8 ms·

What is the draw here? I have been running my Nexus 5 into the ground (soldered on a new power button when the original broke) in anticipation of the next Nexu

by Fej 10y ago

What is the draw here? I have been running my Nexus 5 into the ground (soldered on a new power button when the original broke) in anticipation of the next Nexus phone. Pixel is no Nexus. Seriously, what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? And a massive price hike? Why should I buy this? (Seriously, Google? You want $650 for a phone with a 1080p screen? I know there's benefits to a lower resolution but then why not drop the price? It's ridiculous.) My perception is that Google no longer knows what it's doing. Reference Allo for an even better example. The company can coast on their existing products but only for so long.

ghshephard 10y ago
Nice (best in class) camera is one of the highlight features.
- asenna 10y ago
  I can't compare without trying the others out but the camera on a Nexus 6P is amazing. I am not sure how big a difference would the camera be on the Pixel over the 6P.
fleetfox 10y ago
Why do you bring up screen resolution? Both phones have 400+ ppi screens. You want more? Why?
- andrewpi 10y ago
  VR headsets greatly benefit from a higher resolution. Even the 2K display on the late model Samsung phones produce low resolution when paired with a Gear VR. Supposedly this won't be resolved until 8k or even 16k mobile displays.
  - duaneb 10y ago
    Why would you use a phone for vr? Seems hugely expensive to upgrade the screen for the sake of a niche hobby. Most people wouldn't even use it.
    - richardboegli 10y ago
      This is not what Google is betting on, hence the DayDream VR.
      - duaneb 10y ago
        Sure, but you don't need anything more than 1080p for an $80 vr headset. It's a value purchase, not a quality purchase.
        010a 10y ago
        Its not an $80 VR headset. The thing that goes around your head is $80, but the expensive part is that phone which you put in the front, which needs a 1440p display (minimum) to avoid the screen-door effect.
        tomtheelder 10y ago
        If we reject the $80 VR thing lets make it $880 or so, including the cost of a phone. That's still a lot less than the ~$3000 it costs to get a legitimate VR headset plus a gaming PC. Add onto that the fact that virtually everyone is going to own a smartphone anyway, and you can basically eliminate the cost of the phone in there. It's definitely value VR.
        richardboegli 10y ago
        Agreed, the only other item that reaches the phone VR price point is Sony's Playstation VR (PSVR). Oculus Rift OC1 and HTC vive is still targeted to developers and high end PC users. The price point is still too high for general consumers when the PC cost is factored in. Mobile has to lead the way, which Samsung and Oculus did very successfuly with GearVR. Cardboard was seen as a gimmick and now it has graduated to become a daydream. This is a positive step for VR. 2016 year of VR.
- lagadu 10y ago
  You still notice it. One of the reasons I moved from a 1080p to 1440p phone (~440ppi to ~560ppi) was how on the new one I actually can't see the pixelation, which I could in the other one. I imagine there are very few gains at 5 inches from going past 1440p though, except for VR. Larger sizes will probably still benefit from an even higher resolution though.
Veratyr 10y ago
> what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? As someone who owns a 5X: - The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC. - The camera is better and more responsive (the camera on the N5X is slow and annoying). - The body isn't plastic, which means there will be less issues with heat and CPU throttling than on the N5X. - I can finally get a phone with a reasonable amount of storage and no bloat. The 5X only went up to 32GB and had no expansion. Alternatives from Samsung etc. are mostly carrier locked, unrootable and stuffed with OEM overlays. - There's no camera bump, so it can sit on flat surfaces less awkwardly. - They actually mentioned this phone during the announcement, unlike the 5X last year. They might actually pay it some attention in the future.
- notatoad 10y ago
  >The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. what makes it premium other than the fact that they're charging lots of money for it? i can't find a real differentiator over something like the oneplus 3, which costs half as much. i agree with you that it's better than the 5X, but comparing it to this year's competition, it doesn't look so good.
  - technofiend 10y ago
    That's my problem with the phone - premium price but not premium feature set.
  - Veratyr 10y ago
    Flagship SoC (SD821 vs SD808) and a metal body are the main things that make it worth the price to me.
    - notatoad 10y ago
      yeah, i understand that it's better than the $300 nexus 5X that's a year old. that goes without saying. but since the Nexus 5X was released, there's been a bunch of metal bodied phones with the SD820 released that only cost $399 - the oneplus 3, zte axon, honor 5x, xaoimi mi5... and there's nothing to differentiate the pixel from those phones, other than a 40% higher price.
lintiness 10y ago
my nexus 5 camera is absolute garbage.
- criddell 10y ago
  I have a Nexus 5X and the camera on it is terrible as well. If my next phone is an iPhone, it will likely be because of the camera.
  - guelo 10y ago
    I have a 5x and the pictures it produces are great. Main problem is with slow starting time.
    - criddell 10y ago
      My wife has an iPhone and the pictures on that are far better in every way. For the Pixel phone, I kind of wish Google had focused on the phone to make something far better than the iPhone camera.
bitmapbrother 10y ago
>You want $650 for a phone with a 1080p screen? I know there's benefits to a lower resolution but then why not drop the price? It's ridiculous. Are you serious? Did you know that the larger iPhone 6S Plus and 7 Plus are 1920x1080? Or that the iPhone 7 is 1334 x 750? And you're complaining that Google's 5 inch phone is only 1920x1080 and have the nerve to question what they're doing? Ridiculous, indeed.
criddell 10y ago
If you like the hardware but don't like the prices, just wait a year.
sorenjan 10y ago
I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be a Nexus phone, everything points to a change of strategy late in the development. They claim that it's designed and developed by Google, but everyone that has been paying attention to the leaks knows it's made by HTC, and it shows. It looks nothing like the other Pixel devices, but it look's exactly like a Nexus phone by HTC. The Pixel launcher was named the Nexus launcher until recently. Next year's Pixel phone will probably be much closer to Google's own vision, if they make one. This years model have a premium price tag and might have good build quality and an expensive SoC, but otherwise it's underwhelming, especially at that price point. I prefer Android over iOS, but I don't think the Pixel can even match the iPhone 7 hardware for a lot of key specs, like CPU/GPU performance, camera, battery life, etc. The Pixel XL 128 GB costs over €1000 and they still only promise software updates for two years, that's inexcusable. This reminds me of the Pixel C that allegedly was supposed to run Chrome OS until a change late in the development, and the Nexus 6 that allegedly was supposed to be an Android Silver device by Motorola until the Android Silver program was scrapped late in the development process. Will Google follow through on any hardware project from start to finish without interference from above?
- puzzle 10y ago
  Do you really think that last year's Nexus 6P was designed by Huawei?
  - sorenjan 10y ago
    I'm not saying that Google didn't have any input, I'm sure they do the exterior design to some degree and choose which components are in the phones. And while they're not exactly identical, the 6P does have some similarities with the Huawei P8, like the black band on the back. Not as many as the Pixel have with the HTC 10 though.
    - lagadu 10y ago
      > Not as many as the Pixel have with the HTC 10 though. The pixel's similarities are towards the htc one A9, not the htc 10.
JohnTHaller 10y ago
> Seriously, Google? You want $650 for a phone with a 1080p screen? Apple wants $650 for a phone with a ~720p screen.

by Fej 10y ago

ghshephard 10y ago

Nice (best in class) camera is one of the highlight features.

asenna 10y ago
I can't compare without trying the others out but the camera on a Nexus 6P is amazing. I am not sure how big a difference would the camera be on the Pixel over the 6P.

fleetfox 10y ago

Why do you bring up screen resolution? Both phones have 400+ ppi screens. You want more? Why?

andrewpi 10y ago
VR headsets greatly benefit from a higher resolution. Even the 2K display on the late model Samsung phones produce low resolution when paired with a Gear VR. Supposedly this won't be resolved until 8k or even 16k mobile displays.
- duaneb 10y ago
  Why would you use a phone for vr? Seems hugely expensive to upgrade the screen for the sake of a niche hobby. Most people wouldn't even use it.
  - richardboegli 10y ago
    This is not what Google is betting on, hence the DayDream VR.
    - duaneb 10y ago
      Sure, but you don't need anything more than 1080p for an $80 vr headset. It's a value purchase, not a quality purchase.
      - 010a 10y ago
        Its not an $80 VR headset. The thing that goes around your head is $80, but the expensive part is that phone which you put in the front, which needs a 1440p display (minimum) to avoid the screen-door effect.
        tomtheelder 10y ago
        If we reject the $80 VR thing lets make it $880 or so, including the cost of a phone. That's still a lot less than the ~$3000 it costs to get a legitimate VR headset plus a gaming PC. Add onto that the fact that virtually everyone is going to own a smartphone anyway, and you can basically eliminate the cost of the phone in there. It's definitely value VR.
        richardboegli 10y ago
        Agreed, the only other item that reaches the phone VR price point is Sony's Playstation VR (PSVR). Oculus Rift OC1 and HTC vive is still targeted to developers and high end PC users. The price point is still too high for general consumers when the PC cost is factored in. Mobile has to lead the way, which Samsung and Oculus did very successfuly with GearVR. Cardboard was seen as a gimmick and now it has graduated to become a daydream. This is a positive step for VR. 2016 year of VR.
lagadu 10y ago
You still notice it. One of the reasons I moved from a 1080p to 1440p phone (~440ppi to ~560ppi) was how on the new one I actually can't see the pixelation, which I could in the other one. I imagine there are very few gains at 5 inches from going past 1440p though, except for VR. Larger sizes will probably still benefit from an even higher resolution though.

Veratyr 10y ago

> what does this have that the year-old Nexus 6P and 5X don't, other than incremental hardware improvements? As someone who owns a 5X: - The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. It has a flagship SoC rather than a mid-tier SoC. - The camera is better and more responsive (the camera on the N5X is slow and annoying). - The body isn't plastic, which means there will be less issues with heat and CPU throttling than on the N5X. - I can finally get a phone with a reasonable amount of storage and no bloat. The 5X only went up to 32GB and had no expansion. Alternatives from Samsung etc. are mostly carrier locked, unrootable and stuffed with OEM overlays. - There's no camera bump, so it can sit on flat surfaces less awkwardly. - They actually mentioned this phone during the announcement, unlike the 5X last year. They might actually pay it some attention in the future.

notatoad 10y ago
>The Pixel is a premium 5" phone, not a budget one. what makes it premium other than the fact that they're charging lots of money for it? i can't find a real differentiator over something like the oneplus 3, which costs half as much. i agree with you that it's better than the 5X, but comparing it to this year's competition, it doesn't look so good.
- technofiend 10y ago
  That's my problem with the phone - premium price but not premium feature set.
- Veratyr 10y ago
  Flagship SoC (SD821 vs SD808) and a metal body are the main things that make it worth the price to me.
  - notatoad 10y ago
    yeah, i understand that it's better than the $300 nexus 5X that's a year old. that goes without saying. but since the Nexus 5X was released, there's been a bunch of metal bodied phones with the SD820 released that only cost $399 - the oneplus 3, zte axon, honor 5x, xaoimi mi5... and there's nothing to differentiate the pixel from those phones, other than a 40% higher price.

lintiness 10y ago

my nexus 5 camera is absolute garbage.

criddell 10y ago
I have a Nexus 5X and the camera on it is terrible as well. If my next phone is an iPhone, it will likely be because of the camera.
- guelo 10y ago
  I have a 5x and the pictures it produces are great. Main problem is with slow starting time.
  - criddell 10y ago
    My wife has an iPhone and the pictures on that are far better in every way. For the Pixel phone, I kind of wish Google had focused on the phone to make something far better than the iPhone camera.

bitmapbrother 10y ago

>You want $650 for a phone with a 1080p screen? I know there's benefits to a lower resolution but then why not drop the price? It's ridiculous. Are you serious? Did you know that the larger iPhone 6S Plus and 7 Plus are 1920x1080? Or that the iPhone 7 is 1334 x 750? And you're complaining that Google's 5 inch phone is only 1920x1080 and have the nerve to question what they're doing? Ridiculous, indeed.

criddell 10y ago

If you like the hardware but don't like the prices, just wait a year.

sorenjan 10y ago

I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be a Nexus phone, everything points to a change of strategy late in the development. They claim that it's designed and developed by Google, but everyone that has been paying attention to the leaks knows it's made by HTC, and it shows. It looks nothing like the other Pixel devices, but it look's exactly like a Nexus phone by HTC. The Pixel launcher was named the Nexus launcher until recently. Next year's Pixel phone will probably be much closer to Google's own vision, if they make one. This years model have a premium price tag and might have good build quality and an expensive SoC, but otherwise it's underwhelming, especially at that price point. I prefer Android over iOS, but I don't think the Pixel can even match the iPhone 7 hardware for a lot of key specs, like CPU/GPU performance, camera, battery life, etc. The Pixel XL 128 GB costs over €1000 and they still only promise software updates for two years, that's inexcusable. This reminds me of the Pixel C that allegedly was supposed to run Chrome OS until a change late in the development, and the Nexus 6 that allegedly was supposed to be an Android Silver device by Motorola until the Android Silver program was scrapped late in the development process. Will Google follow through on any hardware project from start to finish without interference from above?

puzzle 10y ago
Do you really think that last year's Nexus 6P was designed by Huawei?
- sorenjan 10y ago
  I'm not saying that Google didn't have any input, I'm sure they do the exterior design to some degree and choose which components are in the phones. And while they're not exactly identical, the 6P does have some similarities with the Huawei P8, like the black band on the back. Not as many as the Pixel have with the HTC 10 though.
  - lagadu 10y ago
    > Not as many as the Pixel have with the HTC 10 though. The pixel's similarities are towards the htc one A9, not the htc 10.

JohnTHaller 10y ago

> Seriously, Google? You want $650 for a phone with a 1080p screen? Apple wants $650 for a phone with a ~720p screen.