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The $499 Google Pixel 8a is official, with 120 Hz display, 7 years of updates
- drcongo 2y agoCan it call the emergency services?
- jerlam 2y agoSeven years of updates is good, but how difficult is it to get the battery replaced by a trustworthy shop when it starts dying in three years?
- palata 2y agoI guess it will be similar to Pixel 7? There is an iFixit for it: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+7+Battery+Replacement/154680 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+7+Battery+Replacem... I recently replaced a screen on a Pixel 6a and it was okay. So far so good.
- mococa 2y ago[flagged]
- digital_sawzall 2y agoI purchased a Pixel 7a for work related testing a few weeks ago. It's a nice phone and rooting was very easy. I was impressed overall. But those damn ads they deliver as notifications! WTF. Why would they do that. It just reaffirmed my allegiance to Apple.
- daedalus_j 2y agoWhat ads? I've had a pixel 7a for month, stock OS, and I'm not sure what you mean. I certainly don't get any ads via notification except for from 3rd party apps. It's possible you have some Google app running and that's what's doing it? I would look into which apps the notifications are coming from, you should be able to completely eliminate the problem.
- Qision 2y agoTo me the worst part of the 7a is the touchscreen, very often when I type a message some letters get typed many times and this is a known problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/13wwqye/pixel_7a_touchscreen_responsiveness_issue/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/13wwqye/pixel_... So I hope at least they solved this issue for the 8a
- methuselah_in 2y agoUse next DNS.
- princevegeta89 2y agoI keep my notifications for almost all of my apps turned off. This includes "important" apps like Google Maps and Google Drive. I only keep notifications ON for apps that I really really care about, which are mostly communication apps like WhatsApp, Signal etc. I don't miss a thing. I feel mobile notifications are a cesspit full of crap. Every fucking website or app or game wants to send you notifications, and they're almost always 100% useless. I use a Samsung phone and I in fact put all the muted apps in "deep sleep" as well.
- throwworhtthrow 2y agoI wish Apple's ads were delivered as notifications. Then I could disable them. But Apple allows me to disable notifications for everyone but themselves. I get emails, popups, and banners on my iPhone. They're on my lock screen, in the Music app nav bar, and draped across the top of Settings. They repeatedly nag me to upgrade my iCloud storage, try Apple Music, see what's new in Apple TV, and check out their financial services. They hassle me on macOS too. Windows 10 is tame in comparison. I just got a Pixel phone and it pesters me more than my iPhone did, but not by much.
- codalan 2y agoThe worst are the apps that will constantly bother you with an in-app popup to enable notifications, e.g. Goat. They make it come up randomly so you'll accidentally click on it. Or apps that you pay for (Spotify Premium, Tidal) that will constantly bombard you with marketing in-app popups at random times. So instead of listening and enjoying my music, I can accidentally click on one of these landmines and get redirected to something I do not want. I cancelled Spotify because of this. Will also cancel Tidal after my trial because they just copying the same ugly tactics as Spotify.
- Grazester 2y agoI don't know what the hell you managed to install on your phone but there certainly aren't any ads outside of free ad supported apps on any pixel phone.
- palata 2y ago> But those damn ads they deliver as notifications! WTF. Why would they do that. Hmm I feel like you missed something. Notifications should not be an issue.
- ikekkdcjkfke 2y agoReally attractive, but i want to know if Google 'sells' your data in the ad-bidding process
- princevegeta89 2y agoGoogle does sell data......... to itself. Its other products use that data to make money via ads or sales of things to you.
- legitster 2y agoGoogle doesn't sell your data. Why would they? It's their entire business. They spend so much time and money to collect it, just to hand it over to a competitor? Google makes money selling access to you/figments of your data.
- ikekkdcjkfke 2y agoIn that case I would like to know their commitment to not share data that could potentially, down the pipeline be bought by unknown parties / criminals, and, that they have a commitment to not display malicous ads, that elders click on and get scammed
- palata 2y agoFor the Pixels, have a look at GrapheneOS :-)
- garaetjjte 2y agoSamsung manufactured SoC again? Yeah, no.
- throwaway81523 2y agoI'm terrified: > One challenge for the future, and those seven years of updates, will be the 8GB of RAM. Google is already calling devices with 8GB of RAM "hardware limited" when it comes to future AI features, so be prepared for that. It's a budget phone, though, so you have to make some trade-offs. 1) 8GB ram is hardware limited, 2) $499 is a budget phone??? I'm very happy with my recently acquired Moto G Stylus 5G 2023. It's $250 and has 256GB flash (vs 128GB for the 2x as expensive Pixel 8A), has an SD slot so I can put in another 1TB of flash (2TB soon), has a headphone jack (I still prefer wired headphones), actually has decent battery life, and the battery (per ifixit) is not all that hard to replace though I would still much prefer a swappable one. I don't think of $250 as a budget phone either. More like midrange. The budget version is the G Play 2024 which is $129 or $149 depending on Moto's whims.
- rchaud 2y ago$250 would have been a budget phone 5 years ago. If you're buying an unlocked phone from a brick and mortar store, $350-$500 is the minimum for a brand-name phone. If your are based in the US/EU, you may only have brand name phones available.
- throwaway81523 2y agoI thought Motorola and Samsung were both brand names here in the US. Here is Motorola's current budget line. All are below $300. Admittedly the best deals are the 2023 models but that is a regular thing with them. If I wanted a cheap phone today I'd probably get the 2023 G 5G at $149. https://www.motorola.com/us/smartphones-moto-g-family https://www.motorola.com/us/smartphones-moto-g-family You can get them brick and mortar at Best Buy at usually the same prices as on Motorola's site.
- Grokker 2y agoI miss my Moto One Action... The gesture programming was great. If I needed a flashlight I would just shake it twice on, twice back off. So handy.
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- ortusdux 2y agoMarques' review - "Google Pixel 8A Impressions: Just Get The 8!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3szaVzQx0o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3szaVzQx0o
- hwbunny 2y agoHe needs some refreshing, because his reviews have become utterly boring nowadays.
- Spunkie 2y agoI was really hoping they would go back to having a headphone jack on the 'a' series of pixels. I picked up a 7a pixel and fooled myself into thinking it "can't be that bad". But bluetooth is the worst technology to ever grace our airways, dongles fucking suck, and it's been a constant source of annoyance since I got it. I guess I'll be picking up something other than a pixel when it comes time to upgrade. But there is an ever shrinking number of options that have both a headphone jack and allow bootloader unlocking/locking...
- LeafItAlone 2y ago> But bluetooth is the worst technology to ever grace our airways, dongles fucking suck, and it's been a constant source of annoyance since I got it. Can you expand on your issues with it? It has been very reliable for me.
- mmontagna9 2y agoManaging one pair of headphones that connects to more than one device is a nightmare, everything always auto connects/disconnects when you don't want. Many devices don't have a temporarily disable connection attempts toggle.
- sottol 2y agoI use Bluesnooze [1] on my Mac for that reason, it won't even disconnect when suspended otherwise and you have to log back in to turn off BT. It's pretty easy to disable on phones/tablets otherwise. [1] https://github.com/domzilla/Bluesnooze https://github.com/domzilla/Bluesnooze
- tacotime 2y agoDepending on the client device, you can often put it into pairing mode immediately upon turning it on to prevent auto-connect, then click connect from the desired host device. Still annoying but slightly less so than having to disable bluetooth on every other nearby host.
- abdullahkhalids 2y ago
- beretguy 2y agoCan it fit in my hand and pockets? Or is it almost the size of iPad mini (8.3 inches)? Read article: it’s 6.1 inches. Roughly halfway between iPhone SE 1 and iPad mini.
- ElijahLynn 2y ago5w wireless charging?!? That's like 5 years ago. Where is Qi2?
- matchbok 2y agoAt some point Google needs to think about why these phones exist. Nobody buys them and there is no way their hardware division is turning a profit. After Stadia, I bet this is next.
- beretguy 2y ago> After Stadia, I bet this is next. I hope so. We need less phones manufacturing. We already have plenty. And they all are the same.
- yadaeno 2y agoWhy would we want less competition? I can’t understand this sentiment.
- karencarits 2y ago> Nobody buys them Are you sure? A growth from 1% of sold mobile phones in 2021Q4 to 3% in 2023Q4 doesn't seem too bad https://9to5google.com/2024/02/29/googel-pixel-q4-2023-north-america-marketshare/ https://9to5google.com/2024/02/29/googel-pixel-q4-2023-north...
- palata 2y agoActually the Pixels are great just because of GrapheneOS.
- sonicanatidae 2y agoI cannot wait to read the reviews about which core piece of smartphones they fucked up with this one. After 3 Pixels, ALL with issues that never should have been present, I decided Google can shove it's Pixel phones. I prefer AOSP, rather than all the shitty overlays, so I went with Pixels and just FML. Complete pieces of shit. What kind of fucking clowns make a smartphone with a shitty, barely functional fingerprint reader, in this decade? GL to anyone that uses them, and I sincerely hope YMMV.
- palata 2y agoI have heard really good things about the Pixels. Also GrapheneOS supports almost exclusively Pixels, so I would think that they aren't that bad.
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago> Also GrapheneOS supports almost exclusively Pixels, so I would think that they aren't that bad. I don't think that necessarily follows; GrapheneOS uses the Pixel line because it lets you install a custom ROM and relock the bootloader, and they're a security-focused ROM so that's a big deal to them.
- palata 2y agoHmm I think it's not only that: "We strongly recommend only purchasing one of the following devices [those are exclusively Pixels] for GrapheneOS due to better security and a long minimum support guarantee from launch for full security updates and other improvements": https://grapheneos.org/faq#recommended-devices https://grapheneos.org/faq#recommended-devices This is the list of requirements: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y agoThat's fair; it's not just the bootloader, but I would still argue that all those are security-centric and not a general quality thing.
- fidla 2y agoTechbros are anti-Pixel/Google
- hwbunny 2y agostill the ugliest, mud crawling looking phone in the arena. I mean, it's such a disgusting looking stare that I don't wanna touch it with a 10 feet pole. Get an industrial designer, preferably someone who lives near beautiful landmarks, like an italian person and don't let the engineers tell the individual what can and can't be done. I'm not paying a cent for it, until they sort this design mess out. Also, the android opsys' looks also needs some love.
- abhayhegde 2y agoI don't understand why the design is bad. Of course it's subjective, but what puts you off here?
- hwbunny 2y agoIt's like a painting. Either you like it or not.
- codalan 2y agoAlready had my fill of Pixel 7 Pro problems. The screen failed to register any touches on it, twice. Once within warranty, once outside it. Best I could do is file a claim with my credit card company for a measly $300. For a $1200 phone. Had a bizarrely similar experience with the Pixel Watch. The screen just failed to respond to touch. Wasted an hour figuring out how to get into fast boot mode. After a factory reset, it started working, but it doesn't get much more than 12-16 hours of battery time before needing a charge. After losing a lot of money, time, and patience, I'm done with Google anything. Their hardware is garbage and they seem to have failed to address these issues with newer Pixel releases. Not sure what the point is of having 7 years of updates when the phone's hardware will barely last one of those years. And good luck with support. Switched to a Samsung A54, and although it is slower and laggier in some aspects, the hardware is solid and I've been impressed at how clean OneUI is. Tip: When your Pixel screen fails to respond to touch, you can at least plug in a USB mouse and recover what you can before tossing it into the dead gadget drawer.
- abhayhegde 2y agoI own a Pixel 8. I've been impressed with it's performance and the general feel of using it over the past months. With Pixel 8a, the gap between A series phones and the non-pro version seems to be diminishing way too fast. They still need to fix the modem issues and thereby increase battery life.
- ac130kz 2y ago>$500 >Terrible in-house vendor locked Tensor CPU >8GB RAM + 128GB combo in the EU >Huge bezels >8W wireless charging, are they for real >Same camera setup on an "AI-powered Amazing Camera" I don't know how to describe it, mediocre, I guess? Don't get me wrong, they surely did polish the phone, but apart from its out-of-the-box tuned camera, it has no value beyond actually mid-range phones in $300-400 range with a tuned GCam loaded on them.