Previously on Lemmy:

Past Discussions:

Sorry for the delay for the weekly. Server’s not that stable right now, maybe we should start the thread on Sundays instead.

I always like to switch things up once in a while because it’s fun. So, let’s get back to the brand discussion this week for the Google Pixel. We’ll do a discussion on repairability next week. Again, ideas are always welcome here.

I’ve never used a Pixel, but people around here should know that I’ve been very critical of Google’s product decisions over the years, and the Pixel is no exception. In my point of view, discontinuing the Nexus series, buying out the talents from the remains of HTC and starting an official “made by Google” phone is the equivalent of reddit buying out Alien Blue to make the official reddit app. I think it’s the event that scared big Android manufacturers like Samsung enough to start making their own ecosystem away from Google, as they are concerned that Google may start locking software features to their own phones instead of improving Android overall (rightfully so, I might add).

It really makes no business sense at all to turn your manufacturing partners into your competitors, but then again, it’s Google.

With that being said, the first years of the Pixels has been marred with growing pains. Whereas the Nexus line has always been barebones, no frills development devices, it seemed to me that the people who made Pixels don’t even use Android and are insistent on turning Pixel into iPhones, removing the headphone jack on the Pixel 2 despite the antagonistic ad from the original Pixel, Pixel exclusive software features like Google camera that necessitating the need of rom mods, as well as the quality issues that seems to be inherited from the Nexus days just really soured me from considering Pixels, as I think it’s against the spirit of openness that made Android great.

But it seems like in recent years, they finally figured out that a large percentage of people who bought Androids not because they can’t afford iPhones, but because they like Android, and I see the introduction of the “a” series as progress. The recent Pixel ad campaign also made me think that they finally figuring it out: people want different things, trying to turn Android into worse versions of iPhones was not going to work, so they should be trying to make the best Android for Android users instead.

(It’s also the reason I think all the previous reddit clones failed, but Lemmy will be the one that finally succeeds.)

  • @dystopEnglish
    6•1 year ago

    I sold my Pixel 6 pro to get a Samsung S23. Unfortunately the main issues I had with the pixel were hardware-related and recurring, and while samsung isn’t ideal, most of their issues could be solved with a one-time fix.

    Main issues I had with the Pixel:

    • Fingerprint sensor doesn’t work with privacy screens. Period. It’s not a question of buying cheap privacy screens, the Pixel fingerprint reader is optical and is just not compatible with privacy screens. Samsung uses an ultrasonic reader which is compatible with privacy screens.
    • The 6 Pro was unwieldy and ridiculously large, the smaller 6 doesn’t have the triple camera setup. Samsung is one of the few that doesn’t sacrifice phototaking ability in a smaller form factor.
    • That godawful new quick toggles UI is horrible. The quick toggles are ridiculously large, and who decided it would be a good idea to merge the wifi and internet toggles?! I managed to use adb commands to split the toggles in 12, but that broke with 13.

    Issues I had with the Samsung:

    • Bloat - this was mainly in the form of some preinstalled software, but unlike in the early days of Samsung, I could uninstall most of the bloat easily without resorting to root, adb, etc. No bloat (pixel) is still better than bloat that can be uninstalled (samsung), but this problem was permanently solved after about 10 minutes.
    • Some Samsung native apps have horrible permission settings - eg Samsung Pay requires access to your contacts, and if you deny it any one permission, the app just force closes. I got around this by uninstalling the offending apps and using alternatives (e.g. google pay) - again, a one-time issue. fuck the intrusive permissions.