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Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

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Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#391

Post by arthurfm »

satysin wrote: post #332
arthurfm wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, US buyers get a free Daydream VR headset (worth £69) if they pre-order, whereas UK buyers don't. Very annoying especially since a 128GB Pixel XL costs £819!

Yeah I fail to see why I would get this over a Galaxy or iPhone (if OS doesn't matter). They claim the best phone camera yet it doesn't have OIS so it isn't going to be the best for video I doubt.

> They claim the best phone camera yet it doesn't have OIS

The video stabilization looked really good in the demo at the Google event [1] despite using the smartphone's gyroscope [2] to do what the camera would do if it had OIS.

[1] https://youtu.be/q4y0KOeXViI?t=55m20s

[2] http://www.theverge.com/a/google-pixel-phone-new-hardware-in...

> Though there’s no optical image stabilization, Google tied the camera to the gyroscope to eliminate the hand-shake “jelly” effect in video.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#393

Post by threeseed »

lumenwrites wrote: post #331

It blows my mind that there's not a single positive top level comment yet. Seriously, guys, what's up with the culture of entitlement and complaining? We're hackers, let's get fucking excited about the new cool gadgets! This phone is awesome . How about, before nitpicking and criticizing, we take a moment to appreciate and celebrate the new technology developed by our colleagues?

Do you work for Google ? Because they sure aren't my colleagues and I am closer geographically to Sony and Samsung.

The point is that we've seen this strategy before (Nexus) and there's not much in value add over some generic cheap Android phone.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#395

Post by losteverything »

Probably the wrong time to say but.

Is or has there been any way I could purchase a new phone assign it my number and have 2 phones ringing at same time? I would have a side by side comparison in each pocket?

Like I buy pants. But 4 at the store and return 3

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#397

Post by fizzbatter »

pbz wrote: post #226

After using a phone with stereo speakers ( http://cdn01.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08... ) there's no way I'm going back to mono. What's frustrating is that the bottom part looks perfect for a second speaker.

I had that fear after loving my Nexus6 dual speakers for so long, and it can still be nice at times _(mainly for volume level)_, but lately i've just been bluetooth'ing all my music from my Nexus6. The speakers just sound _(mildly!)_ crackly at loud levels, it makes me wonder if they were damaged from my loud playing. So, i guess i'm saying i don't really trust nice built-in speakers for playing music, and am willing to go back to a mono speaker knowing i can just use bluetooth instead.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#398

Post by acdha »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #328
rayiner wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently, Apple has been about a year ahead. Compare the A9 (which shipped in the 6s in fall 2015) with the Snapdragon 810 (which shipped in the Nexus 6p at the same time). http://www.anandtech.com/show/9837/snapdragon-820-preview/2 http://www.anandtech.com/show/9686/the-apple-iphone-6s-and-i... . Heck, in many cases the A9 leaves the Snapdragon 820 behind, and that hasn't even shipped in a Nexus phone yet (the Pixel…

The only metric in which the A9 is really better than the 820 is single core performance. Multi-core and GPU metrics are about the same.

Single core performance is still the single most important metric for most users, especially since things like web browsers tend bottleneck on single thread performance and browsing is one of the most common things people use phones for, especially given how commonly native apps use embedded web views.

Measuring browser performance is hard because there's a lot of different functionality but notice how routinely we see reviews where the device the Android flagship phones are trying to beat is the iPhone 6 or even 2013's 5S:

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/iPhon... https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/iPhon...

(from https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/iphone-7-and-7-plus-re...)

Some of that reflects the considerable amount of work which Apple has put into Mobile Safari but a lot of that is going to come down to single thread performance.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#399

Post by gnicholas »

nindalf wrote: post #140
mikestew wrote: post #13

And yet not a single hard detail in the article as to why the headline might be true. For going on ten years we've seen the "iPhone killers" come and go, and this article does nothing to tell me why this time it will be different. Perhaps because it won't be. Of what very few details the article outlines, they just go on about nifty hardware. Have we not learned by now that cool hardware still sucks when hamstrung by…

To be fair, the article links to the review of the camera by DXOMark [1], who rate it very highly. In my opinion, they're the most reliable reviewers of cameras out there so if they say its the best phone camera, then it is. [1] - https://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles/

Yes, though interestingly DXOMark seems not have reviewed the iPhone 7 Plus yet. Perhaps they're waiting for Portrait mode to be publicly released? Regardless, Google is on slightly shaky ground to claim that they have the best smartphone camera when a top contender hasn't been reviewed yet.

Re: Behind the Pixel: Google’s First Real Threat to Apple’s iPhone

#400

Post by tomtheelder »

010a wrote: post #343
duaneb wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but you don't need anything more than 1080p for an $80 vr headset. It's a value purchase, not a quality purchase.

Its not an $80 VR headset. The thing that goes around your head is $80, but the expensive part is that phone which you put in the front, which needs a 1440p display (minimum) to avoid the screen-door effect.

If we reject the $80 VR thing lets make it $880 or so, including the cost of a phone. That's still a lot less than the ~$3000 it costs to get a legitimate VR headset plus a gaming PC. Add onto that the fact that virtually everyone is going to own a smartphone anyway, and you can basically eliminate the cost of the phone in there. It's definitely value VR.
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