Anandtech Pixel XL review

[Mobilevortex]

So you're literally dividing resolution by screen size to arrive at your numbers?

[79wjd]

6 minutes ago, Mobilevortex said:

So you're literally dividing resolution by screen size to arrive at your numbers?

That's how pixel density is calculated and that's how you determine how sharp a display will look. 1080p will look better on a 5" device than it will look on a 100" device. You have the same number of pixels on both devices (2,073,600 pixels). Which means that on the 100" display each pixel is much larger, and thus will be much easier to see (and thus you will need to be further from the screen to not be able to see individual pixels).

 

 

 

Because I'm lazy and don't feel like doing all the math myself, I'm using the "is it retina" calculator: http://isthisretina.com/ (which is the required pixel density at a given viewing distance such that an average person can't discern individual pixels).

 

5.5" 1080p display becomes retina at >= 9 inches

27" 1440p display becomes retina at >= 32 inches

 

So assume the typical viewing distance for a phone is about 10-16" while the typical viewing distance for a computer monitor is 24-30". So 1080p @ 5.5" will always be considered "retina" while 1440p @ 27" will never be considered retina.

 

Now, the importance of the "isitretina" calculator isn't to argue over what is retina or what is not, the point is that at average viewing distances, 1080p @ 5.5" will be sharper than 1440p @ 27". 

[Unhelpful]

2 minutes ago, Mobilevortex said:

So you're literally dividing resolution by screen size to arrive at your numbers?

You have to quote people for them to notice

 

@djdwosk97

[Mobilevortex]

3 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

You have to quote people for them to notice

 

@djdwosk97

Thanks =D

[Bouzoo]

After this and the review from GSMArena, imo there is no doubt that the V20 is the best Android phone out there. I'm definitely getting one if they ever decide to sell the damn thing in Europe which they stated they won't. One can hope.

[Mobilevortex]

8 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

That's how pixel density is calculated and that's how you determine how sharp a display will look. 1080p will look better on a 5" device than it will look on a 100" device. You have the same number of pixels on both devices (2,073,600 pixels). Which means that on the 100" display each pixel is much larger, and thus will be much easier to see (and thus you will need to be further from the screen to not be able to see individual pixels).

I learned something today, thank you for that. Guess I really am overdue for a monitor upgrade lol.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, Mobilevortex said:

I learned something today, thank you for that. Guess I really am overdue for a monitor upgrade lol.

Well, be careful with that since Windows has piss poor UI scaling. So, 4k isn't quite the answer yet with Windows. 

[Curufinwe_wins]

13 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

snip

Pixels per degree is actually the physical phemonena we perceive as sharpness.

 

Anyways the issue with 5.5" 1080p is specific to using AMOLED Pentile, which literally CUTS IN HALF the red and blue pixel density of the screen.

 

 

Thus the 1+3 is a 1080p green phone but has a lower blue/red resolution than the iPhone 6s which is a 4.7" screen and side by side the difference is noticeable.

 

This is a huge loss of resolution and why Anandtech and others keep saying PENTILE Amoled should be 1440p at those 5+ inch size.

[ThinkWithPortals]

49 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

We as tech enthusiasts often forget that normal people don't care about specs.

This! So much this.

 

I have a friend who the other day told me she was about to go to a big computer retailer to buy a new laptop. Asked her how she'd choose which one to get (I was hoping for an answer like "whichever has the most RAM" or "whichever has the best screen" at least) but she just said that she'd look at the colours each of them came in and type on a few, then decide.

 

Average Joe doesn't care about specs.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just now, ThinkWithPortals said:

This! So much this.

 

I have a friend who the other day told me she was about to go to a big computer retailer to buy a new laptop. Asked her how she'd choose which one to get (I was hoping for an answer like "whichever has the most RAM" or "whichever has the best screen" at least) but she just said that she'd look at the colours each of them came in and type on a few, then decide.

 

Average Joe doesn't care about specs.

You can claim that all you want, but the slightly-above average joe is far more a spec whore than we are.

 

IG the people that STILL AFTER 5 YEARS think the FX is better than an Intel i5 at gaming because it is 8 "cores" at "5Ghz".

 

Or the same people who go and look "OOOOOHHH! That laptop has an i7, it must be good!"

[ThinkWithPortals]

2 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

IG the people that STILL AFTER 5 YEARS think the FX is better than an Intel i5 at gaming because it is 8 "cores" at "5Ghz".

Average Joe won't know what an FX or an i5 are. They won't know what a core is or what GHz means. In fact, Average Joe probably won't know exactly what a CPU is or how it works.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

Average Joe won't know what an FX or an i5 are. They won't know what a core is or what GHz means. In fact, Average Joe probably won't know exactly what a CPU is or how it works.

Yes and no. The average joe might not know what an FX cpu is because they don't even reconigze AMD, but they will more than likely recognize that an i7 is better than an i5. 

 

Then there are the "gamer joes", who still don't know shit, but see 8 cores @ 5ghz and think it's better. 

 

The problem is that there is no one "average joe" group. There are multiple with different levels of knowledge/intentions. 

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just now, ThinkWithPortals said:

Average Joe won't know what an FX or an i5 are. They won't know what a core is or what GHz means. In fact, Average Joe probably won't know exactly what a CPU is or how it works.

Slightly above average joe does. 

 

Average joe gamer does, and gets that messed up all the time.

 

They know what FX/core/Ghz means without knowing what a cpu does or how it works, only that "more is better" as was driven into them for literally 2 DECADES of advertisements by Intel and AMD prior to the true end of the GHz race with the release of the Core uArch.

[Curufinwe_wins]

4 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Yes and no. The average joe might not know what an FX cpu is because they don't even reconigze AMD, but they will more than likely recognize that an i7 is better than an i5. 

 

Then there are the "gamer joes", who still don't know shit, but see 8 cores @ 5ghz and think it's better. 

 

The problem is that there is no one "average joe" group. There are multiple with different levels of knowledge/intentions. 

Speaking of which, I had to explain to a friend recently who would fall under the "gamer joe tag" that A) an i5 6400 was significantly better for gaming than his 8350, and B) that the 370 he was getting as part of an RMA for his 270x was a downgrade.

 

He was quite distraught.

[Mobilevortex]

21 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Well, be careful with that since Windows has piss poor UI scaling. So, 4k isn't quite the answer yet with Windows. 

Yes I found that out first hand, I ran myonitor at full resolution and couldn't read anything. Did the scaling and it looked awful so I went back to 1080p.

[patrick3027]

24 minutes ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

This! So much this.

 

I have a friend who the other day told me she was about to go to a big computer retailer to buy a new laptop. Asked her how she'd choose which one to get (I was hoping for an answer like "whichever has the most RAM" or "whichever has the best screen" at least) but she just said that she'd look at the colours each of them came in and type on a few, then decide.

 

Average Joe doesn't care about specs.

Average Joe also doesn't read Anandtech. 

 

I don't browse this forum to talk with (or about) Average Joe. 

[ThinkWithPortals]

Just now, patrick3027 said:

Average Joe also doesn't read Anandtech. 

 

I don't browse this forum to talk with (or about) Average Joe. 

When did I say that Average Joe either read Anandtech or browsed LTT?

 

(I didn't)

[patrick3027]

3 minutes ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

When did I say that Average Joe either read Anandtech or browsed LTT?

 

(I didn't)

I made this thread to discuss the phone, saying that average Joe doesn't care about specs is irrelevant to me. So why bring him up?  I couldn't care less if this phone is popular or if it sells well. I just want other people to know it's an overpriced Oneplus 3.  

[Misanthrope]

34 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

You can claim that all you want, but the slightly-above average joe is far more a spec whore than we are.

 

IG the people that STILL AFTER 5 YEARS think the FX is better than an Intel i5 at gaming because it is 8 "cores" at "5Ghz".

 

Or the same people who go and look "OOOOOHHH! That laptop has an i7, it must be good!"

We're not saying people are fucking idiots of course. 

 

Take her friend: she looked at the colors and typed a bit. Might seem superficial at best but if she founds herself on a beautiful looking mac clone that takes 2 seconds to react to her commands and 10 seconds to open internet explorer, she'd probably walk away from it.

 

Saying that users don't care about specs doesn't means they don't care about the user experience. This is why the iphone is among the best selling phones: even with underwhelming capacity for storage and ram, they refined the user experience to feel very fluid and responsive.

 

So if you put a bunch of regular customers trying out laptops they would probably see no differences between a relatively well suited i3 rig and a top of the line AMD APU system or a super expensive i7 rig. Whichever looks the best and feel relatively fluid and responsive will get their attention, even if we would say "What the fuck apple 2 cores? 16gb of ram for a pro device?" because we know the extra speed comes in handy for editing video, streaming, etc. People just look at a nice looking device and go "Oh nice color, let me type in a little, feels snappy things open quickly, salesman says it has the i5 something which is very recent tech, pack it up!"

[ThinkWithPortals]

3 minutes ago, patrick3027 said:

I made this thread to discuss the phone, saying that average Joe doesn't care about specs is irrelevant to me. So why bring him up?  I couldn't care less if this phone is popular or if it sells well. I just want other people to know it's an overpriced Oneplus 3.  

Wasn't me who brought it up. I just added to what Misanthrope said about it.

[Mobilevortex]

2 minutes ago, patrick3027 said:

I made this thread to discuss the phone, saying that average Joe doesn't care about specs is irrelevant to me. So why bring him up?  I couldn't care less if this phone is popular or if it sells well. I just want other people to know it's an overpriced Oneplus 3.  

As a slightly above average Joe (I'm new to the forums) I am appreciating the average Joe talk. Like I said earlier I've already purchased a pixel I'm just waiting for it to ship. I read about half of that crazy long article including the intro and final thoughts and I did not get the definitive clear message that the Pixel is an over priced OnePlus three. 

 

Just my two cents from a fairly average perspective.

[Nowak]

53 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

After this and the review from GSMArena, imo there is no doubt that the V20 is the best Android phone out there. I'm definitely getting one if they ever decide to sell the damn thing in Europe which they stated they won't. One can hope.

If you ever end up with the V20, be careful with the camera; the glass is prone to shattering.

[The Benjamins]

I so far love my Pixel X, and has had better connection to the Fi network then my old Nexus 6. I almost never lose 4G and I had no issues when I drove from Maryland to Detroit for youma con. I just got my dbrand skins in but I need to get a cheap hair dryer or heat gun to install them.

[patrick3027]

1 minute ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

Wasn't me who brought it up. I just added to what Misanthrope said about it.

But you decided to elaborate on what he said and agree with it. 

 

You could literally post "specs don't matter to the average Joe" on every thread talking about hardware, but what would we gain/learn from that ? 

[Bouzoo]

3 minutes ago, Daring said:

If you ever end up with the V20, be careful with the camera; the glass is prone to shattering.

 

Even though it has the military grade build, I'd still rock a big case on it, same how I have the huge Spigen Slim Armor on my G2. Absolutely worth it for those few cases it drops, though It doesn't drop often, if at all.