Sorry for the delay for the weekly. Server’s not that stable right now, maybe we should start the thread on Sundays instead.
I always like to switch things up once in a while because it’s fun. So, let’s get back to the brand discussion this week for the Google Pixel. We’ll do a discussion on repairability next week. Again, ideas are always welcome here.
I’ve never used a Pixel, but people around here should know that I’ve been very critical of Google’s product decisions over the years, and the Pixel is no exception. In my point of view, discontinuing the Nexus series, buying out the talents from the remains of HTC and starting an official “made by Google” phone is the equivalent of reddit buying out Alien Blue to make the official reddit app. I think it’s the event that scared big Android manufacturers like Samsung enough to start making their own ecosystem away from Google, as they are concerned that Google may start locking software features to their own phones instead of improving Android overall (rightfully so, I might add).
It really makes no business sense at all to turn your manufacturing partners into your competitors, but then again, it’s Google.
With that being said, the first years of the Pixels has been marred with growing pains. Whereas the Nexus line has always been barebones, no frills development devices, it seemed to me that the people who made Pixels don’t even use Android and are insistent on turning Pixel into iPhones, removing the headphone jack on the Pixel 2 despite the antagonistic ad from the original Pixel, Pixel exclusive software features like Google camera that necessitating the need of rom mods, as well as the quality issues that seems to be inherited from the Nexus days just really soured me from considering Pixels, as I think it’s against the spirit of openness that made Android great.
But it seems like in recent years, they finally figured out that a large percentage of people who bought Androids not because they can’t afford iPhones, but because they like Android, and I see the introduction of the “a” series as progress. The recent Pixel ad campaign also made me think that they finally figuring it out: people want different things, trying to turn Android into worse versions of iPhones was not going to work, so they should be trying to make the best Android for Android users instead.
(It’s also the reason I think all the previous reddit clones failed, but Lemmy will be the one that finally succeeds.)
The camera in the 7 Pro was unmatched but the battery life is just shit in my opinion. Everything else worked fine, not the most powerful device though, didn’t run games very well.
I’ve had Google phones since the Nexus line and all the odd numbered Pixels to include the 7 Pro. My wife has used the Samsung Note (I forget which versions) and is using the Samsung Fold now. I definitely like the Pixel line better than the Samsung phones she’s used primarily because of the monthly updates and a few features like call screening (you can even hear the person on the line while the Google message is playing to hear what they may be saying before you pick up or send them to VM) and call holding (the phone will monitor the call when I’m on hold and alert me when a person gets on the line.). The Pixel camera is pretty good, but I have to admit I like the Samsung Fold camera a little better.
I had the original pixel XL then switch to samsung s21 and now im on a pixel 7 and I can say with out doubt the the pixel 7 is way more responsive and feels so much faster then any samsung phone I have ever used. Samsung puts a lot of spyware bloatware crap on there phones. if you hook a samsung up to adb and have a look at the list of apps that are spying on you its insane, all the apps listed in the settings on the phone are not all the apps installed. lots of hidden apps running in the background. Something that would piss me off was every update installed a bunch of apps i never wanted and had removed previously. I have recently installed grapheneos and its amazing and seem less, I could install it on my moms phone and it would not be a problem. works just like any other android phone except google play is locked in a cage and can only do what you allow it to. I have google play services installed but basically took all its permissions away, so that the camera app and the few other apps that look for it are not bothering me about it. google play services never connects to the internet on my phone.
I will never go back to a samsung phone, I love the stock android experience its simple and no fluff.
Quite happy user of Pixel 6a. The only few annoying things are:
Under-the-screen fingerprint sensor works less than half of the time. At night and in bed, it blinds me.
Battery, despite adaptive battery, still feels surprisingly draining fast from time to time. The battery merely just hold for the day whereas I don’t even have that much screen time or background running apps.
Under-the-screen fingerprint sensor works less than half of the time. At night and in bed, it blinds me.
This is my biggest complaint. The “old” style of fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone worked so well, but they replaced it with this shitty one.
Pixel 6a user here, the fingerprint reader works 9/10 for me, only rarely refuses to unlock because of a misalignment or something, wondering how people who complain about it actually use it.
I moved from HTC to Nexus, and stuck with Nexus until it died, then picked up a pixel and never looked back. Pixel is what I buy/use, and it’s not been an issue for me, which is why I keep going back.
From Nexus: I owned the Nexus 4, 5, 6 (I still have this one), 7 LTE tablet, and 5X. On the pixel line, the pixel “1”, 4, and now 7. Haven’t owned a pixel “a” series. I skipped the pixel 5, since the processor was significantly less powerful than the 4, despite being a newer chip, and I skipped the 6, because it was the first gen tensor, and I wanted it to prove itself. Early pixel days didn’t see a lot of improvement IMO between pixel 1/2/3, so I stuck with the 1, mainly because of the RAM: pixel 4 was the first pixel to have more than 4GB RAM… (It had 6). I would have jumped from the P4 about a year after getting it, simply due to it not having a fingerprint reader, and the pandemic (specifically masks) making it impossible to use the face id or whatever they called it, but I didn’t want to lose performance with the lower powered chip in the 5, and my 4 was good enough to not wager on whether the first tensor had any major hardware defects… So I’m on the 7 now, and I’m pretty happy.
I miss the fingerprint reader being on the back. I’ve found ways around the headphone jack problem: I have two devices for this… A combo headphone jack/changing cable dongle, and a fiio BTR 5 (though other BTR units from fiio will work similarly), which allows me to use wired headphones over bt, while charging my phone and Bluetooth device (fiio), allowing for a near infinite amount of time where I can use my phone with headphones if I choose.
I’m not big on the optical fingerprint reader, but it’s better than the face id stuff on the 4, so I guess I’m happier overall.
My key factors for using and keeping with pixel are pretty basic: prior to me going Nexus/pixel, to remove the bs added to my phone (like it shipping with FB apps), I would need to load custom ROMs which was a massive pita. I enjoyed the custom ROMs, mainly the AOSP versions. I wanted clean, no frills android with Google services (which I use extensively). Everything else I could obtain from the Android app store, aka the play store. For the most part, the Nexus/pixel was the only device I could get that kind of thing going right out of the box, pretty much everything else would require a custom ROM. That’s the root of why I switched and what keeps me on pixel. I know others have stepped up in this regard, but not many. I’ve already had success with pixel and to me, the historical experience with pixel keeps me coming back because so far, they’ve had what I want and nothing that I don’t want. If that changes, I’ll probably start considering other options.
As long as Google is using the pixel as a dev platform, bringing new features to pixel first, and eventually allowing third parties to use those features, I’m ok with what they’re doing. Some get abandoned long before they get that far, and I understand that, but there’s now a short list of features that the pixel has that other phones may never get where those features seem to be pixel exclusive, which is where my support of Google on this, starts to waiver.
Tensor had proven itself to be a decent platform, and the features of tensor, which are above and beyond the base RISC instructions, should be made available in some way to other manufacturing partners. Like having a tensor specific processing core that can be paired with a different ARM CPU to provide similar functionality to the full tensor CPU… Like a coprocessor. The AI benefits to the Google camera, et al, being made available to third parties.
Instead of going with the Microsoft model, offering first party devices, but continuing to support all features on all devices, they’re trending more towards the Apple model, where you use our hardware, or get fucked. Which, I’m not a fan of… Many industries are taking that page from Apple and honestly IMO, it’s anti-consumer activity. John Deere comes to mind…
I don’t think Google is too far gone in this respect, not yet, they can choose to open things up for third parties as time goes on.
Build quality, at least on the devices I’ve owned has been good. Not excellent but good. Few, if any issues, and support is generally good. I’m happy for the most part. I don’t subscribe to the brand wars, and I’ll happily jump ship if that changes. For now, I don’t have significant cause for concern.
I’ll continue with pixel for a while and see how it goes. I’m constantly evaluating my stance to see if there’s sufficient reason to consider other options. I almost got to that point over the headphone jack, but everyone else seemingly followed suit, and once I found a workable solution, I didn’t really care anymore. Bluntly, with the headphone issue, unless a device can charge, and allow the phone to charge, while you’re actively using it, it’s not a solution; having to stop listening/enjoying content while waiting for your pixel buds (or airpods, or whatever) to charge in their case… that’s not a replacement for a headphone jack, since you can enjoy content with a headphone jack indefinitely while charging your phone. So unless it can satisfy the original use case, it’s not a good solution. I have the wired charge/listen dongle for any situation where bt isn’t viable (like a high RF noise environment, or any time bt needs to be off, like a plane, though many allow bt to be on now), and the fiio for everything else. If I have to choose either headphones or charging, I’m going to find another way.
I have bt headphones that won’t play and charge, but I almost always have either the fiio or dongle with a set of IEMs as a backup. I use my phone for entertainment often enough that this can be a deal breaker for me.
That’s just me POV. I like the line, for now, and if things change, that may change. I don’t have any negative feelings towards new features being pixel only while they’re still being tested and proven, as long as they eventually end up in everyone’s hands in whatever form that takes.
I absolutely loved the Nexus line, but I’m on my third Pixel and they’ve been mostly excellent aside from a couple of nitpicks. I had the 2XL, 4a5g & 6 Pro so far. I will likely get the Pixel 8 Pro after that’s released. Aside from the name (why!?!?!!?), the 4a5g was just about perfect.
My 6 Pro has been mostly great, but a little sensitive to overheating in direct sunlight and it chews through battery on 5g. Hopefully the 8 improves on those two things. And has a flat screen, as is rumored.
After staying loyal to Samsung for about a decade, always with flagship models, I had a terrible experience with the Fold3. It was so bad that, when I finally pushed hard enough for Samsung Support to admit I’d been sold a lemon, I was ready to give up.
I sold the replacement Fold4 they sent me and got a Pixel 7. Honestlty, I now wish I hadn’t waited this long to make the jump.
Things I like the most:
The speed with which updates are released, directly: I’m accustomed to having to wait for my provider to release Samsung updates
The way the updates are applied: no more 30 minute reboots waiting for the Samsung firmware to install
The lack of bloatware: 'nuff said
The speed of the device itself: see above point
I guess the thing that nags at me the most is I still dislike Google as a company.
I haven’t explored custom ROMs yet - still unsure where that leaves me with access to my company’s resources (we have very stringent security policies, actively enforced), plus I need to do a heap of research to understand what (if any) features of the stock Pixel I’d lose. There may or may not be some deal breakers in that list.
Well, again, Google directly caused the Android fragmentation issues by de-GNUing Linux, so the bad parts of Android was because of Google from the beginning.
Essentially, unlike the Linux on a PC or a server, every single Android phone has a very different Linux kernel built specifically for that particular phone, which is the reason that people need to build a custom rom (basically a device specific really old Linux kernel) for every phone instead of just installing something like a generic Ubuntu system.
Base Linux uses a lot of parts made by GNU, which is licensed under a strong copyleft clause, and Google doesn’t like that because they don’t like to share their source code, so, Google made an active effort to replace the GNU part of the base Linux kernel with something else to make Android to prevent that from happening.
I’ve had a Pixel 5a and currently have a Pixel 7. Have enjoyed them greatly. The 5a was a bit mediocre overall, camera performance wasn’t that great & it got a bit slow over time. That being said, the clean OS experience and integration was always nice and it was perfectly suitable for my needs at a good price.
Now that I’m using my Pixel 7 as a daily, the Pixel 5a is holding up pretty well with GrapheneOS as a backup phone / media player.
Pixel 7 has been really nice to me. Interface is smooth, camera is nice, everything just works essentially. And getting the latest Android pretty quickly is a nice feeling. My only gripe is that Google’s SoC is still a bit lacking and battery life isn’t the best, but I hear the current Android beta has some promising battery life improvements.
Overall I’ve been having a good time with them. Still kinda miss my Nexus 5x tho, that thing was sweet…
How has grapheneOS been for you? Would you main it? I’m on a Note 9 that’s had it’s battery life reduced to pretty much having to charge it constantly or I’m out before the end of the day. Considering Pixels mostly because of Graphene, which Louis Rossman says great things about (except for the ex lead dev). I don’t know if I’d be sacrificing any of the features in a pixel phone, though…
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The camera in the 7 Pro was unmatched but the battery life is just shit in my opinion. Everything else worked fine, not the most powerful device though, didn’t run games very well.
I have a 6a and have been emulating games with it and playing remote play with my backbone. Super enjoying it
If they had Samsung’s hardware reliability and breadth of customization, they’d be perfect.
I’ve had Google phones since the Nexus line and all the odd numbered Pixels to include the 7 Pro. My wife has used the Samsung Note (I forget which versions) and is using the Samsung Fold now. I definitely like the Pixel line better than the Samsung phones she’s used primarily because of the monthly updates and a few features like call screening (you can even hear the person on the line while the Google message is playing to hear what they may be saying before you pick up or send them to VM) and call holding (the phone will monitor the call when I’m on hold and alert me when a person gets on the line.). The Pixel camera is pretty good, but I have to admit I like the Samsung Fold camera a little better.
I had the original pixel XL then switch to samsung s21 and now im on a pixel 7 and I can say with out doubt the the pixel 7 is way more responsive and feels so much faster then any samsung phone I have ever used. Samsung puts a lot of spyware bloatware crap on there phones. if you hook a samsung up to adb and have a look at the list of apps that are spying on you its insane, all the apps listed in the settings on the phone are not all the apps installed. lots of hidden apps running in the background. Something that would piss me off was every update installed a bunch of apps i never wanted and had removed previously. I have recently installed grapheneos and its amazing and seem less, I could install it on my moms phone and it would not be a problem. works just like any other android phone except google play is locked in a cage and can only do what you allow it to. I have google play services installed but basically took all its permissions away, so that the camera app and the few other apps that look for it are not bothering me about it. google play services never connects to the internet on my phone.
I will never go back to a samsung phone, I love the stock android experience its simple and no fluff.
Get the a series. Almost half the price for not many features missing. Same camera.
Quite happy user of Pixel 6a. The only few annoying things are:
I’ve managed to get in the habit of pointing the screen away from my eye sockets in bed when it’s dark. 60% of the time, it works every time
This is my biggest complaint. The “old” style of fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone worked so well, but they replaced it with this shitty one.
My fingers usually work with the pixel 7 combined with a matte screen protector.
Pixel 6a user here, the fingerprint reader works 9/10 for me, only rarely refuses to unlock because of a misalignment or something, wondering how people who complain about it actually use it.
I think he is talking about the fingerprint sensor. It blinds me at night too
Ah, yes of course. It’s indeed pretty annoying.
Got a Pixel 6. Still loving the design, software and (reasonably) quick updates.
I moved from HTC to Nexus, and stuck with Nexus until it died, then picked up a pixel and never looked back. Pixel is what I buy/use, and it’s not been an issue for me, which is why I keep going back.
From Nexus: I owned the Nexus 4, 5, 6 (I still have this one), 7 LTE tablet, and 5X. On the pixel line, the pixel “1”, 4, and now 7. Haven’t owned a pixel “a” series. I skipped the pixel 5, since the processor was significantly less powerful than the 4, despite being a newer chip, and I skipped the 6, because it was the first gen tensor, and I wanted it to prove itself. Early pixel days didn’t see a lot of improvement IMO between pixel 1/2/3, so I stuck with the 1, mainly because of the RAM: pixel 4 was the first pixel to have more than 4GB RAM… (It had 6). I would have jumped from the P4 about a year after getting it, simply due to it not having a fingerprint reader, and the pandemic (specifically masks) making it impossible to use the face id or whatever they called it, but I didn’t want to lose performance with the lower powered chip in the 5, and my 4 was good enough to not wager on whether the first tensor had any major hardware defects… So I’m on the 7 now, and I’m pretty happy.
I miss the fingerprint reader being on the back. I’ve found ways around the headphone jack problem: I have two devices for this… A combo headphone jack/changing cable dongle, and a fiio BTR 5 (though other BTR units from fiio will work similarly), which allows me to use wired headphones over bt, while charging my phone and Bluetooth device (fiio), allowing for a near infinite amount of time where I can use my phone with headphones if I choose.
I’m not big on the optical fingerprint reader, but it’s better than the face id stuff on the 4, so I guess I’m happier overall.
My key factors for using and keeping with pixel are pretty basic: prior to me going Nexus/pixel, to remove the bs added to my phone (like it shipping with FB apps), I would need to load custom ROMs which was a massive pita. I enjoyed the custom ROMs, mainly the AOSP versions. I wanted clean, no frills android with Google services (which I use extensively). Everything else I could obtain from the Android app store, aka the play store. For the most part, the Nexus/pixel was the only device I could get that kind of thing going right out of the box, pretty much everything else would require a custom ROM. That’s the root of why I switched and what keeps me on pixel. I know others have stepped up in this regard, but not many. I’ve already had success with pixel and to me, the historical experience with pixel keeps me coming back because so far, they’ve had what I want and nothing that I don’t want. If that changes, I’ll probably start considering other options.
As long as Google is using the pixel as a dev platform, bringing new features to pixel first, and eventually allowing third parties to use those features, I’m ok with what they’re doing. Some get abandoned long before they get that far, and I understand that, but there’s now a short list of features that the pixel has that other phones may never get where those features seem to be pixel exclusive, which is where my support of Google on this, starts to waiver.
Tensor had proven itself to be a decent platform, and the features of tensor, which are above and beyond the base RISC instructions, should be made available in some way to other manufacturing partners. Like having a tensor specific processing core that can be paired with a different ARM CPU to provide similar functionality to the full tensor CPU… Like a coprocessor. The AI benefits to the Google camera, et al, being made available to third parties.
Instead of going with the Microsoft model, offering first party devices, but continuing to support all features on all devices, they’re trending more towards the Apple model, where you use our hardware, or get fucked. Which, I’m not a fan of… Many industries are taking that page from Apple and honestly IMO, it’s anti-consumer activity. John Deere comes to mind…
I don’t think Google is too far gone in this respect, not yet, they can choose to open things up for third parties as time goes on.
Build quality, at least on the devices I’ve owned has been good. Not excellent but good. Few, if any issues, and support is generally good. I’m happy for the most part. I don’t subscribe to the brand wars, and I’ll happily jump ship if that changes. For now, I don’t have significant cause for concern.
I’ll continue with pixel for a while and see how it goes. I’m constantly evaluating my stance to see if there’s sufficient reason to consider other options. I almost got to that point over the headphone jack, but everyone else seemingly followed suit, and once I found a workable solution, I didn’t really care anymore. Bluntly, with the headphone issue, unless a device can charge, and allow the phone to charge, while you’re actively using it, it’s not a solution; having to stop listening/enjoying content while waiting for your pixel buds (or airpods, or whatever) to charge in their case… that’s not a replacement for a headphone jack, since you can enjoy content with a headphone jack indefinitely while charging your phone. So unless it can satisfy the original use case, it’s not a good solution. I have the wired charge/listen dongle for any situation where bt isn’t viable (like a high RF noise environment, or any time bt needs to be off, like a plane, though many allow bt to be on now), and the fiio for everything else. If I have to choose either headphones or charging, I’m going to find another way.
I have bt headphones that won’t play and charge, but I almost always have either the fiio or dongle with a set of IEMs as a backup. I use my phone for entertainment often enough that this can be a deal breaker for me.
That’s just me POV. I like the line, for now, and if things change, that may change. I don’t have any negative feelings towards new features being pixel only while they’re still being tested and proven, as long as they eventually end up in everyone’s hands in whatever form that takes.
I absolutely loved the Nexus line, but I’m on my third Pixel and they’ve been mostly excellent aside from a couple of nitpicks. I had the 2XL, 4a5g & 6 Pro so far. I will likely get the Pixel 8 Pro after that’s released. Aside from the name (why!?!?!!?), the 4a5g was just about perfect.
My 6 Pro has been mostly great, but a little sensitive to overheating in direct sunlight and it chews through battery on 5g. Hopefully the 8 improves on those two things. And has a flat screen, as is rumored.
After staying loyal to Samsung for about a decade, always with flagship models, I had a terrible experience with the Fold3. It was so bad that, when I finally pushed hard enough for Samsung Support to admit I’d been sold a lemon, I was ready to give up.
I sold the replacement Fold4 they sent me and got a Pixel 7. Honestlty, I now wish I hadn’t waited this long to make the jump.
Things I like the most:
I guess the thing that nags at me the most is I still dislike Google as a company.
I haven’t explored custom ROMs yet - still unsure where that leaves me with access to my company’s resources (we have very stringent security policies, actively enforced), plus I need to do a heap of research to understand what (if any) features of the stock Pixel I’d lose. There may or may not be some deal breakers in that list.
Stock Android missing so many apps because Google killed them for no reason
Google gets to shove gapps directly into your throat making you forget what android used to be
Partially responsible for ruining the android market and causing companies like HTC to drop out
Partially responsible for getting rid of android version names
Early models kinda sucked
Pretty much summed up all of my core issues already in your post lol.
Modern android sucks because of google
What apps do you miss in stock android?
Compass, old file explorer, music app, dictionary, builtin PDF viewer, Mail,
I think dictionary and PDF might have been removed very early on or was not part of stock, but the rest definitely used to be there.
Many were replaced by a google equivalent like Google Music which is now dead, or Gmail which used to be alongside Mail.
Well, again, Google directly caused the Android fragmentation issues by de-GNUing Linux, so the bad parts of Android was because of Google from the beginning.
What fragmentation issues are you referring to? And what does it mean when you say they “de-GNU’d” android
Essentially, unlike the Linux on a PC or a server, every single Android phone has a very different Linux kernel built specifically for that particular phone, which is the reason that people need to build a custom rom (basically a device specific really old Linux kernel) for every phone instead of just installing something like a generic Ubuntu system.
Base Linux uses a lot of parts made by GNU, which is licensed under a strong copyleft clause, and Google doesn’t like that because they don’t like to share their source code, so, Google made an active effort to replace the GNU part of the base Linux kernel with something else to make Android to prevent that from happening.
Thanks for the explaination, ive been wondering for a while why i couldn’t run say, graphine os on an unlocked Motorola.
Android sucks so bad and its gotten worse from 11 on, i really hope we get a competitor soon.
Good but overhyped.
I’ve had a Pixel 5a and currently have a Pixel 7. Have enjoyed them greatly. The 5a was a bit mediocre overall, camera performance wasn’t that great & it got a bit slow over time. That being said, the clean OS experience and integration was always nice and it was perfectly suitable for my needs at a good price.
Now that I’m using my Pixel 7 as a daily, the Pixel 5a is holding up pretty well with GrapheneOS as a backup phone / media player.
Pixel 7 has been really nice to me. Interface is smooth, camera is nice, everything just works essentially. And getting the latest Android pretty quickly is a nice feeling. My only gripe is that Google’s SoC is still a bit lacking and battery life isn’t the best, but I hear the current Android beta has some promising battery life improvements.
Overall I’ve been having a good time with them. Still kinda miss my Nexus 5x tho, that thing was sweet…
How has grapheneOS been for you? Would you main it? I’m on a Note 9 that’s had it’s battery life reduced to pretty much having to charge it constantly or I’m out before the end of the day. Considering Pixels mostly because of Graphene, which Louis Rossman says great things about (except for the ex lead dev). I don’t know if I’d be sacrificing any of the features in a pixel phone, though…
I use a 5a with GrapheneOS and I’m very happy with it
Yeah. I can’t comment on Pixel running whatever Google puts on it, because I installed GrapheneOS within ten minutes of buying mine.
That said, I think it’s a fantastic phone.