Quote from: bluaki on October 09, 2018, 10:27:43 AMFor exactly the same price as the Note 9, the Pixel 3 XL has less RAM, much bigger bezels, a huge notch, no SD slot, no pen, no headphone jack, a 25% smaller battery, and the same storage capacity (128GB) and SoC (in US)

i simply don't understand their pricing scheme

who exactly is the intended market for the pixels

within the android realm it has absolutely nothing going for it unless you're a self-hating google purist

and it isn't at all enticing to apple loyalists because who among them wants to spend the same $1000 they could spend on the latest iphone on a cheap ugly clone of a device that has all the costs of the iphone and not a single one of the benefits lol

i mean the pixel 3 is inferior in just about every way to both the iphone and to several other android flagships, especially the galaxy and note devices

the pixel actually manages to make the phones it attempts to compete with look like an even better deal

Quote from: Magyarorszag on October 17, 2018, 07:11:07 AMi mean the pixel 3 is inferior in just about every way to both the iphone and to several other android flagships, especially the galaxy and note devices

I think the Pixel devices are pretty good phones with major compromises, like they just rebranded the Nexus line while maintaining exactly the same overall quality and skyrocketing the price because they can rather than actually increasing the quality to match.

For $500, maybe up to $600? Sure, these would've been solid phones and good options. At this level though, they're at the "screw it, this is the only thing that fits my specific need so I guess I have to buy it even if it's absurdly priced" point.

...and I would be in that camp if I really needed to upgrade my phone this year. Samsung's software has some small but substantial details I just can't stand, and their locked down bootloaders in particular are something I really avoid. But the only remaining vaguely reasonably-sized options anymore basically amount to Google Pixel 3, Samsung GS9, Sony's Xperia Compact series, and maybe Nokia 7.1 as a stretch. Sony is just as bad if not worse than Google about pricing.

i agree that the pixels would be less offensive if they were reasonably priced, but alas

'we want the apple audience, even if they don't want us'

Quote from: bluaki on October 18, 2018, 08:08:03 PM...and I would be in that camp if I really needed to upgrade my phone this year. Samsung's software has some small but substantial details I just can't stand

Out of curiosity, what are those small details?

i couldn't blame anyone for taking issue with locked bootloaders though

Turns out the Verizon carrier lock isn't quite as bad as I thought: after 24 hours of being activated on Verizon, you can move the device to other carriers. There are some mixed reports, with some claims that it's more like 12 hours and others that you might not even need to be activated with VZW but rather just have the phone turned on. Either way, you'll need to wait for the unlocking process again after every single factory reset.

Quote from: Magyarorszag on October 19, 2018, 01:57:15 PMOut of curiosity, what are those small details?

i couldn't blame anyone for taking issue with locked bootloaders though

The bootloader has the biggest issues for me: most models are locked and, for the rest, the knox efuse is an awful anti-feature and Odin is a pain to work with compared to fastboot.

Besides that, there are a ton of useless preinstalled apps you can't disable. I've seen junk like Settings and SystemUI crash more than a little bit. Those emoji are horrendous and rife with miscommunication. Then there's everything about Bixby. Do they even let you disable or remap that button? I haven't kept up with their recent updates and devices on this front so I don't know how much of a problem it is, but at least historically Samsung has a ton of Android API breakage. Samsung also had that recent issue of randomly texting random photos to random contacts without warning.

Yet another disaster update: Even though the Qi standard supports up 15W, Pixel 3 introduces a new proprietary Google Wireless Charging system for 10W, which uses handshakes to make sure the manufacturer paid licensing fees to Google. Google's own charging stand costs $79 and there's also a compatible Belkin basic charging mat for $60. Standard Qi chargers are throttled to 5W.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of $15-$20 Qi chargers that support both 10W to Samsung devices and 7.5W to Apple ones. Google actually out-Apple'd Apple.

It seems like Google thinks it can sell a phone just by its name.

Quote from: bluaki on October 20, 2018, 06:31:09 PMthe knox efuse is an awful anti-feature

this is true but afaik triggering the fuse only disables samsung-specific features like samsung pay and secure folder, i think you're still able to use non-samsung alternatives

Quote from: bluaki on October 20, 2018, 06:31:09 PMBesides that, there are a ton of useless preinstalled apps you can't disable.

this is true but they're mostly non-intrusive, and imo some are genuinely better than google's versions of the same apps, but in any case you can always use any alternatives of your choosing and ignore samsung's

although i'm not fond of the idea of preinstalled unremovable apps, they were a much bigger problem back when phones had minuscule amounts of storage to begin with lol

Quote from: bluaki on October 20, 2018, 06:31:09 PMI've seen junk like Settings and SystemUI crash more than a little bit.

and fortunately i've actually never seen this on the s8

i expected all of the above to be potential problems when i first got the s8 but i'm pleased to say that they haven't really been

it is however totally reasonable to stay away from samsung if you value having the ability to root

Quote from: bluaki on October 20, 2018, 06:31:09 PMThen there's everything about Bixby. Do they even let you disable or remap that button?

samsung used to be pretty hostile to any method to disable or remap the bixby button but they seem to have relented, you can now freely opt to use the button for any function via an app

personally my biggest issue with bixby isn't the button itself (especially now that it's remappable), but its awful placement

Quote from: bluaki on October 20, 2018, 06:31:09 PMThose emoji are horrendous and rife with miscommunication.

And unfortunately this remains true.

Quote from: bluaki on October 23, 2018, 09:18:20 PMYet another disaster update: Even though the Qi standard supports up 15W, Pixel 3 introduces a new proprietary Google Wireless Charging system for 10W, which uses handshakes to make sure the manufacturer paid licensing fees to Google. Google's own charging stand costs $79 and there's also a compatible Belkin basic charging mat for $60. Standard Qi chargers are throttled to 5W.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of $15-$20 Qi chargers that support both 10W to Samsung devices and 7.5W to Apple ones. Google actually out-Apple'd Apple.

it's like google want to be everything people hate about apple lol

they don't seem to have any real intention of emulating the things apple genuinely does well

Quote from: ClassicTyler on October 24, 2018, 07:43:03 PMIt seems like Google thinks it can sell a phone just by its name.

you'd think that a quick look at the previous pixels' sales would be enough to convince them that simply slapping their name on hardware means nothing lol

somehow three phones later they still haven't learned that that strategy doesn't work