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Google discontinues the Pixel 4, nine months after release

351 points by prostoalex 6y ago

electriclove 6y ago
That's because the Pixel 5 release is coming soon right? And probably that sales of the Pixel 4 are also very low.
- dheera 6y ago
  It was also just horribly expensive, and that's the main reason I did not upgrade yet. I'm not a big fan of Google trying to copy Apple on e.g. the notch at the top of the screen; copying the Apple pricing strategy of expensive==luxury is even worse.
  - kevincox 6y ago
    I agree. It seems like a fairly clear marketing play that they don't think people will treat them as premium if they don't price at the top of the scale. However I wouldn't be surprised if it worked. It is not uncommon it hear of stories where raising the price lead to more sales and people regarding the product as of a higher quality.
    - dheera 6y ago
      The main thing is I buy Google because I don't like Apple (for a number of reasons, starting from the OS itself). The last thing I want is them trying to be more Apple-like. People who like Apple will buy Apple. They need to design for everyone else.
  - distances 6y ago
    Pixel A line is the new Nexus, that's where the party is at. They really shine for a reasonable price.
- anoxor 6y ago
  Removing fingerprint unlock and add face unlock and then months later facemasks are manditory, and you can't unlock your phone without pin.
  - notwhereyouare 6y ago
    you aren't wearing a mask 24/7. You'll still be able to use the face unlock feature when at home
    - uncoder0 6y ago
      Fingerprint was far better imo
      - conradfr 6y ago
        I have a OnePlus 5 and use both depending on the situation, very useful.
    - jt94mf90d 6y ago
      Actually, some people are recomended to wear at home.
      - untog 6y ago
        An extreme minority. Unlocking your phone is very low on the list of issues if you are one of those people.
    - mugsie 6y ago
      Face unlock is ... inconsitant, and support in apps is sparse. I have a 4XL (personal) and 2XL (work), and I never run into issues with the 2XL, it reads the fingerprint as I take out of my pocket, and it is open as I look at it. 4XL - take it out, and 80% of the time it works, the other 20% I spend time moving it up and down, and just entering the pin.
      - 6y ago
quotemstr 6y ago
If you can't beat your reputation, you might as well embrace it.
- leeoniya 6y ago
  kinda like, "We only support the two most recent versions of our hardware." and we release every 6 weeks. move fast; break all the things.
  - wsc981 6y ago
    I couldn't help but laugh at this :)
j45 6y ago
If only the Samsung Note ran Android One. At this point marginally improved devices at premium price point.. might further leave iPhone as the leader. iPhone sales are up this year while samsung/Android is down.. Part of it is iPhone will last longer have updates for far longer than any Android device. I'm an Android user considering switching to iPhone not out of boredom, but wanting my phone to be an appliance instead of a source of innovation, as that seems to be largely gone in this Form factor
- PopePompus 6y ago
  Google has done significant innovation in cameras recently, though. The astrophotography mode is wonderful.
  - oblio 6y ago
    That's such a niche thing, though. How many people will use that feature more than once? 0.001%?
    - PopePompus 6y ago
      There's a subreddit for photos taken with Pixels (https://www.reddit.com/r/pixelography/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pixelography/). About 1/4 of the posted images are Nightsight or Astrophotography mode images. People may not use it a lot, but they seem to be very proud of the results when they do use it.
    - parliament32 6y ago
      Using your phone's camera is niche? I don't know about you but I easily take a dozen photos a day, between SC and work documents and social photos.. honestly the quality of a phone's camera hardware and software is the defining factor for buying a phone for me.
      - oblio 6y ago
        I'm not sure how you could read my comment and the one above it and misinterpret it that way. I was talking about astrophotography.
trulyrandom 6y ago
I'm unable to open this link, as it immediately redirects me to guce.advertising.com.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Here: https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21356745/google-pixel-4-xl-discontinued-out-of-stock https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21356745/google-pixel-4-xl...
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
  That's a bit concerning for you - I was able to navigate there without issue. Edit: That's kind of possibly concerning for you. It may be totally fine. Still seems weird.
  - searchableguy 6y ago
    You might have clicked on a techcrunch link in the past few weeks or live in a country different than the OP. They use http redirects to assign you an advertising ID based on your IP or something afaik.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    It is only for European users
  - slenk 6y ago
    I would say its more concerning for everyone else that is getting third party cookies embedded as first
- Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
  Is some hijacking you before you even get to techcrunch.com? Or is it loading the page and then redirecting you? Why aren't you using an ad blocker?
  - trulyrandom 6y ago
    The latter. I am. I'm using uBlock Origin, but apparently this redirect got through. Then the DNS lookup of guce.advertising.com failed because of the filter I have set up on that end, so my Techcrunch experience ended on an error page.
mugsie 6y ago
DBrand summed it up best in their marketing email for the Pixel 4 skins just after the launch: > That's right: it's another marketing email from the robots at dbrand. That means it's time for another email footer. Here are a few ground rules if you're reading this on your shiny new Pixel 4. First, make sure the battery is fully charged - you don't want it dying while you're reading this, do you? If you need to scroll to keep reading, you'll have to use your greasy, gross thumb to do it. No hand-waving allowed. Lastly, consider turning off Gmail sync - your photos are going to burn through that non-expandable storage very quickly. With that preamble out of the way, here's our footer: dbrand is having a 10% off sale - masking your $800+ mistake has never been more affordable.
- knodi123 6y ago
  ouch!
- slowwriter 6y ago
  Dbrand marketing emails are awesome.
- ChuckMcM 6y ago
  It burns! It burns! It also raises and interesting question in me for the folks who think of themselves as "product" types. Has anyone measured the effect of platform denigration on improving or diminishing a brand? I am trying to imagine ways you might A/B test this. Set up two brands with products in the same space with comparable specifications, and have one that is "product focused" in their outbound messaging and one that is "platform hostile" in their messaging. Then compare customer loyalty and margin support in the two brands. Curious to know if anyone has done this.
  - noir_lord 6y ago
    On specs the Pixel 3a is a no-brainer for me as my Nokia 6.1 is getting long in the tooth however the Nokia has been such a hassle-less little phone and is tough enough to have survived 7000 miles on a motorbike without a mark that I'll likely buy another of whatever their current model is. Also AndroidOne so I'm still getting updates for it which is the longest after purchase that's ever happened on an android handset. At least I would except the Nokia 6.1 does literally everything I need out of a phone still so I'll likely wait another year at least.
destory-everyth 6y ago
I think the radar linear tech whatever it was went nowhere.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  It was pretty cool though. I wish they open the tech for others.
- Markoff 6y ago
  it was useless gimmick already at arrival, nobody ain't gonna buy phone with such huge bezel in 2019 in times of punch holes, small notches, pop-up cameras and upcoming under the screen cameras
tibbydudeza 6y ago
Google Reader ... Google Play Music and now this. There is a pattern.
- yuchi 6y ago
  A pretty consistent pattern if you ask me… https://gcemetery.co/ https://gcemetery.co/
- dgellow 6y ago
  https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- untog 6y ago
  Not really. You can’t buy a Pixel 1 and haven’t been able to for years. Nor can you buy an iPhone 3GS.
- kevincox 6y ago
  This is completely different. You can still use the phone and it will still be getting updates as the guaranteed when you bought the phone. This has basically no effect for existing owners.
- gred 6y ago
  You should be proud of your ability to extrapolate a pattern from only 3 data points, but ashamed of your ignorance of the other 91 data points ;-) https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://gcemetery.co/ https://gcemetery.co/
- conradfr 6y ago
  I'm not over losing GPM in two months yet.
- mycookies 6y ago
  Two are services. One is hardware. What's the pattern?
duk 6y ago
After my horrible Pixel Buds 2, I am done with Google hardware.
- mugsie 6y ago
  were they that bad? I was looking at them, but the price was just too high for me.
- trimbo 6y ago
  What's wrong with them?
  - thebean11 6y ago
    My experience: A LOUD, constant hissing and crackling noise when nothing's playing (also audible during podcasts or quiet music). Like 3x worse than my $40 truly wireless buds. They are buggy. They would sometimes disconnect with no way to reconnect, requiring a factory reset (which you need the case to do). It's too bad, in a lot of way's they're better than the AirPods. I prefer the "open audio" design to the transparency mode even, and they're more comfortable and secure in the ears.
  - duk 6y ago
    unusable outdoor.
dathinab 6y ago
Due to some bs. I can't read the article. Is it saying that Google will just no longer sell the phone just nine month after release? (which IMHO would be ok) or that they also will stop giving it Os/security updates? (which IMHO is a total no-go for any company, especially Google).
- distances 6y ago
  First one. Sold out, but updates will continue for the promised three years.
  - dathinab 6y ago
    Thanks
mkozlows 6y ago
It's pretty obvious that Covid supply chains have affected Google's hardware strongly. The Pixel 4a was delayed months (and the Pixel 3a ran out of stock before the 4a was introduced), the Pixel 4 is out of stock before the Pixel 5 is introduced. They're not the only ones, though; Apple has announced already that the new iPhone is going to be delayed.
- lxgr 6y ago
  Even in the Nexus days, a gap of several months between the last generation going out of stock and the next generation becoming available was normal. I think Google is just bad at inventory management (that, and selling a previous generation Android phone is probably much harder than it is for iPhones, where even Apple routinely continues selling models for years after introducing their successor.
  - toast0 6y ago
    > I think Google is just bad at inventory management Or they have different goals. No big sales on the Pixel 4, and they sold all the units they made. Of course, nobody is overproducing flagships and then firesaling them anymore, it was a nice run between the Nexus 5x, the Nextbit Robin, and the Essential PH-1.
    - hocuspocus 6y ago
      > No big sales on the Pixel 4 Not from Google itself, but for the past months third party resellers can't seem to lower the price enough to get rid of their stocks. Also the Nexus 5X was not a flagship, and was plagued by LG's mainboard/bootloop issues.
  - k12sosse 6y ago
    I'm sure they don't want to sit on a warehouse of unsold phones while introducing a new model. Running out of model A before model B drops is prudent :P
    - 6y ago
sylens 6y ago
I just can't buy into Google hardware anymore. When they first introduced the Pixel, I thought that by version 3 or 4 that they would have made vast improvements and "figured it out", like Microsoft did with the Surface Pro 3 and 4 (which is when that line really took off, letting them expand into laptops and AIO desktops). But it just seems like they went backwards with the Pixel 4, and I don't know if I can trust them again. Pixel 4a looks decent for the price, though.
- ckastner 6y ago
  Same here. I used to buy Google hardware exclusively for my mobile needs because I wanted the pure AOSP experience (without all the crap the other vendors load), but it was very hard (Nexus 5X) to impossible (Pixel C) to get hardware replacement parts, and the premature end of security updates were the final straw for me. A friend recommended Android One to me [1]. Basically, it's pure AOSP on third-party hardware. I bought a Nokia 5.2 just to try it out, with the intention of getting the 7.3 when it comes out and I liked the Nokia experience. And I do -- it's simple AOSP. Nokia promises 3 years of software updates and 5 years for security. [1] https://www.android.com/one/ https://www.android.com/one/
  - SahAssar 6y ago
    AOSP is completely different than pure Android. What you call AOSP is basically android without (other) vendor crap, but real AOSP is also without all of googles proprietery stuff (like google play, push notifications and so on). So AOSP is basically pure android without googles crap.
    - ckastner 6y ago
      I stand corrected. Well, whatever the official name is, I meant the most pure version of Android but including the Google apps (which I haven't managed to get rid of yet entirely).
  - parliament32 6y ago
    >Android One phones have the Google Assistant built in That's not AOSP. AOSP has no google apps at all.
rvz 6y ago
Not even a year old. Meanwhile my 'very old' 2016 iPhone SE is still supported and will be running the new iOS 14 update very soon.
- partiallypro 6y ago
  They aren't dropping support for it, they just aren't selling it anymore. The 4a just launched. The 4 will continue to get software updates. This has to do with supply chain constraints (and probably low sales.) Unlike Apple, not everyone controls nearly the entire chain.
- lallysingh 6y ago
  What's support got to do with sales availability?
- distances 6y ago
  Pixel 4 is still supported of course.
  - rvz 6y ago
    > Did you read the article? All I can say is I hope you read the HN guidelines [0]: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - distances 6y ago
      You're right, edited out the unnecessary quip.
yalogin 6y ago
Google hasn’t had a successful product in a very long time. Am i exaggerating? Why does it even want to stay in the consumer electronics business at all? None of their phones are able to gain traction and they have a terrible strategy.
aloknnikhil 6y ago
> Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the U.S. This is something I just don't understand. As phones get more powerful, there is absolutely no excuse to not support them for longer. When did the standard for supporting consumer devices get so low? Love it or hate it, Apple still supports the iPhone 6s Plus. A phone which is almost 5 years old now.
- Markoff 6y ago
  just buy phone with unlockable bootloader and good custom ROM community and you can have this even now, just not officially from manufacturer anyway in Pixel case the phone will have already after 2 years completely unusable battery, not that it would be satisfactory for heavy user even out of box
  - pizza234 6y ago
    "Just not officially" is a simplistic view. You don't know how long the phone is still going to be supported, and you have to have the skills and the patience to go through unofficial documents and procedures in order to make the whole process work. I know because I'm in this situation, and I do support this approach (to "fight against the market"), but it's not an easy feat.
  - Godel_unicode 6y ago
    My pixel 3 XL, which is coming up on 2 years old, gets me through the day just fine on the original battery.
    - Markoff 6y ago
      well yeah, if you don't use your phone it can get you even through two days, turned off even longer
      - Godel_unicode 6y ago
Markoff 6y ago
big surprise, fugly design with huge bezel unseen in years combined with typical less than mediocre battery not that pixel 4a would be much better in this aspect - when others are moving already to centered punch hole Google releases fugly asymetric punch hole and combine it with 3100 mAh battery, good luck with such battery as heavy user or even average user after year or two wear
tonyhb 6y ago
While everyone's hating on the Pixel 4 for good reason, last night's iOS 13.6 software update broke my iPhone. So... there's that. At least the Pixel 4's software updates don't render your phone unusable.
mauvehaus 6y ago
And the iPhone X lasted about as long[0]. I’m unclear why we see unusually short product life cycles as being some kind of indication that All Is Not We’ll. Sometimes a product is a dud, sometimes the tech changes and it makes sense to release a new product for market or economic reasons. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_X https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_X
- mattkevan 6y ago
  The X was only discontinued when the new one was available to buy. Discontinuing the 4 means that Google will be without a flagship phone until whenever the new one is released.
Thaxll 6y ago
We need a LTS process in phones like we do have in OS.
- what_ever 6y ago
  This news has nothing to do with software. It's the hardware that's getting discontinued.
eric_khun 6y ago
I was so glad to bet one of the early adopter of the Google pixel 1. I broke my screen and gladely bought the pixel 2 and was so satisfied with it, gladely showing off photos. Both version had the best cameras on the market. Had amazing customer support inside the phone, and unlimited photo/videos cloud storage. iPhone owners were jealous. But then starting the 3rd , everything declined. Camera became average, they stop the unlimited storage, battery became really bad. They went backward, and couldn't keep their competitive advantage or stay ahead of the innovation. Original early adopters starts getting disappointed seeing better cameras[1] and battery life flooding the market. Hopefully the 4a will help them regain the heart of us (and me)
- what_ever 6y ago
  I think you might be confusing 3 and 4. 3 still had unlimited storage and the best camera. 4 doesn't have the unlimited storage and camera is still top notch (you can refer to many reviews) but lacks the zoom lens unlike other flagship phones. Looks like you forgot to put your reference link. Plus battery on 4 XL is good, 4 had really undersized battery.
mattkevan 6y ago
Have Google grown bored with Android or what? They don't seem to be treating it with the level of care and attention that perhaps you'd expect for what seems like a key part of their business. Stupid stuff, but an example is with the closing of Play Music, Wear OS won't have a first-party music player until the new Youtube Music app is ready. Couldn't imagine that happening to watchOS.
- bane 6y ago
  They aren't feeling the competitive pressure from iOS anymore. At this point iOS is playing feature catchup.
brainless 6y ago
I wanted to comment this top level: I switched from iPhone 6 to Redmi Note 8 Pro recently (early 2020) as I lost my iPhone. I have been an Android user before the iPhone. I really can not overstate how happy I was with how long Apple supported that device - I used it from end of 2014 to early 2020 - yep! Every single day, new iOS supported till late 2019. Google - well they are famous for killing things.
- LoSboccacc 6y ago
  same, I hold unto my se until I could, waiting for another midrange iPhone to materialize that was not completely gimped like the C line, I really enjoyed all the years with it. eventually switched to a mi a2, which is not as good, but workable replacement. and hey, it cost a fourth of an iphone, so I can have extremely short replace cycle to work around the chronic android updates issues.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    > it cost a fourth of an iphone Only if you exclude the cost of one’s time.
51Cards 6y ago
This isn't surprising given the Pixel 4a and the 5 being coming up soon. With the price difference there is really no reason to purchase a Pixel 4 now.
- LoSboccacc 6y ago
  isn't the 4a camera a step back tho? hard to judge on paper spec but still. I was eyeing it as a replacement of my current phone, a mi a2, mostly because the android one landscape is really limited
  - distances 6y ago
    The CCD is the same, just the special chip is missing which slows down image processing. Photos are identical according to that Verge review.
    - kevincox 6y ago
      I recall that the 3a used less frames than the 3 for the HDR+ and similar image processing. It would be interesting if the 4a and the 4 used the exact same processing (minus performance)!
      - distances 6y ago
        I think it was mentioned that fewer frames is a possibility, but the test didn't see any difference in photo quality.
matchbok 6y ago
Google really needs to figure out their phone hardware plans. This is a mess. 9 months? Who is buying these phones? Is the hardware division even profitable? I can't imagine it is.
awscherb 6y ago
I preordered the Pixel 4 XL at launch, upgrading from a 2 XL. I lost the 4 XL in April, when I unknowingly dropped it at some point during a bike ride, so I reverted to the 2 XL. This made me realize what a completely unremarkable phone the 4 XL was, and in some ways, it was actually a step _backwards_ from the 2 XL. I really did miss the fingerprint scanner on the back of the 2 XL, and for me face unlock will always be a gimmick. The camera on the 2 XL is still really good, even by today's standards. Every smartphone I've had since the gnex days has been Google. I really want Google to make the best Android phones. The appeal of Nexus was that it was so cheap. With Pixel, prices have gone up, and the increase in functionality between generations has gone down. Maybe that's a general smartphone trend, but I think for the first time in a long time, my next Android phone won't be from Google.
- piercebot 6y ago
  I upgraded from a Pixel XL (which itself was a free upgrade after my Nexus 6P ran into the battery shutdown issues) to the 4XL when it came out in November, and while I can't say I _regret_ my purchase, it's just... unremarkable. The camera is fine, but the battery is not any better than my 3yo phone. I haven't had to downgrade, but I imagine that (like you) I wouldn't miss it :)
- bosswipe 6y ago
  Pixel 4a with fingerprint scanner, headphone jack and bigger battery looks nice, but unfortunately they don't have an xl version.
  - panda-giddiness 6y ago
    Supposedly the 5G variant of the Pixel 4a will have a larger screen [1]. [1] https://9to5google.com/2020/07/10/pixel-4a-4a-5g-pixel-5-explained/ https://9to5google.com/2020/07/10/pixel-4a-4a-5g-pixel-5-exp...
  - joncrane 6y ago
    This is exactly how I feel. I have the 3a XL and it's a fabulous phone. the a+XL combo is a category killer if they could get their supply chain together.
echelon 6y ago
Google discontinues everything. I'm furious that they are shuttering Google Play Music. That's the singular Google product I enjoy, and now it's going away. I had a bunch of purchases too. When Brin and Page left, the company entered its Ballmer era. I hope another company outdoes them on search. It can't be that hard with all of the AdSense spam these days. I'd love to see their golden goose go away and have them face an existential crisis that causes them to refocus and start giving a damn. Edit: why the downvotes? People are frustrated with this company.
bahmboo 6y ago
Google has bought 2 companies that excelled at handset manufacturing and supply chain management (Motorola and HTC) and they STILL can't even remain competent let alone competitive.
- jgalt212 6y ago
  And given how much money they make from the core business, it's hard to see how they motivate to get better.
- deadmutex 6y ago
  I don't think the majority of non-HN users share this opinion. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHnleQU9tQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHnleQU9tQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsubahcOoIs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsubahcOoIs
brianmcc 6y ago
My new Pixel 4 arrived literally yesterday, such timing :-) In fairness I picked it as a great "carry-around camera" with a phone attached and it looks like it might work well in that regard, photo quality is very good from first impressions. Otherwise I do find myself somewhat underwhelmed, first Android "upgrade" I've ever had that's not head and shoulders better than the handset it's replaced.
paulie_a 6y ago
For some reason I feel like the pixel 3 was discontinued after like 2 months.
rdslw 6y ago
Please, do NOT link nor read techcrunch.com on hackersnews or elsewhere. It is harmful. Techcrunch is using double redirect trick via https://guce.advertising.com/ https://guce.advertising.com/ to plant cookies in your browser as first party ones. That's right, thats a reason of mozilla firefox ETP 2.0 which you read about today, WHILE most of users and us are currently NOT protected from it: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/04/latest-firefox-rolls-out-enhanced-tracking-protection-2-0-blocking-redirect-trackers-by-default/ https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/04/latest-firefox-roll...
- joosters 6y ago
  I wondered why that has been happening to me too, all techcrunch URLs redirect to advertising.com/* and then stop (extentions / pihole blocking the domain, I guess). Why would any self-respecting website redirect everyone through a domain called advertising.com on each visit? Who thought that was a great idea?
  - TavsiE9s 6y ago
    IIRC Techcrunch is owned by Verizon Media, same as advertising.com. Probably the overlords mandating tighter integration.
    - 2bitencryption 6y ago
      > advertising.com they didn't even put in the effort to obscure their platform even a little bit, huh? not even trying to hide it.
      - asadlionpk 6y ago
        They probably acquired that domain at the time when advertising wasn't an offense.
      - 1propionyl 6y ago
        "advertising.com" sounds a lot better than "surveillance-and-behavior-modification.com". The term "advertising" has become a euphemism for a much more insidious group of activities which, as it turns out, are useful for advertisement (among other things).
Grimm1 6y ago
I would define my Pixel 4 as bland but reliable which I am okay with. My main positive is this thing, so far, has survived more than a few drops that would have killed other phones I have owned. That said I agree about the battery but even before COVID I was reliably near a charger so it didn't matter that much. Hand gesture feature fell flat for me and I don't use the song recognizer. What it has convinced me of though is I no longer care about customizing my phone or the extra geeky things I can do with Android like I did when I was a bit younger so my next phone purchase will be an iPhone. A reliable, incredibly responsive, secure, more private experience for the 4 apps I use and phone calls I make.
- notsureaboutpg 6y ago
  I really like my Pixel 4. I don't think it's boring or bland. I think it actually has way more features than an iPhone, and I'd rather have that than 5 years support. The Pixel 4 has automatic call screening, live transcription of voice recordings, instant translation, the Google Assistant works in my native language (which Siri doesn't understand), there's Soli chip (which is gimmicky, but I'm a developer, I enjoyed making apps which use the Soli chip), Google Lens built into the camera, the Google Assistant is leaps and bounds beyond Siri, etc. Tasker on my phone is something I wouldn't give up for more years of support, and I really enjoy all the customizability Android phones offer as well. Anything you can do on iOS/MacOS I can do with my Pixel. I can text from my desktop, receive notifications on both screens, send files and share clipboard between phone and desktop. And I can share files with anyone (Apple or Android device) over LAN using my Pixel because I can open a shell on my phone and start up a mini one-time file server which closes once the file is downloaded. And I can do all that with a push of a button. IMO Androids are fun phones that also boost your productivity. That's worth having to change them out every 3 years.
  - Grimm1 6y ago
    I don't want to use any of that though, I have no interest in it
    - slenk 6y ago
justicezyx 6y ago
Classic Google.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Doesn't all Android smartphone manufactures, discontinue their older flagship when newer ones when they arrive? At least Pixel 4 will receive updates ~ for next 3 years, can't say the same for other manufacturers except maybe for OnePlus. But should we accept this as a consumer? I don't think so, with current hardware, the 3 year limit is artificial and just part of forced obsolescence. More over, an utter disregard for environment; smartphone recycling is unheard of in several markets where these flagships are going to be sold. Alternatives? [1] Smartphone manufacturer who cares for people and planet - https://www.fairphone.com/en/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/ [2] 10 Year smartphone OS - https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/. [3] Smartphone with user replaceable parts - https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ [4] Privacy focussed Linux phone - https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ [5] Alternate privacy focused android OS with longer support - https://e.foundation/ https://e.foundation/ [6] If you like Sony devices - https://shop.jolla.com/ https://shop.jolla.com/ P.S. I haven't included LineageOS, GrapheneOS and other aftermarket android firmwares as although what they do is commendable, once the manufacturer stops updating the device, the binary blobs remain outdated with the old kernel, even though Android itself gets updated via these projects unlike the other projects I have mentioned above.
- metalliqaz 6y ago
  Th 4a isn't a flagship. Also, Google has been keeping the last gen on sale at a discount for most of their Pixel phones.
tanilama 6y ago
Google is a mess, period It is both painful and hilarious to see how lack of long term vision for this supposedly industry leader. Google is losing and probably already lost
noisy_boy 6y ago
This whole mobile apps business has screwed us so bad. Now we have basically two eco-systems which are so big that any new player practically has no chance. If the development and focus was on making websites mobile friendly and frameworks/standards growed in that direction, we could run any device and get the same experience. Something like a Pinephone would have the potential to be at par with Android and iOS based phones in terms of reach and could focus on the hardware side instead of fighting on dual hardware/software fronts. I know that Pinephone's target is not mass market but just thinking of the lost possibility of open Linux-based phones having a fighting chance of actually reaching the masses makes me sad.
- metalliqaz 6y ago
  > If the development and focus was on making websites mobile friendly and frameworks/standards growed in that direction uhhh... that happened. like, several years ago. The phrase "mobile first" started appearing on HN in 2010.
- qntmfred 6y ago
  Remember when the iPhone launched and developers revolted because Apple suggested they didn't need the ability to write native apps on the phones because they should focus on building web apps. whoops.
BenoitEssiambre 6y ago
Some of the most important criteria for high end phones are longevity and battery life. If you are going to pay the big bucks, you want to protect your investment. Updates and battery should last 5+ years. It's stupid to pay a premium for a good camera only to have to throw it out after two-three years because you can't change the battery.
warlord1 6y ago
Google basically kills everything they touch unless it can somehow feed the "advertising beast". We should all know this by now.
ashishb 6y ago
Google can't even keep a consistent naming for phones at this point. iPhone ------ iPhone iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS iPhone 4 -> iPhone 4S iPhone 5 -> iPhone 5S iPhone 6 -> iPhone 6S (and plus sizes) iPhone 7 (and plus sizes) Android ------- Nexus One Nexus S Galaxy Nexus Nexus 4 Nexus 5 Nexus 6 Nexus 5X & Nexus 6P Pixel & Pixel XL (till I use to track)
Bhilai 6y ago
Not sure about the hate here, I like my Pixel 4. Its lighter compared to latest iPhones. I had an iPhone XR earlier and my hands use to hurt and since I changed to P4, the pain is gone. Sure, the battery is not that great but its not terrible either and I end up charging my phone overnight anyways (I use to do that with an iPhone as well.) I have never had a single issue with my P4 so far and I ll mostly likely use it until it gets updates. Camera is fantastic, the phone runs smoothly and I enjoy the small nice features like it recognizes music playing near by (without sending any data back to Google.) I even use the hand gestures supported by Soli and I hope they expand on it in future.
bobobob420 6y ago
It pains me to see Google trying so hard to make hardware. Stick to what you are good at :(
code4tee 6y ago
Add another tombstone: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
riyadparvez 6y ago
> Google has quietly discontinued sales of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. They discontinued the sale, not the product support. Not sure what the outrage about. Am I missing anything?
- sidibe 6y ago
  The word "Google" is an invitation to bring out the pitchforks.
7ofspearts 6y ago
I'm really happy with my Pixel 3a purchase. I don't really care about phone specs as long as the phone runs smoothly and the 3a definitely runs great for it's price point. Had it for about a year now and the battery is still going strong as well. I think google is just really bad at making flagships, I'm really interested in how the 4a will perform over time.
IgorPartola 6y ago
I am glad to see that after my brief foray into Android years ago, switching away from that ecosystem was the right choice. I bought the original dual core Motorola Android phone. Remember the one that you could plug into a laptop type dock to make it work like a cheap laptop? The one that had the fingerprint scanner as its killer feature? Yeah I went through six of them because the fingerprint scanner and the touchscreen had some kind of crosstalk that touching the scanner even accidentally meant it fired screen multi touch events. Also, Motorola stopped supporting that device in like a year, explicitly saying they will never update it to a newer version of Android AND you couldn't unlock the bootloader. And it was dog slow for any newer apps because of course it was running a stupidly old OS. I know Android got better since, but between Samsung cramming more bloat into their devices and making that standard and Google dropping support for their devices like they have been, I don't miss any of that.
- RIMR 6y ago
  If Android wins we have tons of companies working together to bring us the best experience. If iOS wins, we have a single corporation in charge of our mobile device experience. If I had to choose the philosophical winner of this competition, it's pretty objectively Android for not existing to create a monopoly over the entire industry, even if Google makes questionable decisions regarding their specific hardware releases.
  - IgorPartola 6y ago
    The problem is that we haven’t seen healthy competition in the Android market. What I mean by that is this: Android isn’t really open source the way we normally understand that. Google makes some changes, then tosses the source code over the fence to everyone else. So hardware manufacturers like Samsung can use it as is, or they can tack on their own crap since adding software features is way easier than hardware ones. So you get an OS with another OS shell built over it all in the name of marketing. You also get Amazon’s devices which are incompatible in a lot of ways even though they are also Android. What would be ideal is more of what we have with Linux distorts: an extremely solid base and distributions that can run on any modern phone. Why can’t I run the Samsung OS on my HTC phone and vice verse? Why are bootloaders always locked? Why are updates only handed down when the company execs deem it to be necessary? I agree that the Apple system is problematic. But their UX is superior in so many ways. I hate how iMessage is Apple-only but I love using it vs traditional SMS. I hate the lock in, but I have been paying for iCloud storage to handle all my photos and backups and such for years and have had zero problems from it. I like choice, but I really hate when the device I use almost more than all others combined on a daily basis doesn’t work because some marketing stuff prevented it from getting an update. Like it or not, Apple does UX better, and as long as they do they’ll keep getting my money.
liminal 6y ago
I'm very impressed with the camera on the Pixel 4 and love using the telephoto lens for macro shots. Otherwise everything about the phone is just fine. As others have noted, losing the fingerprint scanner for face unlock and then losing face unlock to mask wearing has really sucked.
habosa 6y ago
https://swappa.com/mobile/google https://swappa.com/mobile/google The Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3 go for about the same price in the used market. And I bet the Pixel 4a will go for MORE than the Pixel 4. The Pixel 4 was a huge dud. I owned Android phones (mostly Pixel/Nexus) for a decade and that one didn’t interest me at any price.
kelnos 6y ago
> But the [Pixel 4] was hampered by bad battery life What? By far the Pixel 4's battery life has been the best out of every smartphone I've owned. Unless I'm using it unusually heavily, a single charge lasts around 30 hours for me (and that's still the case, after owning it for 8 months or so). Previous phones lasted much shorter, sometimes barely giving me 12 hours. Even the Pixel 2 only gave me 16 hours or so on one charge, with moderate use. For the first time ever, the Pixel 4 has taken away my late-in-the-day charging anxiety. Really my only complaint with the P4 has been that I miss the fingerprint scanner.
- bufferoverflow 6y ago
  Pixel 4 battery is way below average by modern standards: https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3 https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3
tonfreed 6y ago
My Pixel 2 was great (I'm colourblind, so I didn't notice the apparent colour issues), so I was really disappointed when they pushed and update at some point and destroyed my battery life at around the 2 year mark. I bought a Pixel 4 since it had gotten decent reviews around the place, but when I was still commuting before corona I'd have to put it on to charge as soon as I got into the office. It was pretty common for me to sit down and only have 40% battery from 40 mins or so of use

351 points by prostoalex 6y ago

electriclove 6y ago

That's because the Pixel 5 release is coming soon right? And probably that sales of the Pixel 4 are also very low.

dheera 6y ago
It was also just horribly expensive, and that's the main reason I did not upgrade yet. I'm not a big fan of Google trying to copy Apple on e.g. the notch at the top of the screen; copying the Apple pricing strategy of expensive==luxury is even worse.
- kevincox 6y ago
  I agree. It seems like a fairly clear marketing play that they don't think people will treat them as premium if they don't price at the top of the scale. However I wouldn't be surprised if it worked. It is not uncommon it hear of stories where raising the price lead to more sales and people regarding the product as of a higher quality.
  - dheera 6y ago
    The main thing is I buy Google because I don't like Apple (for a number of reasons, starting from the OS itself). The last thing I want is them trying to be more Apple-like. People who like Apple will buy Apple. They need to design for everyone else.
- distances 6y ago
  Pixel A line is the new Nexus, that's where the party is at. They really shine for a reasonable price.
anoxor 6y ago
Removing fingerprint unlock and add face unlock and then months later facemasks are manditory, and you can't unlock your phone without pin.
- notwhereyouare 6y ago
  you aren't wearing a mask 24/7. You'll still be able to use the face unlock feature when at home
  - uncoder0 6y ago
    Fingerprint was far better imo
    - conradfr 6y ago
      I have a OnePlus 5 and use both depending on the situation, very useful.
  - jt94mf90d 6y ago
    Actually, some people are recomended to wear at home.
    - untog 6y ago
      An extreme minority. Unlocking your phone is very low on the list of issues if you are one of those people.
  - mugsie 6y ago
    Face unlock is ... inconsitant, and support in apps is sparse. I have a 4XL (personal) and 2XL (work), and I never run into issues with the 2XL, it reads the fingerprint as I take out of my pocket, and it is open as I look at it. 4XL - take it out, and 80% of the time it works, the other 20% I spend time moving it up and down, and just entering the pin.
    - 6y ago

quotemstr 6y ago

If you can't beat your reputation, you might as well embrace it.

leeoniya 6y ago
kinda like, "We only support the two most recent versions of our hardware." and we release every 6 weeks. move fast; break all the things.
- wsc981 6y ago
  I couldn't help but laugh at this :)

j45 6y ago

If only the Samsung Note ran Android One. At this point marginally improved devices at premium price point.. might further leave iPhone as the leader. iPhone sales are up this year while samsung/Android is down.. Part of it is iPhone will last longer have updates for far longer than any Android device. I'm an Android user considering switching to iPhone not out of boredom, but wanting my phone to be an appliance instead of a source of innovation, as that seems to be largely gone in this Form factor

PopePompus 6y ago
Google has done significant innovation in cameras recently, though. The astrophotography mode is wonderful.
- oblio 6y ago
  That's such a niche thing, though. How many people will use that feature more than once? 0.001%?
  - PopePompus 6y ago
    There's a subreddit for photos taken with Pixels (https://www.reddit.com/r/pixelography/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pixelography/). About 1/4 of the posted images are Nightsight or Astrophotography mode images. People may not use it a lot, but they seem to be very proud of the results when they do use it.
  - parliament32 6y ago
    Using your phone's camera is niche? I don't know about you but I easily take a dozen photos a day, between SC and work documents and social photos.. honestly the quality of a phone's camera hardware and software is the defining factor for buying a phone for me.
    - oblio 6y ago
      I'm not sure how you could read my comment and the one above it and misinterpret it that way. I was talking about astrophotography.

trulyrandom 6y ago

I'm unable to open this link, as it immediately redirects me to guce.advertising.com.

searchableguy 6y ago
Here: https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21356745/google-pixel-4-xl-discontinued-out-of-stock https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21356745/google-pixel-4-xl...
SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
That's a bit concerning for you - I was able to navigate there without issue. Edit: That's kind of possibly concerning for you. It may be totally fine. Still seems weird.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  You might have clicked on a techcrunch link in the past few weeks or live in a country different than the OP. They use http redirects to assign you an advertising ID based on your IP or something afaik.
- ffpip 6y ago
  It is only for European users
- slenk 6y ago
  I would say its more concerning for everyone else that is getting third party cookies embedded as first
Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
Is some hijacking you before you even get to techcrunch.com? Or is it loading the page and then redirecting you? Why aren't you using an ad blocker?
- trulyrandom 6y ago
  The latter. I am. I'm using uBlock Origin, but apparently this redirect got through. Then the DNS lookup of guce.advertising.com failed because of the filter I have set up on that end, so my Techcrunch experience ended on an error page.

mugsie 6y ago

DBrand summed it up best in their marketing email for the Pixel 4 skins just after the launch: > That's right: it's another marketing email from the robots at dbrand. That means it's time for another email footer. Here are a few ground rules if you're reading this on your shiny new Pixel 4. First, make sure the battery is fully charged - you don't want it dying while you're reading this, do you? If you need to scroll to keep reading, you'll have to use your greasy, gross thumb to do it. No hand-waving allowed. Lastly, consider turning off Gmail sync - your photos are going to burn through that non-expandable storage very quickly. With that preamble out of the way, here's our footer: dbrand is having a 10% off sale - masking your $800+ mistake has never been more affordable.

knodi123 6y ago
ouch!
slowwriter 6y ago
Dbrand marketing emails are awesome.
ChuckMcM 6y ago
It burns! It burns! It also raises and interesting question in me for the folks who think of themselves as "product" types. Has anyone measured the effect of platform denigration on improving or diminishing a brand? I am trying to imagine ways you might A/B test this. Set up two brands with products in the same space with comparable specifications, and have one that is "product focused" in their outbound messaging and one that is "platform hostile" in their messaging. Then compare customer loyalty and margin support in the two brands. Curious to know if anyone has done this.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  On specs the Pixel 3a is a no-brainer for me as my Nokia 6.1 is getting long in the tooth however the Nokia has been such a hassle-less little phone and is tough enough to have survived 7000 miles on a motorbike without a mark that I'll likely buy another of whatever their current model is. Also AndroidOne so I'm still getting updates for it which is the longest after purchase that's ever happened on an android handset. At least I would except the Nokia 6.1 does literally everything I need out of a phone still so I'll likely wait another year at least.

destory-everyth 6y ago

I think the radar linear tech whatever it was went nowhere.

searchableguy 6y ago
It was pretty cool though. I wish they open the tech for others.
Markoff 6y ago
it was useless gimmick already at arrival, nobody ain't gonna buy phone with such huge bezel in 2019 in times of punch holes, small notches, pop-up cameras and upcoming under the screen cameras

tibbydudeza 6y ago

Google Reader ... Google Play Music and now this. There is a pattern.

yuchi 6y ago
A pretty consistent pattern if you ask me… https://gcemetery.co/ https://gcemetery.co/
dgellow 6y ago
https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
untog 6y ago
Not really. You can’t buy a Pixel 1 and haven’t been able to for years. Nor can you buy an iPhone 3GS.
kevincox 6y ago
This is completely different. You can still use the phone and it will still be getting updates as the guaranteed when you bought the phone. This has basically no effect for existing owners.
gred 6y ago
You should be proud of your ability to extrapolate a pattern from only 3 data points, but ashamed of your ignorance of the other 91 data points ;-) https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://gcemetery.co/ https://gcemetery.co/
conradfr 6y ago
I'm not over losing GPM in two months yet.
mycookies 6y ago
Two are services. One is hardware. What's the pattern?

duk 6y ago

After my horrible Pixel Buds 2, I am done with Google hardware.

mugsie 6y ago
were they that bad? I was looking at them, but the price was just too high for me.
trimbo 6y ago
What's wrong with them?
- thebean11 6y ago
  My experience: A LOUD, constant hissing and crackling noise when nothing's playing (also audible during podcasts or quiet music). Like 3x worse than my $40 truly wireless buds. They are buggy. They would sometimes disconnect with no way to reconnect, requiring a factory reset (which you need the case to do). It's too bad, in a lot of way's they're better than the AirPods. I prefer the "open audio" design to the transparency mode even, and they're more comfortable and secure in the ears.
- duk 6y ago
  unusable outdoor.

dathinab 6y ago

Due to some bs. I can't read the article. Is it saying that Google will just no longer sell the phone just nine month after release? (which IMHO would be ok) or that they also will stop giving it Os/security updates? (which IMHO is a total no-go for any company, especially Google).

distances 6y ago
First one. Sold out, but updates will continue for the promised three years.
- dathinab 6y ago
  Thanks

mkozlows 6y ago

It's pretty obvious that Covid supply chains have affected Google's hardware strongly. The Pixel 4a was delayed months (and the Pixel 3a ran out of stock before the 4a was introduced), the Pixel 4 is out of stock before the Pixel 5 is introduced. They're not the only ones, though; Apple has announced already that the new iPhone is going to be delayed.

lxgr 6y ago
Even in the Nexus days, a gap of several months between the last generation going out of stock and the next generation becoming available was normal. I think Google is just bad at inventory management (that, and selling a previous generation Android phone is probably much harder than it is for iPhones, where even Apple routinely continues selling models for years after introducing their successor.
- toast0 6y ago
  > I think Google is just bad at inventory management Or they have different goals. No big sales on the Pixel 4, and they sold all the units they made. Of course, nobody is overproducing flagships and then firesaling them anymore, it was a nice run between the Nexus 5x, the Nextbit Robin, and the Essential PH-1.
  - hocuspocus 6y ago
    > No big sales on the Pixel 4 Not from Google itself, but for the past months third party resellers can't seem to lower the price enough to get rid of their stocks. Also the Nexus 5X was not a flagship, and was plagued by LG's mainboard/bootloop issues.
- k12sosse 6y ago
  I'm sure they don't want to sit on a warehouse of unsold phones while introducing a new model. Running out of model A before model B drops is prudent :P
  - 6y ago

sylens 6y ago

I just can't buy into Google hardware anymore. When they first introduced the Pixel, I thought that by version 3 or 4 that they would have made vast improvements and "figured it out", like Microsoft did with the Surface Pro 3 and 4 (which is when that line really took off, letting them expand into laptops and AIO desktops). But it just seems like they went backwards with the Pixel 4, and I don't know if I can trust them again. Pixel 4a looks decent for the price, though.

ckastner 6y ago
Same here. I used to buy Google hardware exclusively for my mobile needs because I wanted the pure AOSP experience (without all the crap the other vendors load), but it was very hard (Nexus 5X) to impossible (Pixel C) to get hardware replacement parts, and the premature end of security updates were the final straw for me. A friend recommended Android One to me [1]. Basically, it's pure AOSP on third-party hardware. I bought a Nokia 5.2 just to try it out, with the intention of getting the 7.3 when it comes out and I liked the Nokia experience. And I do -- it's simple AOSP. Nokia promises 3 years of software updates and 5 years for security. [1] https://www.android.com/one/ https://www.android.com/one/
- SahAssar 6y ago
  AOSP is completely different than pure Android. What you call AOSP is basically android without (other) vendor crap, but real AOSP is also without all of googles proprietery stuff (like google play, push notifications and so on). So AOSP is basically pure android without googles crap.
  - ckastner 6y ago
    I stand corrected. Well, whatever the official name is, I meant the most pure version of Android but including the Google apps (which I haven't managed to get rid of yet entirely).
- parliament32 6y ago
  >Android One phones have the Google Assistant built in That's not AOSP. AOSP has no google apps at all.

rvz 6y ago

Not even a year old. Meanwhile my 'very old' 2016 iPhone SE is still supported and will be running the new iOS 14 update very soon.

partiallypro 6y ago
They aren't dropping support for it, they just aren't selling it anymore. The 4a just launched. The 4 will continue to get software updates. This has to do with supply chain constraints (and probably low sales.) Unlike Apple, not everyone controls nearly the entire chain.
lallysingh 6y ago
What's support got to do with sales availability?
distances 6y ago
Pixel 4 is still supported of course.
- rvz 6y ago
  > Did you read the article? All I can say is I hope you read the HN guidelines [0]: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - distances 6y ago
    You're right, edited out the unnecessary quip.

yalogin 6y ago

Google hasn’t had a successful product in a very long time. Am i exaggerating? Why does it even want to stay in the consumer electronics business at all? None of their phones are able to gain traction and they have a terrible strategy.

aloknnikhil 6y ago

> Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the U.S. This is something I just don't understand. As phones get more powerful, there is absolutely no excuse to not support them for longer. When did the standard for supporting consumer devices get so low? Love it or hate it, Apple still supports the iPhone 6s Plus. A phone which is almost 5 years old now.

Markoff 6y ago
just buy phone with unlockable bootloader and good custom ROM community and you can have this even now, just not officially from manufacturer anyway in Pixel case the phone will have already after 2 years completely unusable battery, not that it would be satisfactory for heavy user even out of box
- pizza234 6y ago
  "Just not officially" is a simplistic view. You don't know how long the phone is still going to be supported, and you have to have the skills and the patience to go through unofficial documents and procedures in order to make the whole process work. I know because I'm in this situation, and I do support this approach (to "fight against the market"), but it's not an easy feat.
- Godel_unicode 6y ago
  My pixel 3 XL, which is coming up on 2 years old, gets me through the day just fine on the original battery.
  - Markoff 6y ago
    well yeah, if you don't use your phone it can get you even through two days, turned off even longer
    - Godel_unicode 6y ago

Markoff 6y ago

big surprise, fugly design with huge bezel unseen in years combined with typical less than mediocre battery not that pixel 4a would be much better in this aspect - when others are moving already to centered punch hole Google releases fugly asymetric punch hole and combine it with 3100 mAh battery, good luck with such battery as heavy user or even average user after year or two wear

tonyhb 6y ago

While everyone's hating on the Pixel 4 for good reason, last night's iOS 13.6 software update broke my iPhone. So... there's that. At least the Pixel 4's software updates don't render your phone unusable.

mauvehaus 6y ago

And the iPhone X lasted about as long[0]. I’m unclear why we see unusually short product life cycles as being some kind of indication that All Is Not We’ll. Sometimes a product is a dud, sometimes the tech changes and it makes sense to release a new product for market or economic reasons. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_X https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_X

mattkevan 6y ago
The X was only discontinued when the new one was available to buy. Discontinuing the 4 means that Google will be without a flagship phone until whenever the new one is released.

Thaxll 6y ago

We need a LTS process in phones like we do have in OS.

what_ever 6y ago
This news has nothing to do with software. It's the hardware that's getting discontinued.

eric_khun 6y ago

I was so glad to bet one of the early adopter of the Google pixel 1. I broke my screen and gladely bought the pixel 2 and was so satisfied with it, gladely showing off photos. Both version had the best cameras on the market. Had amazing customer support inside the phone, and unlimited photo/videos cloud storage. iPhone owners were jealous. But then starting the 3rd , everything declined. Camera became average, they stop the unlimited storage, battery became really bad. They went backward, and couldn't keep their competitive advantage or stay ahead of the innovation. Original early adopters starts getting disappointed seeing better cameras[1] and battery life flooding the market. Hopefully the 4a will help them regain the heart of us (and me)

what_ever 6y ago
I think you might be confusing 3 and 4. 3 still had unlimited storage and the best camera. 4 doesn't have the unlimited storage and camera is still top notch (you can refer to many reviews) but lacks the zoom lens unlike other flagship phones. Looks like you forgot to put your reference link. Plus battery on 4 XL is good, 4 had really undersized battery.

mattkevan 6y ago

Have Google grown bored with Android or what? They don't seem to be treating it with the level of care and attention that perhaps you'd expect for what seems like a key part of their business. Stupid stuff, but an example is with the closing of Play Music, Wear OS won't have a first-party music player until the new Youtube Music app is ready. Couldn't imagine that happening to watchOS.

bane 6y ago
They aren't feeling the competitive pressure from iOS anymore. At this point iOS is playing feature catchup.

brainless 6y ago

I wanted to comment this top level: I switched from iPhone 6 to Redmi Note 8 Pro recently (early 2020) as I lost my iPhone. I have been an Android user before the iPhone. I really can not overstate how happy I was with how long Apple supported that device - I used it from end of 2014 to early 2020 - yep! Every single day, new iOS supported till late 2019. Google - well they are famous for killing things.

LoSboccacc 6y ago
same, I hold unto my se until I could, waiting for another midrange iPhone to materialize that was not completely gimped like the C line, I really enjoyed all the years with it. eventually switched to a mi a2, which is not as good, but workable replacement. and hey, it cost a fourth of an iphone, so I can have extremely short replace cycle to work around the chronic android updates issues.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  > it cost a fourth of an iphone Only if you exclude the cost of one’s time.

51Cards 6y ago

This isn't surprising given the Pixel 4a and the 5 being coming up soon. With the price difference there is really no reason to purchase a Pixel 4 now.

LoSboccacc 6y ago
isn't the 4a camera a step back tho? hard to judge on paper spec but still. I was eyeing it as a replacement of my current phone, a mi a2, mostly because the android one landscape is really limited
- distances 6y ago
  The CCD is the same, just the special chip is missing which slows down image processing. Photos are identical according to that Verge review.
  - kevincox 6y ago
    I recall that the 3a used less frames than the 3 for the HDR+ and similar image processing. It would be interesting if the 4a and the 4 used the exact same processing (minus performance)!
    - distances 6y ago
      I think it was mentioned that fewer frames is a possibility, but the test didn't see any difference in photo quality.

matchbok 6y ago

Google really needs to figure out their phone hardware plans. This is a mess. 9 months? Who is buying these phones? Is the hardware division even profitable? I can't imagine it is.

awscherb 6y ago

I preordered the Pixel 4 XL at launch, upgrading from a 2 XL. I lost the 4 XL in April, when I unknowingly dropped it at some point during a bike ride, so I reverted to the 2 XL. This made me realize what a completely unremarkable phone the 4 XL was, and in some ways, it was actually a step _backwards_ from the 2 XL. I really did miss the fingerprint scanner on the back of the 2 XL, and for me face unlock will always be a gimmick. The camera on the 2 XL is still really good, even by today's standards. Every smartphone I've had since the gnex days has been Google. I really want Google to make the best Android phones. The appeal of Nexus was that it was so cheap. With Pixel, prices have gone up, and the increase in functionality between generations has gone down. Maybe that's a general smartphone trend, but I think for the first time in a long time, my next Android phone won't be from Google.

piercebot 6y ago
I upgraded from a Pixel XL (which itself was a free upgrade after my Nexus 6P ran into the battery shutdown issues) to the 4XL when it came out in November, and while I can't say I _regret_ my purchase, it's just... unremarkable. The camera is fine, but the battery is not any better than my 3yo phone. I haven't had to downgrade, but I imagine that (like you) I wouldn't miss it :)
bosswipe 6y ago
Pixel 4a with fingerprint scanner, headphone jack and bigger battery looks nice, but unfortunately they don't have an xl version.
- panda-giddiness 6y ago
  Supposedly the 5G variant of the Pixel 4a will have a larger screen [1]. [1] https://9to5google.com/2020/07/10/pixel-4a-4a-5g-pixel-5-explained/ https://9to5google.com/2020/07/10/pixel-4a-4a-5g-pixel-5-exp...
- joncrane 6y ago
  This is exactly how I feel. I have the 3a XL and it's a fabulous phone. the a+XL combo is a category killer if they could get their supply chain together.

echelon 6y ago

Google discontinues everything. I'm furious that they are shuttering Google Play Music. That's the singular Google product I enjoy, and now it's going away. I had a bunch of purchases too. When Brin and Page left, the company entered its Ballmer era. I hope another company outdoes them on search. It can't be that hard with all of the AdSense spam these days. I'd love to see their golden goose go away and have them face an existential crisis that causes them to refocus and start giving a damn. Edit: why the downvotes? People are frustrated with this company.

bahmboo 6y ago

Google has bought 2 companies that excelled at handset manufacturing and supply chain management (Motorola and HTC) and they STILL can't even remain competent let alone competitive.

jgalt212 6y ago
And given how much money they make from the core business, it's hard to see how they motivate to get better.
deadmutex 6y ago
I don't think the majority of non-HN users share this opinion. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHnleQU9tQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHnleQU9tQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsubahcOoIs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsubahcOoIs

brianmcc 6y ago

My new Pixel 4 arrived literally yesterday, such timing :-) In fairness I picked it as a great "carry-around camera" with a phone attached and it looks like it might work well in that regard, photo quality is very good from first impressions. Otherwise I do find myself somewhat underwhelmed, first Android "upgrade" I've ever had that's not head and shoulders better than the handset it's replaced.

paulie_a 6y ago

For some reason I feel like the pixel 3 was discontinued after like 2 months.

rdslw 6y ago

Please, do NOT link nor read techcrunch.com on hackersnews or elsewhere. It is harmful. Techcrunch is using double redirect trick via https://guce.advertising.com/ https://guce.advertising.com/ to plant cookies in your browser as first party ones. That's right, thats a reason of mozilla firefox ETP 2.0 which you read about today, WHILE most of users and us are currently NOT protected from it: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/04/latest-firefox-rolls-out-enhanced-tracking-protection-2-0-blocking-redirect-trackers-by-default/ https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/04/latest-firefox-roll...

joosters 6y ago
I wondered why that has been happening to me too, all techcrunch URLs redirect to advertising.com/* and then stop (extentions / pihole blocking the domain, I guess). Why would any self-respecting website redirect everyone through a domain called advertising.com on each visit? Who thought that was a great idea?
- TavsiE9s 6y ago
  IIRC Techcrunch is owned by Verizon Media, same as advertising.com. Probably the overlords mandating tighter integration.
  - 2bitencryption 6y ago
    > advertising.com they didn't even put in the effort to obscure their platform even a little bit, huh? not even trying to hide it.
    - asadlionpk 6y ago
      They probably acquired that domain at the time when advertising wasn't an offense.
    - 1propionyl 6y ago
      "advertising.com" sounds a lot better than "surveillance-and-behavior-modification.com". The term "advertising" has become a euphemism for a much more insidious group of activities which, as it turns out, are useful for advertisement (among other things).

Grimm1 6y ago

I would define my Pixel 4 as bland but reliable which I am okay with. My main positive is this thing, so far, has survived more than a few drops that would have killed other phones I have owned. That said I agree about the battery but even before COVID I was reliably near a charger so it didn't matter that much. Hand gesture feature fell flat for me and I don't use the song recognizer. What it has convinced me of though is I no longer care about customizing my phone or the extra geeky things I can do with Android like I did when I was a bit younger so my next phone purchase will be an iPhone. A reliable, incredibly responsive, secure, more private experience for the 4 apps I use and phone calls I make.

notsureaboutpg 6y ago
I really like my Pixel 4. I don't think it's boring or bland. I think it actually has way more features than an iPhone, and I'd rather have that than 5 years support. The Pixel 4 has automatic call screening, live transcription of voice recordings, instant translation, the Google Assistant works in my native language (which Siri doesn't understand), there's Soli chip (which is gimmicky, but I'm a developer, I enjoyed making apps which use the Soli chip), Google Lens built into the camera, the Google Assistant is leaps and bounds beyond Siri, etc. Tasker on my phone is something I wouldn't give up for more years of support, and I really enjoy all the customizability Android phones offer as well. Anything you can do on iOS/MacOS I can do with my Pixel. I can text from my desktop, receive notifications on both screens, send files and share clipboard between phone and desktop. And I can share files with anyone (Apple or Android device) over LAN using my Pixel because I can open a shell on my phone and start up a mini one-time file server which closes once the file is downloaded. And I can do all that with a push of a button. IMO Androids are fun phones that also boost your productivity. That's worth having to change them out every 3 years.
- Grimm1 6y ago
  I don't want to use any of that though, I have no interest in it
  - slenk 6y ago

justicezyx 6y ago

Classic Google.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

Doesn't all Android smartphone manufactures, discontinue their older flagship when newer ones when they arrive? At least Pixel 4 will receive updates ~ for next 3 years, can't say the same for other manufacturers except maybe for OnePlus. But should we accept this as a consumer? I don't think so, with current hardware, the 3 year limit is artificial and just part of forced obsolescence. More over, an utter disregard for environment; smartphone recycling is unheard of in several markets where these flagships are going to be sold. Alternatives? [1] Smartphone manufacturer who cares for people and planet - https://www.fairphone.com/en/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/ [2] 10 Year smartphone OS - https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/. [3] Smartphone with user replaceable parts - https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ [4] Privacy focussed Linux phone - https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ [5] Alternate privacy focused android OS with longer support - https://e.foundation/ https://e.foundation/ [6] If you like Sony devices - https://shop.jolla.com/ https://shop.jolla.com/ P.S. I haven't included LineageOS, GrapheneOS and other aftermarket android firmwares as although what they do is commendable, once the manufacturer stops updating the device, the binary blobs remain outdated with the old kernel, even though Android itself gets updated via these projects unlike the other projects I have mentioned above.

metalliqaz 6y ago
Th 4a isn't a flagship. Also, Google has been keeping the last gen on sale at a discount for most of their Pixel phones.

tanilama 6y ago

Google is a mess, period It is both painful and hilarious to see how lack of long term vision for this supposedly industry leader. Google is losing and probably already lost

noisy_boy 6y ago

This whole mobile apps business has screwed us so bad. Now we have basically two eco-systems which are so big that any new player practically has no chance. If the development and focus was on making websites mobile friendly and frameworks/standards growed in that direction, we could run any device and get the same experience. Something like a Pinephone would have the potential to be at par with Android and iOS based phones in terms of reach and could focus on the hardware side instead of fighting on dual hardware/software fronts. I know that Pinephone's target is not mass market but just thinking of the lost possibility of open Linux-based phones having a fighting chance of actually reaching the masses makes me sad.

metalliqaz 6y ago
> If the development and focus was on making websites mobile friendly and frameworks/standards growed in that direction uhhh... that happened. like, several years ago. The phrase "mobile first" started appearing on HN in 2010.
qntmfred 6y ago
Remember when the iPhone launched and developers revolted because Apple suggested they didn't need the ability to write native apps on the phones because they should focus on building web apps. whoops.

BenoitEssiambre 6y ago

Some of the most important criteria for high end phones are longevity and battery life. If you are going to pay the big bucks, you want to protect your investment. Updates and battery should last 5+ years. It's stupid to pay a premium for a good camera only to have to throw it out after two-three years because you can't change the battery.

warlord1 6y ago

Google basically kills everything they touch unless it can somehow feed the "advertising beast". We should all know this by now.

ashishb 6y ago

Google can't even keep a consistent naming for phones at this point. iPhone ------ iPhone iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS iPhone 4 -> iPhone 4S iPhone 5 -> iPhone 5S iPhone 6 -> iPhone 6S (and plus sizes) iPhone 7 (and plus sizes) Android ------- Nexus One Nexus S Galaxy Nexus Nexus 4 Nexus 5 Nexus 6 Nexus 5X & Nexus 6P Pixel & Pixel XL (till I use to track)

Bhilai 6y ago

Not sure about the hate here, I like my Pixel 4. Its lighter compared to latest iPhones. I had an iPhone XR earlier and my hands use to hurt and since I changed to P4, the pain is gone. Sure, the battery is not that great but its not terrible either and I end up charging my phone overnight anyways (I use to do that with an iPhone as well.) I have never had a single issue with my P4 so far and I ll mostly likely use it until it gets updates. Camera is fantastic, the phone runs smoothly and I enjoy the small nice features like it recognizes music playing near by (without sending any data back to Google.) I even use the hand gestures supported by Soli and I hope they expand on it in future.

bobobob420 6y ago

It pains me to see Google trying so hard to make hardware. Stick to what you are good at :(

code4tee 6y ago

Add another tombstone: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/

riyadparvez 6y ago

> Google has quietly discontinued sales of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. They discontinued the sale, not the product support. Not sure what the outrage about. Am I missing anything?

sidibe 6y ago
The word "Google" is an invitation to bring out the pitchforks.

7ofspearts 6y ago

I'm really happy with my Pixel 3a purchase. I don't really care about phone specs as long as the phone runs smoothly and the 3a definitely runs great for it's price point. Had it for about a year now and the battery is still going strong as well. I think google is just really bad at making flagships, I'm really interested in how the 4a will perform over time.

IgorPartola 6y ago

I am glad to see that after my brief foray into Android years ago, switching away from that ecosystem was the right choice. I bought the original dual core Motorola Android phone. Remember the one that you could plug into a laptop type dock to make it work like a cheap laptop? The one that had the fingerprint scanner as its killer feature? Yeah I went through six of them because the fingerprint scanner and the touchscreen had some kind of crosstalk that touching the scanner even accidentally meant it fired screen multi touch events. Also, Motorola stopped supporting that device in like a year, explicitly saying they will never update it to a newer version of Android AND you couldn't unlock the bootloader. And it was dog slow for any newer apps because of course it was running a stupidly old OS. I know Android got better since, but between Samsung cramming more bloat into their devices and making that standard and Google dropping support for their devices like they have been, I don't miss any of that.

RIMR 6y ago
If Android wins we have tons of companies working together to bring us the best experience. If iOS wins, we have a single corporation in charge of our mobile device experience. If I had to choose the philosophical winner of this competition, it's pretty objectively Android for not existing to create a monopoly over the entire industry, even if Google makes questionable decisions regarding their specific hardware releases.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  The problem is that we haven’t seen healthy competition in the Android market. What I mean by that is this: Android isn’t really open source the way we normally understand that. Google makes some changes, then tosses the source code over the fence to everyone else. So hardware manufacturers like Samsung can use it as is, or they can tack on their own crap since adding software features is way easier than hardware ones. So you get an OS with another OS shell built over it all in the name of marketing. You also get Amazon’s devices which are incompatible in a lot of ways even though they are also Android. What would be ideal is more of what we have with Linux distorts: an extremely solid base and distributions that can run on any modern phone. Why can’t I run the Samsung OS on my HTC phone and vice verse? Why are bootloaders always locked? Why are updates only handed down when the company execs deem it to be necessary? I agree that the Apple system is problematic. But their UX is superior in so many ways. I hate how iMessage is Apple-only but I love using it vs traditional SMS. I hate the lock in, but I have been paying for iCloud storage to handle all my photos and backups and such for years and have had zero problems from it. I like choice, but I really hate when the device I use almost more than all others combined on a daily basis doesn’t work because some marketing stuff prevented it from getting an update. Like it or not, Apple does UX better, and as long as they do they’ll keep getting my money.

liminal 6y ago

I'm very impressed with the camera on the Pixel 4 and love using the telephoto lens for macro shots. Otherwise everything about the phone is just fine. As others have noted, losing the fingerprint scanner for face unlock and then losing face unlock to mask wearing has really sucked.

habosa 6y ago

https://swappa.com/mobile/google https://swappa.com/mobile/google The Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3 go for about the same price in the used market. And I bet the Pixel 4a will go for MORE than the Pixel 4. The Pixel 4 was a huge dud. I owned Android phones (mostly Pixel/Nexus) for a decade and that one didn’t interest me at any price.

kelnos 6y ago

> But the [Pixel 4] was hampered by bad battery life What? By far the Pixel 4's battery life has been the best out of every smartphone I've owned. Unless I'm using it unusually heavily, a single charge lasts around 30 hours for me (and that's still the case, after owning it for 8 months or so). Previous phones lasted much shorter, sometimes barely giving me 12 hours. Even the Pixel 2 only gave me 16 hours or so on one charge, with moderate use. For the first time ever, the Pixel 4 has taken away my late-in-the-day charging anxiety. Really my only complaint with the P4 has been that I miss the fingerprint scanner.

bufferoverflow 6y ago
Pixel 4 battery is way below average by modern standards: https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3 https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3

tonfreed 6y ago

My Pixel 2 was great (I'm colourblind, so I didn't notice the apparent colour issues), so I was really disappointed when they pushed and update at some point and destroyed my battery life at around the 2 year mark. I bought a Pixel 4 since it had gotten decent reviews around the place, but when I was still commuting before corona I'd have to put it on to charge as soon as I got into the office. It was pretty common for me to sit down and only have 40% battery from 40 mins or so of use