Previously on Lemmy:
Past Discussions:
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.)
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I’ve had Pixels 2, 3, 4, 5a, and 7. I really like them and haven’t had a serious problem. Sure do hate Google but goodness sakes can they make a phone, and I run custom ROMs anyway.
Any particular feature stands out to you?
I like that they’re updated fast and long, and the Tensor chip capabilities are used for useful little functionalities
Google Camera is superior. I don’t want it to be so, but it is. Also like the other commenter said, it updates forever and they get the updates first.
The updates has been one of my biggest drivers, they have minimal bloateare, and, the phones are like the sweet spot of value/performance for what i do daily.
I really liked the Nexus Line of Google phones and from what I’ve seen the Pixels are great phones, but the price puts them outside of what I want to pay.
The 3a, and the 6a might be the only ones I considered, but the rest are just “Flagship priced phones” and yeah they may have the hardware to back them up, but paying 600+ dollars for a phone is ridiculous. With them reaching for a thousand dollars is a hard no.
You basically hit on it. They’re trying to make them into iPhones… people are on Android specifically because they don’t want Apple prices, or that type of enviroment.
It’s not only the price. I simply don’t want to have iOS devices. I like their technology and the iOS implementation, don’t misunderstand me. But I won’t accept a walled garden in my pocket. I have so much software installed from different sources and I like to write apps by myself, too.
Many people are only happy with unlimited possibilities. If you are restricted and not trusted as a power user, your phone is not worth to be called “smart”.
When I used iOS it turned out that it was f-droid and the dead simple availability of Foss apps that was actually the killer apps for me than whatever polished app version iOS might. Something I didn’t appreciate fully until I entered the nightmare of trying to find no subscription and non ad filled apps.
I personally like the diversity and freedom of Android. Sometimes I do wish I like iPhones better though.
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.
My fingers usually work with the pixel 7 combined with a matte screen protector.
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
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.
At night and in bed, it blinds me. You can add a setting to the quick settings drop down, that makes the screen go even dimmer.
I think he is talking about the fingerprint sensor. It blinds me at night too
Ah, yes of course. It’s indeed pretty annoying.
I like it because it’s quick and doesn’t have any bloatware.
Initially i bought nexus/pixel phones for clean android experience and no bloat.
Staying with pixel mainly for camera quality and free storage on Google Photos.
Its not ideal, but I’m used to it. They never try to do something too gimmicky and it feels like phone made by Google will work best with the os made by google so my experience will be most consistent, but i haven’t tried other phones in a while.
The only phones that ever made me warm and fuzzy inside were Google made phones (Nexus 5 was brilliant) and it’s unlikely I’ll try a different phone anytime soon.
iPhones stress me out due to the height of the walled garden and other android phones are usually a cluttered mess.
Anyway, I recommend pixel phones and most of my family have pixel phones these days.
I just pretend to be tech illiterate sometimes to get out of doing tech support.
After a decade of Samsung and other third party phones, I’m super keen on the Pixel 7 pro. Even with Samsung boosting huge MP counts for their phones, they always come across either blurry or low quality to me (especially selfies where it feels like they’ve cheaped out)
In comparison the software processing on the Pixel is amazing, things seems to always be in focus and correctly lit.
I felt like Google use good processing software to compensate for mediocre at best camera hardware, which is why GCam ports have been so popular on other phones with better camera sensors.
The pixel 7 line had pretty good cameras, didn’t they? Iirc it was 64MP
Using pixel 6 pro. It’s fine. I’m happy not to have all the bloated janky apps that come on other phones.
Same here.
Bonus is I can root it and replace the firmware if I want to without blowing an eFuse and it useless work work or pay if I flash it back
Also on a P6P. Only complaint is the sluggish fingerprint reader, but I’m used to it by now.
Really hope that Google will eventually start offering more than 2yrs of updates though. Otherwise, happy with the phone.
In the first winter, the shipped camera app crashed the phone. That was fun. Also, battery life is still… Only okayish. Would buy again though, awesome otherwise.
I’ve got a Pixel 4a, which is definitely older than two years, and I still get security- and feature-updates.
I have one with grapheneos for privacy, and it’s good.
Same. No better alternative with a balance of features and privacy/security. So pretty much locked into Pixels. Progression for me was nexus (stock) to 1+ (close to stock) to pixel (graphene).
I’ve had a couple Samsungs but I think my next phone will be a Pixel for exactly this reason. Installing GrapheneOS is exactly what I need
I got a Pixel 6 Pro second hand from the US recently for GrapheneOS.
Here’s what I like:
- Fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable
- Phone is buttery smooth, no weird slowdowns, I’ve been very satisfied
- Excellent hardware: beautiful, premium, unqiue. It feels heavy but in a well - balanced, premium way .The curved back, screen and sides makes it so comfortable to hold. And I love the camera bar which because the phone doesn’t rock back and forth on the table.
- No parallel for customization, well maintained custom ROMs (I came from a Xiaomi, I swear Google Pixels are way better in this regard.), GrapheneOS is awesome.
What I don’t like:
- Phone gets hot on cellular, probably an inefficient Exynos modem
- Battery is just okay. Charging is not an issue, takes about an hour to reach 80%, which is what I usually keep my phone at anyway for better battery health.
- Screen not quite bright enough on brutal summer days.
So yeah overall I’m a happy camper. When this one loses support for GrapheneOS, I’ll be upgrading to another Pixel.
I’ve got a 4a (bought on release) and it has been my favorite phone. Not a huge power user so it’s a good small device that has the features I want (fingerprint, 3.5 Jack). My biggest gripe is something I think Google changed sometime before the 4a, and that’s their is no HDMI over USB possible with Pixel devices. From what I can tell the only reason they did this was to sell Chromecasts. The main issue is I watch horror movies on a projector with some friends while camping(no Wi-Fi or data so Chromecast doesn’t work). The software on the projector has poor support for different codecs so ideally I’d use VLC on my phone and have no issue, but I cant. Pretty niche scenario there but I think it’s a sign of how modern phones have slowly been taking away useful features for seemingly no reason. Makes me not want to get a Google phone again.
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.
7 pro is my favorite phone ove ever owned, finally unseating the v30 which was criminally underrated at the time. I wish there was something better that wasn’t made by Google, but I have always been disappointed with my Samsung devices (Galaxy Note OG, Galaxy s7edge, S9). I felt trapped by them and they always had SO MUCH BLOAT. The s7 was the best of the bunch. I’ve had about as many pixels (2pro, 3pro, 6, 7 pro). They’ve all gotten better with each iteration, but I saw no reason to even consider a pixel 4 or 5. 6 was a huge step up but had some build quality issues. Overall I liked the design choices. I would still have my six but I was having a battery issue that couldn’t be fixed so they let me trade it in and shaved $100 off the 7pro for me in lieu of doing an RMA that late into the life cycle. 7 pro is excellent. I won’t be getting a new phone until this one is dead.
If you haven’t tried any of the newer Samsung, you should!
I hated the bloat on my S5 (only tolerated it because of the awesome IR blaster on that phone), but the S10 was miles better. There were maybe 2 apps I had to disable, the rest could be uninstalled.
No bloat is still better than some bloat, of course, but Samsung phones are still one of the few with a triple camera setup in a small form factor. That, and the new android quick toggles are so ugly - who thought it was a good idea to hide wifi/data behind a second layer of toggles, and then make each toggle hideously big?!
Still on a pixel 2, it’s really starting to show it’s age. It’s been a solid phone. I think I will upgrade to the Pixel 8 this fall… But I will miss the rear finger print scanner.
Google Pixels are the absolute best phones for custom roms and ones I feel best about when it comes to software support outlasting the hardware because of that. All the other phones might have better internals, but it’s the growing animosity towards unlocking bootloaders and rise in prices of phones hitting laptop prices without the long term software support to match that makes it seem less appealing than pixels to me.
This is my view, too. I still have my 2XL with fully updated LineageOS with MicroG, and it still feels “fast enough”. I got the P6 because the camera stopped working after 4 years and the battery and USB charging port got flakey.
However, after I went with a custom ROM, the USB/battery problems went away. I still use it.
If I can’t flash, I won’t buy.
I thought my Pixel 2 would be perfect for a custom rom. But then I found Google locked the bootloader for refurbished phones. I couldn’t find a way around that so now it’s a paperweight.
