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Google Pixel 9 Pro

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Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#611

Post by throitallaway »

Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #514
summerlight wrote: post #484

I'm surprised that no media outlet is seriously talking about its on-device inference capability, which is the biggest next thing for LLM. Apple did a better job on its PR here, but they didn't also get all the attention that it deserves. On-device inference improves not just its latency, this also removes a huge chunk of LLM's economical constraints from software companies. The biggest advantage of software is its m…

For years, Google has been promising me a high-performance voice assistant. I find that in 2024 it still can't understand "call mom" and "call my wife's name" unless I'm in a perfectly silent environment. And it usually takes several tries. I'm not going to get carried away with technical announcements.

Telling my Pixel 8's assistant to "set an alarm for 10 minutes" fails when it's not connected to the internet (after spinning for a few seconds.) That's crazy to me. I thought offline voice for basic things was working back in the Nexus days.

I travel a lot and often find myself in areas with poor or no connectivity, and things "get a little freaky" in those scenarios. Even things like Google Maps (which has downloaded/offline mode) often fail or spin for 30 seconds. I think Google/Android engineers don't test these scenarios enough (or at all), and they're usually bathed in perfect connections.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#612

Post by schappim »

thebytefairy wrote: post #597
nepger21 wrote: post #578

Google really needs to improve the core offering of what a phone is supposed to provide instead of using half baked AI as a selling point. I have been using Pixel 7 for almost the past 2 years. But the amount of basic core issues are crazy. Recently,since the July update, every place where the phone cannot catch network signal, it shutdowns. And with the update, somehow i feel it cannot catch network signal as strong…

Meanwhile, I'm getting pushed away from iOS when I can't customise basic things and the Phone app (you know, the main use of a phone) takes 30s to open, even after restores.

> the main use of a phone

While the phone app remains important for some, it’s no longer the primary means of communication for most folks, especially with the rise of messaging apps and social media.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#613

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

nepger21 wrote: post #578

Google really needs to improve the core offering of what a phone is supposed to provide instead of using half baked AI as a selling point. I have been using Pixel 7 for almost the past 2 years. But the amount of basic core issues are crazy. Recently,since the July update, every place where the phone cannot catch network signal, it shutdowns. And with the update, somehow i feel it cannot catch network signal as strong…

I had the Pixel 6 Pro and everything was amazing... except for signal and battery. Which are two of the most important things in a phone.

The battery was quite bad from the very beginning, barely lasting a day of normal usage, but I thought "well, at least they seem to have taken lots of care to avoid battery aging - slower charging than other phones, intelligent charging speed, etc. - so it won't degrade much". Two years later it wasn't even making it to 6 PM, or 3-4 PM on heavy use days (such as trips). OTOH my previous phone (Huawei P30 Pro), with much faster charge and no "intelligent" anything, still has amazing battery after more than 5 years of use (now in my wife's hands).

That was my first and last Pixel. A pity because the software was amazing, but that's no use if you operate under constant battery anxiety and can't even use Google Maps and camera on a trip without spending hours charging at the hotel.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#614

Post by echelon »

com2kid wrote: post #580
echelon wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we had more than two phone giants. This is aggravating. Unfortunately due to their market dominance and muddling of (hardware, OS, software distribution, and platform ecosystem), it's almost impossible to disentangle. It'd be amazing if the DOJ made these companies only offer one slice of those four things. There would be so much competition and a wild variety of new things being tried.

> Unfortunately due to their market dominance and muddling of (hardware, OS, software distribution, and platform ecosystem), it's almost impossible to disentangle. I think it is more complicated, and nuanced, than this. I have a theory that the world can only support a maximum of 2 consumer computing platforms at a time, due to the cost of writing and porting software. Therefore causing a natural tendency towards eit…

I have one counter point for you:

HTML

If we adopted standards instead of making walled gardens, things would work. If the onus was on Apple and Google to make their platforms standards compliant, and that the egg would be on their face if they didn't, they would be the ones doing the rigorous testing, bug fixing, and optimization.

If Microsoft can make their platform work for 20+ years of software, Apple and Google can be on the hook for HTML, WASM, and a standardized UI and hardware abstraction layer.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#615

Post by mihaaly »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #477
pdxandi wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I broke my iPhone 12 mini and part of me died that day. A tired dad moment – set the phone on the trunk lid when getting my kid in the car and then later opened the trunk. It slid down and crunched in the hinge. I could replace it with another mini but have been holding out hope for another updated version. I love the small form factor, even at the expense of battery life and camera quality. I just want a reasonable…

In the beginning, smartphones were all tiny, because it was universally agreed that smaller cell phones were better. Then there was a huge, neverending push to make phones as large as possible, or larger. Sometimes smaller phones have been offered as an unpopular option, but more often "enormous" is the minimum size. And as long as that's been going on, people have been complaining that they want their phone to fit i…

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-i...

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#617

Post by asadotzler »

cdrini wrote: post #452
trilobyte wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people the amortized cost of a phone over its life is pretty small. If you spend $1000 on a phone and it lasts you 3 years, that's ~$28 a month. A lot of people spend that on coffee each month. The value they get out of their smart phone dwarfs most other big expenses.

Tech is a really weird field; I think because of the high salaries, a lot of people are rich without realising they're rich. Tech is the "Nouveau rich". $28 a month on coffee is rather large amount to spend on coffee.

No, $28 not a large amount to spend on coffee. That's a McDonald's medium coffee 3.5 days a week. How is that a lot to spend on coffee? That's just silly. A lot to spend on coffee is $150/mo with a $5 latte at Starbucks each day and that's certainly more common than the house painter getting a McDonald's coffee on half his workdays.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#618

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

fidotron wrote: post #373

I don’t know how anyone could possibly trust a premium product from Google, regardless of how good the specs are. Their entire approach to QA and privacy is anti-premium. When Google bought HTC the idea was the best of Google software and the best of HTC hardware, but we have Google level hardware and HTC level software. The glory days of the HTC One were a decade ago.

HTC software wasn't bad at all IMO, it was among the less bloated Android layers of the time.

I had three HTC flagships back in the glory days and they were amazing machines, their only problem was that most people preferred to buy the likes of Samsung despite being much worse in almost every respect (software, camera, design, durability, etc.). I don't know if due to bad marketing by HTC or just because they bought reviewers less (they used to have a blatant pro-Samsung bias).

Then of course quality actually degraded when they had to make huge personnel cuts due to bad sales.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#619

Post by jgalt212 »

eitally wrote: post #154
jgalt212 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and are they booking AI search as cloud revenue?

No, absolutely not. The only part of this that would be Cloud revenue would be model usage exposed via Vertex.

That's what I meant. Google search expenses become Google cloud revenues.

Re: Google Pixel 9 Pro

#620

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

kokada wrote: post #234

I may switch this time since they're finally offering trade-in offers here in Ireland. I like my Pixel 6, but wanted a better camera for a while (to be clear, the Pixel 6 camera is really good, especially considering the price the phone was, but I still miss things like e.g. better optical zoom), so I may get a Pixel 9 Pro. BTW, for those talking about issues: I bought my Pixel 6 at release, and yes, I had some stran…

Curious that you say this, because I had a 6 Pro and while all the rest was amazing, what ended up making me hate the phone was the battery.

My experience in that respect was just the opposite of yours: just barely OK at the beginning, and quick degradation in spite of the adaptive battery. In 2 years it wouldn't even make it to 3 PM in days of heavy usage. Definitely much worse than the batteries in my friends' iPhones, and of course also than all the other Android phones I've had, some of which lasted (or are still lasting) for more than 5 years with battery being a complete non-issue.

I wonder if it's a 6 vs 6 Pro issue or I just got a bad unit (I'm not the only one I know with the complaint, though, so if it's the latter, bad units were rather common).

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