Pixel 7 / Pixel 7 Pro / Pixel 7a

Aurelius said:
I find that rear fingerprint readers are a bit overhyped. There's a bit of a hunt for it, and of course you can't unlock your phone while it's sitting on your desk or a wireless charger. Google's in-screen reader isn't super-fast, but it's quick enough that it's a non-issue.
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Personally, the move to the in-screen FP reader has been a bit of a regression. With my earlier phone (Pixel 2, FWIW), I could grab my phone and my finger would automatically find the sensor (often while pulling the phone from my pocket) to unlock while my other hand was still moving in to navigate the screen. Having the phone in a case made it easy to blindly find the rear sensor.

With the in-screen reader, I have to to pull out my phone and look at it to make sure I'm placing my finger in the proper location. It's just a less-smooth operation. Not to mention that in-screen readers in general are known to be less accurate/more fidgety (e.g., the Pixel 6) than rear ones.

If rear sensors are becoming infeasible for some reason (e.g., too thick, interferes with battery, water/dust-proofing), then maybe putting the sensor in the power button like some devices would be a decent compromise.
 
I've been using a Pixel 7 for a few months now, which was a free upgrade from my Pixel 3a.

The fingerprint scanner is much better, and I can usually get it on the first or second try using the front screen, as opposed to using the rear of the Pixel 3a, where I'd be lucky if I got it after 5 times... I really don't use it much, though, since it unlocks pretty reliably with my facial recognition, and as long as I'm not using the clip-on sunglasses for my glasses, it works very well.

Where the Pixel 7's fingerprint scanner works much better, though, is during the dry season when my skin starts cracking. It can actually read my fingerprint, compared to it being all but impossible on the Pixel 3a.

My only complaint about the Pixel 7 is the lack of a "back" button. Having to swipe left on the browser screen, or other apps, isn't exactly convenient. If someone knows a way to reactivate the back button, I'd be quite happy.
 
Aurelius said:
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. Wireless earbuds are very liberating (if you've ever snagged a cord on your jacket or a weight at the gym, you'll know why), and the whole point of the charging case is that you can top up the buds while you're not using them. The Pixel Buds A-series are really good value, especially at "free."
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I guess I just have a really strong aversion to battery powered things. Maybe as a kid I had toys that had dead batteries and where unusable and couldn't get my parents to prioritize new batteries or something, but it runs deep.

I don't like even thinking about the risk of something not being available for use when I want to use it due to a drained battery. By contrast forgoing the liberty of wirelessness seems trivial.

That, and over the years I have spent way too much time troubleshooting Bluetooth connectivity issues and stuff like that, only to be diaappointed by reliability/performance/range/lag/whatever when I do get it working to make me never want to trust wireless things again. In my house everything that can be wired is wires. The only exception is probably wifi/wireless data for phones and laptops.




Aurelius said:
I find that rear fingerprint readers are a bit overhyped. There's a bit of a hunt for it, and of course you can't unlock your phone while it's sitting on your desk or a wireless charger. Google's in-screen reader isn't super-fast, but it's quick enough that it's a non-issue.
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I find them to be perfect.

I just stick my hand in my pocket, my finger instantly finds the bump with the reader and before I have my screen at a viewing position it is unlocked and ready to go.

The front screen fingerprint reader seems like it would cause.morw fun ling to find the right spot, and require you to have eyes on the device to make with work, rather than doing it by feel, and having it do its thing while the phone is in motion from my pocket, as I do now.

To be fair though, I have never used a front finger print sensor, so I have no personal experience. The dock and desk thing does sound like a real benefit though, but at least for me that constitutes a real minority of my use, enough that the benefits of the rear sensor outweigh them.

Aurelius said:
Having said all this: if the Pixel 5a is still doing a good job, don't rush to get the 7a. The Pixel 8a will be faster, probably improve photography and otherwise reward your patience that little bit more. I just think the 7a is a great device for those ready to upgrade now.
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That is fair.

I've been using the Fi subscription plan due to its substantial discounts. I got the 5a for just $9 per month for two years.

Screenshot_20230519-144805.png



If I buy the 7a, right now the Fi store is saying it will cost like $20+ per month for the device.


They say I am eligible for a discounted upgrade when the 2 years expire in August. I am going under the assumption that this would be for a 7a at a similar level of discount, but I don't know for sure.
 
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Unabomber said:
My only complaint about the Pixel 7 is the lack of a "back" button. Having to swipe left on the browser screen, or other apps, isn't exactly convenient. If someone knows a way to reactivate the back button, I'd be quite happy.
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You can't revert to the classic three button controls anymore with the 7?

Screenshot_20230519-183333~2.png


Screenshot_20230519-183322~2.png


That might be a deal breaker for me. I have no desire to ever use gestures.
 
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Unabomber said:
Next time you're in the Birmingham, Alabama area, shoot me a message, and I'll buy you a beer at Good People Brewing Company.
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You brought a smile to my face. Should I ever be in the Burmington, Alabama area I will do that.
Was glad to have been of help. 🙂
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Personally, the move to the in-screen FP reader has been a bit of a regression. With my earlier phone (Pixel 2, FWIW), I could grab my phone and my finger would automatically find the sensor (often while pulling the phone from my pocket) to unlock while my other hand was still moving in to navigate the screen. Having the phone in a case made it easy to blindly find the rear sensor.

With the in-screen reader, I have to to pull out my phone and look at it to make sure I'm placing my finger in the proper location. It's just a less-smooth operation. Not to mention that in-screen readers in general are known to be less accurate/more fidgety (e.g., the Pixel 6) than rear ones.

If rear sensors are becoming infeasible for some reason (e.g., too thick, interferes with battery, water/dust-proofing), then maybe putting the sensor in the power button like some devices would be a decent compromise.
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IMHO it's just been one regression after another for at least a decade. I'd take an Ice Cream Sandwich era phone over anything current, if only I could still get it patched for security.

Which goes to show that the market is fundamentally broken.

In a properly working market, you either give the customer what they want, or someone else will and your product won't sell.

Yet despite how often forums are full of people complaining over lack of easily replaceable batteries, lack of expandable storage, removal of the 3.5mm audio jack, etc. etc. etc. it has no impact on the manufacturers. They just do what they want anyway, and tell users to suck it. In a properly functioning market, with that behavior they should be out of business by now.

IN part its because FOMO driven ADHD kiddies who can't help themselves from buying the newest shiny object, even though in many ways it is leaps backwards in user freedom, thus just encouraging the industry to keep just doing what they want and giving their customers the finger generation after generation.

Sounds to me like it is time to go Ma Bell on them and break them all up so we get real competittion in the market where the manufacturers are forced to respond to custoers desires or cease to exist.
 
Unabomber said:
I've been using a Pixel 7 for a few months now, which was a free upgrade from my Pixel 3a.

The fingerprint scanner is much better, and I can usually get it on the first or second try using the front screen, as opposed to using the rear of the Pixel 3a, where I'd be lucky if I got it after 5 times... I really don't use it much, though, since it unlocks pretty reliably with my facial recognition, and as long as I'm not using the clip-on sunglasses for my glasses, it works very well.

Where the Pixel 7's fingerprint scanner works much better, though, is during the dry season when my skin starts cracking. It can actually read my fingerprint, compared to it being all but impossible on the Pixel 3a.
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I never had a 3a, but I did have a 3 and now a 5a, which seemingly have the same sensor, and it has worked flawlessly for years, always working on the first try.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I never had a 3a, but I did have a 3 and now a 5a, which seemingly have the same sensor, and it has worked flawlessly for years, always working on the first try.
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I concur. I have the Pixel 3 and the reader works flawlessly.

It's been a long time, but the reader on my Nexus 6P seemed to work rather well too.

Guess it depends on the user. Maybe not all fingers are easily readable? Maybe the phone was trained on poor input?
 
Absalom said:
I concur. I have the Pixel 3 and the reader works flawlessly.

It's been a long time, but the reader on my Nexus 6P seemed to work rather well too.

Guess it depends on the user. Maybe not all fingers are easily readable? Maybe the phone was trained on poor input?
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Could be. Unabomber said it generally works better for him when his hands are dry, and my hands tend to be dry a lot, so that might be it.
 
There is something to that, my Mom in Law can't get any phone to read her fingerprint consistently, and on the 7 I notice I have issues after handling solvents...
 
My pixel 7 just shut off while I was using it today. held power and turned it back on. hopefully that doesn't happen too often. I also noticed random apps are open when I unlock the phone after it being in my pocket. Its usually the calendar, I have a calendar widget on my second screen.
 
My better half's 5a randomly died the other day.

She went to have it replaced under the device replacement plan and apparently they must be out of 5a's so they gave her a 6a instead.

Damn does it run hot.

From some light googling I understand the Tensor cores are to blame.

Do the 7's do this as well? Run hot?

I have to question this. It seems this Tensor nonsense has lots of drawbacks and adds little in the way of value. I wish there were a way to completely disable it, and get the de ice running cool (and using less battery) again.

I don't need or want any features my phone couldn't do a decade ago. It's all such a waste.
 
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Pixel phones always run hot and drain battery when you first get them as they migrate all the text messages over. For whatever reason this only happens in the background and it's a slow, annoying process that makes the phone feel sluggish when brand new. Give it a few days and it'll be better.
 
Seconded on 'give it a couple days'. I'm still really happy with the battery life on my 7(non-pro). It's a rare day that I have any concern going all day without recharging (generally playing games).
 
TheSlySyl said:
Pixel phones always run hot and drain battery when you first get them as they migrate all the text messages over. For whatever reason this only happens in the background and it's a slow, annoying process that makes the phone feel sluggish when brand new. Give it a few days and it'll be better.
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DWolvin said:
Seconded on 'give it a couple days'. I'm still really happy with the battery life on my 7(non-pro). It's a rare day that I have any concern going all day without recharging (generally playing games).
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Alright. Thanks for that. I don't remember this being a problem in the past, but I only switch phones every two years on average, so I could just have forgotten.

Side note on the Tensor cores though. Why on earth does a phone need them? What do they even use them for?

I mean, 99% of my phone use is split between the web browser, email, text messages and the occasional streaming video or social media. It's not like I am doing research in machine learning on the thing. Like, what value does having that hardware possibly add?

Best I can find through googling is that it has something to do with the camera algorithms and how Google outputs superior image quality despite using cheap camera hardware. And that is great and all, but I'm not using my phone for serious photography. Functional images are good enough. If I want to get all artistic (which hasn't happened in a good 10 years), I'll whip out the good old dSLR.

I really think there is a market for a phone that has enough horsepower to run web/email/etc. apps smoothly but just doesn't bother with all the fluff. I thought the Pixel a models were supposed to be the fluffless phones, but they seem to include all of this shit as well.
 
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Tensor is just the name Google gave its ARM chips. I agree they should have named it something that was more obviously separate from other chips, but Google is gonna Google.
 
DWolvin said:
Tensor is just the name Google gave its ARM chips. I agree they should have named it something that was more obviously separate from other chips, but Google is gonna Google.
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agree and to be honest is mostly Samsung design with some Google tweaks throw in. googles tensor brand is no where the level of snapdragon or apples custom silicon
 
My 7pro likes to run hot. I had the regular 6 prior to that, and it would get warm but not hot per say.
 
Finally got the June update for my 7 Pro today. It was a big one at 450 MB.
 
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Vengance_01 said:
Not seeing things on my Regular 6. Kind of stopped caring when these come as long as they come within the window
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Honestly, IMHO Android had all the features I want from a phone already in IceCream Sandwich over a decade ago. Nothing they have really added since then has been relevant to me in the slightest. As long as I get security updates, they can keep their feature and UI updates. I don't want them.

I am being completely honest when I say that I can't think of a single feature added to Android in over a decade that I use today and would miss if it weren't there. I mean, updated TLS support was important, but that's really more a part of the browser app than the OS itself...

On my phone I have the assistant disabled and hidden and use the Nova launcher instead of the Pixel launcher. (I also don't use any Google Home or Amazon Echo nonsense) I have disabled gestures, using only OG controls with the three buttons along the bottom of the screen. Most of what I do on my phone is web browsing (using Firefox Mobile) Email (Gmail app and Outlook app), text messaging (mostly using Signal app) occasionally taking pictures using the camera app, and the rare Youtube video using the Youtube app. I have all AI and cloud features disabled, including Google Lens.

I have never had a game on any phone I have ever owned, except for that one time my - then - 7 year old stepson got a hold of the phone and installed something called Temple Run and Angry Birds, which I promptly removed. I also don't plan on ever doing any AR or VR stuff, so I don't need faster CPU's or GPU's on my phone.

I run my phone like it is 2012, and that's the way I like it. I have yet to see a newer feature than that I actually want. I guess it could happen some day, that they introduce a new feature that is actually useful to me and that I want, but I am not holding my breath.

If it weren't for the fact that manufacturers stop patching their phones for security after a few years, I'd probably just keep the same phone until it died. There really is no point in upgrading for what I do.

Back in the late oughts cellphones were changing rapidly in ways that matters. Now it feels like more of the same with a sprinkling of voice control and AI.
 
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I got an interesting one. Ever since the update, my dark theme no longer shows up as black, it's instead some sort of soft grayish color.

Anyone else?
 
Which part of your theme? my background image is kinda slate anyway, but I can try something else...

OK- I tried a straight black wallpaper (basic color) and the accents like folder backgrounds are a shade dark gray.
 
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Weirdly enough a reboot seems to have made the backgrounds darker, but it's still more washed out than it was before the update. It's weird.
 
Hey guys, new to this thread. Just picked up a 7 Pro yesterday.

Just wondering if any of you know where the wireless charging area is on the back of the phone. I want to stick a metal plate to it for magnetic mounting, but don't want to cover up the charger.

My Google-fu is not strong with this one.
 
DeadlyAura said:
Hey guys, new to this thread. Just picked up a 7 Pro yesterday.

Just wondering if any of you know where the wireless charging area is on the back of the phone. I want to stick a metal plate to it for magnetic mounting, but don't want to cover up the charger.

My Google-fu is not strong with this one.
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It's around the "G" in the middle — not across the entire span, but a good chunk of it. Here's an x-ray where you can see the charging coil.
 
I have a Pixel 7 and I can not get bluetooth to work..When I try to connect to desktop both desktop and phone shows same pin code but fails to connect, same inside my truck
 
Weird, I also have a non-pro 7 and it's the easiest phone I've even had as far as Bluetooth pairing.
 
My Bluetooth works amazing. I bounce between devices multiple times a day without issue. It's one of the things I'm happiest about with this phone considering the issues my previous phone had.
 
Echo what others have said. All kinds of devices multiplie connections at one time. Wife's car, my truck, headphones, watches etc...
 
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