What are the chances of Pixel 6a and Nothing phone (1) being good

[venomtail]

Still going strong on my 5 year old LG V30. Keeps up with usage on a lazy day but is showing its age. If I get any more usage time than 8h (that's usage not screen on time) in a single charge I've been conservative. It's worn out with massive burn in to the point where I've even received a message from my carrier that they're shutting down 3G and I'm on such an old phone, they've given me a 25% discount on any new phone on top of existing discounts. 

 

So let's say I do get a new phone. Have you seen the market? All boring phones that look exactly the same as one another with meaninglessly powerful specs that I feel are more often a detriment to how well it functions rather than enhancing the experience. 120Hz screen on a phone for what? Just so the 3 seconds that I look at what the time is is super smooth? So that when I record a video the camera stats come back to me at 120fps even though I'll be recording the video at 30fps? Silly. That's the same if the car industry put launch control on a front wheel drive 1.0L VW UP. That's like buying a 3090ti just to play CSGO/Valorant on a 1080p 60hz monitor...

 

My rant out of the way, the only 2 phones that have even remotely peaked my interest are the Pixel 6a and Nothing phone (1).

With Google I can kind of know what to expect. Good software and long-term software support. I hope. I've heard Pixel 6 had a ton of bugs that turned people away and lost a lot of users but you think Google will have fixed most of them by the time Pixel 6a comes out? Shame 1080p, no headphone jack and even worse no wireless charging. For such a huge 6.1" phone to have such a low resolution screen really is a turn off. Have either a small phone with 1080p or a big 6.1" phone with 1440p. Worst of both worlds.

And then there's the new kid on the block. The Nothing phone. Specs wise I'm satisfied. Shame it's also a ginormous at 6.55" with the same low resolution 1080p screen at least it has wireless charging. Size to screen is even worse here. The question is what is their plan with OS and software support? The same 2 years of updates and then abandon like most of the industry does? Anyone know how their custom OS is gonna work? Closer to vanilla android, something bloated like Sony's old android or a disgusting imitation of IOS like Honor used to do. I've always jumped ship and dove into the deep ends with every new android phone I've gotten and the last 8/10 android phones I've used it's been a good purchase.

Which one should I look forwards to the most? Or is there some other phone anyone can recommend that I should keep an eye out for too?

[saintlouisbagels]

You seem like a fairly frugal person. Maybe you can pick up an older-gen Pixel phone with an established user base? That way you’ll be able to easily Google common issue and you might even pick one with a headphone jack.

 

I agree that phone CPUs are a little ridiculous - much more so on the iPhone side - but they ARE doing a lot of computational heavy lifting when it comes to camera processing.

[jaslion]

I'd just get a galaxy a52 5g. It's basically the sweet spot phone rn. Solid, has all the features your lg has and is only 8mm taller than your lg v30. Sounds like the phone you'd want. I mean it's boring and doesn't do anything different but it's just good at being a modern smartphone

 

The nothing phone looks like a all bling no depth phone to me right now. I am honestly expecting maybe one os update and that is the end. Seems their os is not super modified.

 

But in all honesty I wouldn't get either. The pixel 6 bugs are still there. Some have been fixed but a lot are just there and there seems no way out yet.

 

About the resolution part. It's fine really. You do not need a higher res it's just wasted on such small screens.

[8tg]

If you want an interesting, feature rich phone, you need to look other places than the phones marketed to the generalized consumer.

 

Will they be any good? Couldn’t tell you, they’re gonna be another basic glass slab. If you want something tailored to your needs though there’s always an option out there.

[venomtail]

21 minutes ago, 8tg said:

If you want an interesting, feature rich phone, you need to look other places than the phones marketed to the generalized consumer.

 

Will they be any good? Couldn’t tell you, they’re gonna be another basic glass slab. If you want something tailored to your needs though there’s always an option out there.

Forgot to mention that I don't want to put down a mortgage for a new phone. Doesn't this Sony cost like £1400? I can't justify spending that much. Theorised £400~ for Nothing phone or Pixel is just about my upper limit. No phone is worth more than that.

 

38 minutes ago, hippocheese14 said:

You seem like a fairly frugal person. Maybe you can pick up an older-gen Pixel phone with an established user base? That way you’ll be able to easily Google common issue and you might even pick one with a headphone jack.

 

I agree that phone CPUs are a little ridiculous - much more so on the iPhone side - but they ARE doing a lot of computational heavy lifting when it comes to camera processing.

Very. Stubborn and frugal. Not the best combination out there  I was thinking of getting the Pixel 5a but that was the first phone Google axed. Maybe because it actually was just so good value for money. Pretty sure Google is still making the 4a but the one everyone wants, the 5a. Nope, can't get it. Even used local market is either empty of 5a's or used 5a's selling for more than is released...

 

37 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I'd just get a galaxy a52 5g. It's basically the sweet spot phone rn. Solid, has all the features your lg has and is only 8mm taller than your lg v30. Sounds like the phone you'd want. I mean it's boring and doesn't do anything different but it's just good at being a modern smartphone

 

The nothing phone looks like a all bling no depth phone to me right now. I am honestly expecting maybe one os update and that is the end. Seems their os is not super modified.

 

But in all honesty I wouldn't get either. The pixel 6 bugs are still there. Some have been fixed but a lot are just there and there seems no way out yet.

 

About the resolution part. It's fine really. You do not need a higher res it's just wasted on such small screens.

1440p on mobile is a surprising must if you want to do productivity related stuff. The amount of times I've had to write documents on my phone with a Bluetooth keyboard really makes me glad I had a 1440p screen. A buddy of mine had a much bigger 1080p phabled and I'm pretty sure he had even less readable text on the screen than me.

My favorite phone still do this day was the Xperia Z1 compact. 4.3" is ideal, imagine how good it would be with a 92%~ screen ratio. Would be the best seller but "market research" says otherwise and no brand wants to risk it.

 

The Samsung is very uninspired. Specs is one thing but is it actually optimized well? I doubt its massive 64MP camera will get better pictures than the 4a. Samsung now do more than 2 years of software support? I though only Google mainly did that. £300 is very appealing but only when I need a phone when this one breaks then I might consider the a52. This or one of the latest Nokia's. They're surprisingly good now. I'll wait till then otherwise.

[jaslion]

16 minutes ago, venomtail said:

1440p on mobile is a surprising must if you want to do productivity related stuff. The amount of times I've had to write documents on my phone with a Bluetooth keyboard really makes me glad I had a 1440p screen. A buddy of mine had a much bigger 1080p phabled and I'm pretty sure he had even less readable text on the screen than me.

My favorite phone still do this day was the Xperia Z1 compact. 4.3" is ideal, imagine how good it would be with a 92%~ screen ratio. Would be the best seller but "market research" says otherwise and no brand wants to risk it.

 

The Samsung is very uninspired. Specs is one thing but is it actually optimized well? I doubt its massive 64MP camera will get better pictures than the 4a. Samsung now do more than 2 years of software support? I though only Google mainly did that. £300 is very appealing but only when I need a phone when this one breaks then I might consider the a52. This or one of the latest Nokia's. They're surprisingly good now. I'll wait till then otherwise.

That is display scaling. It's why even super high end phones have started moving to not crazy res displays because the display scaling is finally good.

 

Did you know that there is a modern day followup to that xperia? It's the sony ACE series. They are about 1cm taller and thats it. Actually good phones surprisingly.

 

The a52 5g is a great phone, it's smooth, works well and thats it. It's just a good phone. yeah mp is whatever the camera is good. Defo better than my original pixel. But honestly I'd struggle to notice a difference between it and a higher end phone.

 

Samsung does 3 years of os updates/upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

 

Btw there is a a53 out but DO NOT GET IT. It's worse than the a52 5g in basically every way or doesn't improve over it.

 

Depends what nokia you are looking at. They have decent phones but don't stand out.

[venomtail]

8 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Did you know that there is a modern day followup to that xperia? It's the sony ACE series. They are about 1cm taller and thats it. Actually good phones surprisingly.

If the ACE had an OLED, 90% screen with NFC then I'd buy it right this second. God it's nearly perfect.

 

12 minutes ago, jaslion said:

That is display scaling. It's why even super high end phones have started moving to not crazy res displays because the display scaling is finally good.

Software is catching up these days so it's probably very different than how it was for me to write documents in 2018/20 so I really need to try myself to see. Maybe it's not as bad to do productivity on a 1080p now as it was back then.

 

13 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Samsung does 3 years of os updates/upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

That is better than it used to be, good to know.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, venomtail said:

Software is catching up these days so it's probably very different than how it was for me to write documents in 2018/20 so I really need to try myself to see. Maybe it's not as bad to do productivity on a 1080p now as it was back then

Can confirm one of the older galaxy notes with a 1440p screen looks identical in text size to my now 3 year old mi 9t. Things changed.

 

Oh and the ACE III is brand new and not actually out yet as far as I know. It might have a oled screen due to it's hdr support. But it's up in the air rn.

 

8 minutes ago, venomtail said:

That is better than it used to be, good to know.

Thats google slowly starting to force software updates for you.

[venomtail]

4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Oh and the ACE III is brand new and not actually out yet as far as I know. It might have a oled screen due to it's hdr support. But it's up in the air rn.

Dude if this comes out it's over for every other brand. It's 99.9% perfect (wireless charging would be nice). Let's just hope it comes to the UK market. Brands are so picky where they want to sell phones, now it's become a country based market. Google didn't even find me the Ace 3, just the first one.

 

Life's good.

[Imbadatnames]

Just get an iPhone 13 and be done with it for 5 years dude.

 

“needlessly powerful” also mean long lasting btw that’s why iPhones are stupidly overpowered out of the box

[venomtail]

2 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

Just get an iPhone 13 and be done with it for 5 years dude.

 

“needlessly powerful” also mean long lasting btw that’s why iPhones are stupidly overpowered out of the box

I don't like IOS. Sorry, that's a dealbreaker. No type C. I need my ability to install apk's, just too many restrictions for me.

[Imbadatnames]

2 hours ago, venomtail said:

I don't like IOS. Sorry, that's a dealbreaker. No type C. I need my ability to install apk's, just too many restrictions for me.

Still surprises me how people love USBC despite it being a shite port for devices you plug and unplug stuff into constantly. Must be due to micro being that bad. 

[venomtail]

Just now, Imbadatnames said:

Still surprises me how people love USBC despite it being a shite port for devices you plug and unplug stuff into constantly. Must be due to micro being that bad. 

Not that I care what cable I use more that every cable in my house, friends and relatives is type C. Just an annoyance to buy whole new cables and adapters for everywhere I go. The new proposed EU type C directive at least sort of makes sense.

[Imbadatnames]

9 hours ago, venomtail said:

Not that I care what cable I use more that every cable in my house, friends and relatives is type C. Just an annoyance to buy whole new cables and adapters for everywhere I go. The new proposed EU type C directive at least sort of makes sense.

My issue is USB is a confusing standard and you’re locking it so there’s no innovation in the space. Imagine if they did this with micro, plus if they keep changing it then what’s the point in the law? Plus USBC is fragile AF 

[venomtail]

5 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

My issue is USB is a confusing standard and you’re locking it so there’s no innovation in the space. Imagine if they did this with micro, plus if they keep changing it then what’s the point in the law? Plus USBC is fragile AF 

Yea no dude. The "nO iNnOvAtIoN" argument is weak and overused. Apple has had 11 years to innovate on a new connector but they haven't. Why? Because the money cash cow that is licensing out the lightning port is just too much for Apple to pass up. Apple itself is making the market worse and stifling innovation because of pure greed. There's a reason why all the wall plugs in your house are of one design.

 

And all connectors are weak. Drop id on the floor while plugged in and just about all of them will break.

[Kc7vwc]

6 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

My issue is USB is a confusing standard and you’re locking it so there’s no innovation in the space. Imagine if they did this with micro, plus if they keep changing it then what’s the point in the law? Plus USBC is fragile AF 

This is flat untrue. 

The physical connector is type-c, but the capability of the USB standard going through that connector is always innovating. 

There's already been 3+ updates to USB3 since the type-c port was implemented. And it's backwards compatible when needed. My last Motorola was USB-C, but wired for the USB2.x standard. 

Yes the new naming is wonky, but the innovation can't be denied. 

 

HDMI - same physical connector, huge innovation since launch. 

Ethernet RJ45. Same connector, orders of magnitude better speed, bandwidth & dependability.    

PCI Express.       

Displayport.      

Hell, look at USB-A! It's the single port that has been here since the beginning of USB. Yet that same port is fully backwards compatible, and still contains all the current tech. 

[Imbadatnames]

5 hours ago, Kc7vwc said:

This is flat untrue. 

The physical connector is type-c, but the capability of the USB standard going through that connector is always innovating.
 

USB4 is literally just a thunderbolt 3 copy with functionality stripped out 

5 hours ago, Kc7vwc said:

 

There's already been 3+ updates to USB3 since the type-c port was implemented. And it's backwards compatible when needed. My last Motorola was USB-C, but wired for the USB2.x standard. 

Yes the new naming is wonky, but the innovation can't be denied. 
 

Again USB4 is literally a worse version of TB3, a standard that’s what 7/8 years old at this point. INNOVATION! 

5 hours ago, Kc7vwc said:

 

HDMI - same physical connector, huge innovation since launch. 

Ethernet RJ45. Same connector, orders of magnitude better speed, bandwidth & dependability.    

PCI Express.       

Displayport.      

Hell, look at USB-A! It's the single port that has been here since the beginning of USB. Yet that same port is fully backwards compatible, and still contains all the current tech. 

USB moves incredibly slowly to the point where other people have GIVEN them their nearly decade old standard so USB stops holding the industry up and the port for USBC is very flimsy.

[Imbadatnames]

6 hours ago, venomtail said:

Yea no dude. The "nO iNnOvAtIoN" argument is weak and overused. Apple has had 11 years to innovate on a new connector but they haven't. Why? Because the money cash cow that is licensing out the lightning port is just too much for Apple to pass up. Apple itself is making the market worse and stifling innovation because of pure greed. There's a reason why all the wall plugs in your house are of one design.

 

And all connectors are weak. Drop id on the floor while plugged in and just about all of them will break.

Lighting is literally better than USBC at a connector as it is more durable. It can also be upgraded to USB 3 gen whatever they’re calling currently on the cable side. 
 

Never heard of MagSafe? 

[venomtail]

8 minutes ago, Imbadatnames said:

Lighting is literally better than USBC at a connector as it is more durable. It can also be upgraded to USB 3 gen whatever they’re calling currently on the cable side. 
 

Never heard of MagSafe? 

But you've yet to show an actually objective reason for why your're claiming that Lightning is more durable. I'm waiting...

 

Of course Apple can upgrade Lightning to USB 3 speeds but they won't unless government interveines and sets up regulation. Why won't Apple upgrade? My cash cow reason mentioned above.

 

Magnetic adapters exist and in a way that's a worse argument that even Lightning. That's a cable that Apple hasn't updated in 16 years and it doesn't even support data transfer. Just straught up outdated.

[Imbadatnames]

9 minutes ago, venomtail said:

But you've yet to show an actually objective reason for why your're claiming that Lightning is more durable. I'm waiting...

USBC connects on the device through a thin portion central ti the port which is easily deformed or snapped by repeated imperfect removals, damaged cables etc which results in an inoperable port requiring replacement on the device side, it also becomes loose scarily quickly. Lightning connects to the outer walls of the device meaning a cable failure is more likely, worst case is just fishing the broken connector out of the port, the fit is also much more secure leading to a reduced likelyhood of breaking during removal 

9 minutes ago, venomtail said:

 

Of course Apple can upgrade Lightning to USB 3 speeds but they won't unless government interveines and sets up regulation. Why won't Apple upgrade? My cash cow reason mentioned above.

They already have? Also USB speeds only matters for data transfer which is already done far faster over Wi-Fi and data. 

9 minutes ago, venomtail said:

 

Magnetic adapters exist and in a way that's a worse argument that even Lightning. That's a cable that Apple hasn't updated in 16 years and it doesn't even support data transfer. Just straught up outdated.

MagSafe is by far a better charger than USB. As far as data goes apple uses and has specced out protocols which have always been far better than USB currently TB and previously FireWire. Generally they release a standard, USB copies what they can and releases a competing product 10 years later and the apple just improves again. 

[venomtail]

On 7/3/2022 at 5:19 AM, huilun02 said:

We still looking for the Android phone that OP wanted?

Yes, iPhones are not an option. The Ace 3 is a nice addition but nothing else other than the 2 phones I mentioned at the start tickle my fancy.

[venomtail]

13 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Probably the Pixel 6a then. It has the same Tensor chipset as the Pixel 6 and has a small size. This chipset is on par with the Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 used in past flagship phones. The camera is also going to be much better than the Nothing phone. The downside is that the screen is only 60Hz and you will be limited to 128GB storage and 6GB of RAM.

 

The Nothing phone will have a 120Hz screen and wireless charging. Its a full sized phone, and fingerprint is on the side. 

 

If you are not in the US, the 6a is probably going to cost a whole lot more than the Nothing phone.

Yea, like most of the time it'll come down to pricing. Pixel 6a seems like it's supposed to be a tad bit cheaper than the Nothing phone but that's base US announced pricing. Who knows what Google will inflate it to when it gets to the UK market. That's to say if it'll get here. Remember I snatched up the V30 right before LG started pulling out of certain countries, then the whole mobile division altogether. 

 

I'm not worried about the specs because both phones are far more powerful than my current phone. Expect for 6a storage. 128GB is gonna be tight. Out of my 192GB on my V30 I've got about 2GB left free... 

[venomtail]

16 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Assuming they cost about the same, or the 6a does not cost too much more, then it would be the better long term investment. The combination of battery capacity, good chipset, and small 60Hz screen means it will logically have outstanding battery endurance.

 

Of course that is if you can live with the limited storage and RAM.

 

By the way if you feel your V30 is sluggish it would be because most of its storage is filled. Flash storage slows down dramatically as it runs out of unused space.

I'll need to do another quarterly wipe to free up storage but I can't tell if performance slowdown is due to low storage or that and apps slowly leaving android 8.0 behind in the dust. Notice that after using lots of app storage gets less and less until I restart phone. Not sure that's how Android 8.0 is designed or there's a memory leak somewhere.

 

Always love a new kid on the block and often go with them first but this time I'm really not so sure. Yolo'd on the Play phone, the Z1 compact even on the first Honor. Pixel might have more peripherals on the market as well than the Nothing which will make life easier when trying to find cases and phone mounts but both are tearing me apart cause they have something that I want at the cost of something else. Always a compromise.

[venomtail]

41 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

And I dont know why you have to limit yourself to just these two models. The Nothing phone isn't even out yet.

 

Why would you be avoiding other phones that are already released and extensively reviewed

 

You dont even know the effective cost of obtaining one them

That's just the way I've filtered the market. My list of priorities are in order of most important to least important:

 

Size: Too many new phones have become unwieldy. Even my V30 sometimes is too big and doesn't fit in some pockets. Seeing how just about every phone is even bigger now after 5 years, I'll have to settle on phone being no bigger than my current phone, about 152mm in height.

Price: Everything is becoming more expensive I understand but no phone should cost more than £400, give or take. If there is a perfect phone I could maybe justify the cost to some £600~

Specs: I don't care about the speed of the hardware, more about the amount of things hardware allows me to do and it working 100/100 times. I need NFC, and ideally a phone should have dual sim as well as wireless charging. I travel a lot so it would be really useful if I didn't need 2 phones with me when I go abroad and wireless charging is really convenient in car and bike mounts. 

brand: I'm not a brand loyalist but I have been burned by Chinese phones, especially their OS and software so I don't want to go through that again. Maybe after 7 years Chinese brands are far better than their first introduction to the market here.

Out of all of these needs, with compromises I've come to the Pixel 6a. Still not sure so I wanted to ask on the forums. That same day I saw the Nothing phone and peaked my interest. Though maybe someone knows more about Nothing phone and their approach to software because hardware wise it has everything I need, even for an acceptable price of some £410~. I'll think about its huge size.

 

Any other suggestions go ahead, Sony Ace 3 is really good, just I have doubt it will come to my market as it might just be a Japan release 

[saintlouisbagels]

17 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Any other suggestions go ahead, Sony Ace 3 is really good, just I have doubt it will come to my market as it might just be a Japan release 

So was there anything wrong with this recommendation OP?

On 7/2/2022 at 2:26 AM, huilun02 said:

The S10 sounds like the perfect phone for you

 

6.1" 1440p60 Samsung OLED screen

Total device dimensions is slightly smaller than your V30 in both height and width

Dual sim model can take microsd card

Wireless charging

Audio jack

NFC

Now on Android 12 (OneUI is much cleaner now)

 

Came out 2019. If you can still find one new or slightly used, I dont think it would cost too much. The SD855 version is particularly worth. If you buy used, beware they might have malfunctioning screen. I dont buy used phone and cannot offer assistance.

 

After the S10, Samsung has stopped making phones this small with 1440p screen