Why I will never buy a Pixel.

[Steven58]

Price. Greed. Google is all about money. It always was. In the beginning, they put out great phones for a lot less than did Samsung, LG, Apple and HTC, etc.

The were the disrupters of the industry, just like Sprint's John Legere changed the face of providers by having no contracts, etc. Now? Google is the same as everyone else.. just another good brand. Expensive, just like everyone else.

Me? I'll wait for the One Plus 7T. I'm pretty much settled. One Plus is the game changer... a flagship fone for 600.00? Come on! That's a no brainer.

 

[Hadron]

600 was expensive for a flagship a few years ago. Samsung, Apple and Google have made it easy for OnePlus: they've been able to double their prices in 5 years but still appear cheap by comparison

(Mind you, I'm in a bind with phones: because I dislike 7.5cm wide phones - the size people called "phablets" just accouple of years ago - my options are basically Samsung S10e, Pixel 3 and Xperia 5.)

 

[JAy3001]

Lets see here, why did/do people buy Nexus/Pixel devices?

• No bloatware,
• Pure android experience,
• Fast OS updates,
• Monthly security updates,
• Easy to root,
• Well spec'ed phones for a reasonable price,
• Plus..?.. feel free to add more..

For me the need to root is now zero with the OS featuring lots of functions you use to need root for or you just grab a different launcher!

The pure android experience (bloatware) is a lot of hot air, unless you are buying very cheap devices that need all the bloatware to pay for the device itself I cannot see a need for it. Why? Look at the nexus/pixel devices, yes they have a clean feel but they lack any kind of WOW factor. Nothing you can show your mates; "look at this cool feature!!" Instead you have erm... look at my boring OS with its erm?! Yeah, I'll just put it away now..

OS updates are important, but with company's like Samsung now pushing 2 to 3 major updates to their devices you don't need a Pixel/Nexus device to feel supported. And even if your phone does not get big updates you can find a launcher to give you them new features you feel you are missing.

For me monthly security updates are far more important and again with companys like Samsung pushing monthly updates you again don't need a Pixel/Nexus device to feel secure.

Rooting - Just don't need it nowadays as described above. You will always have hardcore users that want full control and be able to tweak their devices to the max and I appreciate that. But as I find it more important to use things like banking apps, streaming apps that will or might block their usage; it's not currently for me.

Well spec'ed phone for the price? Yup, use to be with Nexus. Certainly not with the Pixel devices and what I really struggle with it their price for what appears to be middling specs in places! Add the pure android experience and it's a pretty boring place to be!!..

Anyhow, just me tiny views on the subject.

 

[Steven58]

One Plus is former CyanogenMod. I used to flash that rom on my Galaxy Nexus. I miss it. I don't think that I will miss all the Samsung bloat although Sammy allows me to disable bloat. I am truly looking forward for it to come to Big Red on 10/18. One positive is that One Plus will give me nearly 200 for my Note8, which brings the price down to 400 and for a phone like that? Can't be beat. Sorry. I'm hooked.

 

[Jfalls63]

My first OnePlus was the 5T and been a fan ever since. Currently using a 6T and will probably keep it a few years or until it stops receiving updates.
Pixel compared to OnePlus is not worth the price.

 

[ocnbrze]

never heard of oneplus till recently. never seen one or hold one. until i do.....i'll pass. i love my note 10+ too much. maybe in a few years and my phone starts acting old, i might consider looking into oneplus.

i never owned a pixel, but i have always looked at a pixel like @JAy3001 does.

Lets see here, why did/do people buy Nexus/Pixel devices?

• No bloatware,
• Pure android experience,
• Fast OS updates,
• Monthly security updates,
• Easy to root,
• Well spec'ed phones for a reasonable price,
• Plus..?.. feel free to add more..

was considering a pixel 4 before i bought the note 10+

 

[mikedt]

I will never buy a Pixel either. Why, no service or support for it in this country.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Any US carriers carry One+?

 

[bcrichster]

Lets see here, why did/do people buy Nexus/Pixel devices?

• No bloatware,
• Pure android experience,
• Fast OS updates,
• Monthly security updates,
• Easy to root,
• Well spec'ed phones for a reasonable price,
• Plus..?.. feel free to add more..

For me the need to root is now zero with the OS featuring lots of functions you use to need root for or you just grab a different launcher!

The pure android experience (bloatware) is a lot of hot air, unless you are buying very cheap devices that need all the bloatware to pay for the device itself I cannot see a need for it. Why? Look at the nexus/pixel devices, yes they have a clean feel but they lack any kind of WOW factor. Nothing you can show your mates; "look at this cool feature!!" Instead you have erm... look at my boring OS with its erm?! Yeah, I'll just put it away now..

OS updates are important, but with company's like Samsung now pushing 2 to 3 major updates to their devices you don't need a Pixel/Nexus device to feel supported. And even if your phone does not get big updates you can find a launcher to give you them new features you feel you are missing.

For me monthly security updates are far more important and again with companys like Samsung pushing monthly updates you again don't need a Pixel/Nexus device to feel secure.

Rooting - Just don't need it nowadays as described above. You will always have hardcore users that want full control and be able to tweak their devices to the max and I appreciate that. But as I find it more important to use things like banking apps, streaming apps that will or might block their usage; it's not currently for me.

Well spec'ed phone for the price? Yup, use to be with Nexus. Certainly not with the Pixel devices and what I really struggle with it their price for what appears to be middling specs in places! Add the pure android experience and it's a pretty boring place to be!!..

Anyhow, just me tiny views on the subject.

Lololol!!.. Ya forgot a critical component of Rooting a Pixel: Verizon Wireless still locks the bootloaders of Pixels! Yes, I went round & round with VZW when they tried offering me a new phone for their exorbitant monthly prices and told them they didn't have anything I wanted. Should've seenbthe shock on their faces, Lol! They even admitted to said lockings and confessed they couldn't and wouldn't change that in any way, for anyone.. Even tho the inherent design of the device was Development. No matter what. So if ya wanna Root & ROM it, don't get a VZW branded device, FYI.. (Get one from elsewhere and BYOD it if ya want VZW services)

 

[JAy3001]

Lololol!!.. Ya forgot a critical component of Rooting a Pixel: Verizon Wireless still locks the bootloaders of Pixels! Yes, I went round & round with VZW when they tried offering me a new phone for their exorbitant monthly prices and told them they didn't have anything I wanted. Should've seenbthe shock on their faces, Lol! They even admitted to said lockings and confessed they couldn't and wouldn't change that in any way, for anyone.. Even tho the inherent design of the device was Development. No matter what. So if ya wanna Root & ROM it, don't get a VZW branded device, FYI.. (Get one from elsewhere and BYOD it if ya want VZW services)

Indeed another reason. I feel that there is such a huge difference between how the US and UK market works, that the Pixel home is firmly the US market now. It feels, especially when reading peoples posts here over the years that a high percentage of people buy their phones outright (or at least a higher percentage) in the US whereas in the UK most will get them through contracts. Add in the Thrump era of buy US and the Pixel firmly sits on the US shore looking out to sea..

Another factor is the design, so far not a single Pixel has looked attractive to me, that makes me think WOW I've gotta have me one of those!

 

[Hadron]

Nothing you can show your mates; "look at this cool feature!!"

Genuine question: does anyone actually do this? I genuinely can't think of any feature on any phone that would impress me that way, and can't recall when I last saw someone doing that anyway.

Any time I've met someone showing a cool/useful feature, which is rare these days, it's always been an app which you can run on any phone.

 

[JAy3001]

We do at work, it is a very tech based place and are always comparing phones and chatting about other tech.

But even if it is purely the aesthetics of a device. Put a Pixel beside an S10 and there is no comparison with looks and screen quality. The things I always missed with my Nexus was the extra features on things like the camera app, purely stripped down. Hit a samsung and its feature rich, it is these touches that set other phones above them. And I certainly don't class this as bloatware.

 

[Hadron]

The Pixel camera app is basic - that's just Google's way, they assume their automation will do everything. But then I can just use Open Camera when I want a bit more control, so that's not an issue. And my Pixel handles difficult lighting better than my daughter's Galaxy S of the same age, so overall it doesn't bother me (I've real cameras for anything serious anyway - I'm certainly not averse to fiddling with settings ).

Aesthetics, there's no doubt that the S8 knocks the spots off my Pixel 2 (to compare same generation). I actually prefer the aesthetics of the S8 (small, symmetric bezels) to the S10 (smaller at top but asymmetric, and a punch hole off to one side). But at the end of the day ergonomics matters more to me, and phones rapidly trending towards all looking the same anyway - once the front camera is hidden it will be very difficult to tell them apart.

And that's it really: they all do the same job these days. Right now if my phone died I'd consider replacing it with an S10e just to be different, and if Essential ever release a follow-up I'll look hard at that. But I don't really think that after a couple of weeks it would make much difference to me what phone I had.

 

[JAy3001]

Yeah of course @Hadron this is what Google is aiming for. But I feel it would be better that the phone came with a nice app to begin with so that I don't have to install another app to do the job.

Indeed, this is why I went with the S10+. Compared with my old S8+ it is quite a change with a much nicer premium feel to the curved edge and I love the hole punch lens. The fact I can even hide them with fun wallpapers makes it just a bit of a giggle. But hopefully before most phones become similar there will be a technology jump.. such as fold?

They do indeed @Hadron it is all about personal taste. Which is one of the many benefits to Android over iPhone.

 

[Hadron]

Yeah, aesthetics are individual. I actually think the punch hole is worse than the notch, but I'm sure both are just temporary solutions. Ideally by the time I actually need another phone I won't have to accept either.

What I do wish is that Google would recognise the size or absence of a notch and not truncate the notification icons unnecessarily. I find it silly to have notifications hidden in the status bar and then a load of blank space where some other phone has a notch.

Actually one personal reason I may buy a non-Google phone next time is to not have the Google phone & contacts apps. Nothing wrong with the apps themselves, but they (and recently Messages, which I don't use but occasionally fire up to see if anything has changed) are prone to complaining because I deny Play Services access to permissions that are nothing at all to do with their function. Just Google deciding that everyone should give them access to everything.
(Of course if that gets too annoying then sticking a ROM on a Pixel is easy as long as you aren't Verizon. When this one ceases to be my daily driver I'll probably take it completely Google free as an experiment).

 

[Hadron]

Mind you, Google aren't above gimmicks: the Pixel 4's rumoured "air gestures" sound like a solution for a problem that never existed. And the "active edge" they took from HTC could be useful except that Google won't let you use it as anything other than a virtual Bixby button.

 

[JAy3001]

Yeah, aesthetics are individual. I actually think the punch hole is worse than the notch, but I'm sure both are just temporary solutions. Ideally by the time I actually need another phone I won't have to accept either.

What I do wish is that Google would recognise the size or absence of a notch and not truncate the notification icons unnecessarily. I find it silly to have notifications hidden in the status bar and then a load of blank space where some other phone has a notch.

Actually one personal reason I may buy a non-Google phone next time is to not have the Google phone & contacts apps. Nothing wrong with the apps themselves, but they (and recently Messages, which I don't use but occasionally fire up to see if anything has changed) are prone to complaining because I deny Play Services access to permissions that are nothing at all to do with their function. Just Google deciding that everyone should give them access to everything.
(Of course if that gets too annoying then sticking a ROM on a Pixel is easy as long as you aren't Verizon. When this one ceases to be my daily driver I'll probably take it completely Google free as an experiment).

They are indeed, I never liked the notch. Not greatly a fan of hole punch. However now I have one and you can have fun with it I do kinda love it. It is not without issue, most streaming apps ignore the extra screen space. Which you may fine annoying or grateful. Personally I'm split on this as I don't miss the extra screen space, however once you start watching a film full screen within say MX Player the holepunch is annoying, but you can simply flip the phone and the holepunch sits out of your vision.

I can see that would be annoying..

You know, ever since GNPR came in you can see how much you are giving away and I'm just talking about websites, god only knows what google does with our data. Take for instance:

https://metro.co.uk/

A simple news site, but if you just agree to advertising cookie tracking you are saying yes to over 100 advertising company's each with their own privacy statement. You going to read all them??? This is just 1 website..

This is what increasingly worrys me about android and my data. But is an iPhone any better, this I've no idea at present as I've not looked into it. But maybe, just maybe one day I'll go iphone purely on privacy worrys.

 

[Steven58]

Any US carriers carry One+?

All of them will carry the 7t

 

[mikedt]

We do at work, it is a very tech based place and are always comparing phones and chatting about other tech.

But even if it is purely the aesthetics of a device. Put a Pixel beside an S10 and there is no comparison with looks and screen quality. The things I always missed with my Nexus was the extra features on things like the camera app, purely stripped down. Hit a samsung and its feature rich, it is these touches that set other phones above them. And I certainly don't class this as bloatware.

That's something I never see myself, and in fact I've never seen any Pixels at all. But on the other hand I very often see Samsung, next to Huawei, Honor, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Meizu, Lenovo, Motorola, etc. and to be honest there's nothing really excites me about Samsung.

 

[ocnbrze]

Lololol!!.. Ya forgot a critical component of Rooting a Pixel: Verizon Wireless still locks the bootloaders of Pixels! Yes, I went round & round with VZW when they tried offering me a new phone for their exorbitant monthly prices and told them they didn't have anything I wanted. Should've seenbthe shock on their faces, Lol! They even admitted to said lockings and confessed they couldn't and wouldn't change that in any way, for anyone.. Even tho the inherent design of the device was Development. No matter what. So if ya wanna Root & ROM it, don't get a VZW branded device, FYI.. (Get one from elsewhere and BYOD it if ya want VZW services)

OH GREAT NOW YOU TELL ME!!!!!! when i bought my note 10+ i switched carriers to verizon..........ARG!!!!!!!!

oh well i love my note 10+ and i know i can't root it anyways.

and yes i agree that the pixel design is kind of basic and is why i choose the note 10+ and did not wait to see what the pixel 4 would look like. plus i'm a big phone fan. been one ever since i bought the note 3. i just can't go back to a smaller screen.

 

[Steven58]

One thing. Do I care to and/or want to wait for 5G? They would probably have a 5G One Plus next year.

 

[bcrichster]

That part

 

[joe71]

After Google drop the Nexus name and went with pixel , I lost interest in Google phones, too me the design went down hill and then there was that Nexus 5X boot loop issue.
My return to using a Google phone was a long one
January 19th 2018 Nexus 6 dies, Won't power on,wife won't okay funds to get it looked at and possibly repair
Switch to the LG G6 cost after trade in, special offer $535
Absolutely horrible phone
October 2018 fiasco in Oklahoma (check the over in the Verizon threads , I think the thread title is about switching to Verizon and if it's a bad idea, you can read my horror story response)
October 30 2018 purchase a Moto E5 play with Verizon prepaid cost $50-$60
November 20th 2018 LG G6 started crashing a week before, won't stay charge, gets over heated, by the 19th of November it's not working
On the 20th I drop $250+ and tax for a Moto E5 plus.
Fast forward to February or late January
The Moto E5 play needs to be replaced because of water damage
Spend $49.99 for a Nokia V2
Actually pretty good phone for the price
March 2018 my Moto E5 plus is acting up , constantly doing factory resets
And then the Nokia V2 also started having problem, freezes up, other problems
So 14 months after the Nexus 6, I had spent $885 with tax almost $900 on four different phones.
At this time I was using both TMobile and Verizon, but mostly Verizon..
The wife decided I should switch to Verizon full time and that's what I did.
So choosing the pixel 3
Actually it was between an iPhone 10, the Samsung Galaxy S10 + ,the note 8 or 9 , and finally the pixel 3
I went with the pixel 3, for several reasons 1) the pure Android experience, 2) the guaranteed software support till 2021, 3) the camera.
The only phone I would consider replacing the pixel 3 with would be a note10+ simply because that S pen would be very helpful in my job

 

[Trev2911]

Oneplus is doing a really good job in competing with Samsung and Iphones. Although their prices have started to increase, as a oneplus user I am a little bit biased towards oneplus. Currently using the oneplus 6 and have no issues with the phone as of now. Tried the Iphone once, did not enjoy my experience.

 

[Rxpert83]

Eh,

I'll never own a OnePlus device. Their abhorrent marketing practices on the one plus one was enough to turn me off on the company. If thats "old man yells at cloud" worthy, I wouldnt disagree, but it matters to me where my money goes.

I pre-ordered a Pixel 4 XL this year, with the intent of replacing my pixel 2 XL. I'm sure Soli will be little more than a gimmick, but thats not why I'm interested in Pixel phones. Its all about the camera for me, and Pixel has been absolutely killing it for the past several years. The rapid updates and a pure android experience are icing on the cake. I haven't been rooted in a few years, but the option is nice.

Ultimately, if it doesn't do it for me, Ill return it - no harm, no foul. Googles pixel customer support is absolutely fantastic.