Pixel phones are a joke? They’ve been the best phones I’ve owned.
Yeah I like them the most as well and funnily enough they are the easiest phone to degoogle
So to name a few issues:
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pixel 1: headphone jack issue so bad they needed to issue a recall, audio would just FULLY stop working, loud speaker as well.
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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”
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Pixels 1-4: if you let them discharge long enough, they don’t charge anymore, ever!
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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.
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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.
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Pixel 6: buzzing coming from loud speakers (not sure if recall issued)
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Pixel 6 and 7: first 2 tensor chips, known for draining battery too quickly and overheating.
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Pixel 8: OLED issues, I think random lines showing up on the display. They have issued a recall tho.
So in sum:
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In the older pixels there were some shitty cost cutting measures they used in order to recoup cost of development of the phones.
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their warranty service around this time was also piss poor
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QC issues with just about every pixel phone released.
Where we stand today:
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their warranty replacements are much better I’ve heard.
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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.
I’m sorry but you could easily find facts like this about every phone company from the past as of now they are great phones but cannot comment on the AI tools because I remove those
My 5a just shut off while I was using it and wouldn’t turn back on one month after warranty period. Google was going to deny a replacement until I bitched that each previous pixel I had had died or became unusable and I was going to move to iphone. They gave me a “one time exception” and sent me a replacement. I traded it for a 7 but if this one dies I’m done.
Never heard of a single one of these, got some links to back up any of these? Recalls will be easy to prove.
Two pixels, and never seen these before either.
My wife’s currently rocking a refurb 7 and the battery life is actually exceptionally good, easily lasting a full day of near constant usage. I’m guessing they’ve corrected some of this through software improvements
Yeah, Nexus phones were great, but Pixel phones are also good. And Android is definitely not “getting worse”.
Agree with the rest though.
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.
I hate the super large quick access buttons. Like why would I want to only have 4 accessible with one touch when I’m used to 8+
Could you elaborate on the gestures part?
I remember the opposite, having hated navigating my iPhone for work. I specifically remember swipe to go back not working reliably at all (many apps seemed to just ignore it, others I think configured other actions on that gesture - WTF), so I got into the habit of using that stupid little hard to reach, hard to hit, tiny back arrow that at least worked consistently when you managed to hit it.
I’ve been enjoying Android navigation gestures pretty much ever since I found out they existed.
It might have been a user issue in my case with iOS since I didn’t use it as much, and therefore maybe was simply using it wrong/was unaware of better ways. But I don’t see anything wrong/missing with gestures on Android.
I like Samsung’s flavor with OneUI as it’s kept a lot of the condensed layout and it has good one-handed support. I’ve created a lot of custom shortcuts that just use swipes from the side of the screen.
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.
Was considering the 6a until I saw the charge speed and screen to body ratio.
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?
Oh holy shit. I’ve done that a few times. Completely using GPS by audio and without thinking I put the phone down in the Sun. I’ve never done it more than 10 or 15 minutes before I remembered and every time it would be so fucking hot. Even with the screen off and everything which really should have helped keep it cool you know?
The big problem here I was an instacart driver at the time so I had all these fucking weird things I had to do with my phone to make sure it didn’t explode while I was trying to keep it charged so I could work all day.
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.
Pixel 5, refusing to die.
I just cleaned out all storage and man it’s still zippy
Pixel 5 is my new phone, lol. I had the original Pixel, now the 5. One of my kids used the original one for a few months after I upgraded too.
I do miss headphone jack :(
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.
My pixel 1 was and is fine. Pixel 3 was an excellent phone. The only bad phone I recall from Google was the Nexus 5x which was made by LG
Glad you had a decent experience. That was not the case for me and many documented others. The bluetooth issues are particularly well known and plagued the whole series from 1-4, if you didn’t use Bluetooth much it probably didn’t phase you but holy shit it sucked. As far as nexsus devices go they were a crapshoot. My nexus 6p crashed week 3 and bricked into a boot loop. Google replaced it only for the replacement to do the same damn thing a month later. They had massive QC issues which meant you either got a fine phone or a shit one and a lot of people fell towards the latter.
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.
It’s in beta as of yesterday:
I hate Google and try not use it anymore but there’s still one thing I can’t do without : Google Maps.
Have you tried open street maps? I suggest organic street maps for your phone
Organic Maps are great, however if you’re looking for shops and restaurants (or rather their reviews) Google Maps are second to none.
OSM can technically replace Gmaps for shops and restaurants if enough people were using and updating it.
However, Gmaps in unbeatable for public transportation :( no alternative at all
I can never stick with those alternatives, the traffic conditions feature is simply too good to miss
I find Waze quite good for traffic conditions. The only thing it always tries to steer me wrong with is that there’s 2 main routes home from work, around the North East of the city, and on the bypass around the West/South of the city. It always wants to take me on the bypass as when I’m at the exit for the other route, traffic is way lighter. However by the time I’m halfway home on the bypass traffic has brought itself to an essential standstill. And there’s no real ways cutting across the city that avoids the high traffic section of the bypass that doesn’t take longer than sitting in traffic. Also…the NE route is at most 15mins longer due to speed limits, but it’s 20ish km shorter.
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)
Yeah I contribute to OSM but apps like OsmAnd are a far cry in features from Google Maps. The paths are very much not optimized. If I tell it to go back to my hometown it takes me about 15 minutes out of the way. And I can’t tell it to go to a certain house because the houses aren’t mapped yet.
Should I help map them? Yes. But for your average user that’s not going to work.
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.
I feel dumb using Google Maps and seeing all the ads. Should’ve known from day one that was the game plan.
Pray Apple keeps their hardware sales up.
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.
Been using their phones since the Nexus 6. That thing was huge.
And I’m the one guy that uses Google Fi. My bill was $38 last month.
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.
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…
I desperately want fair phone (and it’s parts) to be sold in my country. 8-10 years of android support for a self repairable phone? Yes please.
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.
What exactly does Google have left that people like? Gmail?
Shhhh! Dammit. Now they are definitely going to realize they haven’t ruined it yet.
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.
Gmail is already shit for anyone who wants to configure their own mail server.
Maps. There’s still unfortunately nothing better.
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.
Helping to contribute to OpenStreetMap using Street Complete has the potential to change that.
Yeah. I tried using OpenStreetMap for five minutes until I realised most of my city doesn’t have the house numbers mapped out.
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.
On iOS I find Apple Maps to be better in general. I don’t think Google maps is as much of a monopoly as it once was
That may be, but then you’re in the unfortunate position of owning an Apple device.
I’m fine with that, I’ve always had trouble with android devices but I haven’t had any issues since switching a few years ago. To each their own