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Nexus 6

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Re: Nexus 6

#351
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Its simply too large for the average user. > Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices? I think it's quite bold to speak in such factual terms when talking about the "average" consumer or the market. Your opinion does not necessarily apply to everyone, or even the majority of the users. Not that I disagree with you, mind. It seems to me that these ma…

I disagree with you. Just because a kid wants more chocolate does not mean you should give it to him. It may make him happy at first but is not good for him in long run. What are people/me saying here is that, we should/can achieve the same functionality with smaller phones. We should. In hundred years, people will laugh at these phones! Too big considering what it does and provides to people.

I don't understand your comment. Are you saying people who prefer thinner/lighter phones over longer-lived phones are misguided? Maybe they have different priorities than you.

I don't see how this relates to regulating a child's junk food intake. Do you think companies should decide what we can buy?

Re: Nexus 6

#352
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Its simply too large for the average user. > Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices? I think it's quite bold to speak in such factual terms when talking about the "average" consumer or the market. Your opinion does not necessarily apply to everyone, or even the majority of the users. Not that I disagree with you, mind. It seems to me that these ma…

Good points, I guess I did make a sweeping generalisation on the "average user" part and I guess this is how the market will always work but it just slows down innovation dramatically for the sake of making that extra penny. Sigh.

Well, again, I get the feeling that you're perhaps unknowingly defining "innovation" to mean "improving the things I like".

For one, I do think that these larger phones bring about new use cases that leave room for innovation. There is much more you can do with a large phone, such as having more immersive games & apps, make a phone viable for note taking and media consumption, use multiple apps at the same time (if you are so inclined), and all sorts of other new things that would be finnicky at best on smaller phones. Not that those are all self-evidently good things, but at least they seem to be innovative.

Whereas a longer battery life doesn't get you anything new. It means you can do the same things, but now you can do the same things for two days instead of one. That's a good thing, sure, but it's not innovative.

As a side note, bigger screened phones really do tend to have much longer battery life. These two things aren't opposed, they seem to go hand in hand.

Re: Nexus 6

#353

5.96” - A phone just under 6". This is possibly the biggest disappointment about the phone. Its simply too large for the average user. The nexus 5 was already quite difficult to reach the top corners with one hand in my opinion with its 4.95”. you get over 24 hours of use from a full charge. - too many times I have heard this phrase from other smartphone manufacturers and its never true. Since this phone is made by M…

This screen size is so, so disappointing. I'm an iphone 5s user and was eagerly awaiting the new Nexus to make the switch to Android. But 6" is a tablet that can make calls, not a phone. I WANT to switch to Android/Nexus for hundreds of reasons but this screen size is a deal break. I need a phone I can use like... a phone. I've tried the iphone 6 plus in person and it's a monstrosity to use, definitely not a one hand…

The Nexus 5 is still a really nice phone.

Re: Nexus 6

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make a platform that automatically collects the atmospheric pressure sensor reading on a schedule, and sends it to scientists for analysis. The idea is to build the best weather forecast (higher accuracy, hyperlocal) by using this dramatically denser data source as inputs to models. We make an open source app called PressureNet: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbu... We also build an SDK an…

Do you use other data to correlate locations that might have different offsets at different times? (EG; slightly pressurized buildings with forced air circulation or vehicles in motion?) Or are such offsets too minuscule to notice?

There's actually a wide variety of noise in the data, but the one that really matters is altitude (the barometer can measure the altitude difference between your feet and your head)! Other sources of error are the biases in the sensors themselves (place two phones side by side, get different readings), pressure-controlled buildings, sensor drift, etc.

We have a number of mechanisms to filter out most of the noise, but it's not easy.

Re: Nexus 6

#355
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Its simply too large for the average user. > Why can't smartphone manufacturers understand that a longer battery life is whats lacking in mobile devices? I think it's quite bold to speak in such factual terms when talking about the "average" consumer or the market. Your opinion does not necessarily apply to everyone, or even the majority of the users. Not that I disagree with you, mind. It seems to me that these ma…

I disagree with you. Just because a kid wants more chocolate does not mean you should give it to him. It may make him happy at first but is not good for him in long run. What are people/me saying here is that, we should/can achieve the same functionality with smaller phones. We should. In hundred years, people will laugh at these phones! Too big considering what it does and provides to people.

It won't be a hundred years though, it'll be one or two years and then that new increased battery life will sell another phone. So if screens increase sales now, it might make sense to focus on them with the knowledge that battery life or something else will be the next feature that drives sales.

Re: Nexus 6

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Your eye can resolve the difference between 300 ppi and 500 ppi at arm's length? Also, don't be a stranger.

Is it even physically possible to notice the difference in that ppi at that range? I thought human eyes didn't have the capability. I think everyone saying "yes I see a difference" should be doing some double blind validation. I've had people tell me they could tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at 20 feet. That is physically impossible for the human eye.

> I've had people tell me they could tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at 20 feet. That is physically impossible for the human eye.

Well that would depend on the device. If it's a 5" phone, then yes, obviously. If it's a 21" display, also, yes. If it's a 75" TV, probably not.

Re: Nexus 6

#357
post #22

If I scroll to the "Introducing Lollipop, our sweetest release yet" section, there's a google now card for a coffee place I've been to recently (in Portland, OR for that matter ...). It's uncanny...

That was weird for me too, I was just at heart last week.

Re: Nexus 6

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brightness and total screen size matter more for battery life than resolution...

Phones with larger screen's generally have better battery life than phones with smaller screens. Look at the iphone 6 vs 6+ for instance. Increasing the screen size leads to disproportionately more room for battery since most of the other components dont get bigger as the screen size does. I agree that we are at a time when battery life should be prioritized, but I would prefer that to come from thickness. Increasing…

We're not necessarily arguing against screen size, but pixel density. That is, instead of scaling the resolution linearly with the screen size, they did that and some. So now instead of a low 400s pixel density range like the Nexus 5, the Nexus 6 sits at a de facto PPI of roughly 500.

Obviously there's a cost to this, both in battery and hardware requirements to push those extra pixels. Meanwhile nobody can detect pixels on a Nexus 5, but apparently it wasn't good enough.

And next year we'll see PPI at 500-600. I just don't get it.

As for thickness, I think the Nexus does quite well. It's about 50% thicker than the iPhone 6 which is a great number (~10mm) to be at in my opinion.

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