Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes • Hacker News Board

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#221

Post by w1ntermute » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #218

mtgx wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And with that crazy resolution.

Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768? Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080 (I'll leave my rant about 16:10 vs. 16:9 for another time). Technology is so ridiculous at times.

> Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768?

Because Windows and Windows apps don't support resolution-independent UI scaling.

> Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080

Because they know they can rip you off, and because it's a lot more expensive to produce high resolution displays (or rather, displays of any resolution) when they're being produced in small quantities.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#222

Post by chousuke » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

andybak wrote: post #156

silasb wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Confirmed that PenTile is crap. I came from a OG Droid to Galaxy Nexus and was horrible not impressed by the PenTile screen. It is really noticeable when using low brightness.

Not all pentiles are equal. I have no real complaints about the Galaxy S II screen. (OK - a bit more maximum brightness and a slightly more natural default colour calibration...)

I often wish the minimum brightness on the SGS2 screen were lower. Most of the time I run at the lowest setting, and if I use the phone in a dimly-lit room I further darken it with Screen Filter (to about 35%) to avoid overloading my eyes... Very rarely do I need to use the maximum brightness, except outside in bright sunlight.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#223

Post by distantparts » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #25

klausa wrote: post #3

Flagship Android device, unlocked, without contract, for $299. Impressive. From the marketing video it looks like Android 4.2 gained Swype-like keyboard. It seems that they're no longer using tablet UI, even on Nexus 10 (i.e. it has status bar on top, navigation buttons are in the middle of the screen). That's weird, and I definitely don't like it, but it might not be that big of a problem.

Yeah, these prices look almost too good to be true. Other Android vendors may be getting some serious indigestion from this.

You can't imagine that Samsung will be thrilled about the Nexus 4. The Galaxy S3 suddenly looks poor value, and that's their flagship device. It was selling in big numbers, and although it's cheaper than the iPhone 5, presumably it's still a very profitable device.

If Google are determined to sell high quality devices at cost to gain market share, and can make the general public aware of this (non-trivial), Apple may find itself as the sole company making big profits from actually selling phone hardware.

That said, only Samsung with their Galaxy brand have come anywhere near the marketing impact of the iPhone, so if Google really want to make an impression, they're going to need market these devices at a level that they've never managed before.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#224

Post by ableal » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:53 PM UTC

pooriaazimi wrote: post #60

Full details are available here: https://play.google.com/store/devices?feature=microsite ---- 4": https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_16g... 7": https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_16g... 10": https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_10_16...

"Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet."

Yeah, but I'd like to window shop and know what the neighbours are paying, perhaps ask someone over there to buy me one.

I really dislike this automatic geolocation enforcement that Google spreads liberally over all its stuff. At least Apple lets you look at, or even get things from, other country stores with minimal fuss.

(I know, proxies, bleargh.)

P.S. http://www.google.com/nexus/ now has info and pictures viewable anywhere. (Link found in melvinram's comment, thank you.)

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#225

Post by tadfisher » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:53 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #218

mtgx wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And with that crazy resolution.

Why is it we have amazing 16:10 2560-by-1600 in a 10" tablet but commonplace laptops (13-15") rarely surpass 1680x1050 or even worse 1366x768? Sometimes, on high-end models, you can pay an extra $200 to "upgrade" to 1920x1080 (I'll leave my rant about 16:10 vs. 16:9 for another time). Technology is so ridiculous at times.

Because of the leading desktop operating systems, only Apple has started to divorce screen resolution from UI element sizes, and even that support is half-assed.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#226

Post by lnanek2 » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:53 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #163

ericdykstra wrote: post #141

No LTE is a deal-breaker for me on the Nexus 4. I would pre-order one right now if it was included. I think I'll wait for the next great Android phone that has LTE. The Nexus S is a pretty good phone, so without an upgrade in internet speed I don't see any reason to upgrade. As for the Nexus 10, I hope that it gets enough sales to start pushing developers to make tablet apps for Android, and for Google to make the sp…

> No LTE is a deal-breaker for me on the Nexus 4. I would pre-order one right now if it was included. I think I'll wait for the next great Android phone that has LTE. There's a good explanation of the LTE situation by The Verge [0]. If Google wants to release timely upgrades, they need to break free of carrier control. And since Verizon and Sprint devices require carrier approval, this will never happen. As for AT&T,…

Definitely not my experience. I'm sitting miles away from Walnut Creek, a town i the East Bay, and I have LTE on AT&T. I certainly have it anywhere closer to civilization, like SF itself or NYC. I wouldn't call AT&T coverage limited at all.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#227

Post by mtgx » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:55 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #77

w1ntermute wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And just $399 for the 16 GB version!

And with that crazy resolution.

@merrit - Because it has not been a focus of laptop manufacturers. Instead the focus has been faster CPU's or bigger hard drives. Going premium on the display, means you have to cut on something else to deliver the laptop at the same, and I don't think Intel is going to cut on their CPU prices anytime soon. In some laptops, Intel's chips take up to 40% of the BOM price. That leaves little wiggle room for experimenting with high quality displays.

The good news is that the popularity of high resolution tablets will also force laptop makers into a trend with higher resolutions, too. Asus for example is one of the leaders of this trend, and has even 11.6" laptops with 1920x1080 resolution.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#228

Post by lnanek2 » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:55 PM UTC

ericdykstra wrote: post #141

No LTE is a deal-breaker for me on the Nexus 4. I would pre-order one right now if it was included. I think I'll wait for the next great Android phone that has LTE. The Nexus S is a pretty good phone, so without an upgrade in internet speed I don't see any reason to upgrade. As for the Nexus 10, I hope that it gets enough sales to start pushing developers to make tablet apps for Android, and for Google to make the sp…

It was probably a deal breaker for a lot of the carriers Google talked to as well. T-mobile is on board for pushing the phone, but the others really prefer any new device to support LTE. It doesn't make sense for them to push devices that don't use the huge amounts of money they are putting into supporting and building out LTE.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#229

Post by cmatthias » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:58 PM UTC

gms wrote: post #65

wmf wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, these prices look almost too good to be true. Other Android vendors may be getting some serious indigestion from this.

Nexus 7 devices are being sold at a loss, so I suppose in one sense yes, the price there is too good to be true.

I'm not quite sure whether there was ever an original source for this claim other than a bunch of tech blogs parroting each other, but iSuppli shows that this was false, at least as of July 11th:

http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/News/pages/Low-End-Google-N...

Sure, if you add in the $25 Google play credit, and leave room for some margin for Asus (since Google is just a reseller), you might get close to breaking even, but as far as I can find, the Nexus 7 was never sold at a loss.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#230

Post by mtgx » Mon, Oct 29, 2012, 6:58 PM UTC

achompas wrote: post #213

The "iPad mini vs. other 7" tablet" battle has been going on for a week, but if nothing else I hope these new Nexus tablets force Apple to move away from $100 jumps for memory and $130 jumps for radio. The ~$450 I paid for a 32GB iPad mini would net me two base Nexus 7s. Alternatively, for $100 less I can get an equivalent Nexus 7...with cell radio. Those jumps add up!

Just being available in the market at those prices will not force Apple to lower theirs. Only if you vote with your wallet and stop buying Apple products for those prices, they'll start to listen.