4 ms·

Why hardly anyone buys Google's Pixel phones

18 points by edward 5y ago

mikece 5y ago
I just bought a Pixel 4a -- so I could put Graphene OS on it. I don't presume the Graphene fan club is responsible for anything beyond a small percentage of the Pixel sales but Graphene does require a Pixel handset (at least for now).
- rchaud 5y ago
  How are you finding it? I'd be interested in getting a device that runs a de-Googled Android nicely. Ironic if it happened on a Google-branded device, but still...
  - mikece 5y ago
    As I understand it, the same thing that makes the Pixel easy to upgrade to a new version of Android entirely is the same ability that makes it possible to put Graphene on it -- but I'm not 100% sure about that.
MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
For me it's the lack of a micro SD port. How can you have a more expensive product with the same stuff as lesser expensive products but eliminate that one feature that is exactly why people don't buy apple phones?
- CuriouslyC 5y ago
  This was the one thing that really burned me up about upgrading to the Pixel 4a. What a stupid decision. Thankfully 128 gigs is enough that I don't have to go in and clear stuff out often, but it's still frustrating.
cableshaft 5y ago
Can't speak for Pixel, but I had two Google Nexus phones that both got stuck in the Bootloop of Death state (you can't start the phone even with reboot tricks, it gets stuck in a boot state), and I heard of several other people (including coworkers) that had the same issues, so it turned me off buying Google phones in general, and I never even considered buying any Pixel phones because of it. Really liked my Nexus phones up until that point, though. https://hackaday.com/2017/03/21/fix-a-brick-fighting-the-nexus-5x-bootloop/ https://hackaday.com/2017/03/21/fix-a-brick-fighting-the-nex...
- thiht 5y ago
  I had two Nexus 5x and ran into the same issue. It's a shame because it was a great smartphone. After that I bought a Pixel 3a and I like it too, it's the spiritual child of the 5x. I'm annoyed with Google's behavior on... everything though, so I plan to switch to an iPhone for my next smartphone (in 1 or 2 years probably).
jackhab 5y ago
I own Pixel 2XL (released in 2017). It has an amazing camera which can compete with any modern phone camera, great battery life, no bloatware, excellent performance. Best phone a ever had - really zero issues. Not only I wouldn't switch to other OEM, I can't even find a good reason to upgrade.
- neurocean 5y ago
  I have it too and it's great but it doesn't get security updates anymore so we're in an awkward spot because their latest fleet doesn't have a good upgrade value prop for 2XL owners besides security patches. Their short support window really made me reconsider my next choice and they no longer offer free full res photo backups which is a shame.
- oandrew 5y ago
  No more security updates from Google though. That'll force me to upgrade sooner that I would like. LineageOS is an option but I'm not sure how secure it is.
- crmrc114 5y ago
  Ditto, typed this on my 2xl. I am up for a new phone. But why invest in one when my current device still works so well.
spbaar 5y ago
Google knows all this. I figured they're keeping the skeleton of a flagship, branding, marketing, and distribution as a countervailing threat to oems like Samsung that have played around with Tizen or thinking of going too propietary. If an OEM decides to drop play services or the play store then all google has to do is dump some money into their pixel org to make things move a little bigger and faster. Plus it helps to have a flagship when you're developing new Android features. Telephony features and dual sim was supported by pixels first, at least in a non hacky way
- MockObject 5y ago
  What are telephony features?
  - spbaar 5y ago
    OS level support for caller id, screening, redirection. stuff around enterprise, 5g https://developer.android.com/about/versions/10/features#q-telephony https://developer.android.com/about/versions/10/features#q-t...
curt15 5y ago
When the Pixel 1 first launched in 2016, I saw no shortage of TV advertisements for it. Google made a big deal about the Pixel's camera being the singular focus of its R&D efforts and as a result, it was a cut above that of the competition. The name "Pixel" emphasized its picture quality. But as usual, Google seems to have lost focus instead of pressing its advantage. The Pixel 3 (which I own) was the last iteration that offered definite improvements over its predecessor; recent releases have been treading water at best.
craftinator 5y ago
I have a Pixel 3 after using Galaxy's and Notes for over a decade. It's by far the best phone I've had. It's rugged (dropped it many times, gotten it wet, used it in machine shop environments daily), fast, and the battery life is truely awesome. I've never filled up the internal storage (I don't take huge amounts of pictures or video, but I do sync and upload all of it to my computer every time I connect to my wifi). The best thing though, is that after almost 3 years of hard use, it hasn't become sluggish or unreliable, a hallmark of Samsung devices.
emmelaich 5y ago
Lack of advertising is probably the main reason. I have had a few Nexus and Pixel phones and they've all been excellent.
hknapp 5y ago
I love my pixel 4a. Got it for $300 USD and it does all i need it to. (Calls, text, web browsing). Best of all: no 3rd party bloatware.
- tolbish 5y ago
  I actually find the 3a to be a better phone. Only $100 too.
- circlevvaves 5y ago
  The 4a is really great. Perfect size for single hand use, there's really no bloat, battery life is decent. Photo quality is stellar. Easy to sync with network devices and casting to other media devices is - dare I say - a step ahead of apple. I literally toss this phone around without anxiety too and can no longer justify spending more than ~$500 to upgrade to the latest, greatest model.
ok_coo 5y ago
I recently upgraded to a Pixel 4a from an iPhone SE and it's convinced me that, in fact, Google is really good with software when they have the opportunity to program directed against a set SKU. Performance is really good on the device, it's functional and doesn't get in your way. As for the article, TBH, I think the Pixel devices don't do well because of aesthetics of their phones. This is something that Apple does really well. Take a look at the recent leaked photos of the Pixel 6. IMO, it looks.. not so great. I'm not surprised that people choose iPhone over Pixel, especially with the iMessage effect, longevity of the devices and overall design. The Pixel 4a is probably the best phone I've had. Google could have something really great if they actually stick with it for the long-term.
jfengel 5y ago
I really like my Pixel 3XL. Most prominently I like the fact that it's running stock Android and gets updates quickly. On my prior phones, updates had to go through both the manufacturer AND Verizon before they'd update, which could be months or even years, especially as the device aged. I'm sure I could get that by maintaining it myself, but I don't want to. I don't want my phone to be a job; I do enough debugging at work. That probably means I should switch over to the iPhone, since the price and features are comparable. But I'm OK with being a slave to the Google ecosystem rather than the Apple ecosystem -- whichever one lets me most easily forget that there's an ecosystem at all and just use the device.
sunstone 5y ago
Google doesn't really want to have a big market share in the Android ecosystem. If Google achieved that it would almost instantly be under anti-trust suspicion from the DOJ. What Google does want is to provide provide clean excellent phones where the advertising budget is reduced and the money saved goes right into the quality of the phones. Having said all that I've had a few Pixels and what I appreciate most is the low light performance of the cameras. I happen to be fond of this kind of photography and so it really works for me. What I don't appreciate is having to disable both third party cookies in the Android Chrome browser and location tracking. These are both very creepy data scrappers that Google turns right around and sells to advertisers. No thank you. Next phone though I'm likely to go with Apple just because they are much more privacy forward that Google. I don't appreciate Apple's walled garden approach and therefore I don't have any other Apple products but a standalone Apple phone will meet my needs.
enonevets 5y ago
I stopped buying the pixel the moment they stopped producing the XL version. Perhaps the data showed there weren't a lot of XL buyers but I was one of them and upgraded nearly every year.

18 points by edward 5y ago

I just bought a Pixel 4a -- so I could put Graphene OS on it. I don't presume the Graphene fan club is responsible for anything beyond a small percentage of the Pixel sales but Graphene does require a Pixel handset (at least for now).

rchaud 5y ago
How are you finding it? I'd be interested in getting a device that runs a de-Googled Android nicely. Ironic if it happened on a Google-branded device, but still...
- mikece 5y ago
  As I understand it, the same thing that makes the Pixel easy to upgrade to a new version of Android entirely is the same ability that makes it possible to put Graphene on it -- but I'm not 100% sure about that.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago

For me it's the lack of a micro SD port. How can you have a more expensive product with the same stuff as lesser expensive products but eliminate that one feature that is exactly why people don't buy apple phones?

CuriouslyC 5y ago
This was the one thing that really burned me up about upgrading to the Pixel 4a. What a stupid decision. Thankfully 128 gigs is enough that I don't have to go in and clear stuff out often, but it's still frustrating.

cableshaft 5y ago

Can't speak for Pixel, but I had two Google Nexus phones that both got stuck in the Bootloop of Death state (you can't start the phone even with reboot tricks, it gets stuck in a boot state), and I heard of several other people (including coworkers) that had the same issues, so it turned me off buying Google phones in general, and I never even considered buying any Pixel phones because of it. Really liked my Nexus phones up until that point, though. https://hackaday.com/2017/03/21/fix-a-brick-fighting-the-nexus-5x-bootloop/ https://hackaday.com/2017/03/21/fix-a-brick-fighting-the-nex...

thiht 5y ago
I had two Nexus 5x and ran into the same issue. It's a shame because it was a great smartphone. After that I bought a Pixel 3a and I like it too, it's the spiritual child of the 5x. I'm annoyed with Google's behavior on... everything though, so I plan to switch to an iPhone for my next smartphone (in 1 or 2 years probably).

jackhab 5y ago

I own Pixel 2XL (released in 2017). It has an amazing camera which can compete with any modern phone camera, great battery life, no bloatware, excellent performance. Best phone a ever had - really zero issues. Not only I wouldn't switch to other OEM, I can't even find a good reason to upgrade.

neurocean 5y ago
I have it too and it's great but it doesn't get security updates anymore so we're in an awkward spot because their latest fleet doesn't have a good upgrade value prop for 2XL owners besides security patches. Their short support window really made me reconsider my next choice and they no longer offer free full res photo backups which is a shame.
oandrew 5y ago
No more security updates from Google though. That'll force me to upgrade sooner that I would like. LineageOS is an option but I'm not sure how secure it is.
crmrc114 5y ago
Ditto, typed this on my 2xl. I am up for a new phone. But why invest in one when my current device still works so well.

spbaar 5y ago

Google knows all this. I figured they're keeping the skeleton of a flagship, branding, marketing, and distribution as a countervailing threat to oems like Samsung that have played around with Tizen or thinking of going too propietary. If an OEM decides to drop play services or the play store then all google has to do is dump some money into their pixel org to make things move a little bigger and faster. Plus it helps to have a flagship when you're developing new Android features. Telephony features and dual sim was supported by pixels first, at least in a non hacky way

MockObject 5y ago
What are telephony features?
- spbaar 5y ago
  OS level support for caller id, screening, redirection. stuff around enterprise, 5g https://developer.android.com/about/versions/10/features#q-telephony https://developer.android.com/about/versions/10/features#q-t...

curt15 5y ago

When the Pixel 1 first launched in 2016, I saw no shortage of TV advertisements for it. Google made a big deal about the Pixel's camera being the singular focus of its R&D efforts and as a result, it was a cut above that of the competition. The name "Pixel" emphasized its picture quality. But as usual, Google seems to have lost focus instead of pressing its advantage. The Pixel 3 (which I own) was the last iteration that offered definite improvements over its predecessor; recent releases have been treading water at best.

craftinator 5y ago

I have a Pixel 3 after using Galaxy's and Notes for over a decade. It's by far the best phone I've had. It's rugged (dropped it many times, gotten it wet, used it in machine shop environments daily), fast, and the battery life is truely awesome. I've never filled up the internal storage (I don't take huge amounts of pictures or video, but I do sync and upload all of it to my computer every time I connect to my wifi). The best thing though, is that after almost 3 years of hard use, it hasn't become sluggish or unreliable, a hallmark of Samsung devices.

emmelaich 5y ago

Lack of advertising is probably the main reason. I have had a few Nexus and Pixel phones and they've all been excellent.

hknapp 5y ago

I love my pixel 4a. Got it for $300 USD and it does all i need it to. (Calls, text, web browsing). Best of all: no 3rd party bloatware.

tolbish 5y ago
I actually find the 3a to be a better phone. Only $100 too.
circlevvaves 5y ago
The 4a is really great. Perfect size for single hand use, there's really no bloat, battery life is decent. Photo quality is stellar. Easy to sync with network devices and casting to other media devices is - dare I say - a step ahead of apple. I literally toss this phone around without anxiety too and can no longer justify spending more than ~$500 to upgrade to the latest, greatest model.

ok_coo 5y ago

I recently upgraded to a Pixel 4a from an iPhone SE and it's convinced me that, in fact, Google is really good with software when they have the opportunity to program directed against a set SKU. Performance is really good on the device, it's functional and doesn't get in your way. As for the article, TBH, I think the Pixel devices don't do well because of aesthetics of their phones. This is something that Apple does really well. Take a look at the recent leaked photos of the Pixel 6. IMO, it looks.. not so great. I'm not surprised that people choose iPhone over Pixel, especially with the iMessage effect, longevity of the devices and overall design. The Pixel 4a is probably the best phone I've had. Google could have something really great if they actually stick with it for the long-term.

jfengel 5y ago

I really like my Pixel 3XL. Most prominently I like the fact that it's running stock Android and gets updates quickly. On my prior phones, updates had to go through both the manufacturer AND Verizon before they'd update, which could be months or even years, especially as the device aged. I'm sure I could get that by maintaining it myself, but I don't want to. I don't want my phone to be a job; I do enough debugging at work. That probably means I should switch over to the iPhone, since the price and features are comparable. But I'm OK with being a slave to the Google ecosystem rather than the Apple ecosystem -- whichever one lets me most easily forget that there's an ecosystem at all and just use the device.

sunstone 5y ago

Google doesn't really want to have a big market share in the Android ecosystem. If Google achieved that it would almost instantly be under anti-trust suspicion from the DOJ. What Google does want is to provide provide clean excellent phones where the advertising budget is reduced and the money saved goes right into the quality of the phones. Having said all that I've had a few Pixels and what I appreciate most is the low light performance of the cameras. I happen to be fond of this kind of photography and so it really works for me. What I don't appreciate is having to disable both third party cookies in the Android Chrome browser and location tracking. These are both very creepy data scrappers that Google turns right around and sells to advertisers. No thank you. Next phone though I'm likely to go with Apple just because they are much more privacy forward that Google. I don't appreciate Apple's walled garden approach and therefore I don't have any other Apple products but a standalone Apple phone will meet my needs.

enonevets 5y ago

I stopped buying the pixel the moment they stopped producing the XL version. Perhaps the data showed there weren't a lot of XL buyers but I was one of them and upgraded nearly every year.