Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is a Pro show
Open link in next tab
Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is a Pro show
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/13/24218879/googles-pixel-9-lineup-is-a-pro-show
Pick your Pro.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/13/24218879/googles-pixel-9-lineup-is-a-pro-show
Pick your Pro.
They just completely alienate their core audience. Don't think I'll ever go back to them
They missed out on many things too. While the Pixel Pro has an LTPO display, the base model doesn't. They only ship with UFS 3.1 storage despite UFS 4.0 being available. Charger is still not bundled.
Heck, give anything except for AI.(144Hz screen anyone? Motorola has them). I never used Assistant and after trying Gemini out for some time, disabled it as well.
Charger is still not bundled.
That is an absolute pro argument though. Who needs yet another charger?
The companies stopped giving chargers so they can sell them later to customers as an extra accessory and make more money. This wouldn't be a problem if there was a uniform standard. But USB PD isn't used by majority of manufacturers. My 33W charger can't charge my Samsung device fast which only draws maximum of 25W because previous is based on VOOC thing.
The idea is to reduce waste. Everyone I know has a 100w charger with multiple USBC ports. I only use one or two chargers for all my devices. I usually throw away the bundled chargers because they're shit and worthless.
All else aside, what the heck do you need to waste battery power for on a 144hz phone screen? There's no reason. Heck, I have a 120hz screen and turned it down to 60.
I just meant, that having a higher powered refresh rate screen that can easily be toggled on/off is more refreshing than more on device AI, IMO.
The ai stuff you can do with pictures on the pixel 9 is actually pretty nifty. I could see using that a lot more than a high refresh rate.
I have a noob question, is backporting any of these camera features possible for Google to older Pixel phones or is there a technical limitation?
I do agree about diminishing returns on high refresh rates. I have my current phone turned to 120 Hz and it gobbles up battery quite much.
It would be possible, but it would be a lot slower and use up a lot more power. By my limited understanding, AI chips work by being able to do a lot of imprecise math at once, instead of normal chips designed to do precise math and not a lot at once.
They've also always had poor quality hardware, just like Apples iPhone offerings.
These companies use advertising to make their phones seem great, then they have severe issues (E.g. speaker issues on pixel, overheating on iPhone's).
It's all garbage, and it's bad for ya.
The pixel 7 pro is the first phone that im happy with after dozens of Samsung, Redmi, Xiaomi, HTC, Sony garbage phones. Especially Samsung is trash.
The last good phone before that was my Motorola Droid.
I'm almost done with smartphones and most of the internet anyway. It's all corporate owned bullshit.
I just upgraded to a Pixel 7 Pro recently. Previously I had a Galaxy S8 that worked fine for about 7 years. It was really just showing its age. It still holds a charge halfway decently.
Might try installing GrapheneOS on it at some point.
It feels fairly high quality though and I'm hoping I'll be able to get 7 years out of it like the Galaxy.
Tbh I went through a lot of Pixels that broke on some way:
The Pixel 6 is the first one that held up long term, but my next phone will probably be a fairphone
The camera hardware is just ok. The benefits come from the built-in automatic image manipulation / improvement in the Pixel camera app. Download a generic camera app (like Open Camera or SimpleCamera before the takeover) and see the difference in pictures compared to the Pixel Camera (which, by the way, you can download from Aurora).
I always used to jump models, going back all the way to the first Nexus. This'll be the first time I don't. Unfortunately I know the Pixel 7 I have now will have its battery life mysteriously go to shit about three months before it's paid off.
HTC just released a nice Lil $600 phone with a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. Think I'd rather have that.
Shit I didn't know HTC were making phones still! Some fond memories for many phones during the early years.
It's their first one in ages. They're trying to re-enter the market. The hardware is pretty good. Not the most cutting edge, but you get the headphone jack and a microsd card slot back, and at $600 it's way better than the $1,200 bullshit samsung and apple have been trying to shill.
Thanks.
If they embraced the mod community it could be a semi-official pixel replacement. They were always pretty good among oems about low bloat, if they just threw out stock and made only unlocked phones, could even have custom toms pre installed as an option if they really wanted to shake up the market. On of the costs for oems was supporting software updates that fit their bloat into the new android versions--they were always behind Google which was one of the original value propositions for Nexus line before Pixel. With Google going full Evil, there is a spot for someone else to take up the hardware crown.
What I wouldnt give for a smaller android phone. https://smallandroidphone.com/ it's happening!
it's happening!
Look closer. There are no dates anywhere. Also this paragraph:
If Apple kills the Mini, those people will need a new home. An Android phone (with Beeper for iMessage) might be an adequate alternative.
Makes it abundantly clear it was forgotten about years ago.
I feel like I remember Google buying them for the IP. I didn't know the company existed as a separate entity. I'll take it as a good thing. I had a couple of HTC phones back in the day.
Gotcha.
Upon looking into it further it seems they just bought the design department. That's crazy.
I used to love HTC phones, and was a loyal customer. Glad they're trying to make a comeback.
Me too. Their needs to be more competition in the US market. I blame the three phone carriers laft. Their phone contracts only offer the most off to Samsung and Apple. In sure Samsung and Apple pay to have it that way, of course.
The iPhone is great from a design and hardware perspective. I just hate iOS, their stock apps, app pricing and the cultish community. So I wouldn't mind an iPhone clone running Android.
I dont know, they had a large chin with the huge home button for the longest time, a waste of space. They now have the dynamic island, which also takes up space no matter how they dress it up. I prefer the punch hole, like the one on Pixel 5 which was out of the way.
Just when I think the phone industry can't get any more boring and frustrating, now new phone releases only add more AI bullshit.
Would be nice if Graphene managed to implement some of those AI features locally. Without the AI use, i think this thing could fly. Seems the foldable might have really slow wireless charge though :(
ONLY if it's optional, like how sandboxed Google services are now. Although I would rather not have this present.
Still using tensor chip, which is basically a rebranded samsung Exynos chip.. which Samsung themselves dropped in Europe.