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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

#481

Post by charlesju »

paultopia wrote: post #446

Can someone explain to me what the user benefit of 5G is? Is there anything that people typically do on their phones/with tethering right now that LTE is insufficient bandwidth for? Or is this just a plan by the carriers to encourage more really expensive usage, like convincing people to stream on their phones/tether all the time?

One use of 5g would be better streaming upload speed, that can open up a lot of interesting use cases.

Another use case is streaming + AR, I can see that becoming crazy bandwidth intensive. I think there can be some cool games if we can get high mobile bandwidth and a cleaner AR (ie. Apple glasses) experience medium.

I also think if you're asking from the perspective of why would the 4a but $350 but 4a-5g be $500, then I'd guess that the 4a-5g is going to come with more than just 5g capabilities.

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

#482

Post by XeO3 »

thebean11 wrote: post #184
malkia wrote: post #27

Has Audio Jack! (Comparison with other Pixel 4's) - https://store.google.com/magazine/compare_pixel?toggler0=Pix...

I know lots of people will be really happy with this, but I probably would have traded the jack for water resistance

Sometimes you don`t have to trade. I`m using Samsung S10e with headphone jack and IP68 rating. Best compact phone ever.

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

#483

Post by ponsin »

ss3000 wrote: post #240
droidno9 wrote: post #68

This is an awesome phone at $350. I currently have the Pixel 4, but if this was available when I was making my purchase decision, I'd probably have gone with it. That said, the Pixel line of phones isn't known for having long lasting battery. A feature that I've found to be indispensable is wireless charging. I just rest my Pixel 4 on a vertical charging base throughout the day. Otherwise, I'd have to have to constan…

I'm not a huge Apple fanboy by any measure, but one thing I do appreciate is that they consider wireless charging to be a table stakes feature, and include it even in their "budget" phones. They clearly understand how dramatically it elevates the user experience. Compare that to every Android manufacturer who either don't offer wireless charging at all or gate it to flagships, it's a really sad state of affairs for s…

One of the problems with wireless charging is that I typically get a cheap $5 "rugged" case from eBay that lets me drop my phone with harm only potentially happening to my disposable case. unfortunately, those cases block wireless charging

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

#485

Post by p1necone »

malkia wrote: post #27

Has Audio Jack! (Comparison with other Pixel 4's) - https://store.google.com/magazine/compare_pixel?toggler0=Pix...

One day we'll have wireless earbuds with batteries that last forever and lossless audio over whatever signal format they use and Apple will be hailed as ahead of the curve for removing the headphone jack before everyone else, conveniently ignoring the fact that missing a headphone jack when wireless headphones are not perfect is just a straight up downside.

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

#486

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

boring_twenties wrote: post #474
pixelmonkey wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest differences between the 4a and the older 4 and 4 XL is that the 4a has a rear fingerprint reader, whereas the 4 and 4 XL want you to use face unlock. So strange that this isn't emphasized (or even mentioned) on the comparison page. This was actually the primary thing that kept me on a Pixel 2 for so long, since it also has a similar rear fingerprint sensor design (and I just pre-ordered the Pixel 4…

Relevant username... Face unlock is complete BS, no disagreement there. However... has anyone actually looked into how secure those phone fingerprint readers are? Could very well be that the reason they're pushing face unlock so hard is they know their fingerprint tech is even worse.

I'm not sure which ones you mean by "those", but there have definitely been issues with phone fingerprint readers in general, e.g. when Samsung's Galaxy S10 would allow any fingerprint to unlock the phone when it had a screen protector on it (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50080586).

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

#487

Post by boring_twenties »

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #486
boring_twenties wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant username... Face unlock is complete BS, no disagreement there. However... has anyone actually looked into how secure those phone fingerprint readers are? Could very well be that the reason they're pushing face unlock so hard is they know their fingerprint tech is even worse.

I'm not sure which ones you mean by "those", but there have definitely been issues with phone fingerprint readers in general, e.g. when Samsung's Galaxy S10 would allow any fingerprint to unlock the phone when it had a screen protector on it ( https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50080586 ).

That would definitely qualify as a those. And that is much worse than I expected.

Recent phones I've had come close to mitigating lesser concerns for me, but decide to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the last minute.

Basically, if the password has not been entered in X time, then you must enter the password to unlock, fingerprint not accepted.

Perfect. Except instead of letting me set X to my preferred interval (30 minutes), it seems to be hardcoded to 3 days.

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

#488

Post by NuDinNou »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #439
ako wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bought my son a Nokia 5.3 for 180 euros, completely surprised by how well it works. If I had to buy my own phone (currently have a company iPhone 11) I would seriously consider the Nokia 5.3 for myself.

How frequently do you get updates? My friends have gotten cheap Android phones in the past and updates were abysmal.

Nokia 5.3 is part of Android One, so security updates for 3 years are not a problem

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

#489

Post by lostmsu »

flavor8 wrote: post #322
droidno9 wrote: post #68

This is an awesome phone at $350. I currently have the Pixel 4, but if this was available when I was making my purchase decision, I'd probably have gone with it. That said, the Pixel line of phones isn't known for having long lasting battery. A feature that I've found to be indispensable is wireless charging. I just rest my Pixel 4 on a vertical charging base throughout the day. Otherwise, I'd have to have to constan…

> the Pixel line of phones isn't known for having long lasting battery Anecdote: I still have a 2XL and it can get me through 24 hours. It's gotten a _little_ worse recently which I attribute to hardware age. The camera is fantastic, so I have no need to upgrade (although having stereo speakers would be nice.)

Anecdote: I have a $250 Xiaomi phone, and it lasts 3 days on average.

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

#490

Post by sjwright »

p1necone wrote: post #485
malkia wrote: post #27

Has Audio Jack! (Comparison with other Pixel 4's) - https://store.google.com/magazine/compare_pixel?toggler0=Pix...

One day we'll have wireless earbuds with batteries that last forever and lossless audio over whatever signal format they use and Apple will be hailed as ahead of the curve for removing the headphone jack before everyone else, conveniently ignoring the fact that missing a headphone jack when wireless headphones are not perfect is just a straight up downside.

If what you want is wired earbuds that connect directly to a jack on the phone, nothing has changed. Such earbuds still ship with iPhones today.

If you want to use wired headphones, the $9 adapter works well. Wireless headphones are also widely available and have batteries that last all day.

I realise the above doesn’t perfectly cater to all customers, but anecdotally it seems to cater well enough to enough of them.

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