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.
So you’re saying they’re the best phones to remove the products of this software company from? It’s like saying Internet explorer is the best browser to download other browsers.
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 have the same problem, but only when I run the GPS under sunlight in a car. I wonder if other phones have the same problem under those conditions? Can anyone else chip in?
I enjoyed my pixel up until the day they put a backup button on photos that would pop up right when I'm swiping. So I had to go through my Google backup and delete/disable it (which can only be done from the computer) just so that I could use my Gmail again.
Now I'm considering switching manufacturers on my next upgrade.
The newer ones are nice, but as an owner of the first 4 because I need unbloated OSes, they were a complete joke in hardware support and failures. Can't count the number of times I've lost data to my pixel 1 randomly resetting, had bluetooth issues with 1-4, and had a smattering of other nonsense issues with everything up to the 6. Eventually I gave up and hopped over to iOS.
This is going to be unpopular, but even the default google firmware is nice, it's clean and bloat free. Obviously people should flash a custom ROM to do google.
Disagree. I owned flagship Androids from the G1 until last fall.
Android is a privacy nightmare, and serves no technical advantage over an iPhone. So I got an iPhone. It's 100% as adequate of a black rectangle that runs apps as any Pixel.
Until an iPhone can fold and send pictures/videos to people who aren't using the same phone that don't look like diarrhea I honestly don't care about anything Apple does.
iPhone still can't report the RSSI of a wireless network.
Until they make that work, anyone who works in it/tech has to carry a different device to test wireless networks.
The wireless hardware is in the phone. Just let me use it.
OSM is great in some places. But outside of the more techy areas, it's a barren land. I something do my part with streetcomplete, but anyway, it's not there yet (in most places)
I have tried using it for a while but a few updates ago the search functionality was kinda messed up (and still is) so I had to switch back to gmaps :(
I tried it but in my area it doesn't have a lot of places on it. Especially the satellite view being so old it's hard for me to figure out how to contribute
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.
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.
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.
Oh man, the lack of a headphone jack is still a killer for me. It's one of the reasons why I stayed on OnePlus 6 for so long, and to be blunt, I don't see the Pixel 8 as a huge jump outside of power and bullshit like AI photos. My kingdom for a high-end phone with a headphone jack and stock-ish Android!
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.
My 7t was the best phone I ever had when it was on Oxygen OS 10, but every upgrade was a downgrade. Features were dropped, ui got uglier, bloat was added. I have an 8t now, but I won't be getting another OnePlus. Really sad
Totally. First thing i check is "can i debloat and root this piece of shit which is technically awesome but ruined software-side".
Which i most likely can't as the hurdles became more and more annoying each year up to the point where i gave up and went google.
If they'd do the same with PCs, noone would buy that shit. Unless it's a crapple...
The call screener is a godsend and it's the absolute most used feature I rely on. Many evenings I wake up for work and see that my phone stopped 5-10 spam calls that would have ruined my sleep.
Hehe, i have an awesome solution for that. I simply block everyone except wifey and friends. The rest of the world doesn't need to reach me. I call back when i want to, or simply don't 😁
Just because i CAN be reached mobile doesn't mean i have to. Wasn't before Smartphones and won't be with..
But yes, the call-screening is cool. If you disregard privacy and the percentage of non tech-savy people who are totally overwhelmed by that.
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.
I just sent a reply to an email I forwarded instead of the original email and it's entirely the fault of how Gmail orders emails on Android. Unironically.
And they've been neglecting that. There are a couple of street names that they have wrong, and I've been using the edit feature fruitlessly for over 8 years. I've included links to local business web sites with the new name of one, links to municipal web sites with the new name, geo-tagged photos of the street signs, and even links to the municipal ordinance that changed the names in 2003. It all goes into the same black hole.
In my experience, google maps has the same issues in some areas,e.g. Tanger. OSM was way more reliable there. You could help fix those issues by contributing. I think it's fun and you'll get to know your neighborhood better
Maps also has gone to shit. Complex routing including public transport is pretty much the only thing it still is useful for. For using maps as maps openstreetmap has been better for a long time, even before Google decided to dumb down their maps. For bicycle routing osm also is better nowadays as Google is missing most of the small paths.
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.
I own a Pixel 7 and although not ideal, it's certainly better than most of the phones out there for me. The only downsides of daily driving a Pixel are battery drain and overheating. Granted, I live in a rather cold climate so I imagine it being not the most useful piece of tech for the folks near the equator...
It's been confirmed that Pixel 10 will finally get a non-exynos chip, so perhaps it can indeed become the pinnacle of Android smartphones, who knows.
This scenario still requires Google to play their cards right, however, but there's hope.
I went from a Galaxy S20 to a Pixel 8 and frankly I miss the S20. Build quality sucks. My screen creaks and I hate the camera ridge especially. Whole thing feels cheap and it's not even very root friendly anymore like Nexus phones, which is the whole reason I got it.
Pixel phones are garbage compared to Nexus line at the time. Android is garbage now too, like the OP said. Chromebook is gonna have to turn itself into a real platform with powerful machines and software to ever be relevant beyond disposal classroom computers. Frankly I think SteamOS has a better chance at making a comeback, and that's a long shot.
There used to be tons of customization options which have been removed/limited under the guise of "personalization". For example you used to be able to do things like choose system colors that weren't from a selection of 5 pastel themes. For some reason Google believes that pastels and pastels alone accurately reflect the "personality" of every user and that users wasn't their "personality" reflected.
There's a ton of settings that have been removed over the years, volume button behavior changed, various privacy settings reset to default with random updates, privacy settings removed...
It's still fairly functional but if it weren't for certain apps i need i would be trying out graphene or whatever.
You could never officially choose system colors in AOSP. It was always white with teal accent. If you're thinking of Substratum, that was kinda an unintended exploit when Google was working on adding native theming for OEMs.
Volume buttons are being made more customizable in Android 15, which is launching on Pixels soon.
Privacy settings have never been reset for me, maybe you're confusing it with Windows 11.
Latest Samsung updates removed classic swipe controls for navigation. I had to do a hacky workaround including finding 2 random APKs just to preserve functionality. (S21U)
I hate the capslock thing. I sometimes feel like I’m the only person who regularly uses capslock (for C macro names and SQL when programming, but also for typing acronyms).
I don’t mind the function key thing. Even from memory I can say that in a browser F5 = refresh and F11 = fullscreen. But kids probably are less likely to know those these days so a label could be helpful.
CapsLock is vital for my muscle memory when configured to act as an extra Ctrl key. I have other shit configured to my Super key so that sort of kb would definitely require a major config overhaul to be usable.
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
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.
Google won’t open it but Apple are working with GSMA to add the things Google made as proprietary extensions to RCS part of the RCS standard (such as encryption which isn’t in the standard).
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.
I really don't get the Chromebook complaint. It just needs to browse the internet, and a Chromebook is damn solid at that at a super reasonable price and are rugged as hell. Yeah I wish schools didn't hook into the g suite but like what, you want em on a windows machine to do the same things as on chrome os?
It's ok, and getting better. My big problem with it is (like you) that Google Play Music was incredible, so good, and they discontinued it in favor of the much worse and awkwardly named YouTube Music.
Whoever convinced them to give up the branding of "Play Store, Play Music, Play Movies" should be drawn and quartered.
YouTube launched in 2005 and was bought by Google in 2006. It has been a Google service for 95% of its existence. I'm pretty sure Google did other stuff in that 18 years than "put in more ads."
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.
Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms should also get a mention. People forget that before that the only way to work together on documents was a shared drive with file locking while 1 person can work on a file at a time, complicated and unpractical. There are still no massively adopted replacements for these (Or they're made by Microsoft, lol)
It’s about the thousands of things you have your old gmail tied to. Yes I use forwarding to my new proton mail but sometimes it doesn’t work cause it went into spam or smh and I must open gmail.
Sometimes also the icloud aliases stuff stops working and I don’t want my proton mail to be associated with too much ads so I again type the old mail…
To be honest I was supposed to use proton but I use apple icloud aliases stuff most of the time because I don’t want to disclose my most important and secure email address on some trashy sites. So yeah that google switch didn’t work out all that good I guess I just changed the tech overlord. At least the new one didn’t want to monopolize the internet I guess
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.
Microsoft has free storage options too. As does Dropbox, et al.
G Suite is actually pretty good all things considered but MS won the Office / Outlook / Excel wars ages ago. All big enterprises are running windows. That fight is over so long as MS doesn't bungle Windows11 too badly.
Gmail and Google drive are far easier to use than Outlook and OneDrive. Not saying they’re good things for the world but those products haven’t been fried yet.
I'd say convenience and shareability. I come across far more dead Dropbox links than dead Google Drive links.
And Onedrive is further down in enshittification than Drive. Like windows relentlessly trying to reenable and reinstall without permission.
Overall I like it cause it's just there and works. But I wholeheartedly would not recommend it for business applications (without backups at least). There have been instances of companies data just getting deleted or randomly banned from their google account.
That thing was killer. I used it throughout university with my classmates to build the best notebook covering all our lectures, tutorials, etc. We had a habit of dropping in polls for distant sections so we could decide which notes were best to keep etc or needed more work, etc.
Kind of like Microsoft then. They buy up or spend money trying to break into all kinds of different areas but consistently take bad L's and get pushed back to their core business time and again after face-planting and alienating those who gave them a shot.
Disagree. Microsoft has managed to break into the laptop market and got a strong hold of it. They got into the cloud market and now it's one of their core businesses. They got into gaming and are very good at it.
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.
Yeah pixels are awesome. Call screening is my favorite feature. Someone calls and my robot assistant asks why they're calling, and then I get a real time transcript of who they are and why they're calling and I get to decide whether or not I pick up.
I hate call screening. I never activate it on purpose, the phone's screen decides to wake up while it's still in my pocket and let my thigh press the button for some reason. Then I pull the phone out of my pocket, look at the caller ID, and see that a robot is screening an important call from my boss, and the button to actually answer the call is greyed out until the robot is done harassing my boss. Or my doctor, or my therapist, or my bank. I've had important people I was expecting a call from hang up because they reached a robot instead of me and assumed it was a wrong number. It's a terrible first impression to make when I've applied for a job and this robot decides to harass my potential new boss.
If they made the call screening button a slider, it would reduce the butt presses by 90%
All it should be is a goddamn mailbox. Instead it's now an ad-fueling chunk of spyware that has fucking social media bullshit built into it.
I started paying for Proton and have been emptying my Google crap
I think that's part of the reason they tend to fail in other areas: it's just not important enough to them except for the data it generates for thier ads.
Not only that, all these failed/terminated google services collected huge amounts of data. They were able to analyze that data and make ridiculous conclusions about human behavior. Whether those services are functioning or not anymore, they still learned what they learned. For companies and governments that want to manipulate populations, that is the most valuable product that exists.
Personally I've had the same number for years and it's the one I give out, but as an IT professional I definitely know individual experiences vary. The main issue has been the few texting stuff that doesn't support it. Like ubereats, which I guess doesn't matter since I stopped using them a while ago, but there are others.
I don't feel like Chromebooks are all that bad. Especially if the other option is limited capacity computer rooms. I imagine the restrictions of a Chromebook would be similar to the limitations imposed by the IT department.
It’s been getting prettier and better. Encourage those with disposable income to give them a little money (for some bells and whistles) - privacy, good-for-tech/world, & vibes are all there.
I don't want to advertise but I am on Tutanota and their plans seem fair.
If you're not the product then you have to pay something etc.
Don't know if this is bulletproof but I just need a regular email provider with no bull shit. The end to end stuff is not even that important for me on a daily basis.
Let's not pretend like google does not have a monopoly on search engines, maps, and shortform video content. Also, their cloud ecosystem might be second behind AWS, but it's still fucking enormous and makes them truckloads of money.
Have you not seen the corpse that is Google hangouts still attached to Gmail? Google died with inbox and I hope they go under after just barely giving back to open source projects they profited off of.
TL:DR they shut down the far more powerful web app to force everyone into the phone app which is buggy as heck and missing many features compared to the web app
I never had it before the redesign, so I can't comment on that. I will say that I know they ditched the coach guided programs, which seems like a terrible change, and the main reason I'm not keeping Premium. But it's still a very useful fitness tracker.
Luckily, there is a choice! All google services have a FOSS alternative. If you want to completely degoogle yourself, it's a long process that takes dedication, but any amount is liberating. You are literally taking back your freedom!