because I found out this evening that the Samsung keyboard application saves up to 100 items in the Samsung Keyboard clipboard in plain text, with no way to set any kind of auto clear and it does this no matter what other keyboards you install and use. For example, you can install gBoard (Google Keyboard) and set it as the default keyboard, copy something to the clipboard, and it will be there in your Samsung keyboard regardless of whether you set gBoard to auto clear the clipboard every hour. The only way to completely clear the clipboard is via manually pressing five buttons: first the clipboard button followed by the trash can icon, followed by select all, followed by delete, then confirm. This is obviously a massive security risk if you are using a 3rd party password manager and, despite lots of requests for many years, Samsung have declined to do anything about it.
Thankfully, it does look like you can uninstall these packages and most of the other Samsung bloatware using adb or the Universal Android Debloater[1] but it is still some of the most exceptionally disgusting behaviour I've ever seen from a major tech company and I hope that either the EU or some other governing body forces them to fix it or Google bakes something into Android that makes it impossible for them to do. Either way, I will be jumping ship to a more trustworthy brand as soon there is one that has an adequate desktop mode with Quadlock case support.
I don't know who would be telling you that android phones have better hardware specs. And if I did, I would confidently tell you that they don't know what they are talking about.
Signed, a decade+ android user.
However, will end users really notice the gap? Not really.
I own a Pixel 7 Pro (and owned the Pixel 6 Pro), and I regularly have iPhones of friends/family in my hands.
Especially for the flagship Android phones like the Pixel Pros, I really don't think there is a noticable difference. They have excellent build quality, camera quality is so similar to iPhones that I couldn't tell which one is better, and on the software side I think it's a matter of being used to it (where I'm a lot more comfortable on Android).
I can't speak for stock android, but I can say AOSP (GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, lineageOS and such) is a much better experience than iOS.
The free software ecosystem is nice cause the mobile apps are way more functional. You can do almost anything you can do on your laptop. Syncthing, K-9 mail, newpipe, firefox (with ublock), orbot, libretorrent, etc. are a few pretty good reasons to use AOSP.
its kind of stylish too. google put out this "material you" thing which basically makes it so the whole OS uses the same color pallete.
The only thing I miss about my iphone was that it was nice and small and could be used in one hand.
Sorry to hear about your shadowban, it's annoying.
Yeah, one of the biggest companies in the world and still not selling the phones in our country. I actually used Pixel phones a few years back, but currently with no working 5G it's not going to happen.
A very small part of the world is supported unfortunately and the situation year to year has not been improving. On the other hand samsung and apple are available everywhere.
Yeah it's pretty stupid that this trillion dollar company can't figure out how to sell a phone worldwide. I'm actually gonna have to import this thing if I want to run GrapheneOS.
Give me 380USD phone which lasts for next 5-8 years, feels premium, is repairable, camera is decent, replaceable battery, OS is just Vanilla Android with atleast 5 years(more years of Software updates would be welcome) of Software Updates and when you can't provide it, make it hackable enough to install Custom ROMs.
Samsung sells their regularly-refreshed A series into something close to this price range, and they're great devices. For some reason they don't get nearly as much attention in the US as they do in Europe and other parts of the world, though.
I still don't get the "premium feel" line when everyone covers their phone in a case anyway. I don't care if my phone is made of plastic when it actually makes it less prone to breaking when dropped.
I've been saying this to people for years. Tons of companies market how a phone feels, its looks/colors but then almost everybody just ends up slapping a case on it.
I literally couldn't care what a phone was made out of/how it feels since I just put a case on it before I even use it for a day in most situations.
Same here. I think it's ridiculous we make phones out of glass, then put more glass on them to protect that glass. Phone screens should be made of plastic, which doesn't break, and then let me put a piece of glass over it to prevent scratching. And then if that breaks, oh well, I don't care because i can replace it for $10.
I put one of those ridiculous military spec, carbon fiber reinforced type cases on mine, it would be in pieces otherwise. It bulks the phone up a lot but every time I drop it, I smile.
I don't know if I've just been excessively lucky, but I've never put a case on any smartphone I've owned since 2010, and I've only cracked the screen on two of them. These days (probably for the past 4 years) I do put the thin-film screen protectors on as well, and replace them if they get damaged.
I've always been of the feeling that I'm buying this lovely, well-designed piece of hardware, why would I want to cover it up in an ugly plastic case?
I don't put cases (or even screen protectors) on mine either (since 2015). I've dropped it many times, obviously, but I've only ever had the edges of the phone get the slightest nicks - which I prefer to having a case on it.
Even worse is when the premium feel is at the expense of usability as well as durability. Matte glass backs and rounded aluminium sides might as well be a bar of soap
That's why I think I'm going with the Samsung A54. It's around that price (if unlocked), but has decent specs. I eventually want to phase out my 4-year-old A50, mainly for android auto reasons. Need to ask online though, there may be better spec'd phones for the price point.
No replaceable battery, sadly, but those don't really exist at this point.
I am also in the market, and replacing my small/compact Moto G4 after 7-8 years. Sansung A54 seems to be the most appropriate replacement, based on my criteria.
I just looked up the battery replacement procedure, and it is not horrible for something you want to do once after 4 years.
No company will ever make a 5-8 year phone at that price. That's $47-76 a year.
People pay that amount or more for apps that help manage their fantasy football team...
Comparitively that would be an insane bargain for a phone and it's absurd for that to be your requirement.
I do wonder what the right price point would be for a subscription model. At the moment the average replacement time is every 2 years which would be the equivalent of $30 a month basic and $40 for pro.
Could they afford $30 a month sub but you got the yearly upgrades rather than every 2 years?
If the price of the parts is quite low compared to the R&D that could be feasible.
Why would they not make a budget phone? It's not like the BOM + assembly for a touchscreen, first(!) battery, motherboard, and plastic case cost that much. Check out some of the public reports from counterpointresearch.com: the profit margin on flagships is often double the BOM cost, the profit margin on budget phones is a little tighter but still not bad. Who cares what the revenue is per year? What matters is how much it costs to make the thing. Most vendors are just tweaking reference designs anyways.
The Moto G Play is just $170 list, currently going for ~$110. It has a rather pathetic 3 years support, but that's $4.72 per month at list, or ~$3.95 at current list rates - assuming you throw it away when the support contract ends. The Samsung A14 5g is $200, and gets 4 years' support, which is $4.15/mo, again, assuming list price and discarding when security updates are over.
I'm currently typing from my Moto G6, which came out in April 2018. I bought in July of that year for $100 (it was a BOGO with a buddy's $400 Moto One Zoom, they were literally giving them away as a backup to promote their more expensive phone because the BOM cost was so cheap). I plug it in on my desk at work because the battery sucks now, but that's no great hardship. By that math, I've enjoyed the use of a smartphone for $1.62 per month (would be $3.25 at list). Yes, it's only running Android 9 and not getting "security updates" anymore, but I have my phone app, messaging app, a camera, and Firefox, and that's about all I need.
I think it would be ridiculous to spend $30 or $40 A MONTH for a smartphone. It doesn't matter what some people pay for a fantasy football team app, that has nothing to do with buying hardware. Other people are buying 3000 lbs used cars for the same price others are paying for a flagship 200g slab of glass!
I have the Moto G4, which is on its last legs after 8 years.
It barely had any non-android, non-Google apps. If there were any, I uninstalled them all except one from the Apps list without having to root my phone or anything. The last one is called Moto, which is disabled (can't be uninstalled).
The current iPhone SE starts at $430 and will (probably) get at least 5 years of updates. If budget phone makers can't do something cheaper than the iPhone SE then surely their entire business model is just fucked?
Economies of scale. The SE is basically the hand me downs from the mainline iphone and couldn't exist without it. It's not surprising that no name brands can't compete with the richest company in the world.
> No company will ever make a 5-8 year phone at that price
But they already do? I used my Oneplus X for 6 years and that was $249. Battery is the main reason I stopped using it. That's $3.50/month, maybe an outlier, but I wouldn't pay 10x that to check my messages and get directions.
The battery is replaceable, just not by the user (at least not easily). I've had my Pixel battery replaced; the cost didn't seem exorbitant.
It would be nice to be able to pop batteries in and out on the fly, but I suspect that would make it a lot harder to waterproof. I've lost more phones to water damage than I have to battery death.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014 had a removable battery, headphone jack, a microSD card slot, and was IP67 dust/water resistant. We lost removable batteries because it was an easy way to make devices obsolete.
IMO smartphones peaked around that era, and we've only seen incremental improvements and enshittification ever since. I used to be excited about every new device, but these days all manufacturers are grasping at straws trying to differentiate their rectangular slabs from the competition. AI is the latest gimmick in this trend.
The pixel "a" series match your requirements for the most part. An inexperience phone stripped of unnecessary features. Unfortunately I don't know any phones that are also repairable, replaceable, and hackable.
In my experience most of the flagship phones are slippery enough that it's not a rare event to drop them if you don't use a case made out of a higher friction material.
Of course that's an incredibly dumb design, but unfortunately they are made like that.
I guess I can't relate. I've had a Pixel (the first one) and I didn't feel like it was slippery or anything. It's been a while but I think the reason I had to replace it wasn't damage, but because it wouldn't hold a charge any more. Otherwise I'd still probably have it, I really liked that phone.
>Dropping your phone is a rare event, not a serious risk
For you
I drop my phone at least once a day lol
I actually dropped it more before I got a case on the Pixels because the back glass is ridiculously slippery and it'll even slide itself off surfaces that aren't perfectly level. Back glass needs to fucking die.
The insanely polished smooth metal frame doesn't help either when combined with the ultra smooth glass back in my hands.
Heh, when I got a Nexus 4, it was my first glass backed phone. It arrived two days before the case did. I was meeting my wife for dinner and got there a bit early, and had the phone on the restaurant table. When my wife came and sat down the slight wiggle she gave to the table was enough for the phone to slide right off and make the back look like a spider web of cracks. Fortunately it was only the back.
I never go without a case now. The thicker and grippier the better. I also have a belief that phones these days are too thin, and I would gladly have a thicker phone with better battery life. The best feeling phone in my hand IMHO was my Palm Treo, which was almost an inch thick.
I don't think that necessarily true - Samsung has hidden the cameras inside the body, and I'd argue that there's nothing terribly special about the pixel camera hardware compared to, say, the S23 Ultra.
The original galaxy note was 147 x 83 x 9.7: slightly wider and thicker than the pixel 8, but not quite as tall. Overall very similar in size, but with a 5.3" screen rather than 6.2".
Our thumbs haven't grown in the past decade and they now are expected to stretch longer distances. I can't even reach the opposite top corner with my thumb on my iPhone 13 mini
Yeah, no shit. I don't think that there's anyone who can't figure that out. The problem isn't "I can't figure out how to use my phone", it's that always having to use the phone with two hands is annoying as hell. Phones shine when you can use them one handed. They suck when you have to regularly use them two handed because they are so big.
I think a lot of phone UI stuff biases for the lower half of the screen already. UI elements for picking most frequently used apps are at the bottom, controls for ending calls etc are at the bottom, keyboards are at the botton, swiping up to change apps.
Sure, but many phones are so wide that I can't reach elements at the bottom of the screen (but on the side opposite my thumb). I'm willing to not fuss about stuff all the way in the top-left corner, but I almost always have to hold my phone with two hands to use it.
Because it is still massive. The 6" Nexus 6 is 3.3in wide whereas the 6.7" Pixel 8 Pro is only 3" wide. Even omitting the bezels, the Nexus 6 has a screen width of 2.94" vs. the 8 Pro's 2.75"
You've highlighted exactly what the comment you were replying to was talking about, the aspect ratio is much different. The Pixel 8 Pro has a 6.7" screen vs the 6" on nexus 6, despite being 10% narrower.
I was going to complain about the screen size but my Pixel 5 has a 6.0 screen and I might actually finally upgrade to the Pixel 8. The pixel 8 is still half a cm wider than the pixel 5 but they appear to be the same height and nearly the same thickness.
I had a Pixel 6 briefly, at launch, but returned it almost immediately in exchange for a 6.0" screen Pixel 5 because the 6 was ludicrously too large for daily use on the go and uncomfortable in my pants pocket. Hopefully they keep shrinking the non-pro models and we settle on 6" as an ok size.
I moved away from Android entirely because of size. Currently on an iPhone 13 Mini, which is riiight at the very upper edge of a reasonable size. I would love to go back to Android if only someone reputable would make a reasonably-sized phone.
Despite it having a reputation for being a small phone, the Zenfone 10 is essentially the same size as the Galaxy S23 and iPhone 15 - in other words, "normal" size and quite a bit larger than the iPhone minis.
My SO is holding on to a first-gen iPhone SE for the exact same reason - I don't know what kind of hands manufacturers expect people to have, but at this point I'm all but certain that modern flagships are too large for most of the population.
If only 13 Mini battery wasn’t shit. I don’t need the 1000 mega pixel camera or M20 Apple cheap. Just give me a good battery and a non-crazy sized phone and I am good. And yeah take my money.
I have a 13 Mini. The battery is typically at 30-50% in the evening. Generally never have to worry about the charge during the day. Perhaps it's time to replace the battery if it's at 80% of health or below?
If I travel and have to use GPS most of the day / take hundreds of photos, I carry a small 5000 mAh battery to charge up on the go. I think it's a reasonable accommodation for a phone that's perfectly fine day-to-day.
No no. I had 12 Mini and from day 1 it was a pain. And when I was switching I was told by many who had used both the minis that the battery life is essentially the same. Not much difference. And no I don’t want to consider s power bank as an option for my general usage.
Besides I was tired of buying “old” phone. While 14 battery life is good, nothing compared to the Android word though, it’s a brick. Unlike everybody told me I am still not used to it after 4-5 months. Still hate it when I look at it or hold in my hands or is in my pockets. The problem is that in Android there’s literally no phone smaller than 14 now.
So next is not going to be an iPhone for sure unless a smaller and lighter iPhone comes up.
This was the exact reason. I never even considered iPhone. I thought it’s ridiculous to pay that crazy price. Then one day I saw the first SE and it was at a decent price on deal. Fell in love with tue size. But now that size of phone is nowhere to be found essentially. I finally bought 14 few months ago and next time I have to change I’ll move back to some cheap Android phone. Screw tracking. If at this crazy price I have to buy a locked down brick I’d rather replace that with something much cheaper.
Is the regular Samsung model too big for you? S22 and S23. It's just the right size for me and I prefer small phones (or what used to be normal sized phones).
Yeah, it really sucks!! I'm hoping they bring it back in some upcoming gen, maybe a "once every couple years" kind of model. (Or even better, someone on the Android side picks up the ball.)
I'd heard rumors about a Pixel Mini in 2023. Was holding out hope for a surprise drop at the Pixel event today, but with how leaky Google hardware development is, I should have known better.
GrapheneOS has been the target of ongoing personal attacks against the former lead dev. None of the claims are true. GOS devs have been swatted and harassed on multiple occasions.
I suggest you examine the baseless claims against the (former) lead dev more closely - they are fabrication.
(He has been harassed so much, with death threats and the like, that he has recently stepped down as lead dev).
I use GrapheneOS, and I've donated to its development. To say that "None of the claims are true" and that they are "baseless" is incorrect.
Louis Rossman was a supporter of the project until he and Daniel had a failing out in which Daniel behaved inappropriately [1], all over a Youtube comment. There's proof for that and other claims [2, 4, 5].
Daniel can be a talented developer, privacy advocate and asshole at the same time.
It's sad to see him (and others, like yourself) say stuff like "examine the baseless claims", without providing any sources.
After all the drama with Calyxos, Techlore, Louis Rossmann etc, at some point one has to notice a pattern of behavior.
Think about all the products you purchase. Do you really think that in each case, the CEO of the company behind that product has a "pattern of behaviour" we approve of? [I really doubt it.] But here we are concerned about personality quirks of a guy developing a valuable free product.
I think you are engaging in Whataboutism [1]. This does not make for a constructive discussion.
But lets take what you said in good faith.
I imagine most products I buy have a not so amazing CEO. That does not prevent me from criticizing one of the products I use most often. Furthermore, as the (former) lead developer, he had or has control of the signing keys, simply deleting (as he has done in the past) them would cause significant damage.
If I had the time, knowledge and money. Which I don't.
So, I rely and support others that do to ensure I have a functioning and constantly running system without much maintenance work, except donating one a year.
> But I am thoroughly on his side when it comes to the CalyxOS and Techlore drama.
Sure, that could be argued either way. To be honest, it's too complicated for me to really care about. I think GrapheneOS is a solid project, currently.
My biggest problem is that Daniel refuses to apologize or even acknowledge these issues. I try to judge people not by their mistakes, but by their responses to these mistakes.
My worry with GrapheneOS is that the same thing to Copperhead might happen to it. I don't know or care who was right/wrong in that situation. But the end result was that Daniel deleted the signing keys, so I am worried that if Daniel is pressured form either real or imaginary attacks, he might do the same to GrapheneOS.
I want the project to go on for as long as possible, and part of that requires honest reflection.
> My biggest problem is that Daniel refuses to apologize or even acknowledge these issues. I try to judge people not by their mistakes, but by their responses to these mistakes.
I think this is very fair, and very unfortunate as well.
The issue with Copperhead was that they wanted to make it proprietary against Daniel's will (an oversimplification). I'm on Daniel's side on this issue.
The way they're currently in the process of setting up a "GrapheneOS Foundation" to ensure it stays open and not-for-profit _should_ ensure this never happens again. But the issue they are having is that a public figurehead is likely to get harassed and Doxed by malicious parties like what's happened to Daniel - but a real name is required to be on paper legally (also an oversimplification).
> I want the project to go on for as long as possible, and part of that requires honest reflection.
I agree. And I think this is very hard to discuss in official graphene circles with official graphene members+devs because they always always always shy away from discussing meta-issues and comment threads, forum threads, etc are removed once conversations go too far into it. I see both sides - they want to focus on development and the project itself - but also, these discussions need to be had.
I am also in the Pixel 5 group and have been struggling to find a replacement as our phone nears its end of security updates. Does anyone have any suggestions for a potential replacement? There seem to be few phones in this size and weight class.
I've had all Pixel phones up to and including the 6 Pro, finally gave up due to various issues and am super happy with 13 mini + watch ultra combo. I don't depend on my phone that much anymore and mini model size is perfect for pockets and one-hand use, the build quality and CPU/speed is amazing, battery life is decent too, screen on time it's not impressive but really efficient just streaming BT audiobooks all night. Miss 120Hz screen and zoom camera so I'm going with a Pro phone next, but not yet.
I was in the same boat and opted to use this moment to make the switch to an iPhone 15P. It's an interesting transition, haven't fully bought in yet.
If I stayed on Android I would probably be looking at an Asus Zenfone 10. Similar form factor and battery life to Pixel 5. Pretty good reviews. Check it out as an option.
Same here in Italy. Crazy price, almost 350€ more than the Pixel 6 Pro. I really wanted to upgrade, but no Pixel at this Price. I'll wait for a sure street price in less than 6 months
Maybe I have abnormally large hands & pockets but the Pixel 6 Pro w/case size is really good. I am always annoyed when I have to use someone's phone and their tiny screen.
TBH the most interesting feature to me is screen brightness. I have a pixel 6 and it's not TERRIBLE in bright sunlight but it is... not great. Not sure that quite gets me interested in upgrading though. Cameras seem better I guess - have to wait on reviews for that.
Do you have adaptive brightness enabled? For the longest time I did not realize that the screen doesn't achieve max brightness despite the brightness slider manually set to the max unless it's enabled.
I was interested in this release. But right now it's a $20 difference here in CAD between the Pixel 8 Pro 256 GB and the S23 Ultra 256 GB (there's a sale going on for the S23). With all of the Pixel's heat, battery, and connectivity issues (bad reception I can live with, but not knowing if I can call 911?), I can't justify it at all.
Also, S23 Ultra is equipped with Snapdragon 8Gen2, which is much more powerful than Tensor G3. The latter is almost equivalent to 8+Gen1 in terms of CPU and GPU.
I honestly don't much care for benchmarks, but in this case there's a direct correlation between power and efficiency. The Pixel Pros are typically very poor for battery life and that's really what I care about.
Contrapoint: Samsungs UI is much cleaner than modern pixel phones. After a minimal amount of setup it gets much less in the way than stock android on pixel phones.
Yes! This is a steep increase in price since Pixel 7. Googles upgrades are not going to happen for 7 years on Px7, but hopefully GrapheneOS gives my phone a few extra years.
Wait, have they changed handling of (e)SIMs? I'm happily using two eSIMs on my pixel pro 7 (work and private). But looks like this supports only one physical and one eSIM?
The Pixel 7 Pro only has one eSIM chip too, which you're using with the MEP (Multiple Enabled Profiles) feature:
"This feature allows devices to have dual SIM support using a single eSIM chip, which can have multiple SIM profiles and can connect to two different carriers at the same time." https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/esim-mep
I think we've been there for quite some time. iOS is also limiting certain features based on model like this. The new 15 has certain image processing features the 14 Pro doesn't get, even though they have the same SoC.
They've already been limiting some of the "AI" image editing features to newer pixels (but installing the same app package on older phones works just fine).
Is that confirmed? Do you have any further sources on that? I am not questioning, just interested in learning more. I had kinda assumed that the new chips had new instructions that supported these features. Kinda lame if they are literally just gating them to new phones.
Yep, I expect most of these to make it to older pixels but probably not for a few months. There are some that probably require the newer Tensor G3 chip though, which can't be backported.
Not really, I have a Pixel 4a 5G that doesn't come with magic eraser but because I pay for Google One, they gave me access to it.
So I doubt there are really any limitations on the hardware themselves or that you absolutely need the new version. Google just paywalling the features.
I bet you all those will be available very soon for Google One subscribers.
Yes, but magic eraser is something that can be easily done off-device in the cloud. Real-time audio shaping cannot with introducing unacceptable latencies. There are no doubt some things they'll roll back to older Pixels, but they can't do everything new on this year's release without hardware.
Honestly the most appealing thing for me is the seven years of software support. The Pixel 5 support leaves a lot to be desired, given that I don't even want to upgrade from the hardware.
The demo video of their AI photo editor was kind of mind blowing but ultimately not a feature I would use. I've seen a few complaints about their automatic photo processing as well, which you can't disable in the official camera app.
Overall the majority of their features seem to be software which is tied to Google apps/services, which doesn't sit well with me.
> Honestly the most appealing thing for me is the seven years of software support
Yup. I've been clinging to my Pixel 4, but it hasn't gotten security updates in a year, which I'm not particularly comfortable with (been lucky so far, knock on wood). I might pick up the Pixel 8 (not Pro, god that thing is huge) mainly due to the support lifetime. And it does seem like their non-Pro releases are actually decreasing in physical size for the past few years. Still a couple/few mm larger than the Pixel 4, but that's doable, I think.
I will never get used to this geo-determined internet (i cannot see the phone's page without a vpn)
is like we developed this new amazing inter-connection network. and then due to politics, decided it was much too good... far too much freedom without national barriers, so we've gone on to reintroduce these barriers.
as if the internet was restricted by the same geographical (physical) realities that we commonly encounter.
but nothing will ever be as dumb as the re-introducing material scarcity (DRM schemes) back into the 'cyberspace' just so a few can keep making money out of what they already did; possibly for several generations of descendants
Is there any way to make it safe? I've bought newer pixels and they are a downgrade all around for me. I just want security updates and the ability to browse on-device files/do file management (newer Androids keep restricting further and further)
LineageOS is not the answer. Check out the DivestOS, it is known for supporting 'out of support' devices. but I would strongly suggest you to change your device, that is too old. There is new vunrebility each month.
I am curious because I have been using LineageOS on Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL phones for a while (and it works very well, I might add), but I am kinda clueless when it comes to Android security.
Plus it just provides updates quicker, eg. the recent WebP CVE was first fixed in DivestOS before other aftermarket systems. https://divestos.org/pages/news
It's awesome to me when they do these kind of pages and then there are 28 footnotes, can you even trust any claim on the page, would you even bother reading them at a certain point
I'm intrigued by it. To be clear, it reads surface temperature, not ambient temperature. The demo gave the example of a hot pot on the stove, I think, and they mentioned they've submitted something to the FDA to take your temperature (to see if you have a fever).
This was my first thought as well. Curious to see if it functions similarly or within a certain tolerance of one of those much more expensive FLIR temp gauges you see laptop reviewers use. MKBHD video showed that it asks for 5cm distance from object being measured and for you to tap to select type of material, which notably excludes skin temp.
pixel 6 and 7 have severly weak fingerprint sensors, they overheat, and have basic telephone connectivity issues. its unfortunate not to see any of these basic table stakes addressed and instead just get a dog and pony show for the camera software and how it can produce fake photos
This turned me off to Pixel phones indefinitely. I got the Pixel 6 Pro and it could not figure out what it should be connected to: WiFi, 5G, or 4G and of course rather than just choosing one it decided to not have any connection whatsoever unless I moved a few hundred feet to a different location or rebooted the phone. There was lots of discussion around this and youtubers even covered it but rather than fix the issue Google focused on releasing the next phone.
The fingerprint sensors on the 6 and newer are terrible and massive downgrades in every way from previous models. Is there any indication that the 8 is moving to ultrasonic as rumored?
I hope they will improve the photo post-processing. Currently, I have the pixel 7 pro, and the camera app really alters people more than I like. Fortunately, you can also save RAW files. The rumors on Reddit said that the processing algorithm may have been developed for cameras with lower resolutions - if that's true, the results on pixel 8 will be even worse
The camera (actually cameras) on my Pixel 7 Pro is the most over-hyped mediocrity ever. I can't believe that it reviewed so well. The jpeg processing is so over-done that everything looks like cartoons and plastic. The video drops dozens of frames when zooming in and out. The raws are not real raws, but are instead just less processed pseudo-raws, and yet still have terrible dynamic range anyway.
The skin waxing (probably aggressive noise reduction) on the Pixel 7 Pro is so bad it's changed how I take photos. I no longer try to get faces in my photos unless the light is very bright and they're close and near the center of the frame (the very bad barrel distortion is another problem with faces, they cannot be too close to the edges or they'll be comically elongated)
Agreed. I was quite happy with my Pixel 6 until the 7 was released, which I got for my wife. Immediately noticed that both phones cameras were worse.
In particular, shots of light-eyed people show as fine initially and then when the software processing finishes they have almost black eyes from all the contrast they add. If you choose raw you need a whole other processing pipeline, not to mention you get to see how shitty these sensors and lenses are without software doing a herculean lift.
I was able to work around it on my 6 with a GCam APK but couldn't find one for the 7.
The Pro gives you access to full res RAW images from each sensor which are all 48mp (on the Pro, not sure about regular), not accounting for digital crops, which are 12mp center binned.
As a sidebar, you're all over this thread with negatively framed and inaccurate musings on features, so I'd recommend you give the product page or critical reviews a more serious look rather than letting other people do the work for you by correcting.
I came here after reading the product page, and comparing it to Pixel 7 pro.
Bith have similar sensor with 50mpix, they don't mention what is mpix if actual jpegs in neither of the pages.
7 got 12mpix jpegs.
Face Unlock is also not that promoted as it should be, I didn't see the note about it being strong security from just the selfie camera. That's the single feature that will make it buy that phone and ditch Pixel 4.
All over? Just two posts, one which is still not decided until someone gets a hand on the phone and make some photos.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 386 ms ] threadAs in, this one is debuting the new Samsung GN2 cam sensor and I think the SoC manufacturing process node, ahead of whenever Samsung and the others post their new updated devices. So for a few months this is probably the one to get, until a competitor drops the next set of updates from the HW supply chain, and so on.
Three years of updates and iFixit are great and could be differentiating for now, but hopefully the rest of the ecosystem will catch up to that standard.
It's a lot less exciting without a sensor upgrade and would be mostly playing catch-up otherwise.
https://www.gsmarena.com/newscomm-60107.php - comments tipped me off; then googling for "pixel 8 GN2; last hour" gets me links like https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-8-pro-release-... where the cache has the reference but the current page doesn't.
Damn, it may be time for me to move back to Android. Do Pixels require the updates to be sent by your carrier, or do they allow direct download?
https://9to5google.com/2023/01/12/google-pixel-t-mobile-upda...
My daughter's Pixel 5a update, for example, was delayed but it was purchased from Google.
To be clear, the update _does_ come directly from Google but the device won't show that the update is available until the carrier gives the green light. The factory image can still be sideloaded.
The P7P is the first phone that I've not purchased outright, and that's because TMO was willing to give me a ridiculously generous offer to trade in a OnePlus 7t.
edit: another link -- https://www.androidpolice.com/pixel-t-mobile-update-delayed/
You can also just update the phone using the OTA Google provides on a page and ADB to side load it.
https://developers.google.com/android/ota#cheetah
The OTA image worked great.
unlocked, carrier-agnostic phones are the way to go.
With the Pixel updates, at least, the updates come through Google but the carrier (at least TMO) can prevent this from happening even if the phone is unrestricted.
IIRC you can download the images from Google via web browser and flash manually, but not sure if you can still do that, and I've never tried it myself.
Yes you can still can. https://developers.google.com/android/ota#cheetah
In fact they even host all the images dating back to the Nexus lines still.
My pixel 5 just stopped turning on one day about 2 years in, and my pixel 7 pro had the volume and power buttons fall out about 3 weeks in (not due to a drop, after googling it's apparently a very widely seen issue).
The service with iFixit was unhelpful, they told me "We keep seeing this and Google says this is wear and tear. We can't submit it for a warranty repair, and if we try we end up eating the cost". After finally complaining on twitter I was contacted by some support person who said to give iFixit this email and they would fix it. They still refused, and after a few more rounds of interactions like that I eventually bought some replacement buttons on Amazon, popped them in, and put a case that covers them on it. I'm fully expecting this to randomly die some time before 2 years is up.
Combine that with Google's extremely strong tendency to abandon everything, promises like these seem well, worthless.
Meanwhile my daughter is using my wife's old iPhone from 8 years ago. My Samsung note 3 and my s8 still boot up and work just fine (though I cracked the screen on one about 5 years ago). It's just so obvious that these phones are very low priority to Google, while other companies base their business around their phones.
The problem with all these phones is that they're kind of built to be disposable. They're just glued together plastic. And even if you can repair the phone or it survives 5 years or so, the vendor is just going to stop supporting the chipset anyways.
Just got a fairphone 4, optimistic but the build quality is shit and they're already rolling out a fairphone 5 now... whatever, I use AOSP. I can't stand samsung anyways with all the crapware they put on stock android.
In general samsung and others (huawei, etc.) are trying to get a grip on android, and open-source seems to oppose that.
I don't know what motivates google to lean in so hard with open-source ( maybe trying to prevent fragmentation or avoid future antitrust or set a "clean" example standard for stock android with their pixel brand ), but we do currently enjoy its fruits.
flashlight, overheating, extremely slippery which mandates a case, small chance of screen lines, no personal need for SD, weird camera choices e.g. focal length of telephoto, notification LED, waterproof but unusable in the rain, I think one vendor sells a screen protector that isn't total garbage, no personal need for Qi charging, basic photography mode has always been awful, antenna/battery/amp/side sense/night mode is nothing special, previous gen microphone config had echo and/or gain problems on Signal calls, and the list goes on and on...
Biggest selling point: photography, right? Sony continues to develop amazing hardware and then takes the most leisurely and conservative approach toward camera firmware/software. Both auto modes on an a6000 are head-and-shoulders above this year's Xperia auto mode, despite being nearly a decade older. The fanboys continue to defend manual mode photography as if every serious picture taker wants to dial in focus, white balance, shutter speed, etc. all on a touchscreen while their toddler hangs from a branch for his/her first time; as if every photo should go straight into Lightroom Mobile before getting sent to grandma or the friend group or onto social media.
Beyond that, the update schedule is suboptimal (Hello, Pro-I!?) and so fast-paced, you're always hoping the next generation or surprise mid-year model fixes most of the details you dislike.
The 5 V comes out and totally eliminates the telephoto which you loved and frequently used. Not only that, everyone compares it to the 5 IV (60 mm) when Gen. II had a 70 mm shooter and Gen. III had a 70--105 mm (which, as most non-prime lenses, was quite soft at the longer range). "You get literally the same detail because 52 MP!" Sure, dude. Now explain why every comparison review of the 5 V telephoto has significantly less detail than even a lowly 3x zoom, even factoring in how 1/9th of 52 is 5.8 MP? (Notebookcheck.net supposedly lets you downscale its comparisons to 2 MP and 4 MP, and the closest-to-Xperia-quality but still better shot belongs to the 3x Galaxy S23.)
You remember being disappointed when the 1 V bundle was WH-1000XM5 and you already owned well-worn WH-1000XM3s. You're even more disappointed when the new 5 bundles inferior cans rather than buds or something wired from Sony's Pro Audio division. The 5 price is always the same as the 1 price when the 5 drops in September, so you wonder why not get the 1, which is superior in nearly every way?
Oh, right, because you know it only gets one more OS upgrade (Material You: Yuck!) and you probably won't get whatever new APK comes standard in the next gen's Xperia 1, plus you've already missed your chance to order and resell the bundled headphones, so the now-300-off price of the 1 is just the same that you would've paid by selling the bundle plus a little depreciation.
Also, where the hell IS this Pro-I successor? Is _that_ going to have a real telephoto and less of Xperia 5's wacky design changes and 4 to 7 years of software support and a screen bright enough to use as a flashlight because, let's face it, Sony will close its mobile division before letting its users put more current through the rear LED. Plus, who knows, maybe next year they finally release crimson or that same sweet shade of orange that sits at the base of their true flagship full-frame mirrorless??
-----
Cost, within reason, is not an issue for me. I would get another Xperia---any model---if it ticked most boxes. My main reason for ignoring Sony as a serious contender? Sony continues to nerf two peripherals or APKs for every one feature they improve, and then I continue to wait for actual improvement while my Zenfone 8 and a6400 slowly age. Every few months, I wonder what phone I would get if I needed a replacement today, and Xperia drops further down the list.
I miss some of the nice touches LG added on top of stock Android, but the hardware has met all expectations so far.
Subjective, I am at my third Pixel phone in six years and I never had an issue.
My GF is still using a Pixel 3 pro every day.
With that being said i've only had questionable build quality on 2 occasions. The Huawei 6p which was covered under a recall, and the Panda Pixel 2XL where there was some lamination issues.
That being said, the build quality and materials (mostly) really stepped up initially in the Pixel 4, and then noticeably again in the P7. They are quite nice. I don't really find them lacking in quality, fit, or finish these days.
Don't you think that three phones in six years is the issue?
I'm still on 2019 Galaxy S10, i.e. fourth year, single phone. The hardware is still in great condition, no malfunction of anything.
One (P3) ended with me having it in the back pocket of my jeans and literally jumping in the backseat... yeah, not smart.
Another (P4a), I tried to open to swap a new battery in and it did not end well. I'd still happily be with the 4a if it was not for my dumb self. It's perfectly working and I use it to listen to some music while biking or at the gym. I just did not reattach the speaker cable.
Having said that, I'm still using my 4-year-old Pixel 4, and it's in great shape. I'll probably get a new phone this year since it's no longer receiving security updates. Which is stupid, because I'm otherwise perfectly happy with the phone. And hate that they get physically larger every year.
The reason is that it is much, much more compact and it's perfect to carry around when on the bike as it does not wedge into my quad when pedaling. And it's easier to hold with my gloves on. Well, it's living a second life full of music and OsmAnd maps.
But the lack of security updates makes the XL and the 3XL, though still functioning as expected, not acceptable. This thing has far too much access to my life to actively use it on the Internet every day.
I'm getting the Pixel 8 not because the 6 Pro has any problems (personally I've had none), but rather because I have a bit more disposable income to spend on my tech enthusiasm and I'm excited about a phone with a 7 year software support window (with incidental coverage to support 5 years of accidental damage). If all goes well, I hope to take advantage of more than 3 years of that, assuming some insane new development doesn't happen in the interim.
For my contribution to this anecdata the only Pixel phone I've had die is my Pixel 3 XL that started having weird charging issues and refuses to turn on and charge unless I let it completely passively drain then recharge it after that it only works for a bit, that happened after about 2 years maybe. Tried having it looked at by uBreakIFix and they had nothing. Other than that my Pixel 6 is doing great but I keep it in a case 99% of the time and don't abuse it.
Get a new phone every handful of years. Stop being surprised when old hardware starts to fail.
And by replaced it, I mean they sent a different phone that had lots of wear and she lost all her non-cloud data.
With Asahi Linux I'm now considering going back to all-Apple hardware after 12 years away.
Nexus 5 had already quality issues. Pixels went downhill completely, while simultaneously bumping up the price.
I switched to Pixel 7 so that my partner can get the 4a 5G to replace their aging device. But this 7 is clearly heavier and while a good device, I just don't like it quite as much.
My Pixel 3 stopped working because Google fucked up it's kernel boot and mechanical design. They placed a laser focus IC, that's a bare die mounted on a tiny FR4 shim to get it closer to the backpanel, on top of the main PCB. When this tiny laser focus IC inevitably breaks off or loses contact with the pads due to mechanical forces on the back panel, the Pixel 3 linux kernel ends up panicking during boot because the driver can't communicate with it.
I could see this because I had the bootloader unlocked before it bricked and could get the boot logs coming out. In fact it could boot into recovery just fine too but what a PITA to fix this at that point.
I've been a long time Pixel user, and have had the Pixel, Pixel 4 XL, and currently have the Pixel 6 Pro.
On every device, there has been one or several glaring software bugs that haven't been fixed for months, or have required a really, really nasty workaround.
A good example was the bluetooth stack on the Pixel 4 XL. We got a security software update one day, applied it, and then found that the bluetooth connection to loads of devices was suddenly broken. Google took months to get the issue fixed, despite a few hundred pages of complaints on their forums. Instead someone (not from Google) worked out that if you went into developer mode, you could swap out the bluetooth stack for a previous version, and it might work again.
Is this sort of blasé approach to quality assurance and lack of urgency around fixing user reported bugs that really, really irritates me about Google's hardware devices.
The 6 Pro is an ok phone but also has it's problems (painfully slow and somewhat unreliable fingerprint unlock). I think I've had enough and I'll probably give a Samsung device a try.
Something like this could have kept me on Android for a longer so I am thankful it did not show up until I had left Android behind.
After years of phones that became slow after a few weeks, having a phone that is still fast after 3-4 years is incredible.
I assume it's standardization that prevents any notable competitors to them from popping up. Since others can just sell tools/parts.
...but my Android runs Firefox with uBlock Origin. I forget that cookie banners exist until I use my iPad. It also runs two background apps pretty reliably: a GPS logger and Syncthing. It respects my default web browser and music player choices.
Quality is subjective. For my specific needs, I prefer Android. If those things were solved I would have an iPhone.
All of these are minor gripes (and the latter even resolved going forward), but why pay a premium for a device that irritates me?
Your request is honestly a little difficult for anyone to answer. "As a long-time Apple user I've long suspected that despite the public specs, Android phones are crap. Can any long-term Android users confirm for me whether their phone is crap?"
If there is a long-term Android user out there who finds Android phones to be crap I'd assume they would have long since switch to a different type of phone.
That's a wrong assumption to make. I think there are a lot of reluctant Android users around.
I'm one of them, and I've been using Android phones for well over a decade now.
I don't mind Android itself and the selection of apps, but I've never liked the phones themselves.
The Android phones I've used weren't sensibly sized, or had quality and reliability issues, or were generally tolerable except for one fatal downside (like a bad camera, or limited storage), or were too expensive for what was being offered.
The iPhones I've used have generally been decent, from a hardware perspective. I find the software situation to be terrible, however.
For me, a bad Android phone with tolerable software is at least kind of usable.
A great iPhone phone with unsuitable/insufficient/frustrating software is unusable.
Given that those have been the only viable options for a while now, I resort to using Android phones, even if I've consistently disliked the phones themselves.
Not every post or comment does well. You'll be better off if you don't take it so personally.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/xtq9pq/samsungs_pr...
- Build a Dex competitor
- Allow apps to communicate outside their sandboxes if I allow them to
- Make it quicker and easier to edit settings
- Stop doing ridiculous things like borking USB-C ports on non-pro models
Thankfully, it does look like you can uninstall these packages and most of the other Samsung bloatware using adb or the Universal Android Debloater[1] but it is still some of the most exceptionally disgusting behaviour I've ever seen from a major tech company and I hope that either the EU or some other governing body forces them to fix it or Google bakes something into Android that makes it impossible for them to do. Either way, I will be jumping ship to a more trustworthy brand as soon there is one that has an adequate desktop mode with Quadlock case support.
https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
Signed, a decade+ android user.
However, will end users really notice the gap? Not really.
Especially for the flagship Android phones like the Pixel Pros, I really don't think there is a noticable difference. They have excellent build quality, camera quality is so similar to iPhones that I couldn't tell which one is better, and on the software side I think it's a matter of being used to it (where I'm a lot more comfortable on Android).
The free software ecosystem is nice cause the mobile apps are way more functional. You can do almost anything you can do on your laptop. Syncthing, K-9 mail, newpipe, firefox (with ublock), orbot, libretorrent, etc. are a few pretty good reasons to use AOSP.
its kind of stylish too. google put out this "material you" thing which basically makes it so the whole OS uses the same color pallete.
The only thing I miss about my iphone was that it was nice and small and could be used in one hand.
Sorry to hear about your shadowban, it's annoying.
No, Google. Fix your shit. You're a global 1.70 trillion dollar company, not a local microbrewery.
If you try to click the direct link again, it will redirect you to "Change your region and language".
That's beyond broken.
Give me 380USD phone which lasts for next 5-8 years, feels premium, is repairable, camera is decent, replaceable battery, OS is just Vanilla Android with atleast 5 years(more years of Software updates would be welcome) of Software Updates and when you can't provide it, make it hackable enough to install Custom ROMs.
I literally couldn't care what a phone was made out of/how it feels since I just put a case on it before I even use it for a day in most situations.
I've always been of the feeling that I'm buying this lovely, well-designed piece of hardware, why would I want to cover it up in an ugly plastic case?
No replaceable battery, sadly, but those don't really exist at this point.
I just looked up the battery replacement procedure, and it is not horrible for something you want to do once after 4 years.
People pay that amount or more for apps that help manage their fantasy football team...
Comparitively that would be an insane bargain for a phone and it's absurd for that to be your requirement.
I do wonder what the right price point would be for a subscription model. At the moment the average replacement time is every 2 years which would be the equivalent of $30 a month basic and $40 for pro.
Could they afford $30 a month sub but you got the yearly upgrades rather than every 2 years?
If the price of the parts is quite low compared to the R&D that could be feasible.
But I actually have no idea.
The Moto G Play is just $170 list, currently going for ~$110. It has a rather pathetic 3 years support, but that's $4.72 per month at list, or ~$3.95 at current list rates - assuming you throw it away when the support contract ends. The Samsung A14 5g is $200, and gets 4 years' support, which is $4.15/mo, again, assuming list price and discarding when security updates are over.
I'm currently typing from my Moto G6, which came out in April 2018. I bought in July of that year for $100 (it was a BOGO with a buddy's $400 Moto One Zoom, they were literally giving them away as a backup to promote their more expensive phone because the BOM cost was so cheap). I plug it in on my desk at work because the battery sucks now, but that's no great hardship. By that math, I've enjoyed the use of a smartphone for $1.62 per month (would be $3.25 at list). Yes, it's only running Android 9 and not getting "security updates" anymore, but I have my phone app, messaging app, a camera, and Firefox, and that's about all I need.
I think it would be ridiculous to spend $30 or $40 A MONTH for a smartphone. It doesn't matter what some people pay for a fantasy football team app, that has nothing to do with buying hardware. Other people are buying 3000 lbs used cars for the same price others are paying for a flagship 200g slab of glass!
I know the Samsung phones come with a fair bit of crapware, cuz I used to have one. How's the Moto?
It barely had any non-android, non-Google apps. If there were any, I uninstalled them all except one from the Apps list without having to root my phone or anything. The last one is called Moto, which is disabled (can't be uninstalled).
But they already do? I used my Oneplus X for 6 years and that was $249. Battery is the main reason I stopped using it. That's $3.50/month, maybe an outlier, but I wouldn't pay 10x that to check my messages and get directions.
It would be nice to be able to pop batteries in and out on the fly, but I suspect that would make it a lot harder to waterproof. I've lost more phones to water damage than I have to battery death.
IMO smartphones peaked around that era, and we've only seen incremental improvements and enshittification ever since. I used to be excited about every new device, but these days all manufacturers are grasping at straws trying to differentiate their rectangular slabs from the competition. AI is the latest gimmick in this trend.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_6-pictures-11037.php
https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_7-pictures-11903.php
https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_8-pictures-12546.php
Of course that's an incredibly dumb design, but unfortunately they are made like that.
For you
I drop my phone at least once a day lol
I actually dropped it more before I got a case on the Pixels because the back glass is ridiculously slippery and it'll even slide itself off surfaces that aren't perfectly level. Back glass needs to fucking die.
The insanely polished smooth metal frame doesn't help either when combined with the ultra smooth glass back in my hands.
I never go without a case now. The thicker and grippier the better. I also have a belief that phones these days are too thin, and I would gladly have a thicker phone with better battery life. The best feeling phone in my hand IMHO was my Palm Treo, which was almost an inch thick.
That being said, I like the look for the visor.
Price increase. 875€ in Europe. The Pixel 5 was 630€. Do you really get 40% more phone?
The Pixel 6 is 6.4"
The Pixel 7 is 6.3"
The Pixel 8 is 6.2"
If the trend continues we only have to wait 3 more years for a < 6" phone
Use your other hand.
Pixel 8 - 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9 mm
Pixel 6 - 158.6 x 74.8 x 8.9 mm
Pixel 3 - 145.6 x 68.2 x 7.9 mm
S10: 149.9 x 70.4 x 7.8 mm
S20: 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9 mm
S21: 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9 mm
S22: 146 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm
I had a Pixel 6 briefly, at launch, but returned it almost immediately in exchange for a 6.0" screen Pixel 5 because the 6 was ludicrously too large for daily use on the go and uncomfortable in my pants pocket. Hopefully they keep shrinking the non-pro models and we settle on 6" as an ok size.
If I travel and have to use GPS most of the day / take hundreds of photos, I carry a small 5000 mAh battery to charge up on the go. I think it's a reasonable accommodation for a phone that's perfectly fine day-to-day.
Besides I was tired of buying “old” phone. While 14 battery life is good, nothing compared to the Android word though, it’s a brick. Unlike everybody told me I am still not used to it after 4-5 months. Still hate it when I look at it or hold in my hands or is in my pockets. The problem is that in Android there’s literally no phone smaller than 14 now.
So next is not going to be an iPhone for sure unless a smaller and lighter iPhone comes up.
Pixel 5 has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 85.9% screen-to-body ratio Pixel 8 Pro has a 20:9 ratio and 87.4% screen-to-body ratio
So the difference is ever so slightly less impactful than it sounds, but it's still a much bigger phone.
I might consider the non-Pro since it now has a 120Hz screen and is smaller.
From a friend who used to use GrapheneOS and flashed back.
You want that guy pushing code to your phone?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36089104 https://youtu.be/4To-F6W1NT0?feature=shared
I suggest you examine the baseless claims against the (former) lead dev more closely - they are fabrication.
(He has been harassed so much, with death threats and the like, that he has recently stepped down as lead dev).
Louis Rossman was a supporter of the project until he and Daniel had a failing out in which Daniel behaved inappropriately [1], all over a Youtube comment. There's proof for that and other claims [2, 4, 5].
Daniel can be a talented developer, privacy advocate and asshole at the same time.
It's sad to see him (and others, like yourself) say stuff like "examine the baseless claims", without providing any sources.
After all the drama with Calyxos, Techlore, Louis Rossmann etc, at some point one has to notice a pattern of behavior.
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4To-F6W1NT0
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx7CZ-2Bajg
3: https://github.com/AOSPAlliance/README/commit/cbd2a95cba7c2a...
4: https://web.archive.org/web/20210403012439/https://freenode....
5: https://web.archive.org/web/20210818110434/https://sethforpr...
I think you are engaging in Whataboutism [1]. This does not make for a constructive discussion.
But lets take what you said in good faith.
I imagine most products I buy have a not so amazing CEO. That does not prevent me from criticizing one of the products I use most often. Furthermore, as the (former) lead developer, he had or has control of the signing keys, simply deleting (as he has done in the past) them would cause significant damage.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
So what if he has the signing keys? You can always build Graphene yourself
If I had the time, knowledge and money. Which I don't.
So, I rely and support others that do to ensure I have a functioning and constantly running system without much maintenance work, except donating one a year.
But I am thoroughly on his side when it comes to the CalyxOS and Techlore drama. However I wasn't aware of any of the Louis Rossman stuff
Sure, that could be argued either way. To be honest, it's too complicated for me to really care about. I think GrapheneOS is a solid project, currently.
My biggest problem is that Daniel refuses to apologize or even acknowledge these issues. I try to judge people not by their mistakes, but by their responses to these mistakes.
My worry with GrapheneOS is that the same thing to Copperhead might happen to it. I don't know or care who was right/wrong in that situation. But the end result was that Daniel deleted the signing keys, so I am worried that if Daniel is pressured form either real or imaginary attacks, he might do the same to GrapheneOS.
I want the project to go on for as long as possible, and part of that requires honest reflection.
I think this is very fair, and very unfortunate as well.
The issue with Copperhead was that they wanted to make it proprietary against Daniel's will (an oversimplification). I'm on Daniel's side on this issue.
The way they're currently in the process of setting up a "GrapheneOS Foundation" to ensure it stays open and not-for-profit _should_ ensure this never happens again. But the issue they are having is that a public figurehead is likely to get harassed and Doxed by malicious parties like what's happened to Daniel - but a real name is required to be on paper legally (also an oversimplification).
> I want the project to go on for as long as possible, and part of that requires honest reflection.
I agree. And I think this is very hard to discuss in official graphene circles with official graphene members+devs because they always always always shy away from discussing meta-issues and comment threads, forum threads, etc are removed once conversations go too far into it. I see both sides - they want to focus on development and the project itself - but also, these discussions need to be had.
I've followed, from a safe distance, the CopperheadOS saga, et al the other dramas and bullshit over the years.
The product is still good and I will continue to use and evaluate my usage of it. Until the product materially changes, I will stick with it.
I was going to wait for Pixel 9 (currently also on Pixel 5).
If I stayed on Android I would probably be looking at an Asus Zenfone 10. Similar form factor and battery life to Pixel 5. Pretty good reviews. Check it out as an option.
Edit: is that price for pixel 8 pro? A Google search is saying regular pixel 8 is 799€, so basically the same price for the base model.
Because ... that's worth 12% and then some.
No, but euros are worth ~30% less.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7_(2012)
My wife, on the other hand, has a 5 which falls out of support this month. So, she's getting the 8.
The Android 14 I just installed on the P6P massively improved the dark light performance of the camera though. Not tried it on the P5
That said it's not worth me upgrading - I'll wait til the P9P.
"This feature allows devices to have dual SIM support using a single eSIM chip, which can have multiple SIM profiles and can connect to two different carriers at the same time." https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/esim-mep
It also seems very arbitrarily limited to the newer ones, 7/7pro seem like they should be more than capable of driving these features.
Is software limiting going to be the norm going forward for phones?
Because, I don't think this is worth upgrading from last years phones from a hardware basis.
Perhaps, we've reached a point in smartphones where the development cycles will be more iterative, instead of truly groundbreaking.
So I doubt there are really any limitations on the hardware themselves or that you absolutely need the new version. Google just paywalling the features.
I bet you all those will be available very soon for Google One subscribers.
The demo video of their AI photo editor was kind of mind blowing but ultimately not a feature I would use. I've seen a few complaints about their automatic photo processing as well, which you can't disable in the official camera app.
Overall the majority of their features seem to be software which is tied to Google apps/services, which doesn't sit well with me.
Yup. I've been clinging to my Pixel 4, but it hasn't gotten security updates in a year, which I'm not particularly comfortable with (been lucky so far, knock on wood). I might pick up the Pixel 8 (not Pro, god that thing is huge) mainly due to the support lifetime. And it does seem like their non-Pro releases are actually decreasing in physical size for the past few years. Still a couple/few mm larger than the Pixel 4, but that's doable, I think.
AI editor with "everyone smilling" trend reminded me Black Mirror :)
is like we developed this new amazing inter-connection network. and then due to politics, decided it was much too good... far too much freedom without national barriers, so we've gone on to reintroduce these barriers.
as if the internet was restricted by the same geographical (physical) realities that we commonly encounter.
but nothing will ever be as dumb as the re-introducing material scarcity (DRM schemes) back into the 'cyberspace' just so a few can keep making money out of what they already did; possibly for several generations of descendants
Could you expand on that?
I am curious because I have been using LineageOS on Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL phones for a while (and it works very well, I might add), but I am kinda clueless when it comes to Android security.
Here are the 170+ kernel CVE patches applied on top of what Lineage provides for Pixel 2 series: https://gitlab.com/divested-mobile/divestos-build/-/blob/mas...
Plus it just provides updates quicker, eg. the recent WebP CVE was first fixed in DivestOS before other aftermarket systems. https://divestos.org/pages/news
And provides rapid out-of-band WebView updates: https://divestos.org/misc/ch-dates.txt
See my other notes here: https://divestos.org/pages/patch_levels#osSecurity
And also this independent table: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
Sounds like Photoshop's image stacks, that "process the multiple images to produce a composite view that eliminates unwanted content"
Cool when applied to make a crowded place look empty. Useful, albeit creepy when you apply it to disembodied heads.
https://xkcd.com/2212/
This turned me off to Pixel phones indefinitely. I got the Pixel 6 Pro and it could not figure out what it should be connected to: WiFi, 5G, or 4G and of course rather than just choosing one it decided to not have any connection whatsoever unless I moved a few hundred feet to a different location or rebooted the phone. There was lots of discussion around this and youtubers even covered it but rather than fix the issue Google focused on releasing the next phone.
I do like the colors of the jpegs.
I hate that they removed ability to disable thair **ing HDR.
p.s: Pixel 6 owner
The Pixel 2 XL camera was better, I swear
In particular, shots of light-eyed people show as fine initially and then when the software processing finishes they have almost black eyes from all the contrast they add. If you choose raw you need a whole other processing pipeline, not to mention you get to see how shitty these sensors and lenses are without software doing a herculean lift.
I was able to work around it on my 6 with a GCam APK but couldn't find one for the 7.
Pixel 7 Pro also had 50Mpix sensor.
As a sidebar, you're all over this thread with negatively framed and inaccurate musings on features, so I'd recommend you give the product page or critical reviews a more serious look rather than letting other people do the work for you by correcting.
Bith have similar sensor with 50mpix, they don't mention what is mpix if actual jpegs in neither of the pages.
7 got 12mpix jpegs.
Face Unlock is also not that promoted as it should be, I didn't see the note about it being strong security from just the selfie camera. That's the single feature that will make it buy that phone and ditch Pixel 4.
All over? Just two posts, one which is still not decided until someone gets a hand on the phone and make some photos.