Pixel 4

After owning since release I gave up on my Pixel 4 and went with an iPhone 11 Pro. As much as I loved the software, ease of use, size, and customization I couldn’t get past the battery life.

with Soli as good as disabled I felt I had made enough sacrifices to keep the battery life up with disabling permissions, location based services etc.

Since I use public transportation I tend to use my phone a good deal on the way to work and being a 90-92% less than an hour and roughly 30 minutes of SoT and if I didn’t carry a charger with me I’d end my work day at about 50-55% with less than 2 hours of SoT and even with a battery health app and making all my tweaks enough was enough.

I now go to the gym after work and spend about an hour and a half there and use my phone a lot and walking out of the gym with <35% battery for the trip home madme feel uneasy.

I felt that I had to sacrifice a lot of what made the Pixel 4 good (Soli, AOD), and a lot of what made using a lot of smartphone apps convenient just to make it through the day. So, I skipped getting the S20 and went for the iPhone 11 Pro and I can say this phone is a battery champ. On most days with about 3.5-4 hours of SoT with tons of texting (for some reason having an iPhone turns me into a big time texter as opposed to having an Android), music streaming, social media browsing and some gaming I end the day at or around 55%-60% and the beauty is I have a fully functional phone with no sacrifices other than to background app refreshes on non essential apps.

To boot I feel the iPhones camera producers a better image than the Pixel 4 did. While the P4 has an awesome camera I just feel the 11 Pro beats it marginally.
 
The latest phone that GrapheneOS supports is the Pixel 3a. This is not yet available on the Pixel 4.
Ah right... I stand corrected! But presumably, it will. Though the dev seems a bit burnt out unfortunately, and many of us hope he gets more to help him soon.
 
After spending several hours with Google support because they couldn’t get Google Assistant to work with my contacts (basic things like call so and so or take me to so and so’s house) ... and then them just giving up and telling me it’s actually not a feature and that I should request it, I went back to the Pro Max. That was absolutely ridiculous.
 
Yeah, I have no desire to buy that shitty thing. I'm staying with my Pixel 2 until they ditch the radar.

The battery life of the 4 is also significantly worse than my 2. That's two generation where battery life has fallen.
 
Yeah, I have no desire to buy that shitty thing. I'm staying with my Pixel 2 until they ditch the radar.

The battery life of the 4 is also significantly worse than my 2. That's two generation where battery life has fallen.

The battery is the reason I went with the 3a.
 
Yeah, I have no desire to buy that shitty thing. I'm staying with my Pixel 2 until they ditch the radar.

The battery life of the 4 is also significantly worse than my 2. That's two generation where battery life has fallen.
The video quality is still garbage after all these years.
 
I find it funny that soli ended up all but useless, typical with android implementation that something with great potential was dead on arrival with poor support.
 
For what it's worth, I've taken NovaLauncher and basically turned my Galaxy S20+ into a Pixel 5. If software is what's holding you back, luckily that isn't that big of a deal anymore. That was my only real reason for buying a Pixel. I hid all of the Samsung nonsense and DL'd Google native apps to replace them all. You can even replace the pull-down shade now. The Sammy apps I left were the camera and gallery...and they're actually better apps for once. Well, that and the wearables app, which is also pretty slick and non-related to the OS.
 
For what it's worth, I've taken NovaLauncher and basically turned my Galaxy S20+ into a Pixel 5. If software is what's holding you back, luckily that isn't that big of a deal anymore. That was my only real reason for buying a Pixel. I hid all of the Samsung nonsense and DL'd Google native apps to replace them all. You can even replace the pull-down shade now. The Sammy apps I left were the camera and gallery...and they're actually better apps for once. Well, that and the wearables app, which is also pretty slick and non-related to the OS.
I've been thinking about doing the same. Samsung any better with updates?
 
Second for Nova launcher. I'm an android cheapskate and I bought it, it's that good.
 
I've been thinking about doing the same. Samsung any better with updates?

Tough for me to say long-term, but I'm on the March 2020 update which showed up for me on the same day the phone arrived. My previous experience with Samsung and updates was never that horrible. They aren't as timely as the Pixel/Nexus devices, but they were quicker than my wife's LG and light years ahead of Motorola.
 
I've been thinking about doing the same. Samsung any better with updates?
Tough for me to say long-term, but I'm on the March 2020 update which showed up for me on the same day the phone arrived. My previous experience with Samsung and updates was never that horrible. They aren't as timely as the Pixel/Nexus devices, but they were quicker than my wife's LG and light years ahead of Motorola.

I hit on it a few times in the Galaxy S20 thread, but Samsung has been much better the past couple years since Project Treble hit Android (I'm guessing that at least helped a little). Samsung's current update policy shows that their 3-year old S8 phones are still getting monthly updates (though that may change to quarterly soon now that the S20s are out). They also got Android 10 out on the S10 and Note 10 phones about 3 months after it released on Pixels and then on the older S9/Note9 phones about a month later, with a couple exceptions for different carrier/region model variants (T-Mobile seems to be holding updates back another month or so lately).

Hell even their 4 year old S7 phones are still getting quarterly security updates and not even the original Pixel that came out alongside it can't even claim that since it got EOL'd last November or so.

Edit: Forgot to mention too that Samsung has open Betas if you want to get major OS updates much faster, like within a month of the Pixels. Which with Google's bug record, it seems you're always on a Beta with them anyways, hah. :p
 
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So far I've been really happy with the S20+. The thumbprint/face reader/unlocker is my one gripe. They're slow and imprecise compared to the fingerprint reader on my Pixel 2. I have all of the SmartLock and SecureLock stuff turned on for home and work...but it seems to only work selectively. I'm hoping it's something they can patch, but I kinda doubt it.
 
Wasn't sure if we should make a new thread for 4a launch or not. Anyway, launch was (supposedly) pushed to June, so there's still somewhat of a wait.
 
My Pixel 2 is still holding strong, my fiance has a Pixel 3a and its absolutely great. If they had a 128GB option for the 4a I would likely jump over to that. As of now I'm probably gonna wait till Pixel 5 or 5a...
 
After biting on a Galaxy S20+, I definitely miss the simplicity and "it just works" nature of the Pixel. It has taken a lot of work to get this device where I'm happy with it. In nearly every instance it has involved trying to bury Samsung's software and replace it with Google's superior version. In some cases that's easy, in others it requires buggy side-loaded mods. I wish Google was quicker to embrace better hardware (or if Samsung's software didn't suck) so I wouldn't even need to be in this position.
 
Try nova launcher? I think that gives enough cusomizations that let it look just about any way you like...
I used Nova launcher back when I had LG phones to fix a whole lotta stuff. Stopped using it when I switched over to Nexus/Pixels, so i'm not sure how it is these days.
 
Nova Launcher is still good except for the bit about Google "not fixing" gestures for third party launchers. Don't know if that's been fixed yet, I'm not on Android 10 because of its myriad issues.
 
Nova Launcher is great, but it doesn't do much about Samsung's clumsy built-in apps. You can hide them and pretend they aren't there, but you can't fully replace them or get rid of them. Wven when you bury them some random other app will resurrect them when you make a certain selection. In the case of the dialer and camera, the modded versions can be buggy or missing features.
I tried to use the Samsung camera and it flat-out takes worse pictures than Google's. The Sammy dialer lacks the same type of auto-reply functions. The calendar is ugly as hell and has no view options. The clock won't work with Google's widget. Weather doesn't refresh like it should, no matter what options I choose. There's a catch or issue with literally all of them. Gallery is the lone standing Samsung app I don't mind.
 
That sucks. The hardware seems nice, but I wouldn't get anything I can't slick and put straight android on (hate Samsung's UI).

Essential phone ruined me...
 
That sucks. The hardware seems nice, but I wouldn't get anything I can't slick and put straight android on (hate Samsung's UI).

Essential phone ruined me...

I've learned my lesson for the future. If I end up with another OEM device (mainly if Google's hardware suffers), I at least know how to make it mostly palatable. I've gotten pretty good at burying and hiding Samsung's apps. I have learned the ins and outs of modded dialers and cameras. At this point it's like a Pixel device with 8GB of capacity missing and a few mostly-functional apps that don't ever update themselves. Still, I'd love to go back to a device where that isn't necessary.
 
Basically, hide Samsung's apps and install Googles (and a launcher)?

Yup, that's it in a nutshell. There's a lot of tweaking needed with Nova to get things exactly like the Pixel launcher, but you can get it really close. In some ways you can even improve upon it. You need a new top pull-down shade as well. Powershade works just like the Pixel one.
From there, do your best to disable and hide the Samsung apps. Have Nova disable their shortcuts, turn off notifications, take away their permissions, etc. That way you don't have them constantly trying to get you to use them. You can't totally disable any of them, though. If you try using some of those anti-bloat apps, things get crashy.
For the Dialer, this one works except for call screening and visual VM: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-google-phone-v14-0-175904292-bubble-t3708218
For the Camera, this is the only one I've found that has multiple modes and lenses enabled: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-urnyx05/
The telescopic lens doesn't work, but everything else seems to.
 
Good to know about Power Shade, I'd never seen that one (But OxygenOS is good enough almost without Nova). But I think we should let this Necro die in peace. :ROFLMAO:
 
It seems like he should have been more hands on and overruled them on some of the design choices.

I still think that this sonar shit is one of the worst decisions that could have been made. It was nothing like the demo we saw earlier. Should have not delivered a shitty product before it was ready, giving more room for battery and gave less bezels.

article from Ars:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...-pixels-camera-lead-and-general-manager-quit/
 
They tried to be too much like Apple instead of just making the best product for the job; I'd have already jumped if say there was a wide-angle camera on board and they'd kept the fingerprint reader.

As it stands, I'd rather have an iPhone, for as little as I actually use my phone as a phone. Simply a better tool.
 
I don't have time to write my true thoughts on Google and the Nexus line and then the Pixel line, but quickly will say, Google WTF guys?

I am a big Nexus / Pixel guy, having started with the Nexus-One, and now have the Pixel 4 XL, I have owned 8 Google phones over the years, and many other phones, but stock vanilla Android is just a very comfortable nice OS to me, easily my fav smartphone OS, but, Google has made many mistakes with them over the years.

I really like my Pixel 4 XL, could it be better? YES. To me for the launch price this phone should have had a 4,500mAh battery, 8GB RAM, the faster UFS 3.1 storage, and a brighter higher quality display. Those are the main things this phone should have had from day one, no question. How Google released this phone with such a small battery, given it's power consumption, and a lower end dim display is unreal.

Now, moving forward, do they create a Nexus / Pixel hybrid in 2021? A OnePlus competitor? Create a flagship at a $799 price point? All I want is a very smooth buttery OS. Power and battery equal to the iPhone 11 Pro Max. A bright display on par with the latest Galaxy phones. Those are my three wants in a smartphone. Everything else is whatever to me. Can this be done from Google?
 
And I am sure you heard this news;

- Pixel 4a delayed until later Summer, due to market reasons, not the virus.
- Pixel 5 line, will not be coming out at the annual October release, rumored to be delayed as well.
 
They tried to be too much like Apple instead of just making the best product for the job; I'd have already jumped if say there was a wide-angle camera on board and they'd kept the fingerprint reader.

As it stands, I'd rather have an iPhone, for as little as I actually use my phone as a phone. Simply a better tool.
I tried the OP 8 Pro; liked it but not enough to keep it. Still with my 3XL after 19 months, which is the longest I've ever stuck with a smartphone. Work will buy me an iPhone 12 Pro. If it has an in-screen fingerprint scanner, as rumored, I'll use it exclusively despite my preference for Android.
 
I really hope Google makes the Pixel line a top-of-the-line flagship again. I would have been a customer for life and I'm even willing to pay a premium for their stuff. I'm not going to pay that premium for last-gen specs and an abysmal battery, though.
 
I just unrooted my 4 XL, went back to fresh bone stock. I rooted my phone back in March, haven't done any updates since because it's such a pain in the ass to update when rooted.

At the end of the day all I rooted for was ad blocker and better themes. But it didn't seem worth it, ad blocking wasn't as good as it used to be it seems, I just use Brave browser now I get zero ads. And the themes are cool but anytime an app had an update out that could break the theme and you have to undo the theme and then redo it.

So after a factory wipe and a fresh install of the June update the phone feels faster and smoother than ever.

I used to big a big time rooter and ROM guy, where the options and extra tweaks and behind the scenes performance stuff all made the phone much better. But now a days with monthly updates and it being a pain in the balls to do a monthly security update on a rooted phone is zero fun. And while I was rooted for these few months, I really didn't see a massive improvement, yes the themes are way better, you can get black AMOLED true dark theme which I like, not sure why the Pixel line doesn't have themes on the Play Store for stock non rooted phones, like the Samsung Galaxy line.

But being rooted now, I felt the opposite of the old days, I felt locked down and handcuffed sort of. Now that I am back to stock, and running the June update, and afresh install, phone is blazing smooth.
 
I just unrooted my 4 XL, went back to fresh bone stock. I rooted my phone back in March, haven't done any updates since because it's such a pain in the ass to update when rooted.

At the end of the day all I rooted for was ad blocker and better themes. But it didn't seem worth it, ad blocking wasn't as good as it used to be it seems, I just use Brave browser now I get zero ads. And the themes are cool but anytime an app had an update out that could break the theme and you have to undo the theme and then redo it.

So after a factory wipe and a fresh install of the June update the phone feels faster and smoother than ever.

I used to big a big time rooter and ROM guy, where the options and extra tweaks and behind the scenes performance stuff all made the phone much better. But now a days with monthly updates and it being a pain in the balls to do a monthly security update on a rooted phone is zero fun. And while I was rooted for these few months, I really didn't see a massive improvement, yes the themes are way better, you can get black AMOLED true dark theme which I like, not sure why the Pixel line doesn't have themes on the Play Store for stock non rooted phones, like the Samsung Galaxy line.

But being rooted now, I felt the opposite of the old days, I felt locked down and handcuffed sort of. Now that I am back to stock, and running the June update, and afresh install, phone is blazing smooth.

This is part of my beef with those folks who excuse Google's (and OEMs') poor long-term OS update policy by relying on rooting as a crutch.

Not only is it unrealistic to expect most people to know how or want to root, but it requires all kinds of compromises (particularly to security) and may not even deliver the benefits you were hoping for. It's increasingly a panacea for enthusiasts who imagine they might need more permissions than they really do. Hell, I suspect some of those "must root" sorts would be just fine with an iPhone if they hadn't been conditioned to think otherwise...
 
On the other hand, it's 2020 and Android still doesn't have a backup and restore option even close to as good as the iPhones without root. Luckily it's not as necessary as it used to be but given that Google puts in new and exciting bugs with each monthly update, I just wonder why I'd bother with a Pixel nowadays.

I was definitely quite happy with my iPhone 11. If Apple did the reverse-Google (e.g., allowing 3rd party web browser engines and setting any default app you wanted), I'd even say Android loses most of its value to me.
 
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