Google Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL

[pika2000]

Regardless, it takes a two minute conversation to explain to the average user why it's important to have timely software updates. Most people simply don't have that talk.

My point is, it's pointless talking about how important updates are here. Majority here doesn't care. Just want to save you some breath.

 

[Awesomesince86]

If social media is the standard by which we judge product quality, head over to the iPhone forum. Apparently, the iPhone XS Max has a horrible radio because so many people are having problems with it. Of course we know that's not true, but for whatever reason you seem to not afford Google that luxury.

I had an iPhone XS Max. The radio was horrible and Apple would not replace it. Go post that on reddit because i honestly don't care. I'm done with Apple and their mega tax.

And I still don't get you, man. You join an Apple forum as an iPhone owner and spend all your time giving grief to people on the Android forum.
[doublepost=1547997053][/doublepost]
Your insult hurling doesn't do much to bolster your argument.

• The note is unique for having a stylus. Almost none of their other competitors have a stylus
• I admitted that 4 GB of ram may be problematic in a couple of years, but Google is uniquely positioned to work the software to facilitate 4 GB of RAM
• It does not matter which phone has the best hardware camera when Google and Apple (despite the XS hiccup) are working wonders with photos. All that matters is the photos
• When you explain it to the average person, people care about on time updates. You cannot, in an age where data is being compromised constantly, argue on timely security updates don't matter.
• The software on Samsung devices still kind of stinks. It's definitely closer, but their services just aren't as good. Bixby? lol. It all just feels cheap, the look and feel is off. You pay all this money for expensive hardware and you have to live with a second rate software experience.

Here's the ridiculous thing about your argument: OnePlus 6T. OnePlus 6T makes every phone on the market look overpriced. The fact that you tried to argue "Pixel is overpriced" with the ridiculously priced Note 9 is a non-starter.

First off, go back and read your post. You started the insult hurling.

As for the bullets...

• The point isn't that Google can alter software to work with 4 gb of RAM. The point is that for the premium flagship phone they are pricing it as, they shouldn't have to. 6 gb of RAM should've been a no brainer and wouldn't even have dented their bottom line on the device. It was a lazy decision by Google.
• Again, most people don't care about timely updates. You can argue they should care and I fully agree. We're posting on a tech site so obviously we care. But if you ask the average smartphone user right now, what version and security update their device is...they would have no clue. That's a fact.
• Regarding Samsung, we'll have to disagree here. Bixby sucks but everything else is pretty solid. It's not a laggy, cartoonish mess anymore and actually adds functionally.

Telling me I'm ridiculous for comparing the Pixel to another similary priced Android phone when you tried to use the Pixels current sale price in a value argument instead of the MSRP is rich. The 6T just stregnthens my argument of why in my original post I said Google needs to step up their hardware if they want to justify a 1k phone. For 1k there shouldn't be any shortcuts or concessions being made, especially with phone like the 6T going for half the price and beating the pixel in certain aspects of hardware and software. If you are going to sell the public a 1k phone, it should be heads and shoulders above the other cheaper phones on the market. The pixel isn't. And again this is coming from a Pixel 3 XL owner. It's a great phone, but it's not a 1k phone.

 

[Phil A.]

Mod Note
I've deleted several off topic posts that were little more than bickering and were dragging this thread off topic. Please keep on topic and if you want to discuss something unrelated to the thread, feel free to start a new one

 

[Michael Goff]

First off, go back and read your post. You started the insult hurling.

As for the bullets...

• The point isn't that Google can alter software to work with 4 gb of RAM. The point is that for the premium flagship phone they are pricing it as, they shouldn't have to. 6 gb of RAM should've been a no brainer and wouldn't even have dented their bottom line on the device. It was a lazy decision by Google.
• Again, most people don't care about timely updates. You can argue they should care and I fully agree. We're posting on a tech site so obviously we care. But if you ask the average smartphone user right now, what version and security update their device is...they would have no clue. That's a fact.
• Regarding Samsung, we'll have to disagree here. Bixby sucks but everything else is pretty solid. It's not a laggy, cartoonish mess anymore and actually adds functionally.

Telling me I'm ridiculous for comparing the Pixel to another similary priced Android phone when you tried to use the Pixels current sale price in a value argument instead of the MSRP is rich. The 6T just stregnthens my argument of why in my original post I said Google needs to step up their hardware if they want to justify a 1k phone. For 1k there shouldn't be any shortcuts or concessions being made, especially with phone like the 6T going for half the price and beating the pixel in certain aspects of hardware and software. If you are going to sell the public a 1k phone, it should be heads and shoulders above the other cheaper phones on the market. The pixel isn't. And again this is coming from a Pixel 3 XL owner. It's a great phone, but it's not a 1k phone.

I am going to bounce off of one of your points. Google can only make their own software work better with 4gb of RAM. They cannot effect 99.999% of software that is on the platform. They can't even stop malware from showing up on the Google Play Store, the chances of them being able to push better working software is just plain laughable.

 

[Awesomesince86]

I am going to bounce off of one of your points. Google can only make their own software work better with 4gb of RAM. They cannot effect 99.999% of software that is on the platform. They can't even stop malware from showing up on the Google Play Store, the chances of them being able to push better working software is just plain laughable.

That is a giant exaggeration. Google have in fact fixed most of the major software issues that plagued the Pixels at release. The one they still struggle with are performance issues surrounding the low RAM on the device. Android as an OS is just resource hungry which is why people complained about having only 4gb of RAM in a flagship as not being enough. But saying that 99.9% of the OS is 3rd party apps is pretty ridiculous.

As for the malware comment, I'm pretty sure that has happened on iOS as well. It's hard to monitor all of the millions of apps in the respective stores.

 

[Michael Goff]

That is a giant exaggeration. Google have in fact fixed most of the major software issues that plagued the Pixels at release. The one they still struggle with are performance issues surrounding the low RAM on the device. Android as an OS is just resource hungry which is why people complained about having only 4gb of RAM in a flagship as not being enough. But saying that 99.9% of the OS is 3rd party apps is pretty ridiculous.

As for the malware comment, I'm pretty sure that has happened on iOS as well. It's hard to monitor all of the millions of apps in the respective stores.

Yeah, they're both guilty of it.

 

[Michael Goff]

https://www.techradar.com/news/possible-pixel-4-benchmark-appears-with-snapdragon-855-and-6gb-of-ram

Maybe they learned from the complaints this year.

 

[Vegastouch]

I think the Pixel Lite basically guarantees the 4 won't go down in price.

That being said, there were so many sales after Thanksgiving, the Pixel 3/XL price was $650, $700 for much of the year

But with it exclusively on Verizon, it won't sell many either. I don't know why companies give exclusives. It's not like Google needs exclusive bonus money or something to do that. Your sales will always suffer from it.

 

[AustinIllini]

But with it exclusively on Verizon, it won't sell many either. I don't know why companies give exclusives. It's not like Google needs exclusive bonus money or something to do that. Your sales will always suffer from it.

The best way to sell a phone in North America is to get it in a carrier store. The problem is, it's hard to get your phone in a carrier store without ceding some exclusivity.

For Google, it's probably still worth getting into a carrier store. Non-techies don't really understand the concept of a locked phone.

 

[Vegastouch]

What hardware feature is it missing? Let's compare it with another 1k Android phone, the Note 9. The Note has microsd support, a greater screen to body ratio, a built in stylus, better build quality, less quality control problems, dual rear cameras, but most importantly top of the line internal specs. Make no mistake, 4 gigs of RAM for a flagship Android phone is a joke.

You mention it having the best camera. You realize there's nothing special about the hardware for the camera in the Pixel, right? Plenty of other phones have more impressive cameras spec wise. It's Googles photo processing that makes the camera so good. So again, this falls under software and not hardware.

As for you saying Samsung is far behind Android from a software standpoint, go ahead and elaborate. I'd love to hear more unsupported nonsense that you can't back up. Because it doesn't get as timely of updates? Ok, that's one thing that frankly 90% of the population doesnt care about. I'm a Pixel owner and I've owned Samsung devices and their software is much improved from the TouchWiz days. It has more features than stock Android, that's just a fact. Whether all these features are useful is up for debate. Stock Android is smoother and visually cleaner but the new One UI improves the look drastically. Basically, you're way off base here.

Finally, when it comes to your pricing nonsense. So you're judging phones based on their current sale price and not the MSRP? That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. So does that mean because the Note 9 is offered in BOGO deals that we should judge it as being free or half off? If so, that's a hell of a deal. Simply put, the pixel 3 XL is a 1k phone that other than stock Android, top class camera, and quick updates doesn't justify the price .

I for one don't care for stock Android and like the extra features Samsung adds to their phones.
Would I like to get current OS updates? Sure but as long as I'm on the latest .....meaning 8.0 instead of 7.0 then it's not going to stop me from buying it. And even then, my tablet is on 7.0 and is over two years old (Tab S2) and I have no plans to get another one unless this one breaks.
But I do like to have my phone on the newest OS since I use it more than my Tablet. But if I don't get 8.1.1 or whatever it is on now, no big deal. It's still working fine.

 

[slitherjef]

I for one don't care for stock Android and like the extra features Samsung adds to their phones.
Would I like to get current OS updates? Sure but as long as I'm on the latest .....meaning 8.0 instead of 7.0 then it's not going to stop me from buying it. And even then, my tablet is on 7.0 and is over two years old (Tab S2) and I have no plans to get another one unless this one breaks.
But I do like to have my phone on the newest OS since I use it more than my Tablet. But if I don't get 8.1.1 or whatever it is on now, no big deal. It's still working fine.

If Samsung allowed me unlock the bootloader on a note 9 or s10, I'd be all over it... I imagine a lot of other pixel users would be also.

 

[5105973]

https://www.techradar.com/news/possible-pixel-4-benchmark-appears-with-snapdragon-855-and-6gb-of-ram

Maybe they learned from the complaints this year.

Yeah at this point you'd think those specs have to be table stakes for the Pixel 4. I'm not even sure I'd bother to upgrade if the Pixel 4 tries to foist off 4 gb of ram on us in 2019. Because as much as I love my 3XL so far, I also get along swimmingly with my S9+ and would happily pick up one of the S10's that will surely be temptingly discounted by the time the Pixel 4 is announced. Heck, the Note 10 will be out and discounted by then. But I think these specs will be what we get.

I don't get the sense Google is being too stupid with these phones. They popped the price way too high this year, but then discounted them back down to last year's prices. The sales attracted idiots like me looking for a deal and probably brought them a fair bit of attention and the price they were happy to get anyway, so it wasn't the worst strategy in the world.

They also learned their lesson about shipping them out with no signature required.

They went with Samsung for much better displays on the XL's and gave us Samsung--like display settings. So, basically they kept most of the things that worked and addressed a lot that didn't.

The notch is absolutely comical and needs to go or be reduced. Oddly I prefer it to my iPhone's notch when in actual use. I just think all notches are goofy.

I just hope if they do implement face ID they still leave a fingerprint sensor on the back. I'm glad to be back with a form of touch ID. It would be great to have both.

 

[Michael Goff]

Yeah at this point you'd think those specs have to be table stakes for the Pixel 4. I'm not even sure I'd bother to upgrade if the Pixel 4 tries to foist off 4 gb of ram on us in 2019. Because as much as I love my 3XL so far, I also get along swimmingly with my S9+ and would happily pick up one of the S10's that will surely be temptingly discounted by the time the Pixel 4 is announced. Heck, the Note 10 will be out and discounted by then. But I think these specs will be what we get.

I don't get the sense Google is being too stupid with these phones. They popped the price way too high this year, but then discounted them back down to last year's prices. The sales attracted idiots like me looking for a deal and probably brought them a fair bit of attention and the price they were happy to get anyway, so it wasn't the worst strategy in the world.

They also learned their lesson about shipping them out with no signature required.

They went with Samsung for much better displays on the XL's and gave us Samsung--like display settings. So, basically they kept most of the things that worked and addressed a lot that didn't.

The notch is absolutely comical and needs to go or be reduced. Oddly I prefer it to my iPhone's notch when in actual use. I just think all notches are goofy.

I just hope if they do implement face ID they still leave a fingerprint sensor on the back. I'm glad to be back with a form of touch ID. It would be great to have both.

Well, the iPhone notch blends in with the system UI better.

But yeah, by the time the Pixel 4XL is out there will be plenty of "half off S10+" sales where the only advantages the Pixel will have are quicker updates and subjectively better camera.

I wonder how Q will stack up to One UI in terms of ... well, UI. Samsung seems to be putting a lot of thought into how to make big phones more friendly.

 

[kazmac]

No notch and better pricing?

Yes, I would trade in my 8+ for these.

 

[AustinIllini]

I am thinking I hold off on a new phone until a 5G Pixel phone but the no notch design would be tempting.

 

[jamezr]

I am thinking I hold off on a new phone until a 5G Pixel phone but the no notch design would be tempting.

I like that logic...they say most of the 5G rollout will happen later this year and going into 2020. So phones released later in the year should have 5G or risk being outdated when the BIG hype about 5G and 5G phones gets ramped up during that time frame.

 

[pika2000]

I like that logic...they say most of the 5G rollout will happen later this year and going into 2020. So phones released later in the year should have 5G or risk being outdated when the BIG hype about 5G and 5G phones gets ramped up during that time frame.

I wouldn’t touch 5G phones in their early iterations. Even Qualcomm showed how large the chip and many extra hardware needed to implement their first gen 5G. Many of the components are not integrated yet, and there are new requirements for antennas. And we’re not even talking about carrier compatibility yet (or lack thereof).

 

[AustinIllini]

I wouldn’t touch 5G phones in their early iterations. Even Qualcomm showed how large the chip and many extra hardware needed to implement their first gen 5G. Many of the components are not integrated yet, and there are new requirements for antennas. And we’re not even talking about carrier compatibility yet (or lack thereof).

We also know Apple tends to hold back on the implementation of new technologies like 5G. There was some thought that 4G would reach the iPhone in the iPhone 4 but Apple (rightly) waited another two years to implement it. There seems to be 2020 rumors for iPhone and I can't imagine Pixel will be that far behind.

 

[5105973]

Has anyone come across any rumors about what happened to their design team/s? If memory serves me correctly, the last rumor about them was the new HTC engineers they had acquired were pitted against the old design team in designing the Pixel 3. I don’t know how true that was as there were all kinds of crazy rumors to explain the disparity in design language between the larger and smaller models.

I wonder if they will have a cohesive design between the smaller and larger Pixel 4’s. I shudder to think we would have yet another generation of Pixels in which the two different sizes of supposedly the same model look like they came from different companies, at least from the front.

 

[AustinIllini]

Has anyone come across any rumors about what happened to their design team/s? If memory serves me correctly, the last rumor about them was the new HTC engineers they had acquired were pitted against the old design team in designing the Pixel 3. I don’t know how true that was as there were all kinds of crazy rumors to explain the disparity in design language between the larger and smaller models.

I wonder if they will have a cohesive design between the smaller and larger Pixel 4’s. I shudder to think we would have yet another generation of Pixels in which the two different sizes of supposedly the same model look like they came from different companies, at least from the front.

I've heard Pixel 3 is the last of the non-HTC Pixels. I do not think anyone has determined for sure.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Any rumors on the sizes for the Pixel 4 and 4 XL ?

With new phones like the Galaxy S10, they've gotten larger, wonder if the Pixel 4 will follow suit? Maybe a 6.1" Pixel 4 with 3,500mAh battery ? And a Pixel 4 XL 6.5" with 4,000mAh battery?

Rocking the Pixel 3 XL right now, and loving it, no other phone I'd take right now, super smooth and fast, camera is AMAZING always taking the best pictures, and monthly updates like clockwork. Looking forward to Android Q beta

 

[nviz22]

Does Google boost trade in values when their new phones release? My choices are coming down to a S10/S10+, Pixel 4, or maybe the OnePlus 7.

 

[Harthag]

https://www.techradar.com/news/possible-pixel-4-benchmark-appears-with-snapdragon-855-and-6gb-of-ram

Maybe they learned from the complaints this year.

I would make the argument that even 6gb isn't enough for the Pixel 4 considering what Samsung and OnePlus have done. Granted I only use on average 2.2gb on my Pixel 3 XL, so I'll be fine with 6gb. But for a late 2019 into 2020 "flagship" I have a slight problem with "only" 6gb of memory. If the Pixel 4 has base specs of 6gb memory and 64gb storage at the current price point of the 3, that will be a complete joke in my mind.

 

[AustinIllini]

I would make the argument that even 6gb isn't enough for the Pixel 4 considering what Samsung and OnePlus have done. Granted I only use on average 2.2gb on my Pixel 3 XL, so I'll be fine with 6gb. But for a late 2019 into 2020 "flagship" I have a slight problem with "only" 6gb of memory. If the Pixel 4 has base specs of 6gb memory and 64gb storage at the current price point of the 3, that will be a complete joke in my mind.

That's a step too far. Samsung needs more RAM because they re-engineer the interface on top. Google should be able to release a phone with 6 GB of RAM running Android with the Pixel launcher and performance should be great.

 

[Cryates]

The Pixel 4 Looks Pretty Damn Good in New Renders

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/pixel-4-renders-leaks,news-29643.html

I'm assuming the top picture is the Pixel 4, with the bottom two being the XL model. It appears they would be keeping the front-facing stereo speakers, which would be absolutely awesome. Throw in 6GB of RAM and a 4,000mah battery and that's a day one purchase for me.