Pixel phones are a joke? They've been the best phones I've owned.
Yeah I like them the most as well and funnily enough they are the easiest phone to degoogle
So to name a few issues:
pixel 1: headphone jack issue so bad they needed to issue a recall, audio would just FULLY stop working, loud speaker as well.
pixels 2, 3 (and theorized 4 and 5): using cheap ram that literally just died within 3 years. They refused to issue a recall claiming that was "fine for the expected life span of the phone"
Pixels 1-4: if you let them discharge long enough, they don't charge anymore, ever!
Pixel 4/a and 5/a: lemon units. Bad ram, bad flash storage, things like that. Some would be very slow and others would be fine. My pixel 5a died in 7 months.
During this period of time from the 4 though 6 lines they were notorious for trying to deny your warranty replacement any way they could. It took me 5 months to get a new pixel 5a.
Pixel 6: buzzing coming from loud speakers (not sure if recall issued)
Pixel 6 and 7: first 2 tensor chips, known for draining battery too quickly and overheating.
Pixel 8: OLED issues, I think random lines showing up on the display. They have issued a recall tho.
So in sum:
In the older pixels there were some shitty cost cutting measures they used in order to recoup cost of development of the phones.
their warranty service around this time was also piss poor
QC issues with just about every pixel phone released.
Where we stand today:
their warranty replacements are much better I've heard.
There are significantly less glaring issue with the pixels, and they're still reasonably priced
So, back in the day, if you got lucky you got a decent phone for a good price, if you got unlucky you got a shit phone and they probably wouldn't replace it. Now, you'll probably get a good phone, with some semi useful AI features and a decent warranty.
I'm sorry but you could easily find facts like this about every phone company from the past as of now they are great phones but cannot comment on the AI tools because I remove those
Yeah, Nexus phones were great, but Pixel phones are also good. And Android is definitely not "getting worse".
Agree with the rest though.
Android is getting weird. It's not bad but some UI choices just don't make sense. They're making everything super large, and required so many swipes and clicks for certain settings. They've lost the plot a bit. Also, having used both iOS and Android, iOS gestures are leaps and bounds ahead of Android. Genuinely, it's no contest.
All this being said I prefer Android, I just wish they put more thought about ease of use and feature refinement rather than changing for changes sake. Like we are JUST NOW getting an update to the gesture controls. They've been basically unchanged since Android 11/12 they have had ample time to refine them a bit.
my 6a has been nothing but shit. You cant charge it and run the GPS at the same time or it overheats. Thats just one of the many issues ive had with it.
I hate Google and try not use it anymore but there's still one thing I can't do without : Google Maps.
OSMAnd beats out Google Maps, if you are a trail climber etc. Google's entries are so lacking, whereas OSM content has near exact coordinates and paths for sooooo many routes.
Have you tried open street maps? I suggest organic street maps for your phone
Organic Maps are great, however if you're looking for shops and restaurants (or rather their reviews) Google Maps are second to none.
OSM can technically replace Gmaps for shops and restaurants if enough people were using and updating it.
However, Gmaps in unbeatable for public transportation :( no alternative at all
In Europe at least I had some minor functionality with OSMAnd... but Google beats it out no contest, in terms of speed, accuracy, and being up-to-date... which is depressing but that's the reality.
it's the only reason I haven't stopped using Maps
I can never stick with those alternatives, the traffic conditions feature is simply too good to miss
Like everything else, advertising pressure has ruined it. You can still search, but just zoom in and look over an area to see what is there? So many businesses missing, because they don’t pay Google to advertise. Apple Maps shows them all, because they don’t make money from advertising.
Open Street Maps are ok, but my area has a lot of businesses missing. If you know the address you need to go to, then it’s great for routing.
My personal hobby horse with Google killing things is Reader.
Hate it like you want, but the effing pixels are still the best phones. Not by os, not by spec, but simply by being the most open android of them all. The easiest to de-google. Sounds stupid, but is not.
I hate google with all my heart (since they dropped their slogan "don't be evil" and went... Well.... Evil). But i will buy their fucking phones until a viable alternative comes along.
100%. I just bought a Pixel 8 so I could install Graphene OS. It was so damn easy too. I was amazed. This phone is great minus the lack of headphone jack and SD card slot.
It's a real shame that OnePlus just became an Oppo rebranding, because the OP1 was a phenomenal phone, and up until OP6 they were both cheap and had a relatively clean Android install. To date, features like gestures are still better than what you get on the Pixel, and most of their stuff is less invasive than Google's.
The Android market nowadays, especially for high end, is "which manufacturer is the least shit", and that's a real shame.
What exactly does Google have left that people like? Gmail?
Shhhh! Dammit. Now they are definitely going to realize they haven't ruined it yet.
The way Gmail orders conversations/email chains makes it SO hard to figure who's reply to what and what the latest email is. Each email in the chain contains the entire chain before it and you end up reading everything twice just to work out what the hell is going on.
Gmail is already shit for anyone who wants to configure their own mail server.
Theres much much more.. Smaller kills sometimes are the most effective. Think about Google RSS Reader the best rss reader to ever exist…
I mean, a lot of the points are valid, but the Pixel phones are pretty great, Android is pretty great and getting better, and the Chromebook gamble is playing a really long term game where they could end up uprooting Microsoft if they play their cards right. From my understanding, US kids now on average know Chromebook OS better than Windows by far, and will probably prefer to continue using it if they could. If Google makes the OS more viable for professional use and flexible and play their cards right, they'd have a really good chance at uppending Microsoft's dominance, especially since Microsoft is seemingly trying to shoot itself in the foot with Windows.
Don't worry. They won't play their cards right.
Android worse every year? How? Every update I've received (on a Samsung, mind you) has made my experience better.
Android 12 took up 700MB RAM, leaving some space for non-sytem apps on lower end smartphones.
Android 13 takes up easily 1.2GB, leaving almost nothing at the benefit of having a somewhat "snappier" interface
the chromebook keyboard layout is stupid, especially if you like tiling wms
they removed capslock and moved super to where it would normally be, and renamed it to "search"
they put nonsensical function keys that don't exist like "refresh" and "fullscreen"
and then the keys are mushy too
I think the general rule is anything google acquired was good and anything they built themselves was bad and ended up getting killed.
There are exceptions but some of the only decent parts of google; maps, YouTube, AdWords were all acquisitions. I think they even just got HTC to build the pixel exclusively for them
I’m an iPhone person because of reasons, but I honestly think Pixel phones are the best Android devices I’ve ever seen.
Android is still great. The Pixel phone is the best Android phone by several metrics. Usability and Camera come to mind. Android TV is by far the best TV interface. Just because it's sideloadable and decently usable. Low bar, but here we are.
Gboard is good. The pixel launcher is good enough to not bother switching off. The Google Home certainly turns my lights on and off. And as soon as Google opens RCS, I'm leaving Google Messages.
But that's the only Google stuff I use. And I'm thinking of switching to Graphene OS.
Chromebooks are insanely locked down at schools. I got one on eBay for $40, installed linux, and now it can play Minecraft Java at 60 fps so that’s something.
Gmail has ads in it. They’re stealing your data and training their D-tier AI on your emails and still showing you ads and you just take it.
Wow, Gmail has ads? I never knew, because I have adblock. It's free, you know
Aside from Pixels, they've pretty much ruined all their products.
It sucks, because I actually like Google products, minus the gross privacy violations and ads. I used to pay for YT Premium.
They're the #1 in streaming. More people watch youtube on their TV's than Netflix
The timeline got fucked when they killed Google Reader. That was Google's Harambe incident.
The UI for GMail is awful. Can't even follow conversations on my phone app. Just put that shit in order like Outlook does. Fuck.
If/when they screw up gmail, I’m blacklisting Google for good, that’s gonna be such a goddamn pain to disentangle myself from.
Google search is still better than bing, somehow. Gmail is good for signing up to stuff I don't want mailing my protonmail. Google maps is still genuinely useful. Youtube is, for now, still better than any alternative I know about. I don't see what's wrong with Pixel phones.
Don't get me wrong, google is evil now and I don't like it. But I don't know any better alternatives for those things. Mm, except gmail, I could replace that I guess but it's such a pain.
They are the IMO most supported Single-Sign-On provider. I think Facebook, which I don't even have, was mostly for games, and then apple also isn't an option, and that's just it besides using firefox' built in password manager for another email/password combination. What's your opinion on log in providers?
Honestly Google Drive works great as free storage (Though for large storage there's no guarantee they won't accidentally delete it, it's happened before).
And Google Suite is good enough if you can't be bothered to get Microsoft Office. Though they're forcing AI into it and have some weird quirks like being unable to copypaste external text with rightclick.
Google has become Microsoft 2.0 where everything (consumer facing) they touch turns into shit.
My latest day-job employer has made the switch from Apples (and s20fe) to pixels. The staff - mainly nerds - is actually generally pleased with the switch.
If the embarrassment that is Purolator (our national postal service offshoot courier 'service') was adequate last week, not only would they break a 20-year streak but also I'd've had my shiny company pixel by now and could pepsi-challenge it against my wife's shiny new company iphone.
