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Most of this review is basically correct -- it's a device with a good screen and good battery life, it'll be a terrible laptop replacement because Android isn't

Most of this review is basically correct -- it's a device with a good screen and good battery life, it'll be a terrible laptop replacement because Android isn't well-suited for that -- but the stuff about poor touch sensitivity, crashing, and performance issues is weird. If you read all the reviews of the Pixel C out there, you'll see that Ars Technica complained about touch sensitivity, but nobody else did; and not even Ars complained about performance or overall reliability. I own a Pixel C, and haven't encountered any of these problems. It's on the crashy side for an Android device (it reboots itself randomly about weekly), but nothing like the kind of issues that Anandtech had. My suspicion would be that they have quality control issues, and that Anandtech (and Ars) got defective units, but the Anandtech statement about Google preparing a software patch makes it sound like there's some kind of software issue -- but what kind of software issue affects a subset of devices?

derekp7 11y ago
> what kind of software issue affects a subset of devices? Could be timing issues at the device driver level. Chips can have a range of timings that will work, but anything out of spec will work on some chips but not others.
- TD-Linux 11y ago
  Capacitive touch screens are very analog devices that are very sensitive to manufacturing changes, temperature, etc, so interpreting and reading the touches is quite complex and is a large factor in how well the touch screen works. That said, it's a solvable problem - really, the first iPhone in 2007 solved it. This shouldn't be an issue in 2016 anymore.
Rebelgecko 11y ago
That seems not uncommon on Android. My Nexus 7 has awful touch screen issues that only happen when I have certain updates installed. IIRC in that case they had different touch screen vendors with varying drivers
userbinator 11y ago
it reboots itself randomly about weekly Hearing about things like this makes me wonder, "What happened to the concept of uptime?" Recently on HN there was discussion about how Windows 10 would force reboots to update, and make users lose all their unsaved work. 20 years ago, I remember Linux/UNIX users would ridicule Windows users for their frequent crashes and need to reboot, and pride themselves on months or even years of uptime. Now we have Linux-based Android that appears to be just as unstable?
- reustle 11y ago
  Obviously this is a mostly edge case. People Android phones and tablets aren't rebooting weekly.
- ferbivore 11y ago
  Most Android devices get pretty impressive uptimes. My phone has 54 days right now, for instance. Weekly random reboots are not normal.
dukoid 11y ago
I have a Pixel C and haven't run into any of those issues so far (trigger for buying it was The Room 3 not working well on my old tablet). Have mainly used Chrome, BS Player and The Room 3 for several hours and did not encounter any issues.

derekp7 11y ago

> what kind of software issue affects a subset of devices? Could be timing issues at the device driver level. Chips can have a range of timings that will work, but anything out of spec will work on some chips but not others.

TD-Linux 11y ago
Capacitive touch screens are very analog devices that are very sensitive to manufacturing changes, temperature, etc, so interpreting and reading the touches is quite complex and is a large factor in how well the touch screen works. That said, it's a solvable problem - really, the first iPhone in 2007 solved it. This shouldn't be an issue in 2016 anymore.

Rebelgecko 11y ago

That seems not uncommon on Android. My Nexus 7 has awful touch screen issues that only happen when I have certain updates installed. IIRC in that case they had different touch screen vendors with varying drivers

userbinator 11y ago

it reboots itself randomly about weekly Hearing about things like this makes me wonder, "What happened to the concept of uptime?" Recently on HN there was discussion about how Windows 10 would force reboots to update, and make users lose all their unsaved work. 20 years ago, I remember Linux/UNIX users would ridicule Windows users for their frequent crashes and need to reboot, and pride themselves on months or even years of uptime. Now we have Linux-based Android that appears to be just as unstable?

reustle 11y ago
Obviously this is a mostly edge case. People Android phones and tablets aren't rebooting weekly.
ferbivore 11y ago
Most Android devices get pretty impressive uptimes. My phone has 54 days right now, for instance. Weekly random reboots are not normal.

dukoid 11y ago

I have a Pixel C and haven't run into any of those issues so far (trigger for buying it was The Room 3 not working well on my old tablet). Have mainly used Chrome, BS Player and The Room 3 for several hours and did not encounter any issues.