Google announces Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A • Hacker News Board

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

#571

Post by andybak » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

Krasnol wrote: post #115

andybak wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that finally made me jump ship to Macbooks about 10 years ago was the fact that I needed a week and a spreadsheet to choose a PC laptop.

So if the specification weren't important for you, why did you bother? I think it's quite nice to have the choice, upgradability, price range, etc.

> So if the specification weren't important for you, why did you bother?

I never said that. The Macbook Air (at the time) was as close as any of the other models I'd shortlisted. I just got tired of micro-optimizing.

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

#572

Post by fulafel » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 2:58 PM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #450

mehrdadn wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I see. But putting it in the charger all the time just makes the battery die more quickly, right? Though I see the value now if you don't care about that.

It might lose some life from keeping the battery at a high level, but it will gain life from using the battery less. If you can keep it from charging too high, it's all upside.

The last 10-20% of the charging causes most battery wear (many times more than in the mid band). So charging from almost-full to full many times per day is going to be harder on the battery than charging fewer times per day.

This is especially pronounced on phones, where batteries are already calibrated to have a high charge cutoff (ie battery longevity vs capacity compromise is heavily at the capacity end).

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

#573

Post by distances » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

ShamelessC wrote: post #398

Aunche wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 4a has extra storage over the base 4 as well. I don't know what Google was thinking.

I'm probably gonna sell my Pixel 4 at a loss and get one of these instead. Can anyone explain why I shouldn't? I have no need for a decent camera, prefer fingerprint unlock, and loathe that I can't use my headphones easily. I also use my phone a bunch so battery is super important to me. Don't play mobile games either. Is it going to be an extremely slow experience or something? Should I expect apps to be laggy?

4a camera is the exact same one as on 4. It's a bit slower to process the photos due to missing extra chip, but it will take identical photos.

It'll be a bit slower but I wouldn't think laggy. I'm happy with my 3a performance.

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

#574

Post by sjwright » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

ck425 wrote: post #554

sjwright wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hilarious how many people have downvoted my comment without actually replying. I can’t imagine how anything I said could be construed as controversial or disagreeable, as opposed to representing a perspective.

I'll bite. As others have said you can't charge and listen to music on phones without a jack. On the point about affordable wireless headphones, many of us have spent a lot of time and money finding a great wired headphone setup. I don't want to go spend another £300 and 20-30 hours of my time finding an equivalent setup, all because some industrial designer wants his design another millimeter thinner. Lastly bluetoo…

Thanks for the reply. As I replied elsewhere, the combination of earbuds and wireless charging was a perfect solution for my wife.

Personally I don’t know anyone who routinely charges their phone anytime other than when in bed. And personally I don’t know anyone who has an issue with all day battery life. I’ve no doubt these are still issues for some people but again, wireless charging pads are cheap.

I agree multi device Bluetooth sucks. But that’s not your only option. My QC35 are great for two-device use cases. In your scenario I’d use a wired connection for one of the three devices and your instant switching criteria is solved.

(I’m assuming you’re fine with one wired connection given that you’re criticising the removal of headphone jacks.)

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

#575

Post by ShamelessC » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 3:14 PM UTC

distances wrote: post #573

ShamelessC wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm probably gonna sell my Pixel 4 at a loss and get one of these instead. Can anyone explain why I shouldn't? I have no need for a decent camera, prefer fingerprint unlock, and loathe that I can't use my headphones easily. I also use my phone a bunch so battery is super important to me. Don't play mobile games either. Is it going to be an extremely slow experience or something? Should I expect apps to be laggy?

4a camera is the exact same one as on 4. It's a bit slower to process the photos due to missing extra chip, but it will take identical photos. It'll be a bit slower but I wouldn't think laggy. I'm happy with my 3a performance.

Then it's settled. Thanks.

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

#576

Post by breuleux » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

greggman3 wrote: post #465

Kiro wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad there's an option for people who are into vintage technology like headphone jacks. Maybe they can add phonograph cylinders to the next version.

Problems with wireless headphones over wired 1. batteries run out and can't use until recharged. Even if that only took 10 minutes I wanted to use my headphone now, not later. 2. batteries die and are not replaceable. Bad for both pocketbook and the environment 3. interference can make them unusable. Try walking through a crowded train station and you'll find you get about 2 seconds of audio for every 5 seconds of no…

It's a different trade-off for everyone, but I think you're underestimating the QOL improvement of "no wires".

1. No wire randomly snagging on door handles and other objects.

2. No forgetting your phone is on the table when getting up and yanking it off the table with the wire.

3. You can switch the source with a click, e.g. if you're listening to music on your phone and want to watch something on your computer.

4. It doesn't really matter where the source is: while having a meeting on your computer you can seamlessly get up and make yourself some tea while you keep talking and listening.

5. No physical connection to erode. Maybe I'm doing something terrible, but I've had issues with the headphone jack with nearly every phone I've had and nearly every headphones I've owned. It wears out, somehow.

It's well worth it for me, but I can't speak for anyone else obviously.

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

#577

Post by dgacmu » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

tracker1 wrote: post #397

utopcell wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixel 3 also has a fingerprint reader in the back.

While that's fair, very few people are (nor should they) swapping out their devices every year.

I agree, but in this case, the delays in releasing the 4a mean that the pixel 3 was released 22 months ago.

(Mine is starting to die, between a bad screen crack and a battery that dies by 2pm.)

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

#578

Post by eertami » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

aloknnikhil wrote: post #410

ksec wrote: post #407

The Pixel 4A comes with an USB-C to USB-C cable that is only capable of USB 2.0 speed. USB-C Supporters have been saying all the crappy USB 2.0 USB C cable are fake or counterfeit cables from Alibaba. Now we have one, officially from Google.

If that's indeed true, it'd be faster to transfer over Wi-Fi. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How frequently are most users really plugging a phone into their PC for data transfers?

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

#579

Post by thaumasiotes » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 5:19 PM UTC

nemacol wrote: post #550

thaumasiotes wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a 3a and it's mostly fine. But an obvious problem is that the touchscreen is activated by my leg. I had to actually lock the lockscreen just to prevent the phone from constantly opening random apps and providing random input.

I have this issue as well. What do you mean "lock the lockscreen"

Apply a pattern or code-based lock to make it difficult to activate the phone. It's a security setting.

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

#580

Post by Kiro » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

utopcell wrote: post #557

Kiro wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad there's an option for people who are into vintage technology like headphone jacks. Maybe they can add phonograph cylinders to the next version.

No professional musician is going to use anything else other than wired headphones. You deprecate an old technology when something better has replaced it, not when you want to create a new market for a product to increase your revenue. The majority of BT audio codecs is inferior to a direct connection, and suffer from > 50ms latency.

This is not a mixer table or even a computer, it's a phone.