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Google's inconsistent Pixel experience makes its phones impossible to recommend (www.androidpolice.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

52 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We typically like Pixel phones a lot, but we have some reservations about Google's quality control

top 50 comments

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[–] MaXimus421 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

r/android comment section giving the expected behavior as usual. These news sites know how to be a puppet master, I'm telling ya.

Webite wants to push pro Pixel discussion:

Proceeds to drop a article with a sensationalist title that triggers said Pixel owners.

Comment section is immediately filled with folks declaring how great their Pixel is.

This tactic flip flops between OEMS. It's generally in Samsungs favor but not always.

Disclaimer: Idgf what phone you own. I'm only speaking on what is painfully obvious to me.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

This. These sites have said anti-Pixel articles far and away get the most clicks so they keep writing them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Great point.

It's so weird to me when people reply with "doesn't happen to me".

And?

That these things happen to people is a positive claim on their part. The ~~idiots~~ commentors saying it doesn't happen to them don't even realize their dispositive claim is meaningless.

[–] Euphorazine 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I have a pixel 8 that doesn't have any issues, but I can read the title that says Google's quality control is shit. So I can understand my phone is okay and other people have problems. Even if I bought 100 pixels, my sample size would still be too small to dismiss other people's claims.

Funnily enough, this is my first comment I've made about how my pixel is fine. So now I'm part of the problem :3

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

My pixel 7 Pro's vector motion sensor is broken. How the hell does that even happen? I've never even heard of it and there's like nothing online about it.

I can't do anything that requires tracking how the phone is moved- no compass calibration, no Map's guidance arrow, etc.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

My old phone did that. Anyone looking at my maps data must have thought I walked like a crab everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Have you considered getting it checked at a service center? There's a possibility it's a hardware issue.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

All I know that really surprised me is I'd been disgusted with nothing phone 1 constantly rebooting for no reason since an update (still does it).

When I complained on a reddit sub about it I got a ton of replies saying it's normal and not as bad as the pixel phones.

I've nowhere to go with that people are defending a completely unstable buggy phone and I've owned half a dozen androids before that and never seen any of them just randomly restarting.

[–] Brokkr 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've had pixel phones for at least 5 years now. I've probably had less than 10 random restarts, most of those would have been from apps crashing.

Sometimes the device gets slow and I restart it. But that happens maybe 3 times per year. Otherwise the phone only gets restarted when an update is installed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah I'm skeptical of those claims as well, I've never owned a phone that did it a lot until this one and I'm pretty sure it's Nothing who introduced the vast majority of problems.

Their just too concerned with things like clothing lines and pr stunts to actually fix anything they break

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I have a 5 year old phone and it does in fact not randomly reboot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Nothing Phone is a scam?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I wouldn't buy the phone 1 again anyway put it that way.

It was actually great until phone 2 released then they updated it to be very unstable and the cameras also got noticeably worse from updates.

On the plus side I've read the custom roms for it are pretty good, I haven't went that far yet but I know I will eventually.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I used to have that issue on my midrange samsung when i set the ramplus(virtual ram in samsung) to max and did medium to heavy multi-tasking. It was mitigated in a future update but did happen once a while. The slow storage speeds combined with heavy usage of virtual ram were the main reason for that.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There have been some strange issues with my 8 pro that resemble hardware connection issues or even the start of bad memory chunks. (The display glitches are mentioned in the article, actually.)

The new screen capture feature is buggy as all hell and is prone to buffer issues after long periods of spot translation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

For what it's worth, mine has been great. Luck of the draw?

[–] sweetmartabak 19 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'd argue that a luck of the draw issue is worse than a consistent, across the board QA issue.

Still can't bring myself to bite the bullet and buy a Pixel because of these "horror stories".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah, I am biased to QA as well.

Some of the glitches are subtle enough to make me think it's something crunchy in the physical hardware. Many people simply wouldn't notice the issues, TBH.

Like all hardware bugs, it'll likely take a bit of time to manifest fully. Being cynical, I would probably say the failures will fully manifest around the Pixel 10 release timeframe.

[–] saltesc 4 points 9 months ago

Same.

But mainly my S20+ is still way more than I need and I see that being the case for quite some time to come. Phone tech plateaued years ago. It's great.

[–] LemmyIsFantastic 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Largely exaggerating bugs. If it happens to you that sucks, but I've never actually met anyone in the real world running into these bugs. This is "your holding it wrong" writing designed to rile up nerds.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You shouldn't discount these reports just because you haven't seen them yourself. I mean, how many people do you talk to in the real world about their Pixel phones? If it's less than hundreds, it doesn't really say much — that's well within chance since, as the article states, the problem is inconsistency. If 1% of users experience a given problem, that's actually a pretty big deal. If 10% experience it, it's pitchfork time.

Pixel phones are notorious for poor quality control, and Google is notorious for poor customer support. That's a bad combination. Lots of people have perfectly good experiences, but there are still a lot of problems that aren't just flukes.

I read the article and I think it's pretty fair. I've used a couple different Pixel models and followed their respective subreddits for years. It's always something. Green tint, or poor signal, or overheating, or a barely-functional fingerprint reader, for example. None of these things affect everyone, but they're real problems. Probably the fingerprint reader is the most widespread. At least that's improved (for me) over time.

[–] RGB3x3 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I have an 8 Pro that has had bugs since it was released.

They're mostly frustrating inconveniences that make using it annoying. Graphical glitches, phone calls hanging up unexpectedly, being able to type even after going into open apps view, not being able to switch apps because it just disappears from the open apps view, the fingerprint sensor just not working at all sometimes, and more.

Nothing that breaks the phone, but it's real annoying more often that it should be.

[–] LemmyIsFantastic 2 points 9 months ago

IDK, nobody gets any real numbers so it's hard to say. I just know 9 pixel 6-8s and nobody has run into anything major.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

My Motorola Edge 30 is fantastic and the best phone I've ever had. I think the massive focus on Samsung and Pixel phones are paid and bought for by ad companies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Motorola seems to be back on track. I didn't get the G84 because the CPU seems a bit slow, and I don't like the curved screens from the Edge models, but it's definitely on my radar for their next models.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I love that it's default android and no crap installed. And it has fantastic battery time. I can easily see myself keeping this phone for a long time and maybe later put Lineage on it just to get rid of Googles tracking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Seems very interesting, thanks

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Also super pleased with my Sony, after years of Samsung. Unbloated, battery lasts, good settings in all the right places.

[–] Insig 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's interesting, I use to use Sony phones during my time at uni and stopped due to all the software I couldn't delete. Might have to give them a look next time I'm shopping around.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There's very little bloatware preinstalled nowadays. Mostly the Google stuff. They come with a couple of extra apps (Netflix, LinkedIn, Facebook) but they can be disabled. Sony themselves have a couple of Xperia apps but same thing, easily disabled. It's more than Pixel but nothing compared to the bloat on a Samsung.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How long do you get updates? Also, is that for every component? What ARM version does it use?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They have said 3 years of software updates. It's on Android 13 now and got it's last security update in December 2023.

Not sure about arm version but probably you can find info about that online. It's an Edge 30 Pro.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Okay so they are not good with Updates, because Android 14 is out since October, and at least Google ships full security patches every month, i.e. somewhere in Februrary.

GrapheneOS consumes the Google updates into its build system, so it is very fast. They had support for the Pixel Tablet in a day after release, which is crazy.

OEM manufacturers get early access to the codebase because they need to modify their kernels etc, so delaying an update that long is just bad.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

It's interesting, it's because of such articles and comments about the various issues (mostly battery life, and sometimes connectivity) that I didn't consider Pixel for my new phone.

It's sad because they are supposed to be the Android top devices. Motorola seems decent nowadays, Asus Zenfone got a lot of backlash recently about the locked bootloader, but at least their phones are compact and have audio jacks. Even Xiaomi I could consider with DNS blocking to stop the trackers, their quality-price ratio is quite good, especially second hand.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Google Pixels suck.

The 4a did everything right. Plastic cover? Yeah you use a protective case anyways.

The 6a that I now have is worse. I sent back a 7pro because it was so horrible. I dont want a tablet, I want a phone.

the camera

is worse! I cant believe that but I compared pictures. At least the selfie Camera is absolute garbage.

size, shape, materials

the phone is huge
its rectangle size is worse to hold in the hand
the 6a had some kind of plastic which is durable. The 7pro I had has a glass back? Wtf why?

fingerprint sensor

is so much worse. Why put it behind a display? I actually replaced one, so that is not the problem. But you cant unlock directly, they are waaay less reliable and you often need to create duplicate scans. Compare that to the damn 4a (and all other fingerprint sensors of that time) that just worked instantly.

No headphone jack

This is such a pain as an audiophile. I have awesome headphones and of course they are on a cable.

Bluetooth is factiually worse.

It takes forever to connect (apple devices alway connect first for example).
the controls for pause etc. take like a second to work
you always broadcast your Bluetooth ID around
you are attackable, like the iPhone DDOS attack
you need more tiny battery powered devices for nothing
headphones are always more expensive and often have worse audio quality

If you want to use normal headphones, the only good DACs are by Google and Samsung, and at least german electronic markets (!) dont have them.

And if you use a DAC, this works over USB. If you need to allow random USB devices all the time, this means you are also attackable through a cable.

My Pixel 4a is a bit slow, but the battery still lasts over a week in idle. I use it as an alarm clock now as its insecure.

I have not tested a Pixel 8, and the hardware for sure sounds appealing. But if Google continues this shitty path of useless "inventions" like the Fingerprint sensor behind the Glass, unnecessary huge and fragile phones, and purposeful decrease in security by needing Bluetooth all the time, while actively contributing to E-Waste, I will never recommend them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This post strikes me as a little hyperbolic but I definitely agree that they've gone downhill in a lot of ways. I have a 3a and that genuinely feels better made than the more expensive 7a I tested recently. They had a good thing going with the size and feel of their older devices and they totally fucked it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What's your next phone gonna be?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Pixel 8(a), until there is an alternative that meets GrapheneOS requirements. Poorly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Does the Fairphone meet gOS' requirements?

Edit: Apparently not, unfortunately. I'm probably gonna keep getting whatever Google comes up with next.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

No, by far not.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/?q=fairphone%205

Basically:

they are extremely late on Updates, like months behind
they claim to have an update timespan they cannot have because certain parts will not be updated anymore and firmware vulnerabilities are a thing
their hardware is not secure enough
they dont meet the minimum requirements

https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

That's really unfortunate. Can't have it all, it seems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I have a moto g7 power. No complains here

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