It’s good but I personally don’t care, phone manufactures will eventually stop updating their old phones, since Pixel phones are so open I can rely on third party ROMs comfortably, that’s also why I got the Pixel 6 Pro at the first place. Although I would admit for the mass majority an Apple like updating experience is essential.
I would really like to see Google improve their hardwares, I have no complaints with my 6 Pro whatsoever, but it’s obviously inferior to the Samsung’s S Series Ultra or the Apple’s iPhone Pro, both in terms of specs and designs. I have no issues with specs since I don’t play games but I believe most people still do, designs however is much more important especially in the premium phones frontend.
Only 3 years of OS updates, then you need a new phone. Give 5 years directly so you can start thinking about competing with iOS. What is the problem? They have control of the software and the hardware like Apple.
Not really true because Apple can do it, higher margins and support OS much longer. The problem is how they design their OS and the amount of work required. Just look at how long time Windows support all hardware. It is possible, all is just software. They just need to take the hugh upfront cost of the software development that can even help other vendors and suddenly you can do a lot of about the big OS fragmentation problem. You want your latest OS to run on like 90% of all devices. Today, I guess that number is down to like 15%.
You say that 5 years is needed to compete with iPhone but Android is 4 years ahead of iOS so effectively your net result after 3 years is still further forward than iOS after 5
No, you need to look at OS API level which gets updated every OS. App developers just assume that based on age that they will no longer support older devices.
It’s pretty embarrassing that Google got outdone by Samsung on the update front. Mid range Samsungs getting more Android version updates than flagship Google Pixel devices should never happen. Google matching or exceeding them is the minimum of what should be expected.
Also the first few generations of tensor just being a rebadged Exynos processor has hit their reputation hard. Everyday users don’t know what chip is in their phone, but they do know that cell reception and thermals have gotten worse since the change.
Pissel devices are like bad hardware plus best software experience making it mediocre at best. Idk when they’ll ship good quality tensor soc. And before someone come and tell me hey i own a pissel and it’s fine for me. Guess what it’s not fine for me.
Here are the cons
Bad cellular reception : yes really bad on 5g. Overheats like crazy. When it overheats ui lags like hell.
The good news is, with Pixel 8 they’re supposed to start moving away from Exynos design elements. Bad news is, it’s probably going to take a few years. Hopefully they replace the cellular radio sooner than later.
Yeah, I’m really disappointed with my Pixel 7a. It gets terrible battery life. I’m charging twice/day on a new phone with light use. Sometimes thrice/day when I’m using my phone more heavily.
With my 3a, I stopped charging at 85% to keep my battery healthy for longer and got a full day or if it for years. With this phone, I’m charging to 100% and unplugging, and waking up to a phone at < 75% charge.
I’m probably going to sell this phone and get something else. I’m getting battery anxiety.
@blindsight@Apeeksiht my 6a's battery life w/ GrapheneOS is great. Not the best, but lasts a day of moderate use just fine. Days of heavy use I'll have to charge it in the late afternoon, and days of light use it's almost like I haven't unplugged it.
With how terrible my P7P update experience has been (literally every update has made the phone buggier and more unstable) I’m no longer sure if this is a good thing or not. Maybe if they fix their insane QA issues.
I got my phone through my carrier. Unbeknownst to me at the time, carrier provided phones have locked bootloaders so you can’t install grapheneOS on them, or if you can, I haven’t found a guide to reliably do so. The phone was $800 off through the carrier so I can’t complain too much, but I would have got it straight from Google if I had known prior to buying that you can’t install grapheneOS on it.
All modern phones come with a locked bootloader. This is to protect the OS and the User data, preventing anyone with physical access to the devixe from reseting the device and installing their own software without permissikn. I had to unlock mine on my 1+ 7P before installing /e/OS. It might just be that carrier locked phones might need something extra to unlock them not sure.
There’s almost no risk, you can install it from the browser, the bootloader gets relocked so no issues with banking apps and rooted device, and you can still have play services on the phone but without it being able to access the whole storage and device info. You seem to literally just be spewing words without knowing anything about the subject.
If you don’t want it I’d be willing to take it and experiment myself with graphene OS.
I’m saying I don’t want to modify my device because I don’t want to risk damaging it. How is that spewing words without knowing anything about the subject? I don’t care how easy it is for other people to modify it or how functional the phone might be afterwards, I don’t want to risk modifying it myself, that’s all. Also I wouldn’t want Graphene for other reasons, but that’s besides the point. It’s on Google to fix their crappy software, not me.
Because there is practically no risk of damaging the device and bricking it. If you knew anything about the the distribution, it’s inhalation and android you’d know that the risk is almost nonexistent and reversible. I understand you don’t want to run any risk, sure, it’s a valid reason, but to damage the device is practically impossible just from installing another android variant.
Would have loved to see this for my 4A but glad they’re looking to extend the support window moving forward. Many phones now are powerful enough to go years past their obsolescence date and chucking them away is just e-waste.
Doesn’t mean much with how bad the QA and overall lifespan of Pixel devices have been unfortunately. Hopefully better this time but hard to want to put money in when the previous generations all had such issues and bad QC.
Extending warranty for the 5As then handing out equally defective devices is a pain. I’m on my 3rd one and I’m really not planning on it surviving over a year since none of the others did and when they died I was sitting down using the phone.
Only thing keeping me on them is GrapheneOS, too difficult to go back after getting a taste of it lol
Custom roms have proven that Pixels could have lasted about an extra 1-2 more android versions before performance really caught up. The Pixel 2 could run Android 13, albeit a bit buggier since it’s unofficial. My only guess would be costly reasons for Google to further support those devices longer at the time.
I fucked up and bought an unlocked phone without checking the original provider. It astounds me nobody’s figured out how to fix this yet. Going to have to live with it for a while.
This is an overall win. The upward pressure is good for everyone, as phones have passed the meteoric rise of speed. Devices have been able to last far longer than their update cycle for a few years now.
My thoughts on it: cool, now give it a headphone jack again and I might buy it.
I'm not buying a phone that requires $100 wireless earbud DLC (which honestly feel like just another thing to become e-waste in a few years when the battery gives out).
You realise DLC was originally referred to an expansion that was released a while after a game’s initial release. But now game developers are pulling half the features from a game, with those features being put in a DLC instead.
So the original comment labeling the practice of a feature being pulled from the original product and put into a separate product is apt and valid.
… the fact that I realize this is why I think it’s a weird way to use the term.
Headphones are not downloadable. They’re not even software. Also I don’t game all that much anymore but I’ve yet to play a game where I “needed” a dlc, I don’t think I’ve ever even bought one.
I have, on the other hand, bought 100 pairs of headphones
Galaxy S9, and most likely a Sony Xperia 5 IV (or 5 V, since that's supposed to release in a few days). Honestly I'm using the S9 until it completely gives out on me.
My soundcore wireless headphones have lasted longer than any pair of wired headphones I’ve ever had. Going on 4 years now and just as good as the day I bought them. They were only $70 too. Not saying you’re wrong but there’s reasonably priced quality ones out there if you look
Do you spend $70 on your wired headphones though? Or are you comparing the durability of cheap crap wired headphones to decent value budget wireless headphones? I have both a pair of Soundcore wireless headphones and a couple of pairs of wired headphones at home that all cost around the same amount and I’m certain I could smash the Soundcore headphones into tiny pieces using the wired ones and the wired ones would still work fine.
I spent $30-40 a few times on some wired headphones. This was around 10 or so years ago so, what 50/55 in today money? Maybe more. They’d last me 8 months to a year instead of the 3 or 4 from the cheap ones but eventually the wire at the buds or the aux plug would wear out from being shoved in my pocket, bag, etc. For everyday use I prefer wireless. I have a nice turntable, amp, and speakers for when I want to listen at home. Headphones are exclusively an “on the go” thing for me and my several years old set of BT headphones do the trick just fine
I know the removal of established standards that people use is a bad thing, but I don’t know why people still pretend wireless headphones are suddenly the only option like this is all a conspiracy to sell planned-obsolescence tech and track everyone via Bluetooth. Adapters might not be ideal in every situation or for every use-case but don’t pretend most people can’t just leave one attached to the end of their headphones!
Fair enough, adapters do exist, but as you point out, there are situations where that is not ideal. On a long flight, for example, where I might want to charge my phone and also listen to something, or (in my case) someone who does some amateur audio engineering work on the side, where having the ability to simply wire in a device to play some audio is a big plus. My biggest problem is that phones from five years ago could do both wireless and wired headphones just fine, no adapters needed. What have we gained as consumers by the loss of one of those options?
I think regularly taking long flights and tinkering with audio equipment are both niche enough use-cases to justify looking for phones that cater to your niche (I.e. have a headphone jack). As for why that is now niche, you often hear suggestions of improved waterproofing and/or more internal space for other things (or being thinner).
Wait I’m confused are they going to up it to 8 years now for the 8th gen or is the number of years still up to debate? Either way not bad especially if they keep their current practices of being repairable and third party os friendly
One can dream. Also, given the upcoming EU regulations around replaceable batteries, they may have some work done around this area too. That would be essential for a device with long term support.
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