I forgot to mention I used 13 Androids over the last 5 years, of several brands. The Mi 6 is actually the best experience I had so far, by the way.
I see you lean heavily towards Google's take on devices which is okay. But right in this thread people recommend apps to fix things that are missing from the pure Android. That is... not very okay.
When I used Samsung, they had a mini app for everything. Even their clock / alarm / stopwatch / timer app was extremely easy and convenient to use. It's hard to quantify, it's a feeling that adds up over time.
I also happen to think the Pixels take away too many features. microSD slots used to be one of the differentiating features of Android devices over iPhones, for example. Now we don't have that and we also no longer have a headphone jack, a decision that was widely frowned upon even by iPhone fans.
To me, as a mostly neutral side observer who never was fanboying on neither platform, it looks like Google is trying to emulate Apple, and is failing.
> When I used Samsung, they had a mini app for everything. Even their clock / alarm / stopwatch / timer app was extremely easy and convenient to use. It's hard to quantify, it's a feeling that adds up over time.
But you pay for that in the form of a bad core system. Samsung's kernel tuning is bad. Their low level services are bad. Their system UI is bad. I'd much rather have a healthy core system since I can't replace that than a few fancy apps that are trivially replaced via play store. It's a night & day difference between a Samsung & a Google device when you systrace them and look at how the core device is actually responding. Benchmarks don't capture this, which is why most OEMs don't bother getting it right.
If you still need microSD for some reason great, but honestly with 128gb phones I can't say I have any use for it. The phone's internal storage is more than plenty, especially with large things like photos being offloaded to cloud storage (with many providers to choose from if you don't like Google Photos for some reason). microSD was necessary when devices still had a base of 16GB, but that's not the world we live in anymore. Pixel 2's base storage is 64GB.
Google is aiming for a wider audience now and not only for techies. The average Joe and Jane don't give a damn about a healthy core system, that's not a selling point for them. They'll play with the phone and say "WTF? Google's clock app sucks!" or "Can't find anything in these settings" and will walk away. In fact, a friend of mine working in a mobile devices shop told me those exact two examples. People were baffled what was the hype about the first Pixel (or Nexus 6P) and were like "meh, show me the Samsung / iPhone". It is what it is. Call them what you want, but good UX is good UX.
Pixel is not an improved Nexus. It has aspirations for audience as wide as iPhone's and Google's marketing efforts prove it, IMO. It's time for Google's UX team to grow up and stop thinking like a bunch of nerds patting themselves on the back in the dorm room. This phase of Android development is over and won't ever come back.
> If you still need microSD for some reason great, but honestly with 128gb phones I can't say I have any use for it.
I personally agree, plus UFS 2.0 internal storage can put some laptop SSDs to shame. I am actually quite happy with a 128GB UFS 2.0 storage Android (Mi 6). I kept hearing in the past that the microSD controller introduces slowdowns in the overall system -- don't ask me how, I don't know.
Still, I knew people who claimed they needed the feature daily. I just don't see why the choice must be taken away if it didn't do any damage (if it did indeed slow down the kernel in some way then I can see a case against it though).
And why was the headphone jack removed? The device doesn't even have IP67 rating. My former S7 Edge survived falls in 5cm deep potholes full of water with its headphone jack wide open.
Dunno, man. It seems to me like Google is trying to emulate Apple and is doing a bad job at it.
"Healthy core system" and "apps for every possible quality of life improvement" aren't mutually exclusive ideas. I've heard many people pull out the "bloatware" card which is just laughable. Yeah, 0.5 - 3.0 more GB on a 128GB is bloatware... sure! Some imaginary concept of "pure OS" which never really happened and is still not happening, having in mind all the AI-related benefits Google is pitching for the Pixels.
> The average Joe and Jane don't give a damn about a healthy core system, that's not a selling point for them.
That's not true at all. Do they look for that feature on the box? No, of course not. Do they get pissed off when instagram suddenly fails to launch quickly or the device hangs randomly? Abso-fucking-lutely.
> They'll play with the phone and say "WTF? Google's clock app sucks!" or "Can't find anything in these settings" and will walk away. In fact, a friend of mine working in a mobile devices shop told me those exact two examples. People were baffled what was the hype about the first Pixel (or Nexus 6P) and were like "meh, show me the Samsung / iPhone". It is what it is. Call them what you want, but good UX is good UX.
Sounds like you haven't ever touched a Pixel phone. Bad apps or confusing settings are not accurate descriptions at all. Nor is a bad UX. The phones are superb for an average user. It's the previous Nexus owners, the ones used to settings out the wazoo and customizations for days, those are the people that are pissed off about Pixel. Not the average user.
> The device doesn't even have IP67 rating.
Pixel 2? Yes it does. It's IP67. It's not IP68, though, like the S8 is.
> That's not true at all. Do they look for that feature on the box? No, of course not. Do they get pissed off when instagram suddenly fails to launch quickly or the device hangs randomly? Abso-fucking-lutely.
That I fully agree with. :)
> Sounds like you haven't ever touched a Pixel phone. Bad apps or confusing settings are not accurate descriptions at all. Nor is a bad UX. The phones are superb for an average user. It's the previous Nexus owners, the ones used to settings out the wazoo and customizations for days, those are the people that are pissed off about Pixel. Not the average user.
I haven't owned it, yes. I got a lot of acquaintances who do. Very mixed feelings from 15+ people. Most of us felt alienated by Google's take; barely any improvements over the AOSP except the all-encompassing Google Play Services. It's quite funny how my ancient S4 had 9 quick-access setting buttons which I could customize and put on the top of the settings panel and Nexii / Pixels never had those.
Again, it's a feeling that builds up over time. At certain point you can't help but conclude "well, I guess they don't care much".
If people tell me 3 years later that the first Pixel still doesn't lag on them, I'll be very impressed. Because 99% of all Androids -- including some of the Nexii devices -- inevitably start to lag horribly after 12-18 months. That's one of the reasons I am moving away to an iPhone X. I can't play this guessing game anymore. As much as I loved Samsung devices, they were huge offenders in this regard.
> Pixel 2? Yes it does. It's IP67. It's not IP68, though, like the S8 is.
Sorry, forgot to say I was talking about the first Pixel. Good thing that the 2 finally added it, though, I am glad!
> It's quite funny how my ancient S4 had 9 quick-access setting buttons which I could customize and put on the top of the settings panel and Nexii / Pixels never had those.
Nexii/Pixels have had user-configurable quick settings for a long time now? Maybe you're referring to something else?
> Sorry, forgot to say I was talking about the first Pixel.
I see you lean heavily towards Google's take on devices which is okay. But right in this thread people recommend apps to fix things that are missing from the pure Android. That is... not very okay.
When I used Samsung, they had a mini app for everything. Even their clock / alarm / stopwatch / timer app was extremely easy and convenient to use. It's hard to quantify, it's a feeling that adds up over time.
I also happen to think the Pixels take away too many features. microSD slots used to be one of the differentiating features of Android devices over iPhones, for example. Now we don't have that and we also no longer have a headphone jack, a decision that was widely frowned upon even by iPhone fans.
To me, as a mostly neutral side observer who never was fanboying on neither platform, it looks like Google is trying to emulate Apple, and is failing.