[HN Gopher] Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A
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Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A
Author : theBashShell
Score : 221 points
Date : 2020-08-03 15:23 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
| cakerace wrote:
| Apple's site is soooO much better at the effects
| tootie wrote:
| No Soli? Did they give up on it already?
| mchusma wrote:
| My pixel 3a is by far the best phone I have ever owned (across
| both iOS and Android).
|
| Comparing the 4a to this it looks like a bunch of solid
| incremental improvements across the board.
|
| Huge fan of basically everything here. Price, screen size, phone
| size.
|
| Battery size could be a touch bigger, as my 3a has the best
| battery life I just wish for about 10% more for edge cases.
| dageshi wrote:
| I'm a big fan of the material its made from, I think it looks
| really good but sticks to your hand like glue.
| 51Cards wrote:
| I case all my phones anyhow so other than bend strength the
| material of the body is largely irrelevant to me.
| williamdclt wrote:
| Really? When I got it, the only problem I found with my pixel
| 3a was that it was _so_ slippery, I dropped it a couple times
| a day while it never happened with my Motorola. I bought a
| leather case specifically to give it more grip
| dageshi wrote:
| Nope, I can lay it on my hand and tilt it to about 25
| degrees before it start to slip and even then only
| gradually. Compared to a lot of glass/metal backed phones
| it's vastly better.
| gpm wrote:
| I second this, going slowly I can get to about 25 degrees
| _from vertical_ before the 3a starts slipping when I make
| my hand flat along its back.
| driverdan wrote:
| I didn't own one but the Pixel 3a is pretty disappointing on
| paper. It has lower specs than the Pixel 2.
| ehsankia wrote:
| And this is exactly why you should never compare phones "on
| paper". Spec sheet comparisons stopped being relevant years
| ago. The phone's experience, performance, battery life and
| photo quality depend on so much more than just specs. This is
| why a 350$ Pixel 4a with a single 12MP camera still to date
| takes better photos than most 1000$ flagships with a 4-camera
| array on the back. You can also throw 16GB of ram on a phone,
| it won't make it faster in 99.99% of cases. And I could go
| on...
| actuator wrote:
| You are not comparing apples to apples. Pixel 2 was a
| flagship $700 phone while Pixel 3a is a midrange phone half
| of that price.
| driverdan wrote:
| Except the 3a was released about a year and a half after
| the 2. That's a lot of time for phone tech. It should have
| at least matched the 2.
| intsunny wrote:
| Its a shame the Pixal 4A does not have an ultrawide camera.
|
| Of all the newfangled phone features, an ultrawide camera (with
| the software to back it) seems to be one of the new truly worth
| while features. I never understood nor cared for the feature
| until my job gave me a new phone with that had one.
|
| It would be quite the bummer to go back to having a phone without
| this feature.
|
| So many phone reviews drone on and on about the latest Snapdragon
| 2934838 chipset with its 2^N cores and 2^N GB of RAM. The vast
| majority of us simply don't care for the horsepower nonsense.
| We're not looking to run hadoop on top of k8s on our phones. The
| cameras are really where things matter.
| notyourday wrote:
| > The vast majority of us simply don't care for the horsepower
| nonsense.
|
| Non-flagship Android phones are visibly slower in a
| responsiveness than flagships. So yes, people do care,
| otherwise they would not be buying flagships, saving gobs of
| money and accepting that sometimes it takes several seconds to
| open an app.
| rodnim wrote:
| Sadly enough, still only available in a few countries. :(
| hocuspocus wrote:
| And not even at the same time:
|
| > Australia (September 10), Canada (September 10), France
| (September 10), Germany, India (October), Ireland, Italy, Japan
| (August 20), Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and
| United States.
|
| Ten years after the first Nexus, Google still doesn't know how
| to sell hardware.
| kazen44 wrote:
| This is something that suprised me with apple. Apple has the
| physical aspect and support done very well. My SO's iphone
| broke and it needed some parts replaced. Instead of having
| some online warranty drama, apple just changes out the device
| in the store.
| kazen44 wrote:
| This is something that suprised me with apple. Apple has the
| physical aspect and support done very well. My SO's iphone
| broke and it needed some parts replaced. Instead of having
| some online warranty dram
| wccrawford wrote:
| Does the 4a still disable the USBC video-out? I've wanted to use
| that feature a few times in the last few years and I'm bummed
| that the Pixel line hasn't supported it.
| jayd16 wrote:
| Disable? Does it come standard on the 730G?
| wccrawford wrote:
| https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/11/03/pixel-4-has-usb-
| vid...
| pizza234 wrote:
| I guess that they have a conflict of interest in supporting it,
| due to Chromecast.
| _nothing wrote:
| That seems so backwards if truly a factor. The Chromecast
| should make things easier for people who don't want to bother
| with cords, not prevent people from using cords if they
| really want/need it.
| Nullabillity wrote:
| Chromecast was also their excuse for disabling Miracast
| back in the day.. :/
| theBashShell wrote:
| Full spec here: https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_4a
| IshKebab wrote:
| Not "full" enough to give an answer to this question.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| Yeah, I have to say, USBC video out sounds like a gimmick until
| it isn't. I completely ignored it in choosing a phone but it
| has saved my butt countless times now. Usually the way it
| happens is that the computer intended for playing a
| movie/show/presentation/etc has a problem, lacks a cable, etc.
| Then I spot a USBC to HDMI dongle (basically everyone with a
| new Mac or recent ultrabook has some kind of USBC dongle) and
| bam, you're golden.
|
| I wouldn't get a phone without it.
| rattray wrote:
| Thanks for sharing, I wouldn't have thought of that.
| xxpor wrote:
| 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage are both better than my top of
| the line Pixel 3 from just 2 years ago, so that's good to see.
| The 730G kind of scares me though, how good is it compared to the
| top of the line? Are we talking unusably slow? The Pixel 3 issues
| seemed to be mostly RAM related, not CPU related, so maybe this
| combo of slower CPU and more RAM would still be faster.
| neogodless wrote:
| https://www.notebookcheck.net/SD-730G-vs-SD-845_11555_9958.2...
|
| Take any benchmarks with a grain of salt, of course, but it
| appears the 845 is only about 10% faster than the 730G on
| average. Still that double memory bandwidth certainly affects
| perceived performance a bit.
| xxpor wrote:
| Yeah, I always have trouble interpreting synthetic benchmarks
| on a phone. Obviously it's easy to see X has a score 10%
| higher than Y, but how does that translate to real world
| performance? If I'm running Google Maps nav, and then try to
| open Pocket Casts, will that happen immediately or will I be
| sitting there for 30 seconds while Android figures out what
| other app to OOM kill (This was a frequent problem with my
| Pixel 3, and it made me swear off the Pixel line even though
| I love the stock Android experience).
| duxup wrote:
| I held on to an old 5x for what felt like forever until the 3a
| came around.
|
| I've zero interest in the high end phone market, I'm sort of
| horrified at 6, 7, $800+ the prices, and I feel like I use fewer
| and fewer apps all the time.
|
| Hopefully google with the 'a' models and Apple with the SE will
| stick with the mid range products.
| zerocrates wrote:
| Relatively lucky of you to have a 5X that lasted that long:
| mine succumbed long ago to the "boot loop" issue, apparently
| due to soldering issues endemic among 5X phones.
| ehsankia wrote:
| Mine (which I had given to my dad) lasted until 8 months ago
| until it finally started boot looping. Put a bootloop fix on
| it (which disables a few cores I think?) and it lasted a few
| month months, but then he got a 3a XL.
| duxup wrote:
| Yeah I got lucky.
|
| Every update ... i wondered if it would fall into the loop...
| but got lucky.
| kvgr wrote:
| It was the best phone I ever had... until the boot loop.
| ryaan_anthony wrote:
| i keep buying them new/old stock for $100 on ebay.. they
| last a year or more -- just a little slow sometimes. i have
| one more in my desk drawer and i might upgrade after that
| one.
| bufferoverflow wrote:
| Yeah, we got 2 out of 3 Nexus 5X boot looped. They were great
| phones, but what a massive let down. And Google never paid us
| anything to correct the problem.
|
| That's why I'm never buying a Google branded phone.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| It's possible you will get better TCO by spending more upfront
| if you intend to keep the phone while it is still "current" and
| receiving OS updates - some quick calculations below based on
| phones mentioned in another comment (happy to be corrected if
| the info is wrong).
|
| The pixel 4a has "No guaranteed Android version updates after
| August 2023" according to google. $350 / 3 = $116/year.
|
| iPhone 11 is $699 according to google. Let's assume 5 years of
| support which is reasonable for Apple at this point which =
| $139.80/year.
|
| Galaxy S8 seems to have been released 3 years ago and only has
| android 9.0. So let's call that 3 years (might be less since I
| don't know when the last update landed). Assuming the same for
| the $900 S10 = $300/year.
|
| Note that I am told some phones have advertisements built in
| and also some manufacturers are also selling your data but not
| sure how to cost this in (and some people don't care).
| damnyou wrote:
| Yeah but the big thing with iPhones is that they run the iOS
| operating system. Some people seem to think it's good, but
| almost all my friends (a mix of tech and non-tech people,
| mostly working or middle class) prefer Android. As do I.
|
| So given that iPhones are not a serious option, this phone
| seems like the best that exists.
| actuator wrote:
| I am not sure how you are extending to the 5 year support
| thing. I have had iPhones and even seen friend's iPhones
| become slower specially after 3 years. Even if OS updates are
| coming at best, I will keep the life for 4 years. So iPhone
| 11 is still $175/year which is great but significantly higher
| than 4a or even SE2.
|
| Pixel doesn't have any advertisements built in the phone and
| the latest versions of the OS do give you control over all
| permissions and background access by apps.
| vidanay wrote:
| I replaced my 5x with a Moto X4 (still using today). Both
| were/are rock solid phones at great prices.
| amyjess wrote:
| I also went the Nexus 5X -> Moto X4 route, and I just
| preordered the 4a. Looks like a worthy successor from the
| specs, at least.
| ckrailo wrote:
| I broke the shopping cart by adding two pixel 4a devices + care
| plans, 1 with a trade-in. Now going to store.google.com/cart
| returns 500 errors (Error code: TIMM) and support is non-
| existent. Store chat and phone support look like they don't
| exist. Off to a great start!
| owl57 wrote:
| _> I broke the shopping cart_
|
| Google is careful in preserving fragile cart experience for
| those of us who avoid offline stores this year.
| marklar423 wrote:
| I had this exact issue - try switching your country to
| something else, and then back to your country again. This fixed
| it for me
| ckrailo wrote:
| Big thank you! Fixed for me too!
| gpm wrote:
| I'm not sure about pre purchase, but I can vouch for reasonable
| good post purchase support with the pixel 3a. We had a warranty
| claim, we were able to talk to a real human apparently capable
| of going off script to diagnose issues. There existed a
| reasonable system of getting a loaner phone to use while the
| primary phone was returned for service. S&H was a bit slow
| (presumably because of covid) but things worked out reasonably.
| pletsch wrote:
| +1 for Google Support post-purchase. I had the Pixel 3 and
| there's a feature to just text support from your phone, and
| they can send a phone in advance if you don't have a
| loaner/it can still function. The problem I do have is their
| QC, I went through three Pixels in less than a year and I had
| an original Pixel for less than 4 months before having to
| replace it. Hit the point where I did one last RMA to sell
| and picked up an iPhone.
| tims33 wrote:
| The 4A branding is only something a tech company would come up
| with. Obviously its a lower cost model, but there is something
| magically less appealing about that 'A' designation.
| meddlepal wrote:
| I gave up waiting for this phone two months ago and bought an
| iPhone 11. Bleh.
| actuator wrote:
| I love my Pixel 2 and as it is still going strong I don't have
| any reason to upgrade it other than the battery not lasting 24
| hours now though with decent usage.
|
| Since Pixel 2 was the best phone across any OS I have used, I
| will probably stick with the Pixel line. I don't think I will
| upgrade this year but hopefully Pixel 5 has good flagship
| features and is not underwhelming like Pixel 4.
| rattray wrote:
| What does the "A" in 4A mean? Large? Small? Cheap? Fancy?
|
| The answer didn't appear in a skim of the first several
| paragraphs, and like many here I don't care enough to RTWFA
| rattray wrote:
| Looks like it means "Cheap" - it costs $350, and is the same
| size as the Pixel 4, which is $800. Here's the product page:
|
| https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a
| I-M-S wrote:
| You mean Affordable
| mherdeg wrote:
| This is great.
|
| My Pixel 3 XL has broken Bluetooth/wifi connectivity (even after
| a factory reset, "Bluetooth keeps stopping"). And it only
| connects via USB-C for headphone or charging some of the time in
| a specific orientation (even after cleaning out the charging port
| with a paperclip and flashlight).
|
| The device is just out of warranty but within credit-card
| extended warranty so I'm thinking of rolling the dice on the $481
| Google Store-mediated repair process and hoping they fill out a
| form that Amex provides. (Risk is that, after this problem showed
| up, I also dropped it and got a cracked screen, so Amex might not
| be on board with also reimbursing screen-crack repairs.)
|
| Aside from not having reliable Wifi, Bluetooth, or USB-C
| connectivity I've been very happy with the Pixel and looking
| forward to using a 4A while I wait to see what happens with
| repairs on the 3XL.
| nicc wrote:
| Link to actual page: https://store.google.com/us/?hl=en-
| US®ionRedirect=true
| spuz wrote:
| What improvements does the 4a have over the 3a?
| abrowne wrote:
| Pleasantly surprised on the size (144 x 70 x 8.2 mm): really only
| larger in one dimension from the Nokia 1, the size of which I
| love (134 x 68 x 9.5 mm).
| tlholaday wrote:
| > 3 years of updates ...
|
| Now we're talkin'.
| foepys wrote:
| The problem with that is, that Google will drop it exactly when
| those 3 years are over. 3 years isn't very long, especially if
| you don't buy at release.
|
| Some other manufacturers actually provide quarterly updates
| after those 3 years but are more inconsistent with delivering
| monthly updates.
| Miner49er wrote:
| Pixels have a pretty good chance of being supported by
| LineageOS though. I'm still using my Pixel XL (marlin) with
| LineageOS, running Android 10 just fine.
| p1mrx wrote:
| LineageOS doesn't support the Pixel 2/XL, Pixel 3/XL/A, or
| Pixel 4/XL, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.
|
| https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#google
| jug wrote:
| Anything less is unacceptable given a normal upgrade cycle.
| nfriedly wrote:
| Yep, that's basically the reason I bought my Pixel 2.
|
| I still think Apple has a better track record here, but 3 years
| is better than any other Android phone vendor that I'm aware
| of.
| allset_ wrote:
| My S8 just received a security update a couple weeks ago,
| which puts it at over 3 years of updates. It's stuck on
| Android 9 though.
| nfriedly wrote:
| Fair enough, and props to Samsung for that.
| neuronexmachina wrote:
| All Pixel phones have at least 3 years of Android version and
| security updates:
| https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705
| sf_sugar_daddy wrote:
| The latest in spyware hits the market!
| trulyrandom wrote:
| Can vouch for the Pixel line. I've had a Pixel 3a XL for a little
| over a year and it's been great. Stock Android, good display,
| great battery life, great camera, great security, reasonably fast
| and 3 years of updates. That's all I need from a phone. The Pixel
| 4a seems like a logical upgrade from the previous generation,
| sticking to the same principles.
| pottertheotter wrote:
| Only 3 years of updates? I've had some version of an iPhone
| since the 3 and have considered giving Android a go, but that's
| a big downside if true.
| damnyou wrote:
| There are some advantages to vertical integration like iOS
| has.
|
| For most of my friends, the disadvantages vastly outweigh
| them. As a simple example, you can't use uBlock Origin or
| another ad blocker with Firefox on iOS.
| trulyrandom wrote:
| Coming from iOS, I can imagine that being a disappointment. 3
| years of updates is a relatively new trend in the Android
| world. I used to complain about this as well, but now that
| it's 3 years, that's about when I usually buy a new phone
| anyway.
|
| See: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705.
| emn13 wrote:
| Only anecdotally, but old iphones (more than 3 years old,
| such as in my case the original iphone SE) have poor enough
| battery life expectancy that I'm not sure I'd call
| longevity a big win for iOS.
| coldpie wrote:
| Sadly, 3 years of updates is really above and beyond in the
| Android world. Many get 2 years but most are abandoned even
| earlier.
| allset_ wrote:
| This has gotten _a lot_ better since Google started
| contractually requiring OEMs to provide regular updates. My
| Galaxy S8, purchased through a carrier, is still receiving
| security updates (although probably not for much longer).
| joncrane wrote:
| my pixel 3a xl is also stellar. Where's the 4a xl?
| ehsankia wrote:
| They went for a single model, which is an in between. 3a was
| 5.6", 3a XL was 6", the 4a is 5.8" They also got rid of
| storage SKUs too, there's now only a single 128GB version.
| Even the color too, down to a single color instead of 3.
|
| Maybe it's due to COVID-19 and supply chain issues, but
| they're getting rid of all variations and focusing on
| delivering a single version.
| tyingq wrote:
| Perhaps I don't know what I'm missing, but I've just bought low
| end Androids thus far. Like the Motorola G series. I typically
| buy one that's about $150, and they tend to last 2-3 years
| before I crack the screen, etc.
|
| I've never felt like they were slow or missing anything I
| needed.
| dddddaviddddd wrote:
| The camera on the Pixel a-series is a huge improvement over
| 'budget' Android phones. Getting timely updates and a couple
| years of support is nice too.
| noelsusman wrote:
| The Pixel is all about the camera. There are a few other
| niceties compared to other budget/mid-range phones, but if a
| good camera isn't important to you then there's no reason to
| buy the Pixel.
| ehsankia wrote:
| I find that Pixel experience is also very enjoyable. You
| get almost iPhone level attention to detail and UX design,
| which is rare on low-end android phones. It sounds trivial,
| but it's just delightful to use the phone.
| oezi wrote:
| Except that nobody except Samsung and Google bothers to
| provide security updates post launch.
| [deleted]
| agoldis wrote:
| How would Google engineers with all the crazy interviews and RSUs
| explain 500 error and country switch hack
| grwthckrmstr wrote:
| A simple phone that does well for its price.
|
| I can't help but think the 4a would have been perfect with a
| 4000mah battery.
| TheAdamist wrote:
| I'll have to wait and see if at&t will allow VoLTE on the 4a,
| with their 3g shutdown announcement its a brick if it doesnt make
| it onto the allow list.
| amyjess wrote:
| Just pulled the trigger on a Pixel 4a.
|
| Perfect dimensions, plastic body, headphone jack, yes! It'll make
| a nice replacement for my Moto X4.
| daliusd wrote:
| Still no gorilla glass what makes this device useless without
| cover.
|
| EDIT: OK. I'm wrong. It actually has old Gorilla Glass. I hope
| that will make this phone way better than Pixel 3a which was
| completely disappointment because of poor glass choice (e.g. here
| is example of users experience
| https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/9205039?hl=en)
| dan1234 wrote:
| It uses Gorilla Glass 3
|
| https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a_specs
| luto wrote:
| according to the store, this has "Corning(r) Gorilla(r) Glass 3
| cover glass".
|
| https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_4a_specs
| sparrish wrote:
| Has gorilla glass - https://www.theverge.com/21351770/google-
| pixel-4a-review-cam...
| RivieraKid wrote:
| I hope the screen is bright. I wanted to buy the Pixel 3a but the
| screen brightness is just 400cd/m3, the iPhone SE 2 has 650cd/m3.
| ggm wrote:
| Does eSIM and nano SIM work at the same time in Google phones
| android yet? According to web search, prior to this unit, no. It
| does on iPhone, so you effective dualSIM from the technology mix.
| Ubiquitous dualSIM would stop me needing to carry a second phone
| when work travel overseas resumes (we don't all get to buy FI
| worldwide). Motorola dualSIM has been a lifesaver for me
| el_nahual wrote:
| Pixel 4 already supports dual SIM (DSDS--dual SIM dual standby)
| that allows you to receive calls at either number, but only one
| at a time.
| nbzklr wrote:
| Yes it does. I'm using this exact configuration on my Pixel 4
| right now. Works great!
| owenversteeg wrote:
| Not a gripe for this phone specifically ($349 is a great price
| point!) but more for the smartphone industry at large: I'm
| disappointed in the lack of progress since Huawei introduced the
| first real telephoto lens on the P30 Pro. Sure, there's the cheap
| knockoffs from OPPO, and Huawei added a nicer sensor to the P40
| Pro, but no real innovation.
|
| That's the big thing holding me (and many people) back from being
| able to completely let go of DSLRs. The P30 Pro is so close, it's
| a real revolution. But it's not quite good enough in many
| situations (autofocus is slow, any kind of action, low light is
| pretty bad.) Whatever company puts in a truly good quality,
| versatile telephoto lens... they'll have my money and a massive
| part of the DSLR market.
|
| I have a feeling that it's going to be either Huawei
| incrementally improving their telephoto lens, Google delivering a
| computational breakthrough (and everyone else using it), or
| Apple/Samsung making some intricate, complex hardware.
| libpcap wrote:
| Are these manufactured in the PRC?
| [deleted]
| jungletime wrote:
| Now with free unlimited geo tracking! So you don't get lost. With
| a bigger sensor so it can see you better in the night. And a more
| sensitive microphone so it can hear you better when you're
| whispering. All for $349.
| coreyoconnor wrote:
| Is there a press release that doesn't use a ridiculously overused
| scroll visualization?
| lol768 wrote:
| Bit of a shame we still won't be seeing 5G for a while.
| metadaemon wrote:
| I wish these came out earlier this year. Maybe next time around!
| saagarjha wrote:
| Any idea what chip is going into the Pixel 5?
| distrill wrote:
| Wireless charging is pretty much a necessity for me at this
| point. It's not an expensive or bulky technology (I can get an
| adapter that fits under a case for $15), it really bothers me
| that they keep this feature gated behind the flagship price.
| vishnuharidas wrote:
| Actually, is wireless charger worth it? You still have to keep
| the phone on the charging pad, which is similar to keeping the
| phone connected to a charger cable. Next, I can easily hold and
| continue using the device when it is connected to the USB
| cable. But you can't do that when placed on a wireless charging
| pad, right?
|
| I will never call it "truly wireless charging" until it is a
| technology that charges my phone "wirelessly" many meters away
| from the wall socket, regardless I am using the phone in my bed
| or bathroom. The current method of "wireless charging" is not
| truly wireless, IMO.
| crazcarl wrote:
| Wireless charging for next to your bed makes it worth it. You
| just set it down on the charger and if you need to pick it up
| to answer a call you don't have to deal with the plug. And
| then when you're finished you just set it back down again
| without having to deal with the plug.
|
| Same for if you're working at a desk you can just set it down
| on the charger when you're not using it 95% of the time.
| d_silin wrote:
| 3.5mm audio jack - yay!
| sf_rob wrote:
| >The camera and its clean version of Android are the main ways
| that Google is aiming to differentiate the Pixel 4A from the
| likes of the OnePlus Nord, Samsung Galaxy S71, and iPhone SE.
|
| I think it's weird to include the SE on that list. iOS seems like
| a great choice for a "clean" OS and the SE's camera, while not
| the highest end or with several sensors, is pretty great. A
| better emphasis would be storage and RAM which is pretty
| incredible and the inclusion of a headphone jack.
| ric2b wrote:
| But the pixel still differentiates itself by the camera, things
| like night shots are on another level.
| abvdasker wrote:
| Finally! A small phone with decent specs and a headphone jack is
| really all I want these days (and is almost extinct as far as
| phone design goes). The Pixel 4a seems like a possible
| alternative to the S10e, which up until now was the only game in
| town for high quality small-form-factor smartphones.
| dumb1224 wrote:
| +1 as I'm after smaller phones. It's a rarity these days.
| coldpie wrote:
| I think it's still way too big. I'd really like a decent phone
| with a height under 5 inches. At 4.8 inches tall, the
| Incredible 4G LTE from 2012 remains my favorite phone. The 4A
| is at least smaller than the 3A (my current phone), so at least
| they've moved a tiny bit in the right direction.
| robotmay wrote:
| I have an S8 Edge which is narrower than these current
| phones, and even that I find too big. The previous generation
| iPhone SE was really the last phone that I didn't
| involuntarily drop on my face when trying to operate it
| whilst lying down.
| Shelnutt2 wrote:
| The 4a is looking nice, especially at the price point and for a
| "stock" android experience. I've started looking for a
| replacement to my Essential PH-1 since my USB port is getting
| very loose, and charging is becoming difficult. I wonder if there
| will be a demand for people who got the PH-1 on fire sale? This
| price point to features is what we've been missing since the
| early nexus days. The 3a was a nice step in this direction, but
| this looks like a very solid competitor in this field.
| jedi_stannis wrote:
| Try using a pin to clean the lint out of the USB port
| tridentlead wrote:
| Don't do this, use a plastic toothpick or you might damage
| the contacts.
| hourislate wrote:
| The Oneplus Nord is still a better phone for the same price. If
| you can wait for the 7T to drop in price when the new Oneplus is
| released this year you will get an incredible phone compared to
| the Pixel 4a at close to the same price. IMO Oneplus still makes
| the best Android phone at the best price/value point.
|
| Disregard the prices at gsmarena, they can be found for much
| less.
|
| https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9816&idPhone2...
| CJefferson wrote:
| I agree. Also, the Nord is out tomorrow, whereas after waiting
| months for the 4a to be officially released, all that happened
| today was I have been put on a waitlist, to wait some unknown
| amount of time to then pre-order the phone.
| brnt wrote:
| Better in what way? I buy Pixels for their camera (and
| LineageOS support).
| _ZeD_ wrote:
| The mute physical button
| deepsun wrote:
| Except that for any questions or disputes you should contact
| Shenzhen.
| SECProto wrote:
| Does the OnePlus Nord or 7T have a headphone jack?
|
| (No, they don't, and it's been a dealbreaker for me for several
| generations. That plus low price plus stock android is the
| attraction of the pixel 3a and 4a for me.)
|
| All that said, I'm happy using a Samsung phone - manufactured
| in Vietnam, has a headphone jack and sdcard slot, minimal
| bloatware, cheap.
| hourislate wrote:
| OnePlus Nord and 7T should be around the same price as the 4a
| by the time it comes out. Oneplus has an incredibly clean OS.
| Compared to Samsung it is pristine. They also push updates
| for years and in a timely manner. Good luck trying to get
| that with Samsung.
|
| But if you find the headphone jack the most important feature
| for a phone then the Oneplus is not for you,.
|
| Interestingly enough, you might try to find a cheap Oneplus
| 5T from 2017 which is still a better phone than the 4a in
| 2020 and I think it was cheaper on release.
|
| Google isn't really current when it comes to hardware.
| emn13 wrote:
| I'm kind of curious why the headphone matters? I was mildly
| annoyed when phones dropped the jack, but you know... get a
| set of bluetooth headphones, what's the problem? Frankly, not
| having to bother with the wires is simply a plus.
| SECProto wrote:
| Aux port is useful for much more than earbuds. I plug in an
| aux cable daily in my car (GPS + podcasts = need power and
| aux slot simultaneously, or a several hundred dollar head
| unit upgrade to have halfway decent bluetooth, or a dongle
| that does both and the hope i dont forget it if i use a
| rental car).
|
| Use with my existing headphones/aux cables around my house,
| same port as my desktop/laptop, same port as various
| devices at my relatives houses, never need to hunt to find
| a dongle, (especially when most people i know have iphones
| - so no usb-c dongles anywhere)
|
| TL;DR: Aux cables are useful to me daily, dongles are a
| pain in the ass, bluetooth doesnt fit my use case or
| equipment i already use. Aux port has value to me and
| options still exist to get phones with an aux port so I
| vote with my wallet.
| amanzi wrote:
| Why can't Google sort out its global distribution? The Pixel
| phones have only ever been (officially) available in a handful of
| countries and this one is no different: "Australia, Canada,
| France, Germany, India (coming soon), Ireland, Italy, Japan,
| Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States".
| murermader wrote:
| Even in countries were Pixel phones are distributed, they are
| "hard" to get. Google is doing something wrong. I don't know
| anybody who owns a Pixel phone, despite Android market share
| being something like 70% here in Germany. It's all Samsung,
| OnePlus, Huawei, Oppo
| paxys wrote:
| It's crazy to me that despite working on it for more than a
| decade, devoting entire company divisions, buying multiple
| companies and more, Google just hasn't been able to crack the
| smartphone hardware game. Microsoft has been so much more
| successful with its Surface line in a fraction of the time.
| detaro wrote:
| In some European markets Microsoft even had a decent shot
| at the smartphone game with the Lumnias, but it didn't work
| out globally and they didn't double down on it in the key
| moments.
| hocuspocus wrote:
| I think there are several reasons:
|
| - The pricing for their flagship models made absolutely no
| sense given the specs, poor battery life and questionable QA.
|
| - Samsung and the big Chinese manufacturers advertise
| everywhere, you can get their phones at the shop around the
| corner. At least now in Germany you can find the Pixels at
| Saturn and Mediamarkt (and often at a discount).
|
| - Most people don't care about software updates. They might
| notice the custom Samsung UI and be annoyed by pre-installed
| bloatware, but they won't know which version of Android the
| phone is running, let alone its latest security patch. Even a
| 200EUR phone will get Google Play services updates and be
| able to install almost anything for 5+ years.
|
| So in the end, you see Pixels in the US where Google does
| advertise them a bit, and also because there are still a lot
| of people who get subsidized phones from their carriers (or
| Google Fi for that matter).
|
| But yeah in Europe... I do remember people getting the Nexus
| 4, 5, the 5X once it got cheaper. But the Pixel 1/2/3/4, not
| so much. The 3a has probably done better lately as resellers
| tried to get rid of their stock, I think I've seen it sold as
| low as 239EUR.
|
| I think it's good if Google goes back to mid-range models. I
| don't think they'll ever be able to make a good flagship. But
| I really wonder why they aren't trying harder (or at all, in
| most countries). For now Android One phones are lagging
| behind in the camera department, but I cannot believe it'll
| be the case forever. Once Nokia has caught up, what's going
| to be left to overpriced Pixels?
| detaro wrote:
| Always seemed weird that they didn't continue a Nexus
| series below the Pixel. Those had a good reputation as
| solid phones, whereas the Pixels didn't seem worth the
| money - and probably got anchored as that in peoples mind,
| even when their prices fall.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > Always seemed weird that they didn't continue a Nexus
| series below the Pixel.
|
| That was weird, but the criticism obviously stuck -- the
| #a series _is_ a continuation of the Nexus series.
| hocuspocus wrote:
| I've had many Nexus models and honestly they weren't any
| better. But I saw it as a trade-off. I agreed to do the
| beta testing in exchange of good specs for the price.
| Hardware QA was also shit but the customer service would
| send you a new device before you'd return yours, almost
| no questions asked.
|
| I've heard it's gotten worse with the Pixels even though
| they're much more expensive. And some models have shown
| insane bugs/defects, for instance calling issues (!) with
| the Pixel 3.
| mderazon wrote:
| I have a first gen Pixel XL. Love this phone but the battery
| lasts 10 min so it's actually taped to power bank.
|
| I have been waiting for this phone, but I live in Europe which
| will only be getting this somewhere mid September
|
| I think I'll just give up and buy a OnePlus Nord
| rllin wrote:
| anybody know if 5g is worth waiting for?
| nfriedly wrote:
| Not unless data caps go up. 4G is already fast enough to burn
| through my monthly data cap in under 10 minutes.
| nfriedly wrote:
| It's too late to edit my previous comment, but I did think of
| one thing to add: 5G allows for more efficient use of spectrum,
| which benefits everyone. (Although, it benefits the carriers
| the most.)
|
| So, while I don't think it's worth waiting for, I do think it
| is a good thing overall.
| majora2007 wrote:
| I personally don't buy the 5G hype. Yeah the spec is amazing
| and I've seen the demos showing how great it can be, but you
| need nodes everywhere, like every 10m or something. Given the
| frequency, it has poor penetration, so you'd need tons of nodes
| + it might not penetrate your house/building without additional
| nodes in your house.
|
| Hence, I don't see it being as great as they say without years
| more of investment.
| robotmay wrote:
| Bit confused as to why mtgx's comment has been voted into
| oblivion, as it's a legitimate complaint with the Pixel line. My
| girlfriend has a 3a and it has taken about 3 months for the
| battery life to start being a minor issue; i.e. she makes sure to
| charge it during the day if she has somewhere to be in the
| evening.
|
| It's really the only complaint I have about an otherwise good
| phone, and it doesn't look like the 4a really addresses it. It
| appears Google is looking for a software solution to battery
| life, which I don't disagree with, but that whole approach is
| basically pointless if someone happens to install Facebook on
| their phone.
|
| On the positive side, the 3a has a great camera and it looks like
| the 4a is continuing that. I've been particularly impressed by
| the 3a's low-light capabilities, such as taking good photos
| indoors, and it's especially good considering its price.
| viklove wrote:
| It probably largely depends on the apps you have on your phone.
| My 3a lasts 2 days easily between charges, but I don't have
| Facebbok or Messenger installed (known battery hogs and
| wakelocking abusers).
| raziel2p wrote:
| Maybe it's anecdotal? I've had my 3a for a year and the battery
| feels just as good as when it was new, I only have to charge it
| every other day.
| robotmay wrote:
| I suspect it does vary quite a lot based on usage. We live in
| a fairly cold place (Wales) and my girlfriend's phones tend
| to suffer more than mine do, as she spends a few hours in an
| exposed place most days. Towards the end of its life her
| iPhone SE was suffering from some truly impressive battery
| woes when she ventured outside. My current phone (an S8 Edge)
| is doing relatively fine by comparison, but my last Nexus
| device really struggled here too and I ended up with poor
| battery life within a few months.
|
| The problem I have with the software approach to battery
| optimisation is that it doesn't accomodate for environmental
| issues like that, whereas a bigger battery does.
| majora2007 wrote:
| Interesting, my partner and I both have Pixel 3a and I find
| their battery life amazing. I charge it once a day, but not
| fully. But maybe I don't use my phone as much as other people,
| just some redditing here or there and scrolling youtube and
| casting what I want to watch.
|
| Only gripe I have with Pixel 3a is the "crackling" noise when
| volume is at max. Seems to be software because sometimes it
| doesn't happen. Everyone I know with the Pixel 3a has it.
| nwallin wrote:
| I have a pixel 2 which is approaching 3 years of age at this
| point. (2700mAh) I generally finish the day with 50-70% battery
| life, unless there's some specific reason I'm actively using it
| all day. (last time was because my flight got delayed and I was
| sitting in the terminal for several hours and had packed my
| charger in my checked bag)
|
| I'm perfectly happy with a 3100mAh battery. The only feature
| I'm missing with this phone is the "squeeze button" (I forgot
| the real term) -- it's a much better snooze function than
| trying to figure out which direction to swipe to snooze when
| you're sleepy enough to want to snooze. All too often on my old
| phone I'd just shut the alarm off instead of snoozing.
|
| This is probably the firstest first world problem I've ever
| had.
| entropea wrote:
| Coming from a Xiaomi with a 4500mAh battery packed in the same
| size phone as the 3a, the 3a is definitely lacking in battery
| life if you're a heavy phone user. The 3a will not last me from
| when I wake up until I go to sleep, where the Xiaomi will last
| almost 2 days of wake up/sleep.
|
| I still like the 3a and use it as my daily, I just wish Google
| would find a way to put 3500-4000mah batteries in these.
| Wohlf wrote:
| Try the Moto G, I bought one through Google Fi since it wasn't
| much more than a screen replacement and has significantly
| better battery life, though I do miss some of the other
| features.
| RunawayGalaxy wrote:
| This started with the 3, which I returned for that reason,
| opting to stick with my Pixel 2 XL. I bought it at launch, and
| it still lasts me over a day with full charge.
| Aunche wrote:
| The Pixel 4a battery is bigger than that of the Pixel 4, and it
| has a much less energy intensive screen. I think it would be
| enough for most regular phone users that the Pixel 4a targets.
| asah wrote:
| Zoom is my cellphone's battery killer.
| zem wrote:
| kills my laptop battery too
| untog wrote:
| The Pixel "a" devices and the new iPhone SE are really great
| news. Until recently it seemed you had to choose between a $1000
| flagship phone and a $200 piece of garbage. I'm really happy to
| see a sensible middle ground developing at last.
| zanny wrote:
| I've been in the market for a phone all year but pretty much
| everything is a compromise. Its hard when you want expandable
| storage, something with a feasibly replaceable battery two years
| out, a good screen, a good camera, _and_ the ability to keep
| using the device after two years via Lineageos.
|
| The Zenfone 7 is the last major announcement this year for me to
| consider because otherwise its a compromise on one of those axis.
| Phones kinda suck.
| cbg0 wrote:
| Seems interesting if you want a reasonably sized phone with less
| bloatware, but for 30$ more the Galaxy A71 seems like a better
| deal, here's a comparison:
| https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9995&idPhone2...
|
| > 4500 mAh vs 3140 mAh on the Pixel
|
| > microSD card slot vs no card slot on Pixel
|
| > The A71 has more cameras
|
| > 2 extra GBs of RAM on the A71
| neuronexmachina wrote:
| How does the Galaxy's camera and computational photography
| compare to Pixel's? That's basically been the killer-app for me
| on my Pixel 3.
| robotmay wrote:
| The only reason I wouldn't buy the Samsung is because of their
| software. Their hardware is great but their version of Android
| is its own beast, which is great if you like it, but if you
| just want vanilla Android or to replace it with something
| custom then they're often a bit more of a faff.
| joncrane wrote:
| Yes but is the bootloader unlocked? The rootability is also one
| of my factors in choosing Pixels for my last two phones (Pixel
| XL and Pixel 3a XL)
| sg47 wrote:
| Samsung phones are a POS with their bloatware. I used to own
| Samsung phones before I switched to the Pixel line. It's not
| comparison. The extra RAM and battery are not enough to deal
| with the bloatware not to mention that it doesn't get updates
| on time.
| craftkiller wrote:
| The Samsung is missing LTE bands 14, 18, 25, 26, 29, 30, 39,
| and 71.
|
| The Samsung is larger, which I view as a negative, but that
| explains how they can have a larger battery capacity.
|
| And it looks like the Samsung does not have the pull tabs for
| the adhesive underneath the battery[1]. We don't yet have a
| tear-down of the Pixel 4a but google has been reliably
| including pull tabs in their phones for years.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMP0LFVpFpg
| nfriedly wrote:
| The catch is that you'll be lucky to get a full year of
| software updates for the A71. Google committed to 3 years for
| the Pixel line.
|
| On a hardware-level, though, I agree, the A71 is a much better
| value.
| ehsankia wrote:
| Even then, the number of cameras doesn't mean much, Pixel 4a
| still takes better photos than most 800$+ phones with 3-4
| lenses. Also, it really depends on your use case, but most
| people don't need extra storage with 128GB base storage.
| nfriedly wrote:
| Not sure if you meant to reply to me, but I agree with you
| about the cameras.
|
| Not sure I just about the storage, though. I have a Pixel 2
| with 128 gigs, and I occasionally find myself having to go
| through and delete some things to make room for whatever
| new thing I want. If they're not going to include a micro
| SD slot (which I would prefer), then they really do need to
| put a generous amount of flash on the device.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| $30 more, plus you have to buy through a no-name Amazon seller.
| Maybe other people are okay with that, but I feel much more
| secure buying from Google directly (in terms of whether or not
| you feel secure having a Google device is a whole other story,
| of course...).
|
| Checking on best buy (as a US user), the A71 actually goes for
| $600 if you want it unlocked and without activation [1]. So a
| more fair comparison is that for Americans the A71 is $250 more
| than the 4a, but you could get it for cheaper if you activate
| or buy it locked, or are willing to buy from a 3rd party on
| Amazon.
|
| The A51 does seem to be available from Best Buy for $400,
| unlocked and unactivated, or $300 from an Amazon 3rd party, but
| the specs there are of course not as good as the a71.
|
| Posting as I was excited to buy something non-Google and fully
| featured, but I personally don't feel the same confidence
| buying from some 3rd party on Amazon as I would from Best Buy
| or Google.
|
| 1) https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-galaxy-a71-5g-128gb-
| unl...
| ehsankia wrote:
| Yep, at the very least, I've found Google Store very good
| when I had to RMA my phone. 5m talk with support and they
| sent me a new device, and I only needed to ship back the old
| one after receiving the new one and transfering my data over.
| nerdbaggy wrote:
| This almost puts it in the price point of an iPod touch. There
| are so many business options with devices like iPod touches but I
| have yet to find similar for Android.
| exabrial wrote:
| Holy crap! Headphone jack!!! YES!
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| And the Pixel 4A has a headphone jack! Hurray!
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| And fingerprint sensor. They stupidly didn't announce whether
| the two upcoming phones will have those things, so people who
| want a better processor or 5g will just have to wait.
| usrusr wrote:
| Google's handset portfolio is starting to get a bit messy.
| Ignoring any earlier but still available models you have a 4 in
| 64GB and 128GB versions, a 4a without a 64GB option, a 4a 5G that
| also differs from the regular 4a in some other specs, no 4 5G, an
| announced straight 5 and presumably everything in regular and XL
| versions that may or may not differ in other specs as well.
| Reminds me of how Motorola made people completely oblivious to
| new models because there were just too many of them.
|
| Hint: if you make it too hard for customers to feel well-informed
| about your devices all but the most casual buyers will simply
| avoid your brand.
| tw04 wrote:
| vs... Apple?
|
| You have an iPhone XR: 64 or 128GB
|
| iPhone SE: 64, 128, 256GB
|
| iPhone 11: 64, 128, 256GB
|
| iPhone 11 Pro: 64, 256, 512GB
|
| iPhone 11 Pro Max: 64, 256, 512GB
|
| If you make it too hard for customers to feel well-informed
| about your devices, all but the most casual buyers will simply
| avoid your brand. Sales and revenue prove this out, Apple is on
| the verge of bankruptcy... what?
|
| All of that is ignoring that literally every other android
| handset maker has dozens of phones on the market.
| legitster wrote:
| It's important to point out that the vast majority of phones
| are sold through the channel - carriers will probably choose to
| sell their own subset of all the options based on their own
| market research.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| Do you have a cite for this? Amazon, Best Buy, and Apple.com
| alone make up 42% of overall smartphone sales[0]. Verizon is
| the largest carrier, at only 11% of total sales.
|
| And internationally the picture is even worse for carrier
| channels.
|
| [0] https://www.counterpointresearch.com/amazon-leads-online-
| sma...
| legitster wrote:
| The article you posted is a good citation:
|
| > According to the latest research from the Counterpoint
| Smartphone Channel Share Tracker service, the share of the
| online smartphone channels grew to 12% share of the total
| US smartphone sales in Q1 2018. Despite US consumers being
| massive online consumers, brick and mortar establishments
| remain king when it comes to purchasing smartphones.
|
| >Carriers and national retailers have large store counts
| that they are leveraging to get consumers to physically
| touch and test high-end devices, so they know what they are
| buying. Stores also provide a better opportunity to up-sell
| accessories and insurance.
|
| Amazon makes up 42% of online sales, which is only 12% of
| sales overall.
|
| If you have ever been inside of a Verizon or AT&T or
| T-Mobile store, you would be interested to see how their
| selections compare.
| usrusr wrote:
| I have long suspected that the uncontrolled growth of phone
| models with some manufacturers (particularly Motorola and
| occasionally Sony) was mainly caused by carrier desires. A
| downward spiral where weak manufacturers were strongarmed by
| carriers into polluting their portfolio while stronger
| manufacturers could maintain a clean lineup. But is Google in
| that situation? Are they even selling through carriers?
| (honestly, I have no idea, where I live the carrier channel
| was already in steep decline before the iPhone hit)
| amardeep wrote:
| Wow, they are actually reducing models, and simplifying the
| range, but you make it sound as if they are increasing
| confusion by increasing the choices.
|
| Having just a 128GB version is a good thing.
| guyzero wrote:
| Going to Samsung's mobile phone model page they currently list
| 24 models. The most recent data I can find says they lead the
| market with 22% market share.
|
| I think that empirically it's fine to have a bunch of different
| models. Market segmentation is a thing.
| andybak wrote:
| The thing that finally made me jump ship to Macbooks about 10
| years ago was the fact that I needed a week and a spreadsheet
| to choose a PC laptop.
| Krasnol wrote:
| So if the specification weren't important for you, why did
| you bother?
|
| I think it's quite nice to have the choice, upgradability,
| price range, etc.
| whalesalad wrote:
| You ever tried to buy an IBM Thinkpad? There are like
| 20,000 configurations displayed on the same single website
| page. It's a disaster shopping for pre-assembled PC's.
| Godel_unicode wrote:
| First, IBM doesn't make thinkpads and hasn't for close to
| a decade.
|
| Second, this is just because they know who their market
| is. They're deliberately not marketing their laptops to
| people who don't want to have to handle a little bit of
| complexity in exchange for flexibility.
|
| Apple is the Sony rx100; good but not great sensor, good
| but not great lens, good but not great audio. Everything
| is fixed and you can only make superficial changes.
|
| Thinkpad is the Red Komodo; everything is optional, but
| it doesn't even include vital components in the box
| unless you know to order them.
|
| You can get decent results with the former, and it
| requires very little thought or experience to buy and
| use. There is a much higher ceiling for getting exactly
| what you want with the latter, but it requires you to
| know exactly what you're doing and be willing to do some
| work on your setup.
|
| Neither option is objectively better.
| kazen44 wrote:
| Also, thinkpads are still a bussiness line of laptops
| aimed at the corporate market.
|
| having a ton of options makes a lot of sense when it
| allows you to bring the price down. Making a change that
| saves you 50$ of a 1000$ laptop might not seem like a big
| deal, but it adds up if you buy a couple of hundred of
| them.
| askafriend wrote:
| > So if the specification weren't important for you
|
| That's not what OP said.
| Krasnol wrote:
| I understood it that way.
|
| What did you understand?
| gknoy wrote:
| Menu fatigue is real, I experienced it only a few weeks
| ago. PC laptops often differ just enough in things like
| build quality processor version, RAM amounts, screen
| quality that you are constantly trying to balance "best"
| or compare A vs B vs Q, and if you care a lot about
| maximizing value for your budget, you end up spending
| hours looking at reviews, benchmarks, etc.
|
| In contrast, with a Macbook, I know it's not perfect, but
| there's a clear differentiation of qualities (air,
| macbook, pro), and only a couple differences within those
| categories, so it's a lot easier to decide based on
| budget, or based on your needs.
| airstrike wrote:
| > there's a clear differentiation of qualities (air,
| macbook, pro)
|
| There's a lot of overlap between the airs and the non-pro
| macbooks, IMHO
| AgentME wrote:
| There was, but they got rid of the non-pro macbooks years
| ago to fix that.
| JohnTHaller wrote:
| Most PC manufacturers have dozens of different laptops and
| about 70% of them should be avoided (bad screen, still using
| a HDD, etc). I dislike a lot about Apple including the
| pricing per spec and the arrogance (it took you how long to
| fix your broken keyboard?) but one thing they usually get
| right is the simplified selection process within a few
| categories.
| jjeaff wrote:
| If Apple price is in your budget, then most all
| manufacturers have a premium line that you can narrow it
| down to.
|
| For Dell, it's the XPS line. For HP, it's Envy. For
| Microsoft, it's the Surface Laptop or surface book if you
| want 2-in-1.
| Godel_unicode wrote:
| There's last year's model, the 4, with two storage options and
| it comes in big and less-big.
|
| There's a cheap new 4a model, with two radio options and less-
| big is the only size.
|
| There's an unspecified 5 which is an update to the 4.
|
| What's messy about that? Is there a phone manufacturer who
| makes fewer models than Google in 2020?
| draw_down wrote:
| Somehow Apple is able to build these pages in a way that doesn't
| feel so janky like this does. I have no idea what the technical
| differences are.
| alexeiz wrote:
| Finally, a Google Pixel phone with a competitive price. All
| previous Pixel phones were seriously overpriced.
| PossiblyKyle wrote:
| One of the biggest reasons I'm happy with the increasing
| competition in the budget segments is that they're starting to
| make the 'right' sacrifices, slightly negating the distinctive
| features and advantages of flagship phones. Flagship phones will
| either have to adapt (introducing more useful features and not
| extra camera-bloat), or people will just keep buying the cheaper
| ones.
| TremendousJudge wrote:
| 350 dollars is "budget"?
| rattray wrote:
| Given that flagship phones are $800-$1000, yes, that's the
| high end of budget or the low end of mid-range.
| triceratops wrote:
| For adults with jobs in developed countries. You're right
| that it would be considered mid-range or pricey in developing
| countries.
| JohnTHaller wrote:
| $349 for a phone that will get full OS updates for 3 years
| works out to $9.69 per month. That's pretty solid.
|
| The competing Apple variant (lower res HDish screen but much
| faster CPU) is the iPhone SE 128GB for $449. It will probably
| get OS updates for 5 years which works out to $7.48 per
| month.
| dont__panic wrote:
| Keep in mind two significant caveats:
|
| - phone batteries basically on last 2 years or less
| (iPhones are rated to 80% capacity after 500 cycles), which
| means your phone will last 4/5 as long as it did when new
| and possibly shut off prematurely in cold/hot temperatures
| unless you pay for a battery replacement ($50-100+)
|
| - since we bring phones with us pretty much anywhere, a
| random fall in a pool, an unforseen rain storm, or
| butterfingers over a hard surface could end up destroying
| your phone well before those points.
|
| While the SE (2020) certainly has more potential life than
| the 4a, both phones become fairly useless after 3 years due
| to the battery concern anyway and might not make it that
| far depending on who's using them. At that point, the 64GB
| larger storage, nicer screen, better camera, and $50 lower
| price of the 4a becomes a competitive advantage.
| snazz wrote:
| Batteries last more like five years, in my experience,
| although it does depend on your usage patterns. I'm about
| 300 cycles in and still at 98% capacity on my iPhone 8.
| ako wrote:
| Bought my son a Nokia 5.3 for 180 euros, completely
| surprised by how well it works. If I had to buy my own
| phone (currently have a company iPhone 11) I would
| seriously consider the Nokia 5.3 for myself.
| kumarharsh wrote:
| Got my mother a Nokia 7.3 - it's a very good phone priced
| competitively, with a nearly pure Android experience and
| on time updates with Android one. Peace of mind!
| noelsusman wrote:
| The 5.3 is a great phone. The Pixel 4a has a better
| screen and better camera (kinda), but at $200 in the US
| it's a fantastic value for what you get.
| jdhawk wrote:
| so in Nokia-land, the major version is the "class" of
| phone, while the minor version is the date revision?
|
| 5.3 being newer than the 7.2, but down one class in
| "feature set"?
| bilger wrote:
| That is roughly correct, although the 6.X series exists
| for Nokia devices.
| rand49an wrote:
| Had a Nokia 7.1 for a few years now. Really nice phone,
| still very quick and the battery easily last 2 days
| (still). Cost PS190 when new. Not sure why people pay
| more really.
| [deleted]
| acdha wrote:
| For something most people use many times a day with a multi-
| year lifespan? There's a fascinating economics lesson in how
| many people are concerned by the cost of a phone but never
| mention the service plans which almost always cost more.
| jldugger wrote:
| Service plans have really gotten cheap over time. Google Fi
| is like 24 bucks a month, and they're not even the cheap
| plan anymore.
| bussierem wrote:
| That kind of proves the point though even at 24 a month
| if you have the phone for 2 years then the plan was $576
| while the phone was only 350. The phone would come out to
| $14 a month. Do you value your phone as worth less to you
| than Netflix?
| djhworld wrote:
| the 350 isn't factoring in the costs of calls/data etc.
|
| it depends on how long you want to keep the phone for. I
| bought my phone in 2017 ago for PS400 and I pay PS8 a
| month to a carrier to get an allowance of data + calls
| every month (not a contract, I'm free to cancel any time)
| so it's worked out at about PS18 a month if you amortise
| the initial outlay.
|
| obviously contracts are more expensive, and can
| sometimes, albeit rarely, be cheaper, you just need to do
| the maths.
|
| the bigger advantage to buying a phone outright is you're
| free to switch network/carrier as the phones are
| unlocked, at least in the UK anyway.
| nordsieck wrote:
| > There's a fascinating economics lesson in how many people
| are concerned by the cost of a phone but never mention the
| service plans which almost always cost more.
|
| This is the reason why "free phone" plans are so popular.
| IMO, it's always lower TCO to unbundle these "deals", but
| so many people only care about their maximum monthly cost.
| acdha wrote:
| Yes - it's just interesting to see how effective it is,
| even when people who are trying to be rational are
| explicitly thinking about costs.
| xenocyon wrote:
| "Multi-year" is technically correct but a little rosy:
| Google cuts off software updates _including security_
| updates after 3 years, by which time one can also expect
| the hard-to-replace battery to be degraded, and increased
| probability of screen damage. Phones aren 't really
| designed to be durable objects.
|
| That said, I do appreciate Google's "a" variant of their
| recent phones for the emphasis on practicality and
| usability (headphone jack, battery capacity), and the $349
| price tag doesn't seem extravagant for what you're getting.
| Mostly, I just wish they came in a smaller size.
| mtgx wrote:
| Don't worry, by the time those 3 years pass the Pixel
| 4A's 3,000 mAh battery will feel like a 2,000 or 1,500
| mAh battery, especially with Google still not getting a
| clue about giving Android an option to disable fast
| charging on the spot, when you want to.
|
| It's also one of the reasons phones with larger batteries
| will last more (second best thing if we can't get
| replaceable batteries anymore).
| acdha wrote:
| Okay, so ignoring the fact that the iPhone SE exists, do
| the math even on the shorter lifetime: that's between
| $2-4 per week. That's not nothing but I would not think
| it precludes a "budget" label, especially given how much
| value people get out of their phones.
| ehsankia wrote:
| 2+ years is by definition multi-year.
|
| At 350$, if you use it for 3 years (which is the minimum
| number of years it gets updates for), you would basically
| be paying more for your Netflix subscription than for
| your phone. And I'd wager most people use their phone
| much more than they do their Netflix.
| KerrickStaley wrote:
| Yes. The Pixel 4's launch price was $800 for the basic
| configuration, the S10 launched at $900, and the iPhone 11
| (which is actually more mid-range in Apple's lineup than
| "flagship") launched at $700.
| Krasnol wrote:
| Only because there are more expensive phones and where the
| high price is even part of the marketing, doesn't make that
| one "budget". There are also many cheaper phones. China is
| full of them.
| xeromal wrote:
| For a device that keeps you in touch with the world while
| providing quality camera features and music capabilities for
| 2 years or more, yeah, $350 is a fine price.
| askafriend wrote:
| Absolutely. My phone pays for itself many times over. I don't
| even consider the cost these days.
|
| It's more valuable than my car (to me).
| mtgx wrote:
| Battery capacity continues to be disappointing with most Google
| phones. They always seem to choose them on the lower-end side
| compared to the competition.
|
| The phone is a good value overall, but 3,100 mAh will hardly last
| you one day and be almost empty by night. I prefer phones with
| more generous batteries, so that there's never a risk of running
| out by the end of the day.
|
| Hopefully Pixel 5a will come with 4,500-5,000 mAh next year, as
| many low-end $200-$300 phones have these days.
| nfriedly wrote:
| I 100% agree with you. My Pixel 2 is now ~2.5 years old and the
| performance is still perfectly fine, except that I have to
| charge it twice a day. It usually lasted a full day when it was
| new, though.
|
| I'm interested in some of the recent flagships and gaming
| phones that have 5-6000mAh batteries and settings to _not_
| charge up to 100% every night. Once the battery is big enough,
| you can do things like that to extend the longevity. I 'm
| hoping to see more of that.
| csours wrote:
| I dream of the day where Pixel or iPhone has solid state
| batteries.
| ShamelessC wrote:
| Yeah the battery on my Pixel 4 is pretty bad even after I
| turned off all the machine learning features that make it a
| unique device in the first place.
| malkia wrote:
| Has Audio Jack! (Comparison with other Pixel 4's) -
| https://store.google.com/magazine/compare_pixel?toggler0=Pix...
| [deleted]
| sg47 wrote:
| Best part of Pixel 3A too. I was wondering if I should switch
| to the iPhone but after playing around with an used iPhone, I
| decided to stick with my Pixel 3A and I'll most likely buy the
| 4A (since I cracked part of the screen on the 3A). I love that
| Google is releasing highly usable phones at a decent price
| range. Combined with prepaid plans, I can easily switch
| carriers or phones without worrying.
| thebean11 wrote:
| I know lots of people will be really happy with this, but I
| probably would have traded the jack for water resistance
| robohoe wrote:
| Yeah do people really use their headphone jack? Most everyone
| that I know in my circle uses bluetooth headphones now. Some
| of them are quite good...maybe not audiophile level, but if I
| wanted to be an audiophile, I would listen on a proper AV
| receiver with an amp.
| jefftk wrote:
| Bluetooth headphones for calls add substantial latency. I
| don't care about audio quality, but latency, often 1/3s
| round trip, makes turn taking in calls much harder.
| grishka wrote:
| I'd have done the opposite as I never take my phone near
| water. But then I'm a weirdo who'd gladly pay $2000 for a 4"
| flagship if such a thing was for sale.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| Def not a weirdo thing. I got a 4" Galaxy S 1 in 2010 and
| have preferred it to every other phone size since. I dusted
| it off not that long ago to use overseas (it was my last
| GSM phone), and it was still the perfect size.
| 51Cards wrote:
| Agree, water resistance would have been nice but it's not
| mutually exclusive to the headphone jack. Samsung was doing
| both for awhile.
| userbinator wrote:
| Indeed: https://www.cuidevices.com/waterproof-audio-jacks
| pixelatedindex wrote:
| Sony as well! I miss my Compacts :-(
| userbinator wrote:
| A bit sad and amusing that a physical jack is actually
| considered a feature now... what's next, removable battery?
| Expandable storage?
| tomcam wrote:
| A boy can dream, can't he?
| realharo wrote:
| Notification LED.
| dungdang wrote:
| no one claimed it was a feature. it has a jack, some phones
| don't, so they state it does. this does not mean 'feature.'
|
| it's a part of the spec, so they list it. it's not sad or bad
| or good -it just is.
|
| for me, i want just usb-c, and no headphone port is a plus.
| same for sd card, same for removable battery. i thought all
| of those were important to me, until i realized i haven't
| actually used any of this in 10 years. yes, a headphone port
| adds just a tiny bit of thickness and weight. so does the
| removable battery. so does an sd reader. it all adds up, and
| adds a little cost. for things i don't want.
|
| so not a feature, not advertized as one, and for a lot of
| people, not something they want. you do, so get the phone
| that suits you.
| justin66 wrote:
| > no one claimed it was a feature. it has a jack, some
| phones don't, so they state it does. this does not mean
| 'feature.'
|
| I wonder what you believe the word "feature" means.
| Kiro wrote:
| I'm glad there's an option for people who are into vintage
| technology like headphone jacks. Maybe they can add phonograph
| cylinders to the next version.
| partiallypro wrote:
| The 3A also has an audio jack. I frankly never use it, and sort
| of wish it weren't there. I wish they would maybe ship it with
| a thing you can put in the hole that closes it up to make it
| seamless, but can be removed.
| edoceo wrote:
| Flex Seal?
| davidmurdoch wrote:
| And I'm over here wishing I could pay an extra $350 to get a
| Pixel 5 with a headphone jack. To me, the Pixel 4a is pretty
| much a headphone jack with a free low-powered smartphone
| attached. Haha.
| golem14 wrote:
| You mean, like those things ?
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0832JRZZK
| partiallypro wrote:
| I'd prefer one made by Google that just matches the phone
| and the curvature of the end. I don't know why I was
| downvoted...but some people don't need the headphone jack,
| but still want a reasonably priced phone. A simple fix is
| to just sell a plug that matches the phone.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > some people don't need the headphone jack, but still
| want a reasonably priced phone. A simple fix is to just
| sell a plug that matches the phone.
|
| Well, no, the simple fix is to ignore the headphone jack.
| If your needs are "reasonably priced phone", there's no
| reason to plug the jack. You'd have to have some other
| need, like "and it can't have a headphone jack".
| rowanG077 wrote:
| It's really quite simple to make yourself. Just put some
| epoxy in there and shape it to the Phone.
| p1mrx wrote:
| How on Earth would you remove an epoxy plug?
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| You don't. The poster in question said he doesn't use it
| and wishes it wasn't there. Epoxy is an easy and
| permanent solution to that problem.
| golem14 wrote:
| I just did a quick amazon search - there are many
| versions of these plugs, there may be one that works well
| with the pixel.
|
| I actually realized I can get usb-c / lightning covers as
| well, which is great as all my phones get lint in there,
| eventually causing problems with charging.
| OnACoffeeBreak wrote:
| Be careful with these things. They can trap moisture that
| would otherwise evaporate and cause corrosion.
| DanTheManPR wrote:
| Excellent, this is now a top option for me!
| Impossible wrote:
| The return of the audio jack is great news. I spent years
| hoarding 3.5mm to USB-C convertors and fight audio issues,
| including months without USB-C audio working for no apparent
| reason, and having to work around it with blue tooth
| headphones, which are ok when I remember to charge them...
| mschuetz wrote:
| I was briefly considering buying an iphone for the first time
| ever, since I wanted a good camera phone. Scratched that idea
| when I learned that it didn't have an audio jack.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| The Pixel cameras are supposedly incredible. My understanding
| is that there are usually one or two Android phones per-
| generation that are considered either slightly better or
| slightly worse than the iPhone's camera.
| humanlion87 wrote:
| I have one. And I was pleasantly surprised by the quality
| of the photos considering it has only one camera. Given the
| blur effects in Portrait mode are hit-and-miss once in a
| while (the algo blurs human hair pretty frequently). But I
| think it's pretty good for my use case, which is to capture
| memories that I can revisit.
| kharms wrote:
| There is a little 3.5mm-to-lightning dongle that came with at
| least the iPhone 7. Not sure if it comes with the current
| model, but FYI.
|
| https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-
| to-35...
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| Don't know why the parent was down voted for starting a
| fact.
|
| I think the better solution if you can afford it is a
| Bluetooth receiver (Fiio make a nice one) for your old
| headphones.
|
| If you are getting new earphones get some of the cheap
| Chinese BT earbuds. They are really cheap these days and
| work quite well for the money. I got a quite nice pair for
| ~$35AUD from amazon. Surprisingly good.
| mcaswell wrote:
| It came with my 11 pro! Although I did immediately lose
| it...
| foobarian wrote:
| And you can't charge the phone while it's plugged in.
| switch007 wrote:
| iPhones have had wireless charging for a while though.
| Not as convenient of course.
| jorvi wrote:
| You can if you order a Chinese splitter. All it does is
| split your lightning into two ports: the charging pins
| and all the other pins. Because the sound is sent
| digitally from your lighting port to the splitter, then
| digitally again to the lightning-to-3.5mm dongle you have
| no quality loss from a subpar splitter chip.
|
| Edit: to be clear, this shouldn't be needed, but alas, we
| cannot steer Apple.
| sharatvir wrote:
| It's possible if you use a wireless charger
| bosswipe wrote:
| Losing it is my biggest reason for needing the audio
| jack. I not only lose dongles I also lost my expensive
| Airpods even with the Find My app. I also lose my wired
| earbuds but at least they're cheap. I know many people
| that don't have as big a problem with losing things,
| maybe it's a personality thing.
| artimaeis wrote:
| They don't come in the box anymore, but are fairly
| affordable at $9.
|
| Also, they're quite effective devices:
| https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-
| qu...
| centimeter wrote:
| Impressive! Didn't know Ken did audio reviews too.
| sf_rob wrote:
| They aren't durable in my experience though. Although
| most apple cords have issues with the connection "neck"
| (not sure of the actual nomenclature).
| spdustin wrote:
| Is "strain relief" the nomenclature you're looking for?
| skocznymroczny wrote:
| I use a Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite. Has a very nice camera and audio
| jack. The only drawback I can think of is 6.3" size, I'd
| prefer something below 6" if possible.
| nemacol wrote:
| Yes! I have a 3a and it has kept me using pixels mainly for
| this reason. #2 reason is the Polycarbonate unibody.
|
| Happy to see they are keeping it in future iterations of the
| 'a' series.
| gopalv wrote:
| > I have a 3a and it has kept me using pixels mainly for this
| reason
|
| Same here - I held onto my Pixel 1 & only jumped to 3A when
| it came out.
|
| Mostly it was that I had an existing wired setup fitted to my
| ears, but the real reason to hate BT was that I wasn't always
| charging them up. The airpods style charging case + a
| charging mat might have solved those problems, but the
| charger was more annoying than the wires themselves.
|
| I happily use bluetooth in the car, which doesn't have the
| same sort of "did I forget to charge it?" problems.
| xmprt wrote:
| Ironically I'm in the opposite boat where I use bluetooth
| almost always except for when I'm in my car and wire it to
| the AUX. That's probably because my car is really old but
| also because it's nice to not carry my phone around
| everywhere when I'm listening to something. With bluetooth
| I just leave the phone on the table and can move around the
| house pretty freely.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| I have a 3a and it's mostly fine.
|
| But an obvious problem is that the touchscreen is activated
| by my leg. I had to actually lock the lockscreen just to
| prevent the phone from constantly opening random apps and
| providing random input.
| pedrocr wrote:
| As usual this link shows me a Chromecast with no explanation.
| It's already strange how they segment by geography within the EU
| but breaking the links like this instead of just saying it's
| unavailable in your location is broken.
|
| I'm currently looking for a phone and the Moto G Pro is easily
| available, an Android One device so gets proper updates for a
| long time as well and seems to have very comparable specs for
| less money.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| Is it just me, or does every single photo supposedly
| demonstrating the quality of the camera have awful artifacts?
| (I'm not saying this means it has a poor quality camera, I
| suspect that whatever process prepared these photos for the
| website cranked up the JPEG compression or something.)
| simlevesque wrote:
| It's not you, now that you told me they are in every of the
| photos, that's weird.
| droidno9 wrote:
| This is an awesome phone at $350. I currently have the Pixel 4,
| but if this was available when I was making my purchase decision,
| I'd probably have gone with it.
|
| That said, the Pixel line of phones isn't known for having long
| lasting battery. A feature that I've found to be indispensable is
| wireless charging. I just rest my Pixel 4 on a vertical charging
| base throughout the day. Otherwise, I'd have to have to
| constantly plug/unplug the phone throughout the day to charge,
| and that'd be a huge regression in the user experience.
|
| Just as I'm about 100% fully committed to Bluetooth headsets and
| my collection is just about fully covering all my use cases,
| Google brings back the 3.5mm jack! Nice that they're giving me
| hope that I can still use my wired headsets without having to use
| a dongle, but I'd be again terribly disappointed if they removed
| this feature again in the next iteration. This feature alone is
| almost enough to downgrade my Pixel 4.
|
| P.S. The Pixel 4 isn't an available trade-in option for the Pixel
| 4a. Lol!
| dirtyid wrote:
| There's wireless charging adapters, not ideal, no fast
| charging, but it's something. Or magnetic cables which I find
| is better solution. Ultimately, nothing beats just having a
| massive battery and 2-3 day endurance.
| jldugger wrote:
| > That said, the Pixel line of phones isn't known for having
| long lasting battery. A feature that I've found to be
| indispensable is wireless charging.
|
| Note that wireless charging causes a lot of heat, which is like
| cryptonite for battery longevity.
| mrigor wrote:
| what BT accessories did you settle on?
| droidno9 wrote:
| Bose QCII to tune out noise, Bose SoundWear Companion when
| it's too hot for the QCII, Plantronics Voyager Edge for calls
| on the go, and Jabra Halo Smart as a backup that lives in bag
| all the time.
|
| Hands-free calling is quite important to me. :)
| [deleted]
| JeremyNT wrote:
| > _That said, the Pixel line of phones isn 't known for having
| long lasting battery. A feature that I've found to be
| indispensable is wireless charging. I just rest my Pixel 4 on a
| vertical charging base throughout the day. Otherwise, I'd have
| to have to constantly plug/unplug the phone throughout the day
| to charge, and that'd be a huge regression in the user
| experience._
|
| Note that the 4a actually has a larger battery than the 4, per
| the article, so this complaint may well be addressed by this
| device.
| droidno9 wrote:
| About 12% larger capacity. Not enough of an improvement to
| eliminate this problem.
| Exmoor wrote:
| The 4a also uses a lower power SOC and a 60hz screen, which
| is likely to make a more substantial difference.
| what_ever wrote:
| 60hz screen at lower resolution as well.
| flavor8 wrote:
| > the Pixel line of phones isn't known for having long lasting
| battery
|
| Anecdote: I still have a 2XL and it can get me through 24
| hours. It's gotten a _little_ worse recently which I attribute
| to hardware age. The camera is fantastic, so I have no need to
| upgrade (although having stereo speakers would be nice.)
| Lutzb wrote:
| I also own a 2XL and really enjoy it. Sadly google will stop
| supplying updates this fall.
| 101008 wrote:
| I bought a Pixel 3A a few months ago and my battery lasts 2
| days without charging it. I use it for regular browsing,
| Instagram, twitter, and it is constantly using networks because
| I have Whatsapp always on on my computer.
| noelsusman wrote:
| I've been wondering for years what the hell people were doing
| with their phones to make them run out of battery in a day. I
| can't remember the last time any phone I've had got below 50%
| on a day with normal usage.
|
| I guess people play a lot of mobile games?
| invisible wrote:
| I think it _very_ heavily depends on what apps you have
| installed and how much they do in the background
| (especially while you have the screen off). Similarly,
| screen time plays a huge role (e.g. someone with 2 hours a
| day vs 4 hours a day).
| schoolornot wrote:
| I don't get why Google creates problems for themselves by
| relying on unproven tech or working backwards. Case in point:
| adaptive battery. Androids have historically had poor battery
| efficiency (mah vs. screen on time) against iPhones. Rather
| than optimize the OS and the apps and provide a larger capacity
| battery, they size down the battery and introduce software-
| based battery management with AI. Common responses to
| complaints on /r/GooglePixel about piss poor battery life are
| that the user hasn't waiting long enough for the system to
| develop a proper AI/ML model.
|
| Another example: RCS. A protocol that neither carriers nor
| users actually want. 7 years after iMessage took over the US,
| Google is still unable to provide a functional E2E encrypted
| multi-device messaging service with all the doo-dads that come
| with iMessage.
|
| So many more textbook examples out there.
| buttersbrian wrote:
| Google got wedged between the desire to create a imessage
| competitor, and not alienating every carrier / OEM.
|
| RCS works. I am glad it's here. It would have been far more
| helpful 3 years ago though.
|
| The most boggling decision is what has happened with
| Hangouts.
| ss3000 wrote:
| I'm not a huge Apple fanboy by any measure, but one thing I do
| appreciate is that they consider wireless charging to be a
| table stakes feature, and include it even in their "budget"
| phones. They clearly understand how dramatically it elevates
| the user experience.
|
| Compare that to every Android manufacturer who either don't
| offer wireless charging at all or gate it to flagships, it's a
| really sad state of affairs for someone like myself who won't
| even consider a phone without wireless charging today.
| mehrdadn wrote:
| Never used wireless charging but also never really understood
| what is so dramatically elevating about it. Is it just the
| requirement for 1 hand vs. 2 hands that people find so life-
| changing? Doesn't it waste a ton of power in the process?
| jakub_g wrote:
| (Not using wireless charging either)
|
| One advantage is that it does not destroy the USB port.
| Constant plugging and unplugging can really wear some ports
| after 1-2 years, depending on manufacturing quality. To the
| point that it won't charge anymore. (Hopefully will be less
| of an issue with USB-C which seems better designed than
| microUSB). Plus the convenience.
| rand49an wrote:
| To counter that though, it's not nearly as efficient and
| the additional heat definitely puts more stress on the
| battery possibly lowering it's lifespan.
| ss3000 wrote:
| My hunch is that you're probably correct about the heat
| effects of wireless charging on battery lifespan to some
| degree, but I'd love to see more emperical studies on the
| topic. Especially comparing it to usage of wired quick
| charge solutions that tend to result in much higher
| spikes in temperature than wireless charging, but over a
| shorter timespan. It's not obvious to me that one would
| be more harmful to battery lifespan than the other.
|
| Newer wireless chargers also usually have some form of
| active heat management (i.e. fans), and anecdotally my
| phone only ever gets lukewarm to the touch, even with a
| somewhat bulky case on it.
|
| At the end of the day though, I personally wouldn't mind
| having to upgrade my phone slightly faster than I would
| otherwise in order to enjoy the convenience offered by
| wireless charging, but definitely speaking from a
| position of privilege here.
| droidno9 wrote:
| It's one of those things that you don't think you'd need
| until you have had it, and then wonder why you've gone so
| far in life without it.
|
| As someone who constantly has to step away from my desk
| during the day, I don't have to think about charging the
| phone anymore. It automatically goes on the wireless stand
| (directly in front of me) when I'm back at my desk. I can
| be certain that if I choose to go out for the evening after
| work, I wouldn't have to worry about being stranded
| somewhere far from home because my phone died. (Side note:
| Uber and Lyft have really decimated the taxi industry, even
| for a downtown area in a medium-size city.)
| mehrdadn wrote:
| Oh I see. But putting it in the charger all the time just
| makes the battery die more quickly, right? Though I see
| the value now if you don't care about that.
| [deleted]
| fulafel wrote:
| You need it to work around the inability to charge while
| using headphones.
| orliesaurus wrote:
| Is wireless charging like this having any negative impacts on
| phone battery with daily usage/charging patterns?
| Exmoor wrote:
| Completely agree. Given that a lot of smartphone maker's
| model has been to wait for Apple to do something and then
| copy it (whether it was a good idea or not) I was really
| surprised that wireless charging didn't become a standard
| feature for Android phones after Apple added it.
| koyote wrote:
| My Nexus 4 had wireless charging back in 2012; the Nexus 4
| very much being a budget phone.
|
| I am a bit disappointed about how wireless charging was
| ripped out of Android phones instead of simply being the
| standard. I thought the iPhone finally adopting it would
| bring it back to Android phones but it does not seem like the
| case.
| ss3000 wrote:
| Ah yep, the good old Nexus 4, that's how I was introduced
| to wireless charging as well.
| camillomiller wrote:
| It's not. Check out the One Plus Nord at the same price. (EU
| and India only, though)
| savanpatel wrote:
| The verge here doesn't know for sure that if the device on left
| in teaser is indeed pixel 5. It's just a speculation. Such
| misleading titles. The actual content differ. Media, bloggers
| should avoid these kind of immoral clickbaits.
|
| Sometimes these also have an adverse effect. For example a
| misleading title can lead to mob lynching.
|
| Verge should write responsibly.
| solarkraft wrote:
| Here's a pretty enlightening video ny Dave2D about the strategy
| behind this uncommon Monday launch: https://youtu.be/oAy9EuBRCpg
|
| TL;DW: They're positioning it directly against the Oneplus Nord.
|
| Personally I'm happy the Pocophone F1 finally has some
| competition in the quality-reasonably-priced segment.
|
| For Normies the 4a will probably be the best software-wise while
| I still consider the Pocophone a great device due to its
| repairability and large battery (good FOSS ROM support is
| important but luckily given on such popular devices).
| dnr wrote:
| I'm somewhat happy with my Pixel 3a, but the aspect ratio is
| pretty annoying: it's too tall and too narrow, making it really
| hard to use one-handed (my thumb can't reach that high while I'm
| gripping it in my palm). It looks like the 4a is similar. I wish
| they'd go back to the Pixel 1 dimensions, which were pretty
| perfect.
| ehsankia wrote:
| Basically every phone in the past year has gone in that
| direction, it seems to be the future unfortunately.
| CarVac wrote:
| Unfortunately, bezels and 16:9 screens aren't in fashion
| anymore.
| andrepd wrote:
| Still not the compact phone I was looking for.
| mancerayder wrote:
| Are they bringing back fingerprint unlock or are we stuck with
| the annoying face thing?
| csours wrote:
| I can only hope they will revisit face unlock in the era of face
| masks. I greatly prefered fingerprint unlock. I treat either of
| these as tamper resistance rather than actual security, but I
| find fingerprint unlock to be a much better experience.
| tony wrote:
| For anyone wondering: Pixel 3 had a fingerprint sensor for
| unlocking the screen, but Pixel 4 removed it and replaced it
| with a face unlock. Regardless of whether face unlock works -
| sometimes it's inconvenient to position yourself for it (e.g.
| if you have bags in your hand, are driving, browsing/reading
| with phone on a surface, in bed, etc).
|
| Some skipped Pixel 4 due to removing it. They considered
| fingerprint reading to be one of Pixel 3's most helpful
| features.
|
| We still don't know if Pixel 5 will have it or not.
| QuercusMax wrote:
| Agreed; I don't see face unlock significantly more convenient
| in than fingerprint unlock. I guess it's a little more
| automatic, but I find I have to wiggle my phone around any way
| in order to get it to recognize my face. In practice, I end up
| having to spend the same amount of time making faces at my
| phone as I did touching the fingerprint sensor.
|
| Even before face-masks, I found that my Pixel 4 can't recognize
| me with a bike helmet on. I have a phone mount on my handlebars
| and fingerprint-unlocking is very convenient (not while moving,
| obviously). Also if I'm driving, I can hand the phone to my
| wife and finger-unlock it without looking away from the road,
| which is definitely not possible with a face-unlock.
| savanpatel wrote:
| That's why buy an iPhone.
| drewg123 wrote:
| I just moved from pixel to iphone, and the thing I miss the
| most is the "trusted bluetooth device" mechanism to keep the
| phone unlocked. I used to have that enabled for my garmin
| watch, and it kept my phone unlocked for up to 4 hours.
|
| This was way, way better than face id or fingerprints during
| covid (eg, face id does not work b/c of masks, fingerprints
| don't work b/c of gloves).
| MBCook wrote:
| Now that you mention it, it's a little surprising Apple
| hasn't done that. It exists on the Mac so why not my iPhone
| or iPad?
| george_perez wrote:
| It's not on the Mac, what Apple Watch and Mac does is
| unlock the Mac when it locks. It doesn't keep it unlocked
| like the OP mentioned.
| dirtyid wrote:
| Not very secure either, but pair a miband4 with smart unlock.
| 3-4 weeks of battery life, works with gloves and masks/scarves.
| Keep keychain or throw it in backpack. The 1st party app lets
| you adjust unlock distance by range. Anyone in range can unlock
| your device, but works well in terms of convenience.
| partiallypro wrote:
| I also am not a fan of facial unlock, I would much rather have
| a finger print reader like previous models. Though I will say
| if my hands are sweaty it doesn't work, which is a bit
| annoying.
| xxpor wrote:
| This is why I have both the fingerprint AND face unlock on on
| my phone :) The combo of the two covers 99% of cases IME.
| neuronexmachina wrote:
| According to this review the 4a has a rear-mounted fingerprint
| reader:
|
| > Google carried over the rear-mounted fingerprint reader of
| the Pixel 3a. Color me a fan. The 3a had a fairly deep divot
| with a different finish on the fingerprint reader itself.
| Google made the Pixel 4a's fingerprint reader blend in better
| with the body. Both the reader and the rear shell have the same
| matte texture and black color, and the back of the phone even
| curves inward towards the reader to make it feel more cohesive.
|
| https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-4a-review-1140...
| DanTheManPR wrote:
| Fortunately, a lot of Android phones these days offer both
| systems, so you can use whichever is most convenient for you at
| the moment.
| MikeKusold wrote:
| FaceID is terrible when driving. I often have my passenger read
| and send texts for me, on my iPhone 6S I just had to grab the
| phone and put my thumb on it. With my iPhone 11, I need to lift
| it up in front of my wheel, and look directly at it instead of
| the road, because if you aren't looking at it then it won't
| unlock.
| philsnow wrote:
| There is a setting to require attention (eye contact with the
| phone) or not, enabled by default. Try disabling that?
| kingnothing wrote:
| Alternatively, stop using your phone while you're driving.
| It's illegal to hold it in your hand while driving in many
| (most?) states now.
| jldugger wrote:
| Half the use case for siri is texting while you drive.
| deepakhj wrote:
| Check out Carplay
| mholt wrote:
| Fingerprint unlock never worked for me (on any of my devices)
| because as a rock climber my fingerprints rub off. For about 2
| years I could never get any fingerprint readers to work for
| more than a few days.
|
| So I had to get a Pixel 4 _because_ it has Face Unlock, which
| works almost _too_ well to be honest.
| jerluc wrote:
| This model looks to have a fingerprint reader, which may be
| good news to you. You can see the outline in the main photo,
| and it is also listed in the tech specs:
| https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a_specs
| ramanujank wrote:
| Sensible design choices. Stock Android. Pocket friendly.
|
| Such a clean offer. I'm amazed.
| coreyoconnor wrote:
| Looks like this one has edges that are easy to grip. Samsung
| phones should take note ;)
| bdz wrote:
| 4A Review from Marques
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlHnleQU9tQ
| jeffbee wrote:
| I love his reviews.
|
| Notable quirk in this review: around 5:10 where he starts
| talking about how usable the software is, he also makes an
| erroneous gesture with his thumb and has to do it again. This
| is my experience with the Pixel 3a. The gestures require a
| range of motion that my thumb just does not have. This isn't
| going to be any better with the 4a, which is even bigger than
| the 3a.
| ehsankia wrote:
| He mentions mono speaker but other reviewers all say it's
| stereo (well, the same stereo other pixels are, which uses
| earpiece)
| throw7 wrote:
| I wish they brought back original quality photo uploads. I guess
| I could understand dropping that in the "A" series, but for the
| flagships, it really set the pixels apart.
| ip26 wrote:
| Were they ever gone? I thought original quality just counted
| against your storage limit while the compressed quality is
| unlimited.
| throw7 wrote:
| I wasn't clear... it was indeed unlimited original quality
| photos.
| supernova87a wrote:
| Can anyone comment on how well Google supports their phones 2, 3+
| years out? What's their obsolescence history compared to Apple?
| Thinking of moving over...
| itodd wrote:
| I have a Pixel 2XL and it is still supported. I am
| participating in the latest android beta without any known-to-
| me model-specific issues.
| zanny wrote:
| The Pixel line sees almost ubiquitous Lineageos support.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| They list it here:
| https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en-G...
| supernova87a wrote:
| Thanks -- ah, so it is significantly less than Apple. 3 years
| guaranteed, versus 5+ years. (well, not that I'm likely to
| keep my phone for 5+ years)
| axegon_ wrote:
| I'm still rocking a Pixel 2 xl and despite Google being a bit...
| Uninterested(probably the correct term) in the market outside the
| US(and thus severely limited in supply and even functionalities),
| I'll admit, it's a brilliant phone. I'm definitely curious to see
| what the 5 will offer and I might jump on board with it.What
| bothers me is that it was a pain in the ass to get the 2 XL back
| in the day. I flew all the way to Poland to get it(and even there
| I had to order it and wait for the delivery) so the covid-19
| situation will probably be even more painful. I'll have to wait
| and see I suppose.
| halfeatenpie wrote:
| Similar boat as you. I bought the Pixel 2 XL and am still
| rocking it to this day. I just happen to be living in the
| States.
|
| I think I'll be going for the 5, but the 4a does give me a
| pause. If I use it for another 3 years, I think buying the 5 is
| the better choice.
| foobarian wrote:
| Still using the Nexus 6P :) Had to replace the battery once
| which gave it an extra couple of years of life. I was
| reluctant to replace it with a newer flagship because of the
| price (getting close to $1k) but the 4a price is looking very
| tempting now...
| mcjiggerlog wrote:
| Of course it's $100 more in Europe (389 EUR = 456 USD). Still,
| very tempting.
| snappieT wrote:
| If it makes you feel any better, the $349 US price tag doesn't
| include sales tax, which adds on upwards of $25 depending on
| where you live.
| pkaye wrote:
| I've heard the difference is due to more stringent warranty
| requirements compared to the US. Also the US doesn't include
| sales taxes in the price.
| JorgeGT wrote:
| It varies wildly:
|
| - Spain, Italy: 389EUR
|
| - Germany: 340EUR
|
| - France: 349EUR
| TheTruestKyle wrote:
| I bought a pixel 3 a while back and the USB C port stopped
| working. They refused to fix it so I was making payments on a
| phone that I couldn't use. Never again (At least through the
| google store).
| jamesponddotco wrote:
| I want to replace my current OnePlus 5T, as I want to switch from
| my custom LineageOS build to GrapheneOS[1], and thought the Pixel
| 4a would be the one to replace it with, but why only one color
| option? I really wanted a black, and white version.
|
| The regular Pixel 4 does have a black, and white version that
| looks gorgeous from the back, but then the front design is an
| abomination, with the top being much bigger than the bottom.
|
| Maybe I should just stick with LineageOS, I do not put sensitive
| information on my phone anyway.
|
| [1] https://grapheneos.org/
| Tarq0n wrote:
| OnePlus Nord seems like a nice replacement for a 5t. I'm
| looking to replace mine as well.
| jamesponddotco wrote:
| GrapheneOS only run on Pixel devices, though, hence me
| looking at the Pixel line. Otherwise, yeah, OnePlus all the
| way.
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