Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL

[torana355]

It's all about the bottom dollar with ALL phone manufacturers.

Will we look back 50 years from now & remember those good few years certain manufacturers kept a feature not essential to everyone instead of culling it, & respect them all the more for it?

All companies are out to make money, no doubt, but some offer better value for money. Apple squeezes every last last drop out of the lemon at the expense of the consumer. There is a reason Apple makes so much money, and I guess you have to take your hats off to them because they rip customers off while the customers defend them to the hilt. Its genius really.

 

[epicrayban]

I get the feeling we may at some point have the 3.5mm jack return.

There's a lot of things happening in tech that I see sort of regressing in future, not just in smartphones a number of areas like Car infotainment systems that include climate control in the screen, etc etc... There's just some old school stuff that should be left alone until a real and proper replacement is found.

Nothing has truly replaced the 3.5mm jack. The amount of times I have forgotten to charge my headphones and have had to go back to wired ones while the BT ones charge has had me just leave my BT ones at home lately.

In actual fact in the last 2months I have been so busy that I have simply been using the wired headphones, my BT ones have been sitting in my laptop bag, still dead from the day I used them until they ran out of battery and I have been too lazy to pull them in when I can just take out the wired ones and play for as long as my phone and laptop are alive.

The inconveniences of losing the headphone jack has been felt by me, too. Again, I'm all for a wireless future, but it's clear some are way too far ahead of the ball on this one.

I don't see Apple bringing back the jack ever.

Google? There's more of a chance with them, but still very doubtful. Certainly no indication of a return in the Pixel 3 leaks so far.

 

[Oohara]

I get the feeling we may at some point have the 3.5mm jack return.

There's a lot of things happening in tech that I see sort of regressing in future, not just in smartphones a number of areas like Car infotainment systems that include climate control in the screen, etc etc... There's just some old school stuff that should be left alone until a real and proper replacement is found.

Nothing has truly replaced the 3.5mm jack. The amount of times I have forgotten to charge my headphones and have had to go back to wired ones while the BT ones charge has had me just leave my BT ones at home lately.

In actual fact in the last 2months I have been so busy that I have simply been using the wired headphones, my BT ones have been sitting in my laptop bag, still dead from the day I used them until they ran out of battery and I have been too lazy to pull them in when I can just take out the wired ones and play for as long as my phone and laptop are alive.

I don't see the big players going back on their decision to ditch the jack, I'm sure they think that'd hurt their image too much. Certainly the case with Apple at least.

The one thing that makes me regret buying the iPhone 7 Plus more than anything else is all the times I've wanted to charge and listen to music at the same time, but haven't been able to because of no freaking jack. I have a pair of awesome wired noise cancelling headphones since before I bought this phone, **** me if I'm going to buy a wireless version just because Apple forces me to.

Ditching the jack is just a way of twisting our arm into buying new peripherals, really a show of lack of respect of the customer. This is why I'm turning to Samsung for my next phone. With them I have more of a sense of giving customers what they actually need, and in the process they prove beyond doubt that a state of the art smartphone can have a headphone jack without sacrificing anything necessary.

 

[sunking101]

It's the additional drain on the phone battery that puts me off ditching the headphone jack. If the phone manufacturers give me a removable battery that I can buy online, genuine in manufacturer packaging, that I can slip into my phone via a sealed cover like a SIM and SD card then by all means faff about with bluetooth accessories. If however you continue to sell me thousand dollar phones with welded in batteries where I have to prise the phone apart in order to replace the $10 battery, then sod off implementing further drain and thus shortening the life of my device even further.

 

[akash.nu]

It's the additional drain on the phone battery that puts me off ditching the headphone jack. If the phone manufacturers give me a removable battery that I can buy online, genuine in manufacturer packaging, that I can slip into my phone via a sealed cover like a SIM and SD card then by all means faff about with bluetooth accessories. If however you continue to sell me thousand dollar phones with welded in batteries where I have to prise the phone apart in order to replace the $10 battery, then sod off implementing further drain and thus shortening the life of my device even further.

In terms of battery life, modern Bluetooth technology is way more optimised compared to previous years. If I constantly stream audio on my 8 Plus, it loses around 2% in half an hour I think. That’s pretty acceptable if you ask me.

 

[jamezr]

In terms of battery life, modern Bluetooth technology is way more optimised compared to previous years. If I constantly stream audio on my 8 Plus, it loses around 2% in half an hour I think. That’s pretty acceptable if you ask me.

I bought an AW 3 recently and paired it with my 8 Plus. The battery hit has been quite noticeable

 

[sunking101]

In terms of battery life, modern Bluetooth technology is way more optimised compared to previous years. If I constantly stream audio on my 8 Plus, it loses around 2% in half an hour I think. That’s pretty acceptable if you ask me.

Not bad admittedly. I still hate the concept of BT earbuds though. Why fix what wasn't broken.

 

[akash.nu]

I bought an AW 3 recently and paired it with my 8 Plus. The battery hit has been quite noticeable

Ah. I don’t use an  Watch. It might be down to the Bluetooth profile being used. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[akash.nu]

Not bad admittedly. I still hate the concept of BT earbuds though. Why fix what wasn't broken.

If we don’t make changes and try new options then we will never explore new frontiers. That’s just the natural progression of technology.

We’d have never reached the moon or even think about going to mars if we were content with “what works”. This is just natural human instinct.

Also, the tech industry wants to survive and move forward. If people start being happy with what we already have then the industry will just die due to lack of direction and innovation.

 

[sunking101]

If we don’t make changes and try new options then we will never explore new frontiers. That’s just the natural progression of technology.

We’d have never reached the moon or even think about going to mars if we were content with “what works”. This is just natural human instinct.

Also, the tech industry wants to survive and move forward. If people start being happy with what we already have then the industry will just die due to lack of direction and innovation.

I absolutely get all that but only where change is an improvement. Change for change's sake is silly and this talk of getting to the moon would be easier with one less battery to charge or go wrong. A simple wired connection with no drain, better audio quality, allowing the use of cheaper earbuds and with one less battery to charge is a raft full of positives compared to >>>> more expensive earbuds, less easily replaced due to cost, worse sound quality (surely the dealbreaker when it comes to an audio accessory) and an additional battery to drain. There are simply no positives worth a damn other than 'no more tangled wires' and a slew of genuine negatives.

 

[epicrayban]

Leaked Pixel 3 XL case reconfirms the presence of a single rear camera

Boo.

I guess more accurate portrait mode photos aren't that important. A second camera could have been used for more zoom, too. Bit of a shame Google insists on being behind in hardware.

And that front panel design, if accurate, is amongst some of the worst notch designs.

I really hope we see serious improvement in the camera sharpness. My Pixel 2 photos are incredibly soft.

 

[akash.nu]

I absolutely get all that but only where change is an improvement. Change for change's sake is silly and this talk of getting to the moon would be easier with one less battery to charge or go wrong. A simple wired connection with no drain, better audio quality, allowing the use of cheaper earbuds and with one less battery to charge is a raft full of positives compared to >>>> more expensive earbuds, less easily replaced due to cost, worse sound quality (surely the dealbreaker when it comes to an audio accessory) and an additional battery to drain. There are simply no positives worth a damn other than 'no more tangled wires' and a slew of genuine negatives.

I get all that pain and one of the reasons why I stuck with my iPhone 6 for 3 years but since buying the 8 plus last year I realised that at a stretch I don’t really use the headphones as much as I thought I do. So the battery life didn’t seem to be that much of an issue for me.

Also I was really sceptical about the AirPods but took the plunge last year as well and for day to day use they’re more than enough. Of course, this is only individual use case.

 

[epicrayban]

^^ Let's not forget, you can still enjoy the advantages of bluetooth earphones even with a headphone jack.

The basic issue here with the headphone jack is that OEMs took away a feature that they didn't need to yet. Plain and simple.

 

[akash.nu]

^^ Let's not forget, you can still enjoy the advantages of bluetooth earphones even with a headphone jack.

The basic issue here with the headphone jack is that OEMs took away a feature that they didn't need to yet. Plain and simple.

Such decisions aren’t made lightly. There must be data to support this. People must just not care about headphone jacks much, plus using one port to converge all the functionalities is a good way to go, especially when they provided that dongle in the box.

The only use case I can see that will actually create issues is when one wants to listen to music and charge the device at the same time and frankly I’ve been in this situation once in the last 3-4 years. So yeah I’m sure there’s enough evidence that this use case is not a major one in terms of taking that feature out which saved space and helped them put a little bigger battery / stereo speaker / haptic home button in the device.

 

[JaySoul]

Nobody knows anything about the internals, about advances in Google's computational photography, about the next Visual Core chip...

Having a Pixel 2 XL as my daily driver is making me trust in Google and the direction they are heading. If they think they can beat a market obsessed with adding extra lenses, then I trust in them because the evidence is already broadly in their favour.

TBH it's a non-issue for me as this phone is so damn good, it would take a miracle for me to switch to a Pixel 3 - there's simply no need for me, I'm really happy with what I've got (for once!).

 

[epicrayban]

Such decisions aren’t made lightly. There must be data to support this. People must just not care about headphone jacks much, plus using one port to converge all the functionalities is a good way to go, especially when they provided that dongle in the box.

The only use case I can see that will actually create issues is when one wants to listen to music and charge the device at the same time and frankly I’ve been in this situation once in the last 3-4 years. So yeah I’m sure there’s enough evidence that this use case is not a major one in terms of taking that feature out which saved space and helped them put a little bigger battery / stereo speaker / haptic home button in the device.

The dongle Google provides is a disaster.

 

[sunking101]

Such decisions aren’t made lightly. There must be data to support this. People must just not care about headphone jacks much, plus using one port to converge all the functionalities is a good way to go, especially when they provided that dongle in the box.

The only use case I can see that will actually create issues is when one wants to listen to music and charge the device at the same time and frankly I’ve been in this situation once in the last 3-4 years. So yeah I’m sure there’s enough evidence that this use case is not a major one in terms of taking that feature out which saved space and helped them put a little bigger battery / stereo speaker / haptic home button in the device.

Hmm, I'm not so sure about that. Apple just do stuff. I'm still to see any benefit from removing the DVD drive from my laptop. I miss it! Not for storing data but for playback of retail DVDs. As for the headphone jack, practically everyone who owns a smartphone uses it for music playback. It isn't a niche or seldom used port.

 

[noobinator]

As for the headphone jack, practically everyone who owns a smartphone uses it for music playback. It isn't a niche or seldom used port.

I'm not so sure about this in 2018. 3 years ago I'd have agreed with you. I haven't used a headphone jack in years (and have had it on some phones). I know many others who only use BT headphones now too.

 

[akash.nu]

Hmm, I'm not so sure about that. Apple just do stuff. I'm still to see any benefit from removing the DVD drive from my laptop. I miss it! Not for storing data but for playback of retail DVDs. As for the headphone jack, practically everyone who owns a smartphone uses it for music playback. It isn't a niche or seldom used port.

I think as a company Apple makes the choice depending on their predictions of where the consumer market will go. Plus they’re in a powerful situation to actually drive the way.

They do lose some business when they make such decisions but eventually by doing this they make their ecosystem stronger and also force their own systems to be ahead of time to accommodate the changes.

Optical drive was a very good example of making that decision. Look at the general population now. How many people actually buy physical discs anymore?! Hardly any! Still some Windows laptops keep them and make the devices chunkier for catering to very few. That’s not good business practice.

It’s the same with wireless technology these days. There’s no doubt eventually wireless will be the way to go and by removing things from the devices Apple is making sure they’re way ahead of the curb. Also this way they’re driving the wireless industry forward and creating a competitive market. Compare average wireless headphone price against quality from just a few years ago, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Benefit for the mass is always the best way to go forward as a tech company. Catering to minority will only drag the company down.

 

[sunking101]

I'm not so sure about this in 2018. 3 years ago I'd have agreed with you. I haven't used a headphone jack in years (and have had it on some phones). I know many others who only use BT headphones now too.

Now it's different because BT earphones are being forced upon us. I mean when every phone had an AUX jack, most people used it. It was used almost as much as the charging port so it shouldn't have even been looked into as being obsolete or legacy. Total joke that some wingnut at Apple decided just that. The fact that we still have charging ports and SIM trays prove that the waterproofing argument was baloney.
[doublepost=1529420905][/doublepost]

I think as a company Apple makes the choice depending on their predictions of where the consumer market will go. Plus they’re in a powerful situation to actually drive the way.

They do lose some business when they make such decisions but eventually by doing this they make their ecosystem stronger and also force their own systems to be ahead of time to accommodate the changes.

Optical drive was a very good example of making that decision. Look at the general population now. How many people actually buy physical discs anymore?! Hardly any! Still some Windows laptops keep them and make the devices chunkier for catering to very few. That’s not good business practice.

It’s the same with wireless technology these days. There’s no doubt eventually wireless will be the way to go and by removing things from the devices Apple is making sure they’re way ahead of the curb. Also this way they’re driving the wireless industry forward and creating a competitive market. Compare average wireless headphone price against quality from just a few years ago, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Benefit for the mass is always the best way to go forward as a tech company. Catering to minority will only drag the company down.

I buy many a DVD from the supermarket bargain bins and it used to be nice to watch them in bed on my laptop. That highly convenient method was removed from my life, as was the highly convenient AUX jack.

You're saying that because people have moved on and are dealing with the loss it someone shows that we didn't need the facility and I disagree. Give me a chunkier laptop with a DVD drive and give me a chunkier phone with a bigger battery. Apple would rather sell me a movie through iTunes and you can bet that it will cost more than I pay in the supermarket. Progress? For them sure.

 

[akash.nu]

[doublepost=1529420905][/doublepost]

I buy many a DVD from the supermarket bargain bins and it used to be nice to watch them in bed on my laptop. That highly convenient method was removed from my life, as was the highly convenient AUX jack.

You're saying that because people have moved on and are dealing with the loss it someone shows that we didn't need the facility and I disagree. Give me a chunkier laptop with a DVD drive and give me a chunkier phone with a bigger battery. Apple would rather sell me a movie through iTunes and you can bet that it will cost more than I pay in the supermarket. Progress? For them sure.

I’m saying your personal use case does not apply to the wider consumer base. People like ease of use and people pay for convenience. Buying / renting via iTunes is way easier than shuffling through stacks after stacks of optical drives. Also, carrying them with you is another issue on its own.

This is progress for everyone. Of course Apple takes the steps that will make them more money out of this, why’d a company exist otherwise?! The whole purpose of a company is to make profit and more profit every year. At least they’re trying to move the industry forward while making money and not staying stagnant the way smartphone / mobile / palm pc era was in the 90s and early 2000.

 

[sunking101]

I’m saying your personal use case does not apply to the wider consumer base. People like ease of use and people pay for convenience. Buying / renting via iTunes is way easier than shuffling through stacks after stacks of optical drives. Also, carrying them with you is another issue on its own.

This is progress for everyone. Of course Apple takes the steps that will make them more money out of this, why’d a company exist otherwise?! The whole purpose of a company is to make profit and more profit every year. At least they’re trying to move the industry forward while making money and not staying stagnant the way smartphone / mobile / palm pc era was in the 90s and early 2000.

Why can't people do both? The funny thing is that inside most laptops now there is plenty enough space where the drive used to be. DVD and BluRay aren't legacy so why have they been removed? Loads of people miss the drives. Of course there are workarounds, iTunes and USB drives, but why should we have to? I'm no luddite, by all means remove the 78RPM gramophone from my laptop but leave the DVD drive you morons.😀

 

[Michael Goff]

I love how the topic it Pixel 3, but morphed to "but DVD drives in laptops" or litigaging the headphone port for eternity.

 

[epicrayban]

I love how the topic it Pixel 3, but morphed to "but DVD drives in laptops" or litigaging the headphone port for eternity.

Pixel 3 leaks have slowed a bit. 😉

I'm eager to learn more about the smaller Pixel 3. With a better screen (and no notch) and wireless charging, I think I could come back to the Pixel line. I do miss Photos, one of Google's best apps and something that goes hand-in-hand with the excellent Pixel 2 camera experience.

I really hope the Pixel 3 camera generates sharper images though.

 

[Michael Goff]

Pixel 3 leaks have slowed a bit. 😉

I'm eager to learn more about the smaller Pixel 3. With a better screen (and no notch) and wireless charging, I think I could come back to the Pixel line. I do miss Photos, one of Google's best apps and something that goes hand-in-hand with the excellent Pixel 2 camera experience.

I really hope the Pixel 3 camera generates sharper images though.

Yeah. A lot of people are down on the single camera experience, but I'd like to just see the best single camera they can get. Because details can be a little soft on my Pixel 2 sometimes. I don't know if a second camera would fix that.