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Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

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Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#51
post #30

I can only hope they will revisit face unlock in the era of face masks. I greatly prefered fingerprint unlock. I treat either of these as tamper resistance rather than actual security, but I find fingerprint unlock to be a much better experience.

Agreed; I don't see face unlock significantly more convenient in than fingerprint unlock. I guess it's a little more automatic, but I find I have to wiggle my phone around any way in order to get it to recognize my face. In practice, I end up having to spend the same amount of time making faces at my phone as I did touching the fingerprint sensor.

Even before face-masks, I found that my Pixel 4 can't recognize me with a bike helmet on. I have a phone mount on my handlebars and fingerprint-unlocking is very convenient (not while moving, obviously). Also if I'm driving, I can hand the phone to my wife and finger-unlock it without looking away from the road, which is definitely not possible with a face-unlock.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#52
post #21

anybody know if 5g is worth waiting for?

I personally don't buy the 5G hype. Yeah the spec is amazing and I've seen the demos showing how great it can be, but you need nodes everywhere, like every 10m or something. Given the frequency, it has poor penetration, so you'd need tons of nodes + it might not penetrate your house/building without additional nodes in your house.

Hence, I don't see it being as great as they say without years more of investment.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#53

Bit confused as to why mtgx's comment has been voted into oblivion, as it's a legitimate complaint with the Pixel line. My girlfriend has a 3a and it has taken about 3 months for the battery life to start being a minor issue; i.e. she makes sure to charge it during the day if she has somewhere to be in the evening. It's really the only complaint I have about an otherwise good phone, and it doesn't look like the 4a re…

Coming from a Xiaomi with a 4500mAh battery packed in the same size phone as the 3a, the 3a is definitely lacking in battery life if you're a heavy phone user. The 3a will not last me from when I wake up until I go to sleep, where the Xiaomi will last almost 2 days of wake up/sleep.

I still like the 3a and use it as my daily, I just wish Google would find a way to put 3500-4000mah batteries in these.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#54

Bit confused as to why mtgx's comment has been voted into oblivion, as it's a legitimate complaint with the Pixel line. My girlfriend has a 3a and it has taken about 3 months for the battery life to start being a minor issue; i.e. she makes sure to charge it during the day if she has somewhere to be in the evening. It's really the only complaint I have about an otherwise good phone, and it doesn't look like the 4a re…

Try the Moto G, I bought one through Google Fi since it wasn't much more than a screen replacement and has significantly better battery life, though I do miss some of the other features.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#57
post #30

I can only hope they will revisit face unlock in the era of face masks. I greatly prefered fingerprint unlock. I treat either of these as tamper resistance rather than actual security, but I find fingerprint unlock to be a much better experience.

I also am not a fan of facial unlock, I would much rather have a finger print reader like previous models. Though I will say if my hands are sweaty it doesn't work, which is a bit annoying.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#58

Finally! A small phone with decent specs and a headphone jack is really all I want these days (and is almost extinct as far as phone design goes). The Pixel 4a seems like a possible alternative to the S10e, which up until now was the only game in town for high quality small-form-factor smartphones.

+1 as I'm after smaller phones. It's a rarity these days.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#59
post #3

Battery capacity continues to be disappointing with most Google phones. They always seem to choose them on the lower-end side compared to the competition. The phone is a good value overall, but 3,100 mAh will hardly last you one day and be almost empty by night. I prefer phones with more generous batteries, so that there's never a risk of running out by the end of the day. Hopefully Pixel 5a will come with 4,500-5,00…

I 100% agree with you. My Pixel 2 is now ~2.5 years old and the performance is still perfectly fine, except that I have to charge it twice a day. It usually lasted a full day when it was new, though.

I'm interested in some of the recent flagships and gaming phones that have 5-6000mAh batteries and settings to not charge up to 100% every night. Once the battery is big enough, you can do things like that to extend the longevity. I'm hoping to see more of that.

Re: Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A

#60
Seems interesting if you want a reasonably sized phone with less bloatware, but for 30$ more the Galaxy A71 seems like a better deal, here's a comparison: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9995&idPhone2...

> 4500 mAh vs 3140 mAh on the Pixel

> microSD card slot vs no card slot on Pixel

> The A71 has more cameras

> 2 extra GBs of RAM on the A71

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