Like them or not, Google's Pixel phones will be the iPhone competitor we've demanded for years

^^I wouldn't bother with that tinfoil hat stuff if I were you. It just limits your options for no reason.
As I said above, I was blown away by the snappiness of the Honor 8 when I played with the store demo recently. It was sitting next to a 6P, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't faster to open apps.

If the software experience was close to stock Android instead of EMUI, I might've bought one on the spot. Such a shame.
They are going to make quite a few changes to EMUI 5 so who knows... I must admit that while it's heavily tweaked I also do like some of the changes.
 
^^I wouldn't bother with that tinfoil hat stuff if I were you. It just limits your options for no reason.


It's bad enough that all devices are manufactured over there, but no, not touching any device where even an independent Chinese company had control of the design, let alone one owned by the Chinese government.
 
I've been saying this for years. If Google would give us some amazing hardware and a pure Android install with none of the bullshit companies like Samsung put on them, they would be able to compete and steal people back from Iphone. I've been using an Iphone for 3 years now, but before that I was diehard Android. Rooting and ROMing all the time just to get a pure version of Android on their top phones. But then Samsung decides to start putting out really good hardware, and then locking down the bootloaders and making it all too much of a pain in the ass. I shouldn't have to work to get my phone to a non-bloatware usable state. Not to mention their shitty launchers are slow as fuck. Watch the videos of the S7 Edge vs the 6S+ loading apps. The Iphone smokes the S7E even thought the S7E has superior hardware. It's the shitty bloatware and launcher Samsung forces you to use. All the current high end Android phones are crippled by the software installed on them by the manufacturer.

So yeah, I hope the Google Pixel phones are awesome cutting edge hardware running pure Android. If they are, then I would totally consider going back to Android. Real competition for the iPhone would be good for everybody. But I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. Google has been good at releasing "decent" Nexus devices, but nothing that changes the playing field.
Pretty much. I loathe Apple and really can't imagine what it would take for me to jump the fence, but I'm getting to the point where I freely admit that the Android world is a giant clusterfuck. And it's entirely due to the disconnect between quality hardware and software that's been there from the very beginning; I just never imagined we'd go this many years without any real improvement (read: brand name OEMs reverting to stock Android). I considered myself an Android supporter and happy user for years, but it's becoming clear that the OEMs simply won't back off from the shitty software they've invested so much in, and I'm almost rooting for a new OS (without the walled garden nature of iOS, of course) to take the market by storm in the coming years.

Nexus is so close to being the "solution," but there's always a compromise: no microSD, mediocre battery life, no replaceable batteries. We just can't have nice things.
 
Unified messaging.. Do we really need one? Don't think so. My wife rarely uses the iMessage anymore. That thing is sinking slowly when you got FB messenger, whatsapp, viber, hangouts, skype, etc.. All work great. Just quit complaining.
 
Unified messaging.. Do we really need one? Don't think so. My wife rarely uses the iMessage anymore. That thing is sinking slowly when you got FB messenger, whatsapp, viber, hangouts, skype, etc.. All work great. Just quit complaining.

It's a core usability issue for some people. If "stop complaining" is your general way of dealing with UX problems, an iPhone should be perfect for you.
 
It's a core usability issue for some people. If "stop complaining" is your general way of dealing with UX problems, an iPhone should be perfect for you.

I don't understand why this is a usability issue. It doesn't seem any more difficult to me to use multiple apps vs using one. I'd happily use one app for every contact if I had to :p

I still get notifications of messages in the notification bar, tap them, type my message and move on. To a certain extent it didn't even matter what app I'm typing into.
 


There is something off about those pics. Why is the bottom mic area blurred out? There is no way Google would go with a physical home button, so they can't be hiding that.

They may look a little bit like iPhones from the top, but make them black they also look a lot like my Nexus 5x from the top.

In the grand scheme of things, there are only so many ways you can lay out a flat devices that a large glass touvhscreen, a microphone a speaker and a camera. It should be no surprise that MOST smartphones look the same from the top, especially once you put them in a case and hide their bezels and back, which are usually the only distinguishing areas from.an industrial design perspective.

Either way, white phones are always ugly. I'm sure the black ones look OK, especially once in a case.
 
There is something off about those pics. Why is the bottom mic area blurred out? There is no way Google would go with a physical home button, so they can't be hiding that.

They may look a little bit like iPhones from the top, but make them black they also look a lot like my Nexus 5x from the top.

In the grand scheme of things, there are only so many ways you can lay out a flat devices that a large glass touvhscreen, a microphone a speaker and a camera. It should be no surprise that MOST smartphones look the same from the top, especially once you put them in a case and hide their bezels and back, which are usually the only distinguishing areas from.an industrial design perspective.

Either way, white phones are always ugly. I'm sure the black ones look OK, especially once in a case.

My issue is the physical size if the pictures are indeed true. Note 7 and S7 Edge set the standard for a large screen in a physically small size. iPhone Plus and Nexus 6P are large phones which I use but love how the Samsung phones feel in the hand or in your pocket.

The width is the biggest issue to me but the top and bottom bezel area is very reminiscent of the iPhone Plus series.
 
My issue is the physical size if the pictures are indeed true. Note 7 and S7 Edge set the standard for a large screen in a physically small size. iPhone Plus and Nexus 6P are large phones which I use but love how the Samsung phones feel in the hand or in your pocket.

The width is the biggest issue to me but the top and bottom bezel area is very reminiscent of the iPhone Plus series.

Comparing it to my 5x the smaller phone pictured seems to have equivalent bezel area. I wonder if it just LOOKS bigger due to the contrast to the screen because it is white.
 
I really hope the price rumors aren't true:

RIP cheap Nexuses: Google Pixel could start at $650; Pixel XL even costlier

The draw of the Nexus was the stock Android and great performance for the price. Looks like that price advantage will be gone.

I'm glad I didnt wait. 1. That price is absolutely nuts for a first gen pixel phone. 2. That price is nuts for a non samsung/htc/lg/apple device regardless of hardware. If its not one of the brands I mentioned, people will think twice. IMHO, they should have taken a dive on the first gen by offering it at the same price points as before to win over the nexus diehards and holdouts and then spring a price increase on them later, when they are balls deep in pixel to go back to other OEMs.
 
I'm glad I didnt wait. 1. That price is absolutely nuts for a first gen pixel phone. 2. That price is nuts for a non samsung/htc/lg/apple device regardless of hardware. If its not one of the brands I mentioned, people will think twice. IMHO, they should have taken a dive on the first gen by offering it at the same price points as before to win over the nexus diehards and holdouts and then spring a price increase on them later, when they are balls deep in pixel to go back to other OEMs.


So I apparently haven't read up as much as you. I thought Pixel was just a name change, and that they would continue to essentially be Nexus devices with AOSP type Android? You have read somewhere that there is more to Pixel than this? I'm not sure I care for that...
 
It's still just a rumor. I believe AP gave it a "6/10" credibility rating. I would be pretty surprised if the pricing is essentially a mirror of the iPhone's. Google has to know that isn't going to work, especially since the (more credible) leaks of the Pixels' specs and design don't suggest they're anything exceptional.
 
It's funny, people complain about the low powered specs and quality of the Nexus phones, but when it's rumored they might release higher end, more expensive models, the "OMFG it's tooooo expensive fuck these guys!!!!!" chorus starts singing. So which do you want? High end phones that meet or beat iPhones specs that cost more, or cheap phones that are always behind the curve? You can't have both.
 
It's funny, people complain about the low powered specs and quality of the Nexus phones, but when it's rumored they might release higher end, more expensive models, the "OMFG it's tooooo expensive fuck these guys!!!!!" chorus starts singing. So which do you want? High end phones that meet or beat iPhones specs that cost more, or cheap phones that are always behind the curve? You can't have both.


I've never complained about Nexus phones not being high end enough.

I think my 5x is just about perfect. I wouldn't mind it being a little bit snappier and having a little bit longer battery life.

It had some issues in the beginning with drive read write speess, but that issue is behind us now.

I haven't once found myself wishing my phone were faster.

IMHO 1080p resolution is fine on a 5" phone. Any higher just wastes battery both for the screen and for the phone GPU.

The RAM, CPU and GPU seem sufficient too. I've never played a game on my phone through, so I can't speak to game performance, but I don't really care about that. I only play games on my desktop.

While Nexus phones have always been solid mid range phones with no bloat, the most inportant part - IMHO - is that they are bloat free AOSP like, and get frequent updates. I'd be very concerned if these Pixel phones plan on changing this.

If the price goes up a bit, I'd be disappointed, and I might upgrade less often, but it is less of a concern to me than the above.
 
So I apparently haven't read up as much as you. I thought Pixel was just a name change, and that they would continue to essentially be Nexus devices with AOSP type Android? You have read somewhere that there is more to Pixel than this? I'm not sure I care for that...

Basically, Pixel is supposed to be Googles answer to iOS. A unified operating system that operates the way Google envisions.
 
It's funny, people complain about the low powered specs and quality of the Nexus phones, but when it's rumored they might release higher end, more expensive models, the "OMFG it's tooooo expensive fuck these guys!!!!!" chorus starts singing. So which do you want? High end phones that meet or beat iPhones specs that cost more, or cheap phones that are always behind the curve? You can't have both.

The only thing I wanted as an improvement from my 5X would be a MicroSD slot, some water resistance, and maybe a bit more battery. None of that should cause a huge jump in price.

I never once complained about the specs and quality of Nexus phones. They're phenomenal for what you're paying.
 
I don't see the Pixel phones being that successful. At the crazy high rumored starting price of $729 for the 32GB version, and with the rumored locked down version of Android 7.1 it will ship with. I will happily stick with the good old 6P

Google is said to be aiming at iPhone 7Plus pricing.
 
I'm not thrilled about them no longer being vanilla Android. :(
I don't see the Pixel phones being that successful. At the crazy high rumored starting price of $729 for the 32GB version, and with the rumored locked down version of Android 7.1 it will ship with. I will happily stick with the good old 6P

Google is said to be aiming at iPhone 7Plus pricing.


Yea, I'm getting sick of Google dicking around not OTAing my Shamu yet and shopping other phones.

Sadly the only devices I want practically require changing carriers as Sprint are a bag of dicks WRT device support. Sprint doesn't BYOD LG devices (so much for LG V20), and their attitude toward ZTE Axon 7 is "take a flying leap and buy an iPhone".


To make matters better....6P and 5X phones will be abandoned by Google next year already...and Google Fi only supports Nexus (and presumably Pixel) phones.
 
I'm not thrilled about them no longer being vanilla Android. :(
Is this confirmed?

I have to think that the "worst case" scenario is simply the Pixel Launcher being installed by default instead of GNL, which can easily be reverted in 10 seconds if so desired.

If the Pixel phones actually come out with some type of skin that changes the notification area, Settings, etc., I might actually give up on Android's future. But I haven't seen any indications of that whatsoever.
 
Yea, I'm getting sick of Google dicking around not OTAing my Shamu yet and shopping other phones.

Sadly the only devices I want practically require changing carriers as Sprint are a bag of dicks WRT device support. Sprint doesn't BYOD LG devices (so much for LG V20), and their attitude toward ZTE Axon 7 is "take a flying leap and buy an iPhone".

To make matters better....6P and 5X phones will be abandoned by Google next year already...and Google Fi only supports Nexus (and presumably Pixel) phones.
The whole situation right now is unfortunate. I doubt that it's an intentional move by Google to entice Nexus owners to upgrade to Pixel, though. Google is not a consumer electronics company first and foremost, so it would be inexplicable to play dirty like that, especially knowing that gaining market share is more important at this stage than making each unit highly profitable.

I bet most of the blame lies with Qualcomm and other manufacturers of the internal components; they don't want to be dicked with updating drivers and such for anything more than a year old. This is probably a significant factor in the shitty updates even for the more egregious phone OEMs like Samsung, honestly.
 
I bet most of the blame lies with Qualcomm and other manufacturers of the internal components; they don't want to be dicked with updating drivers and such for anything more than a year old. This is probably a significant factor in the shitty updates even for the more egregious phone OEMs like Samsung, honestly.

If that's the case than that would mean the Pixel line wouldn't be using Snapdragon SoCs, which should be a pretty big deal yet no one has mentioned anything of the sort.
 
I don't see the Pixel phones being that successful. At the crazy high rumored starting price of $729 for the 32GB version, and with the rumored locked down version of Android 7.1 it will ship with. I will happily stick with the good old 6P

Google is said to be aiming at iPhone 7Plus pricing.

Ahahaha, how exactly large is the market demand for a iPhone wannabe when people can get the real thing for the same price? Good luck finding a SoC that performs anywhere near the A10 too.

This is going to bomb hard like the Pixel C did, then Google will pretend the product never even existed while adding more entries to their confidence inspiring list of market failures after Nexus 4. (Heck, I'm not even sure has any of the Nexus model has ever sold in any significant quantity to matter)
 
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Ahahaha, how exactly large is the market demand for a iPhone wannabe when people can get the real thing for the same price? Good luck finding a SoC that performs anywhere near the A10 too.

This is going to bomb hard like the Pixel C did, then Google will pretend the product never even existed while adding more entries to their confidence inspiring list of market failures after Nexus 4. (Heck, I'm not even sure has any of the Nexus model has ever sold in any significant quantity to matter)

You apparently are unaware that Snapdragon 820 slightly outperforms A10 in multicore CPU benchmarks? And the Exynos 8890 in the S7 bests the A10 in multicore by a large margin (10%+).
 
It also shouldn't be overlooked that iPhones use subpar screen resolutions relative to the competition, which is going to give them a big leg up out the gate. If every Android one-hander were still 720p and the big phablets were 1080p, the gap would narrow that much more - especially in anything remotely graphic intensive.
 
Ahahaha, how exactly large is the market demand for a iPhone wannabe when people can get the real thing for the same price? Good luck finding a SoC that performs anywhere near the A10 too.

This is going to bomb hard like the Pixel C did, then Google will pretend the product never even existed while adding more entries to their confidence inspiring list of market failures after Nexus 4. (Heck, I'm not even sure has any of the Nexus model has ever sold in any significant quantity to matter)


You also seem to forget that many of us don't like to live within a restricted walled garden.

Even if there was nothing able to keep up with an A10 as you say (And Skripka addresses below) I would still be buying th eAndroid equivalent due to it being a more open (not perfect mind you) but more open platform.

To me, iOS with it's walled garden, and it's forcing you yo use expensive licences accessories (even to the point of removing the 3.5mm jack) just so that Apple can make a buck is a far far inferior choice.

There are people who buy Android phones because they want to save money, and low end cheap Android phones exist.

There are also those of us who buy them because for our needs they are vastly superior than that Apple crap. I have a Nexus 5x. Nothing to write home about hardware wise, but I would buy it over the iPhone 7 even if they cost the same amount of money.
 
(Heck, I'm not even sure has any of the Nexus model has ever sold in any significant quantity to matter)

If you think Google was shooting for market share with their phones, you're sorely mistaken. Maybe read up on some other brands that aren't Apple.
 
I don't see the Pixel phones being that successful. At the crazy high rumored starting price of $729 for the 32GB version, and with the rumored locked down version of Android 7.1 it will ship with. I will happily stick with the good old 6P

Google is said to be aiming at iPhone 7Plus pricing.
HAHAHAAAA!!! That pricing would be so ridiculous that if true I don't see how they can sell those when you can get really great stuff (and not necessarily even wore) for half the price.
 
Every time I flip to this subforum and I see that thread title I still get somewhat irked over the "iPhone competitor" aspect of it. I don't consider Android devices as competition for iPhones, I really don't. That's like saying Microsoft and Apple were in competition with each other in the 80s and 90s and I would refute that as well: one company (Microsoft) made operating systems and business productivity software that could run on most any desktop or laptop computers (even Apple for Microsoft Office), the other (Apple) made computers and supplied the OS that would only run on their own computers so, there was no real competition in that respect.

Google couldn't make an iPhone competitor even if they tried, to be honest, and just paying a manufacturer like HTC, Huawei, LG, or whoever to make a product based on their specs still doesn't mean Google made it because those companies will put their foot down on some aspects and not budge from it.

Just coming out with a new product isn't enough, and I don't care how feature laden the Pixel devices are going to be, if they jack the price up to typical flagship levels then not only is Google going to take a hit for it but it could really damage HTC even more so than they've done to themselves in the past few years. I love and miss the HTC HD2, I consider it to be a pinnacle of smartphone design even to this day, and I can't help but wonder why the fuck HTC can't seem to get their shit together and make another absolutely fantastic product again. None of the One models has interested me, not any of them, and the HTC 10 is laughable at best in my opinion, yet another failure in a long line of them now.

I still want to get another LG G4 personally but I'm ok with the Galaxy S7 Active I got basically for free a few weeks back, works fine, the Snapdragon 820 is damned snappy and fast for a lowly "quad core" device (way more performance than the 808 in the G4 or the 810 in the Flex 2 I still have), and battery life - because it's got a 4000 mAh cell in it - it out-freaking-standing so far. I'm getting 6+ hours of SOT and charge it maybe once every 48 hours if that much.

It's IP68 rated, has a microSD slot, and it has a headphone jack so, I'm good to go. ;)
 
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