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Pixel 8 Pro

store.google.com

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Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#441

Post by teaearlgraycold »

libertine wrote: post #328
Lutzb wrote: post #283

The depreciation between Pixels and iPhones is staggering. Trade-in in Germany on Google Store page: - Pixel 6 Pro 256gb ($999 on release) - 235€ - iPhone 13 Pro 256gb ($1099 on release) - 730€ While I am partial to Googles line of phones (had pretty much every Google phone since the nexus one), the loss of value is something I cannot really ignore any more when deciding to buy a phone.

What I don't get are these price tags. My last flagship phone was a Google Nexus 6P where the base model was $499. Amazing phone, too bad after 3 years it had a battery issue but the manufacturer gave me a new one. But the thing is: it was $499. That was the greatest thing about the Nexus lines - good hardware (maybe not the latest SOC) with regular updates and a good OS experience. I miss those phones. Google with t…

Some of that is inflation (and it's claimed the iPhone 15 Pro at $999 is the best deal since the original adjusting for inflation). I also think that in order to continue shipping something new each year back in 2010 all you needed were some same-price-new-generation silicon/battery/screen improvements. These days the tech has plateaued a bit and we've seen a number of years where the improvements come from adding another camera, then another camera. More and more sensors. Some stupid and more expensive features like under-screen fingerprint readers. A phone could cost way less, but the table stakes are now much higher so manufacturers can get away with phones costing nearly a grand (and sometimes much more).

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#442

Post by epolanski »

bruceb wrote: post #389
kaba0 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lot of people I know tend to get new phones well before they actually have a need for them It might just be your “bubble”, but even if not, is it really that bad of a deal? If you resell your previous phone at 2/3 the original price each year, you can use the latest phone for like 200 bucks for a year, or $17 monthly. For a device that is with you 0-24, and is probably the most often used item a typical person owns…

Math doesn't work. Entry iphone 15 pro is $1,000. Say Tax is .08, so $1,080 out the door. 1 year from now if you sell it for 2/3 the price, you get back $720. A year's use cost you $360. About $1 a day. This is very worth it for some but not quite as cheap as $200 a year. This is without factoring in time to sell. You could trade in but that means you are locked in contract with service provider.

That seems still high to me.

I have a Xiaomi 10 or something I bought in 2020 I paid 279$ for, almost 4 years later it comes at 0.18 and I see like 0 reasons to upgrade.

I admit I'm not the most social (media) person out there, I'm not into connecting my phone into every other device on this planet (as Apple people consistently remind how easily they interoperate their devices), but it does everything great: camera, battery, messaging, games.

To me to see people thinking it's normal to spend so much money for a phone is borderline crazy.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#444

Post by TeMPOraL »

vel0city wrote: post #352
chimeracoder wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder how much of that is the software demands increasing and the flash storage itself wearing out over time. As flash storage wears it'll often go slower and slower as the error correction needs to process more to actually get you the uncorrupted bits. This is why a lot of cheap devices tend to just become unbearably slow after a while, their storage just gets to be way too slow. Too bad no flagship phones have…

If we're looking at older phones with removable storage, it usually limited what could be put on the SD card. And in the end the OS and system libraries were still on the on-board storage which would wear out over the years. And there's good reason for the OS not being on a microSD card. Run a Raspberry Pi without locking the storage and see how fast it'll corrupt itself. Most SD cards have pretty miserable reliabili…

IDK, I've never had a RPi corrupt an SD card to my knowledge. Also, there are now SD cards optimized for the load patterns similar to that of an OS.

There's unfortunately slightly different issue here: if the phone vendor puts the OS on an user-replaceable SD card, then the UX quality and reliability of the device depends on the SD card vendor, which is a bad position to be in, given how much fraud is happening in this space.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#445

Post by ethbr1 »

vel0city wrote: post #352
chimeracoder wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder how much of that is the software demands increasing and the flash storage itself wearing out over time. As flash storage wears it'll often go slower and slower as the error correction needs to process more to actually get you the uncorrupted bits. This is why a lot of cheap devices tend to just become unbearably slow after a while, their storage just gets to be way too slow. Too bad no flagship phones have…

If we're looking at older phones with removable storage, it usually limited what could be put on the SD card. And in the end the OS and system libraries were still on the on-board storage which would wear out over the years. And there's good reason for the OS not being on a microSD card. Run a Raspberry Pi without locking the storage and see how fast it'll corrupt itself. Most SD cards have pretty miserable reliabili…

With cloud backup... this isn't as defensible as it used to be.

Today, Apple/Google could design a phone with (a) a user-replacable battery & (b) no flash, only RAM + removable SD storage + long-life EEPROM.

Boot loader, SD validator, and minimal image retrieval goes in EEPROM. Storage contents continually backed up, encrypted, to cloud with delta updates. Customer prompted to replace SD card and device reimagined whenever there's an issue.

Apple/Google sell cloud storage subscriptions.

Aka the cockroach phone.

That they aren't even interested in that model is because they're in a Faustian bargain with cellular carriers to drive device renewals and post-paid plans.

And integrated batteries and flash memory happen to be a convenient "Oh well, we can't possibly design it any other way" excuse.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#446

Post by 0x38B »

huehehue wrote: post #385
cobertos wrote: post #191

I'm still on the Pixel 3! I can't get off. I bounced off the Pixel 6. It's too big in my hand. The finger print sensor is in a weird spot. Android 13 is more restrictive. And worst? It's not faster or better. It's legitimately a hard _downgrade_ for me. I have 2 Pixel 3s now (microphone died and battery swelled) but they run everything snappy! I might just keep buying Pixel 3s off eBay, its so much cheaper. My main w…

The on-screen fingerprint sensor on newer models is infuriating. Unlocking the screen is always a two-action operation of "tap the screen -> wait for it to fade in / wake up -> put your finger on the sensor". The first tap to waken the screen often fails so I have to try one or two more times. It's a small thing but, I have to tumble with it probably 100+ times a day given how often I check my phone for e.g. Slack. I…

That sounds infuriating. My iPhone SE (2022), bought second-hand for $250, has a fantastic fingerprint reader; indeed, when I have headphones in and Siri asks me to unlock my device to do something, I slip my hand into my pocket and find the sensor with my thumb.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#447

Post by epolanski »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #262
awill wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I find upgrading less frequently makes the upgrade so much more significant. Upgrading yearly would leave you complaining and wondering what's new. I know people who lease a new car every 3 years. And often, if there's no redesign, they're getting a nearly identical vehicle. It's strange. Whereas, I upgrade my car every 10 years, and am thrilled with all the improvements.

I think the lease thing is more to avoid dealing with any maintenance issues as well as the wear and tear on a less than new car. It’s not to get the newest tech or style all the time AFAIK.

Avoiding repairs, even if some of them might be expensive, is still insanely cheaper than leasing a new car every 3 days.

People lease for many factors, not just to avoid tear and maintenance.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#448

Post by trog »

initplus wrote: post #188

Same region locking nonsense there is every launch on the Google store. I understand you aren't selling this in my region, but not even letting me look at the product is super frustrating.

What is the point of being one of the largest technology companies in the world if you can't even provide basic global coverage to your websites and products?!

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#449

Post by ImprovedSilence »

kimbernator wrote: post #229
sanswork wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't update my phone every year but I also don't really want the progress of software or tech in general determined by the laggards.

I think that a new phone release should just be warranted. The trigger should be "we made significant improvements that couldn't be applied in software to the old device" instead of "it's October"

im all about keeping my phone 5+ years, but I think that “significant” progress is likely only realized in small incremental amounts..

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#450

Post by TeMPOraL »

drchickensalad wrote: post #403
Barrin92 wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From where I'm sitting software is millions of times better today than it was in the 90s I feel compelled to bring up this tweet from John Carmack I just saw a few hours ago. The most popular editor on the planet feels laggier than stuff Borland made in the 90s, on hardware probably a thousand times as fast. I don't know how anyone can say software is great with a straight face. We have supercomputers in our pocket…

The ratio of users who give a shit about 100ms of input lag on a 4 year old phone is tiny compared to devs who cared about typing lag 20 years ago

It isn't. The users are just conditioned to shut up. Technology universally sucks, but it's magic, and it's all a supplier-driven market with high natural barriers to entry - meaning vendors don't give a flying fuck about what the users think, the users are to buy what they're given and be happy about it - so everyone just accepts it's how it's supposed to be, and adjusts their lives to work around tech being shit.
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