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Pixel 11 Pro Fold

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131–140 of 212 posts

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#131
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely why I left Android. Google can't seem to decide on a direction and stick with it. Years of new features that inevitably ended up abandoned 2 versions later resulted in a constantly changing and unpredictable user experience. It was fun while I had free time in college and enjoyed flashing ROMs, but as I got busier with life this lack of refinement pushed me away. The RGB leds were one of my favorite…

Conversely, I was surprised to learn that the temperature sensor introduced on the Pixel 8 Pro in 2023 was only removed this year. No one knew why it was there in the first place.

its definitely a meme feature but I use it here and there to estimate ambient temperature (by measuring different surfaces).

also use it to measure the temperature of the bath, things like that.

definitely could do without, but its a fun feature.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#132
I still think stylus support (both hardware but especially software) is going to be a killer app for these things. They've gone in the wrong direction for now, but some of the Asian phone companies (Huawei?) still have stylus support.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#133
post #27

Does anyone had a good experience with foldable phones? The only people I know that bought one had them broken near the 2 year mark. My phone from 2018 it's still working perfectly.

I tested out last year's foldable phone for a couple of months.. borrowed it from a friend. Maybe I'm just losing interest in phone tech - but to me, it was only down sides and no upside. The phone was bulky. Fragile. The larger screen you get when you open the phone - was absolutely useless for most of the content I watch. The screen is 4:3 and most of the content I watched was 16:9. The black bars at the top and bo…

That's an excellent point. If it's not close to 16:9 you hardly get more space, or you zoom the video a bit and cut off the sides. 16x9 seems to make more sense. But if you fold it in half, then I think you a weird sized device (wouldn't it be pretty long for cell p hone) - that's probably how we got here

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#134

Why is Google averse to larger batteries? The Chinese makers have been stuffing 8000ish mah batteries in rather diminutive phones for two or three years now, and Google is releasing one in 2026 with about half that.

Shipping regulations. >20Wh can't go by airpost in the west.

A better phone sent by horse would get to my hands sooner than a phone I don't give a shit about that can be shipped by airpost.

I moved from high end to a "mid-range" Samsung phone that's way better than it needs to be given how boring phones have become. The only upgrade I wish on it was more open source software.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#135
post #118

I am so amused at the “HiLight” feature (lighting up colored LEDs for notifications so you can see them “at a glance” without looking at the screen). This is a feature that was on the Android phones of old (including the original G1) and I loved it, but it got phased out in favor of “always on displays”… which apparently now we want less of! It’s funny how trends like this are a circle sometimes.

One day I hope for a future innovation that brings back 3.5MM jacks and I can have audio as convenient as it was in the 1950s, but until then my bluetooth can connect to my speakers while I'm not in the same building and switch device automatically with no setting to change it and with no warning deafen the people in my house, where the only way to switch back requires a mere 20 screen taps (which i can partly blame…

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Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a fix for the battery, but if you're on Android, enable developer settings and change your animations to 0.5x speed (there are three settings to change). Every OS animation will take half as long. It makes an aging phone feel much snappier.

Won't 0.5x speed make it slower (Driving 20mph instead of 40mph will get you somewhere in double the time). I just checked my phone, the phrasing is "Animation scale .5x" (Among other numbers), meaning it's scaled to take n times the time.

Thanks for the assist, I typed it up from memory.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling that making durable fold in half cell phones is just not something we can do cheaply, so they have to be billed as premium to justify it. Also isn't that terminology settled? Fold for passport, flip for flip phone. I'm sure Apple will invent a new word but everyone doing foldables seems to use those consistently.

Are they durable? If I can ruin the screen with my fingernail, I'm completely uninterested.

The inner screen is definitely not as durable as the outer one. I've not tried it, but it does feel like a hard press with a fingernail will leave a mark.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#138

I used to be a "cutting edge phone guy" where I'd get the latest iPhone ever year and the thought of having the older phone just didn't sit well with me. These days though the upgrades are so marginal I don't even care. I'm looking forward to upgrading my three year old phone this year, but not because I expect it to be more than "better camera, faster and thinner" but just because its time. These updates are so bori…

Nobody wants to cut the edge, when it comes to foldable phones, it seems. Also, more than 5 yrs after Galaxy Fold (I've never seen or held one IRL): is it really that valuable to have "marginless" foldable displays? Often times, users will divide the screen into halves, at least, when using large resolution. And users are also not too interested in curved or mangled output surfaces, the ideal is an evenly lighted 2D…

I used the Microsoft Surface Duo, and the experience was terrible. I carry a Pixel 10 Fold, and 90% of the time I use it closed. But when I want to watch a video, or I want to show someone something. The bezel very much ruins that experience. And the Duo went even further by having hidden pixels, which made some UIs completely unusable.

That said, I hardly think that foldable is the peak. I'd prefer a rollable phone that I can expand the screen on, with maybe an edge display.

And the price is the real kicker. For the vast majority of the Android population, a phone at a price point about $1000 is just a non-starter.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#139
post #27

Does anyone had a good experience with foldable phones? The only people I know that bought one had them broken near the 2 year mark. My phone from 2018 it's still working perfectly.

Been a folding phone user for multiple generations now. The flip-phone style ones: Excellent! The folding aspect really aids in switching between a small device with minimal controls to a normal phone. I would use these over a standard phone. No question. The portrait-to-not style ones like pixel fold? Is nice on occasion but the software is a complete let down. For reasons I do not care: The orientation is either wr…

> The portrait-to-not style ones like pixel fold? Is nice on occasion but the software is a complete let down. For reasons I do not care: The orientation is either wrong or the software cannot handle the form factor. The end result is a poor user experience.

Just to +1 on this; my second folding phone was the pixel 9 fold. That phone was released several _years_ after android OS added support for multiple screens, in preperation for samsung shipping the first ever folding phone before covid!

Despite LITERAL YEARS ELAPSING, a decent number of popular apps _still_ - in aug of 2026 - do not handle the aspect ratio changing well let alone transform to actually take advantage of the additional real estate.

It remains to be seen if apple's rumored folding iPhone will be the catalyst that gets most devs to actually care about this.

The main reason that I do put up with the fragility is because I can do side-by-side multi-tasking and give my aging eyes a break when I need to read something.

Re: Pixel 11 Pro Fold

#140
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but just because its time If you already know the new phone isn’t going to do anything better for you, why is it time?

I’m also getting ready to upgrade from my 3yo iPhone. For me, my phone is running out of storage, starting to feel a little slower, and the battery has less capacity. I’m sure I could wait another year, but I’d rather be a little ahead on updates than be behind on updates where my phone is creating problems for me.

What the hell are you doing to your phone to make it slower after only 3 years? I am running a pixel 6a, so lowest end and 5 generations behind current models and it doesn't feel slow, even compared to the phone my partner bought new last year. Or is it just psychologic?

Given the price increase in storage chips, are 2026 phones even coming with more storage than 3 years ago?

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