Google Event 4th October

[RedRound2]

Such a disappointing phone. I actually expected a lot from google and pixel phone. The only two good things I saw were the fact that they were offering unlimited storage for photos and a claimed best camera. Other than that they basically just repeated all the google now features and again, portraying it like it was a new feature.

 

And what's up with colour naming scheme? And that unnecessary chin bar is a true eyesore

[The Benjamins]

2 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

Such a disappointing phone. I actually expected a lot from google and pixel phone. The only two good things I saw were the fact that they were offering unlimited storage for photos and a claimed best camera. Other than that they basically just repeated all the google now features and again, portraying it like it was a new feature.

 

And what's up with colour naming scheme? And that unnecessary chin bar is a true eyesore

The point of those now feature is not that they are new, it is that they work a lot better now. due to their machine learning.

[Sniperfox47]

Plus the fact that Google Assistant's new TTS sounds waaaaaaay better than the old one (there are still hiccups, but it's better), it being able to infer meaning from your words better (machine learning like he mentioned), and many other little tweaks.

 

For example, if I currently say "Okay Google, turn the volume up" she'll do it, but if I say "Okay Google, turn it up more, that wasn't loud enough" she'll just launch a Google search for "turn the volume up, that wasn't loud enough". On the other hand, the new deep learning pattern matching means if I have an internet connection she can determine that I actually wanted her to "turn the volume up" a second time, and do so. It's more natural. Instead of repeating "Okay Google Turn the volume up... Okay Google Turn the volume up... Okaaaaaaaaay Google Turn the volume up..." you can just talk to her like a person.

 

I just hope she stops turning on the screen every time I talk to her. It's really frustrating when I tell her to go to the next track and suddenly my playlist changes and I send a random text message because my pocket is rubbing against her screen...

[TidaLWaveZ]

Disappointing that the Nexus line was killed and replaced by this blatant attempt to force cloud storage and pull in iPhone users. 

 

It's a smack in the face to Nexus fans and Android die hards, but that's just like... my opinion man.

[Sniperfox47]

Force cloud storage...? How? There a 128GB option... There's USB 3.0 for thumb drives and external ssds... It offers you free cloud storage but that doesn't mean you have to use it...

 

If you mean lack of an SD card slot, none of the Nexus phones had that either. Besides, SD card speeds are atrocious. They're optimized for single big files like taking pictures or videos on a traditional camera (20MP RAW vs 12 MP DNG), not for general storage. Look at 4k performance on some of them... Once UFS is out, I hope they'll put a slot on (not holding my breath though), but just *why* does anyone use sd cards when there are sooooooooooooo many better options... (Like a Wi-Fi NAS?)

[RedRound2]

37 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

The point of those now feature is not that they are new, it is that they work a lot better now. due to their machine learning.

Really, that may be a less interesting new feature as it doesn't really have a direct implication on the day to day user yet. And also this machine learning I presume should be available to all android  so it really isnt a new feature for the pixel phone

[The Benjamins]

2 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

Really, that may be a less interesting new feature as it doesn't really have a direct implication on the day to day user yet. And also this machine learning I presume should be available to all android  so it really isnt a new feature for the pixel phone

But they are stating it is now good enough to use day to day. And I think it is a Android 7.0 feature. 

[Sniperfox47]

2 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

Really, that may be a less interesting new feature as it doesn't really have a direct implication on the day to day user yet. And also this machine learning I presume should be available to all android  so it really isnt a new feature for the pixel phone

It's a feature of Google Assistant. Google assistant is available to every android device via Allo, but at least for now the Pixel looks to be the only device that will have her intregrated, replacing Google Now.

[RedRound2]

56 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

But they are stating it is now good enough to use day to day. And I think it is a Android 7.0 feature. 

From what they demoed, it was the stuff that you could always do with Siri and Google now before. They just rebranded it and refreshed the UI

56 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

It's a feature of Google Assistant. Google assistant is available to every android device via Allo, but at least for now the Pixel looks to be the only device that will have her intregrated, replacing Google Now.

 

 

Still, it doesn't qualify as an exclusive feature and that's what the pixel phone is. Expensive with nothing unique or differentiating (Seriously, phone support was their highlight feature)  from the competition including iPhones and other android manufacturers. I pretty much see no reason to buy this phone over others

[The Benjamins]

10 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

From what they demoed, it was the stuff that you could always do with Siri and Google now before. They just rebranded it and refreshed the UI

Still, it doesn't qualify as an exclusive feature and that's what the pixel phone is. Expensive with nothing unique or differentiating (Seriously, phone support was their highlight feature)  from the competition including iPhones and other android manufacturers. I pretty much see no reason to buy this phone over others

Google now is 85% human like while google assistant is 95% human like. it is a big improvement over older systems. google now and Siri cant do all the stuff google assistant can.

[Sniperfox47]

18 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

From what they demoed, it was the stuff that you could always do with Siri and Google now before. They just rebranded it and refreshed the UI

Still, it doesn't qualify as an exclusive feature and that's what the pixel phone is. Expensive with nothing unique or differentiating (Seriously, phone support was their highlight feature)  from the competition including iPhones and other android manufacturers. I pretty much see no reason to buy this phone over others

Daydream is currently unique too. I'm curious to see price on other Daydream Ready phones, since I'm sure thats a factor into the massive cost of the Pixel.

 

And triple mics? Is that unique? I don't know how common that is on phones...

[TidaLWaveZ]

2 hours ago, Sniperfox47 said:

Force cloud storage...? How? There a 128GB option... There's USB 3.0 for thumb drives and external ssds... It offers you free cloud storage but that doesn't mean you have to use it...

 

If you mean lack of an SD card slot, none of the Nexus phones had that either. Besides, SD card speeds are atrocious. They're optimized for single big files like taking pictures or videos on a traditional camera (20MP RAW vs 12 MP DNG), not for general storage. Look at 4k performance on some of them... Once UFS is out, I hope they'll put a slot on (not holding my breath though), but just *why* does anyone use sd cards when there are sooooooooooooo many better options... (Like a Wi-Fi NAS?)

 

They're not literally forcing you to use cloud storage.  What they are doing is pushing you to either pay an extra $100 or to use cloud storage.  They don't include SD slots because they don't make money from SD card sales.  However, they do sell cloud storage.  They'll offer it up for free and after they give you some time to fill it, they'll start charging you for it.

 

None of the things you mentioned are really good substitutes for an SD card that goes in your phone given that they all require either internet access or external hardware, but my point isn't really about the lack of SD card support.

 

They've turned the Nexus line into the iPhone for android line.  Instead of making something to satisfy the tech enthusiast, they're just mirroring what Apple's been doing with it's phones for the past so many years.

[PocketNerd]

"Went to go see The Lumineers in Berkeley on Friday"

WOOOPS! Lol, Google assistant fail.

[atrash]

Seriously nothing compelling or unique with the new Pixel phones. And gtfo with those pricing Google..

[Magnetorheological]

So, remind me why they need to charge $649 base price for the Pixel again? If it was around $400 to $500 it would be way more compelling, but at this price with this set of features, it seems like Google's charging this much just because they feel like it.

[suicidalfranco]

38 minutes ago, Magnetorheological said:

So, remind me why they need to charge $649 base price for the Pixel again? If it was around $400 to $500 it would be way more compelling, but at this price with this set of features, it seems like Google's charging this much just because they feel like it.

probably to justify the 24/7 support 

[Magnetorheological]

4 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

probably to justify the 24/7 support 

And here I thought Pixel line of products were for power user/first adopters who can generally figure things out by themselves. I guess they really are targeting casual users with this phone. 

[suicidalfranco]

6 minutes ago, Magnetorheological said:

And here I thought Pixel line of products were for power user/first adopters who can generally figure things out by themselves. I guess they really are targeting casual users with this phone. 

they've stopped targeting devs/powerusers since the Nexus 6 iirc

[Magnetorheological]

Just now, suicidalfranco said:

they've stopped targeting devs/powerusers since the Nexus 6 iirc

Yeah, but that was the Nexus line of products. The Pixel line (like the first Chromebook Pixel) had expensive "testbed" products targeted towards powerusers.

[Sniperfox47]

Even the Pixel C was very powerusery... What kind of casual user needs a Tegra like that? I struggle to find games and benchmarks that have good enough graphics to even get the bloody thing warm... So yeah this definitely feels like fast a right turn...

 

At the end of the day though, Google is not a hardware company. They're not even a software company. They're a service company. It started with search, and now with Google Daydream, Assistant, Photos, and their other new services they're building it out.

 

As the early benchmarks seem to show, I don't think this is a device about getting the highest performance possible (the reported first Geekbench score has it slightly lower than the s7), I think it's about sustainable and responsive performance so that the device can give you access to their services as quick and as long as possible, while *feeling* responsive.

 

Lower heat parts and lower max clocks for longer access to daydream so you can do more VR, lower power usage and lower max clocks to keep your battery running longer through the day so you can upload more pictures, use more text to speech, see more ads, and ask assistant for more help.

 

They're saying about a 36% battery life boost between the 6P and XL on the same size of battery. Some of that comes down to 'Doze on the Go', but a lot of it likely has to do with more power efficient hardware.

[alextulu]

Going after iPhone users is one thing, but discontinuing the Nexus brand is stupid. The Pixel is just too expensive.

Why can't Google make both Pixel and Nexus phones ?

[Sniperfox47]

13 hours ago, alextulu said:

Going after iPhone users is one thing, but discontinuing the Nexus brand is stupid. The Pixel is just too expensive.

Why can't Google make both Pixel and Nexus phones ?

They didn't make the Nexus Phones, they gave basic requirements to the companies (Huawei, Samsung, LG, etc.) to make the phones and worked together on them. All of them cut corners in some way or another to have the price they had though. The Nexus 4 wasn't able to properly provide power for USB OTG, the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 had problems with charging the main board if the battery completely died, the Nexus 6 had problems with encryption performance and cut cost by not getting Miracast certified. The 5X and 6P similarly cut costs with Miracast certification and had a slew of their own problems.

 

They were great devices for developers and power users who could work around their shortcomings, but for your every day user who wants their machine to "just work", they weren't exactly the best option. That's why Nexus had to go. Because if Google is going to say "We make devices and they're awesome" they can't also be saying "but we also make devices with our partners and they have severe technical flaws because they cut corners." It would provide the wrong messages to regular customers.

 

Let me be blunt, if you're on a forum like this you're a niche user, not the common woman/man.

[AlTech]

7 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

not the common woman/man.

The political correctness is strong with this one ^^^^ .

[alextulu]

15 hours ago, Sniperfox47 said:

All of them cut corners in some way or another to have the price they had though.

Lots of Android phone manufacturers, who make $600+ flagship phones, also make cheaper phones with fewer features and lower performance.

 

All I want, is for Google to do the same.

[Sniperfox47]

4 hours ago, alextulu said:

Lots of Android phone manufacturers, who make $600+ flagship phones, also make cheaper phones with fewer features and lower performance.

 

All I want, is for Google to do the same.

I'd love to see that too, but that's not what Nexus ever was. And when you're developing a device for the first time you start with one device. You don't go "let's design our first phone, but let's not make one, let's make 3!". I imagine next year if the  #madebygoogle project continues we'll probably see the range grow, but for an initial entry to the market, to jump in with a flagship as your first device and grow from there seems to make a lot of sense.

 

As a brand it's better to have a few people talking about how great your brands quality is than a lot of people not talking about how average your mid range devices are.