We typically like Pixel phones a lot, but we have some reservations about Google’s quality control
Google Pixels suck.
The 4a did everything right. Plastic cover? Yeah you use a protective case anyways.
The 6a that I now have is worse. I sent back a 7pro because it was so horrible. I dont want a tablet, I want a phone.
the camera
is worse! I cant believe that but I compared pictures. At least the selfie Camera is absolute garbage.
size, shape, materials
- the phone is huge
- its rectangle size is worse to hold in the hand
- the 6a had some kind of plastic which is durable. The 7pro I had has a glass back? Wtf why?
fingerprint sensor
is so much worse. Why put it behind a display? I actually replaced one, so that is not the problem. But you cant unlock directly, they are waaay less reliable and you often need to create duplicate scans. Compare that to the damn 4a (and all other fingerprint sensors of that time) that just worked instantly.
No headphone jack
This is such a pain as an audiophile. I have awesome headphones and of course they are on a cable.
Bluetooth is factiually worse.
- It takes forever to connect (apple devices alway connect first for example).
- the controls for pause etc. take like a second to work
- you always broadcast your Bluetooth ID around
- you are attackable, like the iPhone DDOS attack
- you need more tiny battery powered devices for nothing
- headphones are always more expensive and often have worse audio quality
If you want to use normal headphones, the only good DACs are by Google and Samsung, and at least german electronic markets (!) dont have them.
And if you use a DAC, this works over USB. If you need to allow random USB devices all the time, this means you are also attackable through a cable.
My Pixel 4a is a bit slow, but the battery still lasts over a week in idle. I use it as an alarm clock now as its insecure.
I have not tested a Pixel 8, and the hardware for sure sounds appealing. But if Google continues this shitty path of useless “inventions” like the Fingerprint sensor behind the Glass, unnecessary huge and fragile phones, and purposeful decrease in security by needing Bluetooth all the time, while actively contributing to E-Waste, I will never recommend them.
This post strikes me as a little hyperbolic but I definitely agree that they’ve gone downhill in a lot of ways. I have a 3a and that genuinely feels better made than the more expensive 7a I tested recently. They had a good thing going with the size and feel of their older devices and they totally fucked it.
Pixel 8(a), until there is an alternative that meets GrapheneOS requirements. Poorly.
Does the Fairphone meet gOS’ requirements?
Edit: Apparently not, unfortunately. I’m probably gonna keep getting whatever Google comes up with next.
I have a moto g7 power. No complains here
All I know that really surprised me is I’d been disgusted with nothing phone 1 constantly rebooting for no reason since an update (still does it).
When I complained on a reddit sub about it I got a ton of replies saying it’s normal and not as bad as the pixel phones.
I’ve nowhere to go with that people are defending a completely unstable buggy phone and I’ve owned half a dozen androids before that and never seen any of them just randomly restarting.
I wouldn’t buy the phone 1 again anyway put it that way.
It was actually great until phone 2 released then they updated it to be very unstable and the cameras also got noticeably worse from updates.
On the plus side I’ve read the custom roms for it are pretty good, I haven’t went that far yet but I know I will eventually.
I used to have that issue on my midrange samsung when i set the ramplus(virtual ram in samsung) to max and did medium to heavy multi-tasking. It was mitigated in a future update but did happen once a while. The slow storage speeds combined with heavy usage of virtual ram were the main reason for that.
I’ve had pixel phones for at least 5 years now. I’ve probably had less than 10 random restarts, most of those would have been from apps crashing.
Sometimes the device gets slow and I restart it. But that happens maybe 3 times per year. Otherwise the phone only gets restarted when an update is installed.
Yeah I’m skeptical of those claims as well, I’ve never owned a phone that did it a lot until this one and I’m pretty sure it’s Nothing who introduced the vast majority of problems.
Their just too concerned with things like clothing lines and pr stunts to actually fix anything they break
Largely exaggerating bugs. If it happens to you that sucks, but I’ve never actually met anyone in the real world running into these bugs. This is “your holding it wrong” writing designed to rile up nerds.
You shouldn’t discount these reports just because you haven’t seen them yourself. I mean, how many people do you talk to in the real world about their Pixel phones? If it’s less than hundreds, it doesn’t really say much — that’s well within chance since, as the article states, the problem is inconsistency. If 1% of users experience a given problem, that’s actually a pretty big deal. If 10% experience it, it’s pitchfork time.
Pixel phones are notorious for poor quality control, and Google is notorious for poor customer support. That’s a bad combination. Lots of people have perfectly good experiences, but there are still a lot of problems that aren’t just flukes.
I read the article and I think it’s pretty fair. I’ve used a couple different Pixel models and followed their respective subreddits for years. It’s always something. Green tint, or poor signal, or overheating, or a barely-functional fingerprint reader, for example. None of these things affect everyone, but they’re real problems. Probably the fingerprint reader is the most widespread. At least that’s improved (for me) over time.
I have an 8 Pro that has had bugs since it was released.
They’re mostly frustrating inconveniences that make using it annoying. Graphical glitches, phone calls hanging up unexpectedly, being able to type even after going into open apps view, not being able to switch apps because it just disappears from the open apps view, the fingerprint sensor just not working at all sometimes, and more.
Nothing that breaks the phone, but it’s real annoying more often that it should be.
It’s interesting, it’s because of such articles and comments about the various issues (mostly battery life, and sometimes connectivity) that I didn’t consider Pixel for my new phone.
It’s sad because they are supposed to be the Android top devices. Motorola seems decent nowadays, Asus Zenfone got a lot of backlash recently about the locked bootloader, but at least their phones are compact and have audio jacks. Even Xiaomi I could consider with DNS blocking to stop the trackers, their quality-price ratio is quite good, especially second hand.
Unfortunately, the next Zenfone is looking to be quite a lot larger. I’ve been using Nexus and Pixel for years, and while my uses have always been rather simple, I’ve never had any serious issues aside from the LG bootloop on my Nexus 5x. Motorola phones get practically no updates, and unfortunately Xiaomi is a non-starter for those of us in the US.
That said, I’ve also been using Graphene, because I no longer tolerate the tracking and other productization of me. That’s not just a Google thing, nor limited to their phones, but they’re certainly one of the worst offenders. It’s ironic that their own phones offer some of the most freedom to remove them from our lives.
