Live data from Hacker News

Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

store.google.com

221–230 of 851 posts

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#221
post #128

Hot take: I haven't seen a compelling new phone feature from any manufacturer in as long as I can remember. I spend 99% of my tapping time sending texts, using a browser and taking pictures with the rear camera. Same as I did on my Droid X which was my first smart phone circa 2011.

Phones are boring commodity devices at this point. The good news is even the cheap ones are pretty good these days. Which is why the market is so boring these days because it is strictly incremental updates to features that barely matter.

I have Fuji camera with a nice lens. So, I have no use/patience for ever disappointing phone cameras. I'm well aware that the high-end phone cameras are pretty decent at automatically getting the most out of mediocre sensors and lenses. However, this is something I enjoy doing manually with the best sensors and lenses I can get my hands on and the results just don't really compare. I think it's great complete amateurs can also take nice photos now but just not my thing. I actually care about my photography. And since cameras are just about the only feature either Apple or Google seems to talk about, I kind of lost interest in the whole market ages ago. Bla bla lenses bla bla sensors bla bla AI. Could not care less about megapixles, fake bokeh (aka. blurring), overly saturated and noise reduced (more blurring) photos (aka. night vision), etc.

Phone cameras are just not something I care about fundamentally. I use my phone as a glorified document scanner occasionally and that's about it. I also don't play games on my phone. Just not a thing for me. Otherwise, all smart phones I've had in the last ten years are fine for light browsing, consuming news, some audio, etc. which is pretty much all I do with them. Even answering phone calls from recruiters is not a thing I care about and that is quite literally the only incoming calls on this thing. Everything else I do with either my laptop or my desktop. Typing on a phone is not a thing for me either. Endlessly frustrating for me to use touch screen keyboards. It's an output only device. All the input modes are mediocre and tedious and I have no patience for them.

So, I've been carrying a cheap Nokia Android phone since 2018 and it's the best phone I've owned in recent years. It no longer receives security updates because of Google basically twisting people's arms to buy their new but hardly improved versions of the same shit they've been shipping since 2008 that I've owned before. Other than that it's fine. Battery lasts me two days; even more than three years in. And after having owned a few Nexus phones, I don't trust Google to deliver a device that will actually last as long as my Nokia has. Best phone I've had since I actually worked for Nokia when it did not license the brand to a generic Android phone manufacturer.

So, not really eager to buy a Pixel phone. I'll probably buy another Nokia when I need to. The Nokia X20 looks pretty good to me. 5G and using it as a dumb modem would be the big headline feature for me.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#222
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Not true, I see at least 2 [0] [1] 2. Even if it was true, welcome to not being included for once in your entire life. Now maybe you can start to begin to understand what others have experienced basically every day of their life. [0] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/s6bCli03aqnY_KvZoPaTgiFqCj... [1] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Zq1FVWVv9GOCRJ3oHJg0PHzWgE...

Your examples are hilarious and you can imagine how I missed those. Pretend all the photos were reversed, and those were the only two people of color on the whole page. Google would be (rightfully) chastised.

Reversing the distribution only sounds logical if you reduce your sample to this one instance and ignore the entire history of product marketing. Which is convenient for some people, and totally bonkers for anyone who isn’t CW&H.

Having to squint to find anyone who even remotely resembles you is the lived experience of millions of people. Perhaps you should reflect on why you can’t relate to people in an ad that look different from you? It’s a skill that someone of us don’t have the luxury of not developing.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#224
I hate the trend that the "pro" versions of all these flagship phones need to be an XL Phablet monstrosity. Human hands haven't gotten any bigger. I have owned most of the Nexus & Pixel phones throughout the years. After having the Nexus 6 as my daily driver for 2 years, I have always opted for the smaller option ever since.

I would totally pay flagship prices for a regular ~5.5-6" phone with flagship specs, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Make it 50% thicker if there are space/heat concerns, but making it wider and taller just makes it super difficult to use consistently with one hand. I also say this as somebody with larger-than-average hands!

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#225
post #210
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your examples are hilarious and you can imagine how I missed those. Pretend all the photos were reversed, and those were the only two people of color on the whole page. Google would be (rightfully) chastised.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vAkOJHbWYn9AvxSOmlHp_1VrzW... Does this meet your requirement?

If you read my comment, the answer is "no". That appears to be a white woman, and I was specifically talking about white "guys" which I used to mean "males"

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#226
post #89

This will get downvoted immediately but what the heck. I understand we need better representation for people of color in many places - but dang Google, not a single white guy on the Pixel 6 page [0]?? Dozens of photos of people, not one white male. Sort of jarring in the reverse if you ask me. [0] https://store.google.com/product/pixel_6?hl=en-US Edit: Because the common reply to mine seems to be "Well now you know h…

White people don’t count towards diversity. White people are the status quo. White people don’t need to be represented in every situation. White people are over represented in tech and seeing white people in the minority is refreshing. Would you have the same opinion if there were no people of color? Would you voice that concern?

Thought you started out sarcastic, then realized you might not be sarcastic.

Amazing that people went from "we need all colors represented in ads as best as possible" which was completely reasonable, to "maybe we don't need white people in ads at all sometimes, ok? maybe it's a good thing!" which is objectively an absurd stance.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> welcome to not being included for once in your entire life. Now maybe you can start to begin to understand what others have experienced basically every day of their life. Your examples are proving OP's point. Your snarky response is what's wrong with the world now a days. I am brown but this over-pandering by companies feels more patronizing and condescending than genuine care. It's like winning an award or being h…

Uh, there is a technical reason on demonstration as well. Don't try so hard to be that guy. "Take authentic, accurate portraits with Real Tone. Portraits on Pixel represent the nuances of different skin tones for all people beautifully and authentically."

But that's the point, they don't show all popular skin tones on those portraits.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#228
post #73
post #38

Tensor SOC seems pretty impressive on paper, will be curious about how it benchmarks and performs in real-life. The Pixel 5 with its "mid-tier" SOC (Snapdragon 765G) was actually pretty good thanks to the software optimizations. Bigger news is Qualcomm being left out. Will they go the way of Intel by incentivizing their customers build their own SOCs?

The bigger problem with Qualcomm is that they're primarily the reason why devices only got a two year span of updates and poor support. Each board built for each phone still had to get the software support starting with Qualcomm before it could be built with new source for updates. Outside that 2 year window, every device OEM had to support the hardware themselves. That's why new phones with older SOCs never got any…

> The bigger problem with Qualcomm is that they're primarily the reason why devices only got a two year span of updates and poor support.

All Pixels running Qualcomm got Android N+3.

Pixels running Tensor will get, let me check the announcement, ah yes, Android N+3.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#229
post #89

This will get downvoted immediately but what the heck. I understand we need better representation for people of color in many places - but dang Google, not a single white guy on the Pixel 6 page [0]?? Dozens of photos of people, not one white male. Sort of jarring in the reverse if you ask me. [0] https://store.google.com/product/pixel_6?hl=en-US Edit: Because the common reply to mine seems to be "Well now you know h…

You're precisely missing the point. There is a new feature to better capture non-white skin tones. Those photos are to illustrate a product benefit. https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RealTone&src=typed_query&f=t...

Did you go to the page I linked to? That is only one section of many photos.

Re: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

#230
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I imagine it's similar to how people of color feel when seeing seas of white faces on product pages past. This is an American company. The US is largely white. A product page for an Indian company wouldn't shock anyone by primarily including Indian faces.

Even though I agree with your sentiment, you would be surprised just how many ads in India include foreigners (all white) exclusively, it’s fucking ridiculous :D What’s frustrating is that almost nobody cares or is frustrated by it :D

That's actually really interesting. I wonder if there has been any research around this preferred marketing race phenomenon. It's interesting that an asian country would show preference for whites, while a white country shows preference for non-whites.

In the US the motivation is entirely political (and a meta layer of playing to political interests). What's the related phenomenon in India about, in your opinion?

Post reply on HN