Nexus-N/Pixel XL ( 2016 )

[Blaze4G]

From another [H]ard member Brett;

Unbelievably, this is looking more likely to be the case, based on yesterday's leaks.

This promo shot shows an uglified navigation bar, in addition to the Pixel Launcher and its inexplicable forced circular icons.

I wasn't interested in picking up a Pixel myself anyway, but this has me seriously worried about the future of Android in general. Stock Lollipop and Marshmallow felt like the OS had reached a state of maturity and near-perfection, and the least couple years' Nexus devices were excellent, if you didn't mind the handful of hardware compromises. Things have been looking up, other than dumb OEM skins. Now Google kills Nexus in favor of overpriced HTC junk with a custom UI?

I see absolutely nothing to look forward to on the horizon, at this point, other than for some third player to come onto the scene as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the 6P may remain *the* flagship for another year if you're a purist.

I read something on reddit that a senior person at Google said their is no reason why pixel and nexus can't coexist. Maybe it was not a senior member of Google but it was somebody reputable. The same person has also been hyping up October 4th. Saying something along the lines of people will remember October 4th 8 years from now.

I am excited for October 4th, however Google has disappointed me on the past so not getting my hopes up too much.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Maybe there still will be a Nexus 7P and these Pixel phones ? I read rumors that come December there's a possible Google phone release due, totally separate from these Pixel phones. But that rumor was back early summer.

 

[CaleM3]

Hmm, some interesting information posted by Slashgear. It looks like that funny back portion at the top could be a touchpad.

http://www.slashgear.com/key-google-pixel-phone-details-leak-from-china-26457587/

 

[phoneguy265]

Maybe there still will be a Nexus 7P and these Pixel phones ? I read rumors that come December there's a possible Google phone release due, totally separate from these Pixel phones. But that rumor was back early summer.

Nexus 7p will be a tablet I thought?

 

[mclld]

 

[CaleM3]

I like these renders. It's pretty much in line with what I was expecting.

 

[ambreaux405]

If Apple can sell the iPhone on all the carriers without any bloat or carrier branding, why couldn't Google? I admit that I don't understand myself how it all works and why iPhone can be sold without bloat and branding and other phones can't. It amazes me that Samsung, as successful as it is, still allows the carriers to mess with their phones.

At any rate I also read somewhere that Google would be offering direct financing for the Pixel phones. They did that with the Nexus last year if you had Project-Fi but I heard this year it would be separate from Project-Fi.

The 6p cheaped out a bit in relation to the n6. Screen quality was worse IMO, much dimmer as well. The 6p lost OIS. Arguably the aluminum design of the 6p was nicer, I say arguably because that's subjective, but that did make it lose wireless charging as well. Of course the 6p had a slightly smaller screen as well. The n6 was a beast of a phone, and still is. I'm not saying it was $150 more phone than the 6p, no probably not and you make good points. But I think Google at $649, they are not thinking straight and will make no inroads to any desired goal, whether it's hardware profits or having more eyeballs on their advertising. Honestly I'm baffled and I would love to be a fly on the wall in their meetings for this strategy.

Also in terms of carriers I actually hope they do NOT bring it to more carriers. F the carriers and their meddling and slow updates. Google needs to offer a product carrier free, unlocked, but works on all the carriers. If they offer a payment plan then they might stand a chance at selling some of these. But once the carriers have them they will bloat them up and subject upgrades to their own testing and release schedule. Google needs to truly become the Apple of Android and have an unadulterated product, or they might as well stay selling cheap phones to a lot of people. Yeah the carriers means more exposure, but Google has tons of money and can afford (and NEEDS to) to sink a lot of money into marketing.

step 1: provide a compelling product. Hardware: meh, free from carriers: check, instant OS updates: check

step 2: provide a payment plan with built in insurance: we don't know yet

step 3: market the crap out of it: TBD

step 4: provide stellar customer service: TBD but their customer service is great, although they don't have physical presence.

 

[spinedoc77]

If Apple can sell the iPhone on all the carriers without any bloat or carrier branding, why couldn't Google? I admit that I don't understand myself how it all works and why iPhone can be sold without bloat and branding and other phones can't. It amazes me that Samsung, as successful as it is, still allows the carriers to mess with their phones.

At any rate I also read somewhere that Google would be offering direct financing for the Pixel phones. They did that with the Nexus last year if you had Project-Fi but I heard this year it would be separate from Project-Fi.

I completely agree in principal. But Google doesn't control it's hardware beyond the Nexus line and Android is open source to a certain extent. Google's power now lies in its services/apps, which it could pull and take back for itself. But this all goes back to the weirdness of Google's strategy. If hardware profit was their strategy then it would make sense for them to pull google services/apps for themselves, and/or make a proprietary OS and try to sell phones like Apple, who do rely on hardware profit. But Google makes it's money from advertising, and for that they would want as many phones with their advertising, tracking, etc in as many hands as possible. So in that sense they may not need the carriers, but it would be desirable to get more marketing, advertising and physical floor space through the carriers. Especially noting that Google has no physical locations like Apple does.

That entire dichotomy is what confuses me. Why is Google dabbling in hardware profits when it may actually hurt it's advertising model. I'm further confused by the entire Pixel line versus Nexus, it's the same damn thing. HTC is still making the phone, it still uses Android with google services/apps. There seems to be an undercurrent of thought that Google will put something special on this phone that others don't have, a special app or software function. Personally I believe that's just hopeful thinking and they won't release squat other than maybe their trademark hideous Matias Duarte uglified design. Will they revolutionize the messaging world? No, no and no, they've already released garbage like Allo, yet still cling to Hangouts and ignore google voice. They certainly won't break free of the carriers or do anything other special. They won't surprise us and tell us they will release the Pixel with Andromeda installed.

My prediction is the Pixel will function exactly the same as the Nexus line. The carriers will pay just a tiny bit of attention to it, it will be a niche product for those of us who appreciate vanilla android and timely updates, and will semi flop like the rest. Except the flop may actually be harder because Google moronically will price these in Apple/Samsung territory, yeah good luck.

 

[Radon87000]

I am actually kinda liking it now even if its a little too iPhonish for me but because of my AW ,upgrading to this will be a complete hassle.Not to mention I dont think this will come close to the battery life of the Plus

 

[epicrayban]

Hmm, some interesting information posted by Slashgear. It looks like that funny back portion at the top could be a touchpad.

http://www.slashgear.com/key-google-pixel-phone-details-leak-from-china-26457587/

Interesting.

I think they better have some form of unique function to justify that design.

 

[spinedoc77]

Interesting.

I think they better have some form of unique function to justify that design.

That's probably the most fascinating thing I've hear about these phones. As the article alludes to, maybe it's a touchpad for desktop mode. Hopefully wireless to a monitor. Having a desktop in your smartphone has always appealed to me, giving you the possibility of truly getting rid of all the computers in your life. I don't think we are there yet, but for simple office type stuff this may be interesting. First Microsoft with continuum, and maybe Google following.

 

[phoneguy265]

You guys are going to be disappointed if that's your expectations. That author always has crazy theories for click bait. Its a design choice to show the Pixel brand differentiation. It is an extension of the 6p visor. It is a window for sensors and radios. I'll eat my hat if it is anything more.

I think the renders look wonderful. Just a few more days.

 

[tbayrgs]

You guys are going to be disappointed if that's your expectations. That author always has crazy theories for click bait. Its a design choice to show the Pixel brand differentiation. It is an extension of the 6p visor. It is a window for sensors and radios. I'll eat my hat if it is anything more.

I think the renders look wonderful. Just a few more days.

Yeah, I tend to agree--that area is for sensors and radios. Having the fingerprint reader smack in the middle of a section to be used for a trackpad--I think that's unlikely. I'd personally love it if it was to be used in a similar fashion for guesture navigation but that's not happening either.

I just read rumors/speculation from multiple sources discussing the Pixel 3 that's supposed to be the first true device using Andromeda and supposedly going to be released in Q3 2017--that's quite a ways off. No way they'll have it on the new Pixel phones. The Pixel 3 however sounds fantastic--a convertible laptop (either a tablet a la the Surface or convertible like the Yoga) running this new hybrid OS. This is exactly what I'm looking for--shame it's likely almost another year to wait for it.

 

[Fernandez21]

That's probably the most fascinating thing I've hear about these phones. As the article alludes to, maybe it's a touchpad for desktop mode. Hopefully wireless to a monitor. Having a desktop in your smartphone has always appealed to me, giving you the possibility of truly getting rid of all the computers in your life. I don't think we are there yet, but for simple office type stuff this may be interesting. First Microsoft with continuum, and maybe Google following.

I dunno, I used to think that would be a cool idea, but as time went on I think I would prefer dedicated devices. My MacBook is super thin and light and runs MacOS perfectly fine for me. I don't see how hooking up a phone to device that's similar in size would be of any benefit. And if it's to a desktop, I would prefer to have something with the real power of a desktop and not just run everything from my phone, while powerful in their own right just don't compare to the true power of a real desktop. Plus your phone would then be unavailable while it's docked.

What I really want is all my information to be continuously synced across all those devices, something Apple is slowly doing with iCloud. It still has a way to go, but I think they're on the right track. What would be really cool if you could just go up to any desktop or laptop, have your login information appear (have some sort of way where your phone/watch/or tablet comunícate with the desktop), you log in and authenticate with your mobile device and bam, all your files and apps are now available. Then when you leave, all the information is deleted from that desktop, but kept in the cloud.

 

[epicrayban]

You guys are going to be disappointed if that's your expectations. That author always has crazy theories for click bait. Its a design choice to show the Pixel brand differentiation. It is an extension of the 6p visor. It is a window for sensors and radios. I'll eat my hat if it is anything more.

.

I believe this is the case too.

 

[MRU]

It won't be a track pad. It would be a messy choice for cases, for fingerprint grease all over the camera lens etc ... it's just not a practical solution to anything and a trackpad on a touch screen device seems utterly contradictory and moribund when you already have a device you primary interaction with is your fingers.

It's like having a third testicle that doesn't produce ..

 

[kasakka]

It won't be a track pad. It would be a messy choice for cases, for fingerprint grease all over the camera lens etc ... it's just not a practical solution to anything and a trackpad on a touch screen device seems utterly contradictory and moribund when you already have a device you primary interaction with is your fingers.

I actually like the idea of a trackpad even though I agree with you that the Pixel phones won't have one because it's nowhere near practical to have it there.

With a trackpad for example reading something would mean just swiping up or down. Would feel pretty natural and avoid having a finger blocking part of the screen. For anything but swipes to some direction it would just not work without having a cursor on screen. I think it would be an interesting way to operate the phone and possibly handy for clicking links on websites that are not mobile-optimized.

 

[MRU]

I actually like the idea of a trackpad even though I agree with you that the Pixel phones won't have one because it's nowhere near practical to have it there.

With a trackpad for example reading something would mean just swiping up or down. Would feel pretty natural and avoid having a finger blocking part of the screen. For anything but swipes to some direction it would just not work without having a cursor on screen. I think it would be an interesting way to operate the phone and possibly handy for clicking links on websites that are not mobile-optimized.

You could actually use the fingerprint reader for this. It works on the Honor 8 for scrolling through Gallery, or swiping down to bring down the notification panel etc. It feels very natural there and as the area is confined into the finger print sensor area it means that you are not accidentally touching it.

 

[kasakka]

You could actually use the fingerprint reader for this. It works on the Honor 8 for scrolling through Gallery, or swiping down to bring down the notification panel etc. It feels very natural there and as the area is confined into the finger print sensor area it means that you are not accidentally touching it.

That's pretty cool. Would like to see that feature on other phones with fingerprint readers in the back.

 

[lowendlinux]

I dunno, I used to think that would be a cool idea, but as time went on I think I would prefer dedicated devices. My MacBook is super thin and light and runs MacOS perfectly fine for me. I don't see how hooking up a phone to device that's similar in size would be of any benefit. And if it's to a desktop, I would prefer to have something with the real power of a desktop and not just run everything from my phone, while powerful in their own right just don't compare to the true power of a real desktop. Plus your phone would then be unavailable while it's docked.

What I really want is all my information to be continuously synced across all those devices, something Apple is slowly doing with iCloud. It still has a way to go, but I think they're on the right track. What would be really cool if you could just go up to any desktop or laptop, have your login information appear (have some sort of way where your phone/watch/or tablet comunícate with the desktop), you log in and authenticate with your mobile device and bam, all your files and apps are now available. Then when you leave, all the information is deleted from that desktop, but kept in the cloud.

I know on my phone that doubles as a desktop the phone is available when being used as a desktop

 

[Fernandez21]

I know on my phone that doubles as a desktop the phone is available when being used as a desktop

So you can pick up the phone and do stuff on it while it's hooked up to the desktop, or are you saying your phone apps are available on the desktop and you can use it that way? I get phone calls on my Mac with continuity, but i dont like using it because everyone can hear your conversation.

 

[spinedoc77]

I dunno, I used to think that would be a cool idea, but as time went on I think I would prefer dedicated devices. My MacBook is super thin and light and runs MacOS perfectly fine for me. I don't see how hooking up a phone to device that's similar in size would be of any benefit. And if it's to a desktop, I would prefer to have something with the real power of a desktop and not just run everything from my phone, while powerful in their own right just don't compare to the true power of a real desktop. Plus your phone would then be unavailable while it's docked.

What I really want is all my information to be continuously synced across all those devices, something Apple is slowly doing with iCloud. It still has a way to go, but I think they're on the right track. What would be really cool if you could just go up to any desktop or laptop, have your login information appear (have some sort of way where your phone/watch/or tablet comunícate with the desktop), you log in and authenticate with your mobile device and bam, all your files and apps are now available. Then when you leave, all the information is deleted from that desktop, but kept in the cloud.

I think it depends on what you are doing. A smartphone is plenty powerful enough for fairly robust word processing, light to medium spreadsheets, PDF viewing/annotating, light gaming, etc. Of course some will always need more power and for that there will still be laptops, tablets and desktops. But I'll bet a whole lot of people could get by with just a single device in their lives. Once again I don't think we are quite there yet, but I think long term its' where the market is headed.

BTW your phone is still fully available when docked in Continuum, just as one example. Who knows how Google would implement it.

I also think this ties in with foldable screens. Having a tablet screen that has no PC, but hooks up to your smartphone seems kind of redundant in that you could just have a tablet, although it's not a terrible idea. But having a single device that folds out into a tablet might be pretty great. Once again we are not there yet.

 

[lowendlinux]

So you can pick up the phone and do stuff on it while it's hooked up to the desktop, or are you saying your phone apps are available on the desktop and you can use it that way? I get phone calls on my Mac with continuity, but i dont like using it because everyone can hear your conversation.

You can take phone calls and use apps just like you can without it connected.

 

[Fernandez21]

I think it depends on what you are doing. A smartphone is plenty powerful enough for fairly robust word processing, light to medium spreadsheets, PDF viewing/annotating, light gaming, etc. Of course some will always need more power and for that there will still be laptops, tablets and desktops. But I'll bet a whole lot of people could get by with just a single device in their lives. Once again I don't think we are quite there yet, but I think long term its' where the market is headed.

BTW your phone is still fully available when docked in Continuum, just as one example. Who knows how Google would implement it.

I also think this ties in with foldable screens. Having a tablet screen that has no PC, but hooks up to your smartphone seems kind of redundant in that you could just have a tablet, although it's not a terrible idea. But having a single device that folds out into a tablet might be pretty great. Once again we are not there yet.

That's good to know, I didn't realize the phone stayed independent from what is going on in the desktop. Looking forward to how things play out, it's hard to imagine that only 10 years ago the Palm Treo was considered the best in mobile smartphones and the best laptops were around an inch thick with spinning hard drives and 4hrs battery life.

 

[nviz22]

You could actually use the fingerprint reader for this. It works on the Honor 8 for scrolling through Gallery, or swiping down to bring down the notification panel etc. It feels very natural there and as the area is confined into the finger print sensor area it means that you are not accidentally touching it.

What about using 3D Touch as a touch pad? The iPhone allows people to swipe through text while 3D pressing texts or other blocks.