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The dominance of the negativity in these comments is noteworthy. Personally, I thought it was a exciting update with major hardware improvements, some compellin

The dominance of the negativity in these comments is noteworthy. Personally, I thought it was a exciting update with major hardware improvements, some compelling AI demos and use cases at a similar price point as the past. Top tech reviewers e.g. MKBHD has similar impressions. Mostly just curious as to why there are ~0 positive comments here. I suspect could be: 1) anti-google HN bias - perhaps deserved? 2) it's simply more tempting/satisfying/rewarding to complain about rather than to praise big companies 3) any other ideas? I'm guessing the 95% negative comment proportion isn't representative though so I was curious if anyone had any explanations for the HN skew

oneshtein 2y ago
You see «negative comments» where we see «constructive criticism» and «helpful reviews». It's not a «happy news» site.
- esperent 2y ago
  > I just hate modern phones, all of them. First sentence of the current top voted comment. What's constructive about that? You could argue the rest of the comment makes up for it, but I don't agree. It reads like a standard negative rant against change to me. I don't see much constructive here. > I just hate modern phones, all of them. I want an adequate one-hand screen size (~6"), a headphone jack, and an even camera bump (just so it lies flat on the table). I love the pixel 8a, the size, curvature and camera bump seems ideal. Ofc they removed a freaking 3.5mm jack, but I can make a compromise here and buy 100 type-c to 3.5mm adapters, but I'm super disappointed with the new 9x series, they are now even more blocky and square-ish which i really don't like, plus no "a" model which is usually looking much better for me than the main one. > Does anyone know the phone which is small, has a headphone jack, even camera bump and is still buyable to this day? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41242944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41242944
  - raxxorraxor 2y ago
    A release of the 9th model of a phone is not "change", the change lies in the past for devices like this. I believe general statements like this increases the cynicism of those that don't really feel invested in the soft- and hardware landscape of current-day smartphones and there is a lot of reason for that in my opinion. Essentially get the same product with improvements that are only another iteration. The Pixel 9 might be a good device comparatively, but I would be more surprised if people were too hyped about it. The larger context of hype and Google is relevant here as well. First question I had when hearing about a Google phone is, if they try to make it harder to block advertising. I don't believe the thought is too unreasonable, is it?
    - Krasnol 2y ago
      > The Pixel 9 might be a good device comparatively, but I would be more surprised if people were too hyped about it. Would you be surprised if a post about the new iPhone would look like this looks here?
      - raxxorraxor 2y ago
        Point taken, I would be surprised since the hype for Apple is indeed quite disproportional.
- concinds 2y ago
  People who have never held the phone are not giving "reviews". They're trotting out pet peeves.
Lammy 2y ago
> any other ideas? Call it disappointment I guess. No phone from any manufacturer has felt totally “right” to me in years in the way that phones from a decade ago did. It makes sense from a business perspective since smartphones were effectively complete way back then. The business needs a way to justify selling me a new one so it's been a long slow downhill of shit-I-don't-care-about ever since. I especially miss the era of HTC flagships. HIGH TECH COMPUTER! The software is disappointing too even though today was not really a software announcement. To me it feels like since they're both from Google the Pixel hardware direction also signals what Android itself will prioritize. I used to be a huge Android-the-OS fan but found that my enjoyment of the platform peaked at 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Version 4.3 was the first version to remove something I loved (the “Phablet” UI layouts that were great on my Galaxy NoteⅡ). Announcements like today's push that point of Peak Android even further away in my mind, and I'm sad about it.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  Yeah, exactly. Phones aren't going in a positive direction at all. What I want is a phone with excellent battery life, a great OLED screen, a great camera, plenty of local storage (and expandable with a microSD card), durable/rugged, and fast enough to feel snappy and not laggy. I don't want AI bullshit, stupid features that tie me to cloud services and help advertisers build profiles of me, can't-delete bloatware, stupid features that spy on me, etc. I also don't want to buy a brand-new $1000 phone every year or two when there's nothing wrong with the old one.
  - iakov 2y ago
    You're describing an iPhone. I've switched from Android to SE2 in 2020, and bought 15 last year on release day to get the type-c charging. I feel it ticks most of your boxes: * excellent battery life - can't complain about it. I'm not streaming YouTube on 5G on the phone, and I've found out that it can last about two days per charge with light use - messenger apps, phone calls, emails. YMMV of course. * a great OLED screen - it's bright & crisp. I haven't seen a better screen in person yet. * a great camera - it's a very good camera IMO. Takes good shots of people and nature and shoots impressive videos of music shows in dark basements. * durable/rugged - not sure about 15, but my SE2 was abused and dropped. The metal sides were dinged, the screen had a few nasty scratches, but the phone held up together very well. * fast enough to feel snappy and not laggy - iOS is much nicer and snappier that any of the Android phones (HTC Desire S, Galaxy Note II, Xperia Z3, Xiaomi Mi6) I've had. * don't want to buy a brand-new $1000 phone every year or two - I think iPhones do last a few years, given the fact that my wife uses 13 and has zero desire (or reasons, really) to upgrade. The only requirement the iPhone doesn't fit is the storage - Apple charges an absurd price for storage upgrades on all of their devices. I went with the cheapest option and pay for a large iCloud subscription, and it seems to work well - the photo and file sync between the phone, Macbook & even my Windows machine is seamless and quick. It also feels nice to give my money to a company that doesn't shove ads down my throat. Apple are not saints, they collect a lot of data and telemetry that I'm not a fan of, but at least they are not a corporation that is built on advertising.
msh 2y ago
GenAi is seen by some people as a very negative thing.
- bugbuddy 2y ago
  Maybe people resent losing their jobs to machines?
  - executesorder66 2y ago
    No, it's just boring and uninspiring.
  - mzmzmzm 2y ago
    Or people resent the major privacy issues, inconsistent UX, and deprioritization of what they see as needed features, all to add a few hugely hyped but minimally useful AI features.
    - antifa 2y ago
      My biggest worry is that everyone complaining about hamburger menus will soon be wishing they could use a hamburger menu instead of being forced into chatting with an AI for menu settings.
dagmx 2y ago
Out of (genuine) curiosity, what major hardware improvements are you referring to? On paper, it’s largely the same as prior years for the SoC at least. I think the fold has the most obvious upgrade but nothing I’d consider really major. Other than that, it seems like mostly a camera bump year?
- winternewt 2y ago
  > On paper, it’s largely the same as prior years. Not even the same. The 9P screen has lower PPI than my 7P, the camera has worse field of view and the battery has lower capacity.
- peapod91 2y ago
  I thought the upgrade to metal/glass + new design looked great which I included in "hardware". Beyond that https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Pixel-9-vs-Pixel-8-Whats-changed-with-the-most-affordable-Pixel_id6420 https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Pixel-9-vs-Pixel-8... shows: - Much brighter screen - Next gen tensor chip - 50% ram upgrade - Better camera + battery - SOS functionality - Better ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Holistically felt like meaningful improvements across the board to me, but I understand where you're coming from. I think maybe I have lower expectations for improvements year to year
  - dagmx 2y ago
    Ah, fair. I usually don’t include form factor too much because it’s so subjective. I think perhaps one of the reasons for the negativity here is that the price is approaching flagship from other companies, but that Tensor G4 performs like chips from four years ago. I think that overshadows a lot of the improvements. Perhaps if the whole package was significantly cheaper, the reception would be more balanced.
zooq_ai 2y ago
I Use Hacker News for technical input. on an average, HN crowd is pretty clueless about a) running a profitable business b) foreseeing technological progress -- say two iterations down the line. c) mass adoption of features On an average, they tend to be elitist and don't represent the average brand popularity (e.g Google, Meta, Amazon). They only mildly upvote technology that helps their extremely privileged life. E.g Current AI / Metaverse features helps plenty of poor, underprivileged people around the world, especially non-english speaking. But HN is the first to mock such features. Because of this, they tend to be poor individual stock pickers. They are highly risk-averse and typically bring an SRE mentality to the world.
- DoingIsLearning 2y ago
  > They only mildly upvote technology that helps their extremely privileged life. Your bias is heavily US centric. HN is not SF or SV. Plenty of users in Serbia, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, in war thorn Ukraine. Arguably the average user is above average for their area's COL but to claim everyone is swimming in VC money is as dilusion as the people you want to portrait in your comment.
  - bugbuddy 2y ago
    Portray
  - zooq_ai 2y ago
    You don't have to be swimming in VC money to be an elitist.
- daghamm 2y ago
  I don't know about the second part, but I fully agree with you on the first part. Some days HN feels like an echo chamber, where thinking outside the box is heavily downvoted.
- rockskon 2y ago
  > Metaverse No quicker way to signal how little you know about technology than to promote something niche that doesn't function well on most cheap electronics.
TrainedMonkey 2y ago
It's also roughly a ~month before next iPhone, which is significant. I doubt many people will switch, but getting ahead of hype cycle is probably valuable. Or maybe Apple will see what from Google marketing has not landed and adjust decks accordingly.
saberience 2y ago
What qualifies someone as a “top tech reviewer”? It’s a phone for gods sake and some random YouTubers opinion isn’t anymore valid than a random Hackernews commentators opinion. If we were getting opinions on the latest PhD paper on attention mechanisms than I’d trust someone with a PhD versus a random person, but for getting opinions on the new Google phone? Think for yourself.
- collin128 2y ago
  Agree with you re: think for yourselves. Two things: 1. He's held / seen the phone live, I buy online so won't get a chance to before I decide. 2. He's also held hundreds (thousands?) of phones which I haven't. While he does have preferences that differ from mine, his perspective is still interesting. >what qualifies them? 19.3m subscribers on yt
  - saberience 2y ago
    Joe Rogan has a lot more subscribers and listeners than this guy, does it mean I should listen to his opinions? Valuing someone by reach makes no sense at all. Most professors at MIT have no social media reach at all, I still value their opinions extremely highly. In fact, valuing someone's opinion purely based on the size of their megaphone is partly why we're the world is in such a bad state politically (and in other ways) these days. E.g. people listening to social media influencers opinions on vaccines.
    - nogridbag 2y ago
      I think this is a fair take. The parent comment shouldn't have added subscriber count as one the qualifications. But for MKBHD's qualification, simply use point number 2.
- wiseowise 2y ago
  Whatever I watch==top tech reviewer, apparently.
j_timberlake 2y ago
I'm very bullish on genAI, and I bought the new phone, but I really don't think the features shown are that exciting yet. It feels like they're laying the groundwork for more powerful AI to be ready to do things in your phone apps, and the current features are just paving the way. The killer-app (that isn't porn) is going to be asking your phone to order food and it guesses correctly what you want while cross-checking availability, pricing, and discounts. Then a Waymo or Wing Drone delivers it.
- peebeebee 2y ago
  What’s killer about that? I order food once every 2 weeks, I like to browse the different options myself. Almost all the ‘killer’ AI functions are already here: smarter photo retouching, auto-replies, searching, and text summaries with some reading comprehension to ask questions. These things I use daily. The only thing I’d like is a better integration with ALL actions possible on my phone.
- dgimla20 2y ago
  I really hope the killer-app of genAI is not takeaway food prediction, nor porn.
- truculent 2y ago
  > The killer-app (that isn't porn) is going to be asking your phone to order food and it guesses correctly what you want while cross-checking availability, pricing, and discounts. Then a Waymo or Wing Drone delivers it. If this were a "killer-app", then Amazon would still be selling those quick-buy Amazon Dash[1] buttons, and Alexa would be making a profit[2] [1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47416440 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47416440 [2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/alexa-had-no-profit-timeline-cost-amazon-25-billion-in-4-years/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/alexa-had-no-profit-...
  - dr_kiszonka 2y ago
    I think Amazon prefers "Subscribe and Save" over Dash. (I agree with you that AI for ordering is not a killer-app.)
flohofwoe 2y ago
Simple AI fatique I guess? Personally I'm immediately turned off when yet another product announcement mentions AI gimmicks, especially when there's no other features to get excited about. It's like the time when each new TV came with "3D support".
- bugbuddy 2y ago
  AI will solve this AI fatigue too! Introducing AI Relaxation and Restoration Center where you will get reeducation in loving AI!
noaccesstomy 2y ago
> Top tech reviewers e.g. MKBHD „Top“ in the sense that a lot of people watch them. Please don’t take seriously what they say. Luise Rossman did an excellent video on marques apple propaganda.
- icemelt8 2y ago
  you're in the minority, I consider myself well educated in tech and a critical person, and MKBHD videos align with my values.
izacus 2y ago
I don't really think there's bias, it's just that HN these days predominately attracts negative ranting comments. It's not really Google specific either - if you look at any other topic, even Linux or OSS related, there's going to be bunch of highly upvoted people ranting and raving. That pushes out any kind of positive discussion and normal people leave.
- maipen 2y ago
  I think the internet has become much more toxic these last few years. I see a lot of resentment and projection in people’s comments. And most of the time the ,comments are useless and don’t represent the general consumer/citizen opinion. This is specially true for anonymous profiles
  - FrancisMoodie 2y ago
    We all know negative content drives more engagement, see: Facebook. But I've also noticed this trend and for me it makes sense seeing as most of the content on the internet nowadays is negative content. Social media is used to belittle and criticize other people/ideas, the news has never been positive, we've passed the stage where content creators that are positive about products are seen as trustworthy, because an overly positive attitude has been linked to a "shill" mindset. We've seen the evolution of big tech from trying to destabilise old/existing industries and giving us a new, improved service to trying to squeeze as much profit out of their users as possible. Other big companies have dominated their competition and have used that power to boost prices, limit access to media, decrease the user experience,... In a lot of ways I feel like the toxicity that we are experiencing online these days is a direct result of noticing all these negative patterns and realising that most of what is being advertised to us has a large chance of being too good to be true. Games that look good pre-release but then get released full of bugs, software that was once a good deal becomes a subscription, series that get cancelled too soon, products that look good on release but have issues not long after without a chance to repair them, companies completely changing their objectives after a CEO change, the list goes on. So instead of trying to be positive and finding ways to get excited about something it is now a "safer" bet to be critical and negative about anything that is being announced because of the cycles of dissapointment we've all been through. At least to me, this makes sense, eventhough I would like to see it be different.
prmoustache 2y ago
I guess mostly because the only thing new smartphones offer is faster cpu, more memory (which I don't really need, a 10y old smartphone handle my current load correctly) and a better camera and an always bigger footprint. The only thing I like is the possible better camera sensors, but that won't make me shed thousands of dollars for it. If I have the choice I'd rather have a more compact model with the camera quality of the previous iteration which was already great. I can understand it will sell because a lot of people have the feeling they live a crappy life and wants to cheat by taking crappy pictures and videos and have a some magic inventing a better imaginary life that they can share on instagram and tiktok but I am not one of them. If I take a picture, I want to get the moment, with all its imperfections including the sad face of a stranger or dog peeing leg up against a wall in the background. And yes I understand I am not everyone, but I really don't care what everyone want because I am not the one trying to sell that phone.
- yunohn 2y ago
  > which I don't really need, a 10y old smartphone handle my current load correctly Which phone are you using then? I presume your usage is totally non-representative of the average normal user, but curious nonetheless.
  - nicoburns 2y ago
    I was happily using an iPhone 6S (which is very nearly 9 years old) until recently (when I dropped it and smashed the screen). It definitely wasn't as fast as a modern phone (but it honestly wasn't bad), the camera was much worse, and the battery life wasn't as good. But it some ways it was better: it had a fingerprint reader (modern iphones don't), and it was much smaller and lighter.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    I just had a samsung galaxy s6 edge die one me, probably because of heat. I do the usual stuff, navigation, whatsapp, music, video...except I tend to avoid installing apps when the corresponding website works well (but I still have lots of different apps) and the only social media I am connecting to is the fediverse through the browser.
Xen9 2y ago
HN has relatively high Graphene OS proportion, and those who use it are those who likely comment here. From Graphene OS user perspective, this does not – on the surface – add much new value. Thus negativity. Other factors ALSO.
barnabee 2y ago
It'll be interesting when (and only when) it can run GrapheneOS and other open source alternatives.
rurp 2y ago
I think it's because Google could make a great phone, but choose not to. They keep adding gimmicky features that myself and apparently many other HNers don't care for, while core functionality is neglected and often regresses. I own a Pixel 8 Pro and it is without a doubt the worst phone I have owned in at least a decade. The amount of bugs for such an expensive product is mind boggling. One of main features is the camera but I've found myself taking far fewer photos with the phone than I expected I would, mainly because the camera UX just kind of sucks in a 100 small to medium ways that add up to an unpleasant experience. Just for example: you need to reenable the manual focus slider after ever picture, focus peaking is flawed and impossible to disable, there's a very noticeable lag with the telephoto mode when adjusting the camera, setting are buried in several different menus, and more. The only reason I would even consider another Google phone after this one is that the phone landscape has gotten pretty bad as a whole. Samsung phones have their own list of flaws and I won't buy a phone that Apple dictates what I can do with; and those are the alternatives for buying a nice phone that I'm aware of, but if anyone has other suggestions I'm all ears. I loved LG phones and wish those were still around.
- mariushn 2y ago
  What others would you recommend under $800? I looked at Motorola, but the camera quality is bad. I found this useful https://www.dxomark.com/smartphones/ https://www.dxomark.com/smartphones/ Using a Xiaomi now, but Android Auto doesn't work for me (other brands on the same car work fine)
akimbostrawman 2y ago
the only places where MKBHD is a "Top tech reviewer" is yt subscriber ranking and corporate payrolls

oneshtein 2y ago

You see «negative comments» where we see «constructive criticism» and «helpful reviews». It's not a «happy news» site.

esperent 2y ago
> I just hate modern phones, all of them. First sentence of the current top voted comment. What's constructive about that? You could argue the rest of the comment makes up for it, but I don't agree. It reads like a standard negative rant against change to me. I don't see much constructive here. > I just hate modern phones, all of them. I want an adequate one-hand screen size (~6"), a headphone jack, and an even camera bump (just so it lies flat on the table). I love the pixel 8a, the size, curvature and camera bump seems ideal. Ofc they removed a freaking 3.5mm jack, but I can make a compromise here and buy 100 type-c to 3.5mm adapters, but I'm super disappointed with the new 9x series, they are now even more blocky and square-ish which i really don't like, plus no "a" model which is usually looking much better for me than the main one. > Does anyone know the phone which is small, has a headphone jack, even camera bump and is still buyable to this day? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41242944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41242944
- raxxorraxor 2y ago
  A release of the 9th model of a phone is not "change", the change lies in the past for devices like this. I believe general statements like this increases the cynicism of those that don't really feel invested in the soft- and hardware landscape of current-day smartphones and there is a lot of reason for that in my opinion. Essentially get the same product with improvements that are only another iteration. The Pixel 9 might be a good device comparatively, but I would be more surprised if people were too hyped about it. The larger context of hype and Google is relevant here as well. First question I had when hearing about a Google phone is, if they try to make it harder to block advertising. I don't believe the thought is too unreasonable, is it?
  - Krasnol 2y ago
    > The Pixel 9 might be a good device comparatively, but I would be more surprised if people were too hyped about it. Would you be surprised if a post about the new iPhone would look like this looks here?
    - raxxorraxor 2y ago
      Point taken, I would be surprised since the hype for Apple is indeed quite disproportional.
concinds 2y ago
People who have never held the phone are not giving "reviews". They're trotting out pet peeves.

Lammy 2y ago

> any other ideas? Call it disappointment I guess. No phone from any manufacturer has felt totally “right” to me in years in the way that phones from a decade ago did. It makes sense from a business perspective since smartphones were effectively complete way back then. The business needs a way to justify selling me a new one so it's been a long slow downhill of shit-I-don't-care-about ever since. I especially miss the era of HTC flagships. HIGH TECH COMPUTER! The software is disappointing too even though today was not really a software announcement. To me it feels like since they're both from Google the Pixel hardware direction also signals what Android itself will prioritize. I used to be a huge Android-the-OS fan but found that my enjoyment of the platform peaked at 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Version 4.3 was the first version to remove something I loved (the “Phablet” UI layouts that were great on my Galaxy NoteⅡ). Announcements like today's push that point of Peak Android even further away in my mind, and I'm sad about it.

shiroiushi 2y ago
Yeah, exactly. Phones aren't going in a positive direction at all. What I want is a phone with excellent battery life, a great OLED screen, a great camera, plenty of local storage (and expandable with a microSD card), durable/rugged, and fast enough to feel snappy and not laggy. I don't want AI bullshit, stupid features that tie me to cloud services and help advertisers build profiles of me, can't-delete bloatware, stupid features that spy on me, etc. I also don't want to buy a brand-new $1000 phone every year or two when there's nothing wrong with the old one.
- iakov 2y ago
  You're describing an iPhone. I've switched from Android to SE2 in 2020, and bought 15 last year on release day to get the type-c charging. I feel it ticks most of your boxes: * excellent battery life - can't complain about it. I'm not streaming YouTube on 5G on the phone, and I've found out that it can last about two days per charge with light use - messenger apps, phone calls, emails. YMMV of course. * a great OLED screen - it's bright & crisp. I haven't seen a better screen in person yet. * a great camera - it's a very good camera IMO. Takes good shots of people and nature and shoots impressive videos of music shows in dark basements. * durable/rugged - not sure about 15, but my SE2 was abused and dropped. The metal sides were dinged, the screen had a few nasty scratches, but the phone held up together very well. * fast enough to feel snappy and not laggy - iOS is much nicer and snappier that any of the Android phones (HTC Desire S, Galaxy Note II, Xperia Z3, Xiaomi Mi6) I've had. * don't want to buy a brand-new $1000 phone every year or two - I think iPhones do last a few years, given the fact that my wife uses 13 and has zero desire (or reasons, really) to upgrade. The only requirement the iPhone doesn't fit is the storage - Apple charges an absurd price for storage upgrades on all of their devices. I went with the cheapest option and pay for a large iCloud subscription, and it seems to work well - the photo and file sync between the phone, Macbook & even my Windows machine is seamless and quick. It also feels nice to give my money to a company that doesn't shove ads down my throat. Apple are not saints, they collect a lot of data and telemetry that I'm not a fan of, but at least they are not a corporation that is built on advertising.

msh 2y ago

GenAi is seen by some people as a very negative thing.

bugbuddy 2y ago
Maybe people resent losing their jobs to machines?
- executesorder66 2y ago
  No, it's just boring and uninspiring.
- mzmzmzm 2y ago
  Or people resent the major privacy issues, inconsistent UX, and deprioritization of what they see as needed features, all to add a few hugely hyped but minimally useful AI features.
  - antifa 2y ago
    My biggest worry is that everyone complaining about hamburger menus will soon be wishing they could use a hamburger menu instead of being forced into chatting with an AI for menu settings.

dagmx 2y ago

Out of (genuine) curiosity, what major hardware improvements are you referring to? On paper, it’s largely the same as prior years for the SoC at least. I think the fold has the most obvious upgrade but nothing I’d consider really major. Other than that, it seems like mostly a camera bump year?

winternewt 2y ago
> On paper, it’s largely the same as prior years. Not even the same. The 9P screen has lower PPI than my 7P, the camera has worse field of view and the battery has lower capacity.
peapod91 2y ago
I thought the upgrade to metal/glass + new design looked great which I included in "hardware". Beyond that https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Pixel-9-vs-Pixel-8-Whats-changed-with-the-most-affordable-Pixel_id6420 https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Pixel-9-vs-Pixel-8... shows: - Much brighter screen - Next gen tensor chip - 50% ram upgrade - Better camera + battery - SOS functionality - Better ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Holistically felt like meaningful improvements across the board to me, but I understand where you're coming from. I think maybe I have lower expectations for improvements year to year
- dagmx 2y ago
  Ah, fair. I usually don’t include form factor too much because it’s so subjective. I think perhaps one of the reasons for the negativity here is that the price is approaching flagship from other companies, but that Tensor G4 performs like chips from four years ago. I think that overshadows a lot of the improvements. Perhaps if the whole package was significantly cheaper, the reception would be more balanced.

zooq_ai 2y ago

I Use Hacker News for technical input. on an average, HN crowd is pretty clueless about a) running a profitable business b) foreseeing technological progress -- say two iterations down the line. c) mass adoption of features On an average, they tend to be elitist and don't represent the average brand popularity (e.g Google, Meta, Amazon). They only mildly upvote technology that helps their extremely privileged life. E.g Current AI / Metaverse features helps plenty of poor, underprivileged people around the world, especially non-english speaking. But HN is the first to mock such features. Because of this, they tend to be poor individual stock pickers. They are highly risk-averse and typically bring an SRE mentality to the world.

DoingIsLearning 2y ago
> They only mildly upvote technology that helps their extremely privileged life. Your bias is heavily US centric. HN is not SF or SV. Plenty of users in Serbia, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, in war thorn Ukraine. Arguably the average user is above average for their area's COL but to claim everyone is swimming in VC money is as dilusion as the people you want to portrait in your comment.
- bugbuddy 2y ago
  Portray
- zooq_ai 2y ago
  You don't have to be swimming in VC money to be an elitist.
daghamm 2y ago
I don't know about the second part, but I fully agree with you on the first part. Some days HN feels like an echo chamber, where thinking outside the box is heavily downvoted.
rockskon 2y ago
> Metaverse No quicker way to signal how little you know about technology than to promote something niche that doesn't function well on most cheap electronics.

TrainedMonkey 2y ago

It's also roughly a ~month before next iPhone, which is significant. I doubt many people will switch, but getting ahead of hype cycle is probably valuable. Or maybe Apple will see what from Google marketing has not landed and adjust decks accordingly.

saberience 2y ago

What qualifies someone as a “top tech reviewer”? It’s a phone for gods sake and some random YouTubers opinion isn’t anymore valid than a random Hackernews commentators opinion. If we were getting opinions on the latest PhD paper on attention mechanisms than I’d trust someone with a PhD versus a random person, but for getting opinions on the new Google phone? Think for yourself.

collin128 2y ago
Agree with you re: think for yourselves. Two things: 1. He's held / seen the phone live, I buy online so won't get a chance to before I decide. 2. He's also held hundreds (thousands?) of phones which I haven't. While he does have preferences that differ from mine, his perspective is still interesting. >what qualifies them? 19.3m subscribers on yt
- saberience 2y ago
  Joe Rogan has a lot more subscribers and listeners than this guy, does it mean I should listen to his opinions? Valuing someone by reach makes no sense at all. Most professors at MIT have no social media reach at all, I still value their opinions extremely highly. In fact, valuing someone's opinion purely based on the size of their megaphone is partly why we're the world is in such a bad state politically (and in other ways) these days. E.g. people listening to social media influencers opinions on vaccines.
  - nogridbag 2y ago
    I think this is a fair take. The parent comment shouldn't have added subscriber count as one the qualifications. But for MKBHD's qualification, simply use point number 2.
wiseowise 2y ago
Whatever I watch==top tech reviewer, apparently.

j_timberlake 2y ago

I'm very bullish on genAI, and I bought the new phone, but I really don't think the features shown are that exciting yet. It feels like they're laying the groundwork for more powerful AI to be ready to do things in your phone apps, and the current features are just paving the way. The killer-app (that isn't porn) is going to be asking your phone to order food and it guesses correctly what you want while cross-checking availability, pricing, and discounts. Then a Waymo or Wing Drone delivers it.

peebeebee 2y ago
What’s killer about that? I order food once every 2 weeks, I like to browse the different options myself. Almost all the ‘killer’ AI functions are already here: smarter photo retouching, auto-replies, searching, and text summaries with some reading comprehension to ask questions. These things I use daily. The only thing I’d like is a better integration with ALL actions possible on my phone.
dgimla20 2y ago
I really hope the killer-app of genAI is not takeaway food prediction, nor porn.
truculent 2y ago
> The killer-app (that isn't porn) is going to be asking your phone to order food and it guesses correctly what you want while cross-checking availability, pricing, and discounts. Then a Waymo or Wing Drone delivers it. If this were a "killer-app", then Amazon would still be selling those quick-buy Amazon Dash[1] buttons, and Alexa would be making a profit[2] [1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47416440 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47416440 [2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/alexa-had-no-profit-timeline-cost-amazon-25-billion-in-4-years/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/alexa-had-no-profit-...
- dr_kiszonka 2y ago
  I think Amazon prefers "Subscribe and Save" over Dash. (I agree with you that AI for ordering is not a killer-app.)

flohofwoe 2y ago

Simple AI fatique I guess? Personally I'm immediately turned off when yet another product announcement mentions AI gimmicks, especially when there's no other features to get excited about. It's like the time when each new TV came with "3D support".

bugbuddy 2y ago
AI will solve this AI fatigue too! Introducing AI Relaxation and Restoration Center where you will get reeducation in loving AI!

noaccesstomy 2y ago

> Top tech reviewers e.g. MKBHD „Top“ in the sense that a lot of people watch them. Please don’t take seriously what they say. Luise Rossman did an excellent video on marques apple propaganda.

icemelt8 2y ago
you're in the minority, I consider myself well educated in tech and a critical person, and MKBHD videos align with my values.

izacus 2y ago

I don't really think there's bias, it's just that HN these days predominately attracts negative ranting comments. It's not really Google specific either - if you look at any other topic, even Linux or OSS related, there's going to be bunch of highly upvoted people ranting and raving. That pushes out any kind of positive discussion and normal people leave.

maipen 2y ago
I think the internet has become much more toxic these last few years. I see a lot of resentment and projection in people’s comments. And most of the time the ,comments are useless and don’t represent the general consumer/citizen opinion. This is specially true for anonymous profiles
- FrancisMoodie 2y ago
  We all know negative content drives more engagement, see: Facebook. But I've also noticed this trend and for me it makes sense seeing as most of the content on the internet nowadays is negative content. Social media is used to belittle and criticize other people/ideas, the news has never been positive, we've passed the stage where content creators that are positive about products are seen as trustworthy, because an overly positive attitude has been linked to a "shill" mindset. We've seen the evolution of big tech from trying to destabilise old/existing industries and giving us a new, improved service to trying to squeeze as much profit out of their users as possible. Other big companies have dominated their competition and have used that power to boost prices, limit access to media, decrease the user experience,... In a lot of ways I feel like the toxicity that we are experiencing online these days is a direct result of noticing all these negative patterns and realising that most of what is being advertised to us has a large chance of being too good to be true. Games that look good pre-release but then get released full of bugs, software that was once a good deal becomes a subscription, series that get cancelled too soon, products that look good on release but have issues not long after without a chance to repair them, companies completely changing their objectives after a CEO change, the list goes on. So instead of trying to be positive and finding ways to get excited about something it is now a "safer" bet to be critical and negative about anything that is being announced because of the cycles of dissapointment we've all been through. At least to me, this makes sense, eventhough I would like to see it be different.

prmoustache 2y ago

I guess mostly because the only thing new smartphones offer is faster cpu, more memory (which I don't really need, a 10y old smartphone handle my current load correctly) and a better camera and an always bigger footprint. The only thing I like is the possible better camera sensors, but that won't make me shed thousands of dollars for it. If I have the choice I'd rather have a more compact model with the camera quality of the previous iteration which was already great. I can understand it will sell because a lot of people have the feeling they live a crappy life and wants to cheat by taking crappy pictures and videos and have a some magic inventing a better imaginary life that they can share on instagram and tiktok but I am not one of them. If I take a picture, I want to get the moment, with all its imperfections including the sad face of a stranger or dog peeing leg up against a wall in the background. And yes I understand I am not everyone, but I really don't care what everyone want because I am not the one trying to sell that phone.

yunohn 2y ago
> which I don't really need, a 10y old smartphone handle my current load correctly Which phone are you using then? I presume your usage is totally non-representative of the average normal user, but curious nonetheless.
- nicoburns 2y ago
  I was happily using an iPhone 6S (which is very nearly 9 years old) until recently (when I dropped it and smashed the screen). It definitely wasn't as fast as a modern phone (but it honestly wasn't bad), the camera was much worse, and the battery life wasn't as good. But it some ways it was better: it had a fingerprint reader (modern iphones don't), and it was much smaller and lighter.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  I just had a samsung galaxy s6 edge die one me, probably because of heat. I do the usual stuff, navigation, whatsapp, music, video...except I tend to avoid installing apps when the corresponding website works well (but I still have lots of different apps) and the only social media I am connecting to is the fediverse through the browser.

Xen9 2y ago

HN has relatively high Graphene OS proportion, and those who use it are those who likely comment here. From Graphene OS user perspective, this does not – on the surface – add much new value. Thus negativity. Other factors ALSO.

barnabee 2y ago

It'll be interesting when (and only when) it can run GrapheneOS and other open source alternatives.

rurp 2y ago

I think it's because Google could make a great phone, but choose not to. They keep adding gimmicky features that myself and apparently many other HNers don't care for, while core functionality is neglected and often regresses. I own a Pixel 8 Pro and it is without a doubt the worst phone I have owned in at least a decade. The amount of bugs for such an expensive product is mind boggling. One of main features is the camera but I've found myself taking far fewer photos with the phone than I expected I would, mainly because the camera UX just kind of sucks in a 100 small to medium ways that add up to an unpleasant experience. Just for example: you need to reenable the manual focus slider after ever picture, focus peaking is flawed and impossible to disable, there's a very noticeable lag with the telephoto mode when adjusting the camera, setting are buried in several different menus, and more. The only reason I would even consider another Google phone after this one is that the phone landscape has gotten pretty bad as a whole. Samsung phones have their own list of flaws and I won't buy a phone that Apple dictates what I can do with; and those are the alternatives for buying a nice phone that I'm aware of, but if anyone has other suggestions I'm all ears. I loved LG phones and wish those were still around.

mariushn 2y ago
What others would you recommend under $800? I looked at Motorola, but the camera quality is bad. I found this useful https://www.dxomark.com/smartphones/ https://www.dxomark.com/smartphones/ Using a Xiaomi now, but Android Auto doesn't work for me (other brands on the same car work fine)

akimbostrawman 2y ago

the only places where MKBHD is a "Top tech reviewer" is yt subscriber ranking and corporate payrolls