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Pixel 8 Pro

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Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#731
post #222
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't you think that three phones in six years is the issue? One (P3) ended with me having it in the back pocket of my jeans and literally jumping in the backseat... yeah, not smart. Another (P4a), I tried to open to swap a new battery in and it did not end well. I'd still happily be with the 4a if it was not for my dumb self. It's perfectly working and I use it to listen to some music while biking or at the gym. I…

Would you still be with it, though? Someone upthread claims the phones just don't last. Maybe if you hadn't broken your phones, they still wouldn't've lasted much longer anyway. Having said that, I'm still using my 4-year-old Pixel 4, and it's in great shape. I'll probably get a new phone this year since it's no longer receiving security updates. Which is stupid, because I'm otherwise perfectly happy with the phone.…

For fun today I booted up my Pixel 3 XL and it works just fine. It was slow at first, probably as it synced a bunch of stuff, but after that it was about as snappy and useful as I remember it. Everything still works. I used that for 3 years before the Pixel 6 Pro. Before that I had a Pixel XL for 3 years. I still have that phone too in my device collection.

But the lack of security updates makes the XL and the 3XL, though still functioning as expected, not acceptable. This thing has far too much access to my life to actively use it on the Internet every day.

I'm getting the Pixel 8 not because the 6 Pro has any problems (personally I've had none), but rather because I have a bit more disposable income to spend on my tech enthusiasm and I'm excited about a phone with a 7 year software support window (with incidental coverage to support 5 years of accidental damage). If all goes well, I hope to take advantage of more than 3 years of that, assuming some insane new development doesn't happen in the interim.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#732
post #271

Too expensive for my tastes. Give me 380USD phone which lasts for next 5-8 years, feels premium, is repairable, camera is decent, replaceable battery, OS is just Vanilla Android with atleast 5 years(more years of Software updates would be welcome) of Software Updates and when you can't provide it, make it hackable enough to install Custom ROMs.

The pixel "a" series match your requirements for the most part. An inexperience phone stripped of unnecessary features. Unfortunately I don't know any phones that are also repairable, replaceable, and hackable.

I guess a Fairphone 5 (which will also have 5 year OS, 8 year security updates) is the best chance of this.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#733
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And then Apple made their OS more heavy weight every year until my phone slowed to a crawl. I mean, it is a bit unfair against Apple - some of the reason behind the OS getting more heavyweight is actually backporting new features in 7 year’s distance, many which actually has dedicated hardware in case of the more modern lineup. Also, there is a big aspect which is independent of Apple: every app is getting more and…

If Apple just let people hang out on the last nicely-working version of iOS, where their camera still opens fast, then that’d be fine. But they don’t. They bully you into always being on the latest Also, I remember a while back they did a specific optimised speed-up release of iOS with barely any new features and it _really_ worked. My iPhone 6S went from being basically garbage I was going to replace to like a brand…

Curiously, I noticed people here mention that camera on older iPhones is taking ages to open. I'm on iPhone7, battery never replaced ("battery health: significantly degraded" as reported by iOS), so goes from 100% to 10% in about 12 hrs with "normal" use. However, camera opens just fine.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#734
post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The editor did nothing more than notepad does today and the IDE at least back when I was using it was basically just a compiler, debugger with basic inspection window and stepping and a make system. It wasn't doing realtime formatting of your code, inspection for errors, referencing to other parts of code, autocompletion, syntax highlighting, etc.

Stuck in MS-DOS? As someone that used all their products from MS-DOS, through Windows 3.x days up to switching to Visual C++ 6.0, I clearly remeber code completion, syntax highlighting and macros, three features that Notepad isn't capable of. As easily proven, by reading the manuals available in Bitsavers.

Yeah looks like you're right about at least the syntax highlighting and macros, I can't find any reference to Borland doing code completion back then and what I did find was people from much later complaining that it'd take up to 5 seconds to return suggestions, I used it around 4.5 and really don't remember any of those features though. I guess it was almost 30 years ago now though and I was mostly just interested in making the asteroids do weird things.

So replace Notepad with Notepad++ in my previous comments. There are definitely fast editors that do the same thing as Borland editors did back then the ones like VSC do a whole lot more and support a whole lot more.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#735

Maybe we should go back to pay for software. I'm willing to pay for new Android releases if I could use my phone longer. This would be fair for both sides: the manufacturer would earn money with the software and I would save money for a new phone and the environment would be saved from a lot of waste. Win-win-win!

Google benefits as long as you use Android, with Play Store, Google Search and the general Google ecosystem. The problem with long-term support was lack of discipline, not lack of incentive.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure ARM based Mac laptops are great. But x86 laptops are still just as loud, hot with horrible battery life as they always have been.

Hyperbole much? 2003 x86 laptop: 1-2h battery life, fan ~always on, annoying tonal fan noise 2023 x86 laptop: 6-10h battery life, fan off in idle, some kind of wide spectrum whooshing sound when on

You realize how bad 6 hour battery life is right compared to the MacBook Air?

And my work Microsoft Surface laptop fan never shuts off.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#737
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My experience with my own pixel 7 pro and a pixel 5 has been that these devices are an order of magnitude lower in build quality than Samsung or iPhones. Subjective, I am at my third Pixel phone in six years and I never had an issue.

> I am at my third Pixel phone in six years and I never had an issue. Don't you think that three phones in six years is the issue? I'm still on 2019 Galaxy S10, i.e. fourth year, single phone. The hardware is still in great condition, no malfunction of anything.

My Galaxy S10's bluetooth modem just said no 3 months in. My pixels have only failed me by losing support from Google prematurely. This is all anecdata.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#738

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem to annoy people who buy cars. In fact usually cars that were released 5 years before had most of their quirks known and ironed out through a midlife revamp or the model or scheduled preventive replacement of known parts breaking at a specific mileage. Just released one tend to be more of a problem to first gen owners reliability wise. I rely on my smartphone for work, I'd rather buy a 4y old model kno…

To be fair, a car is widely expected to last 12 years or longer, has relatively simple software and computer systems, and has no (or limited) access to your personal data. They are also typically a much larger investment. The phone on the other hand is connected to every facet of your life and has a software stack that absolutely contains security flaws waiting to be found and exploited. Apple has always worked to ke…

> The phone on the other hand is connected to every facet of your life and has a software stack that absolutely contains security flaws waiting to be found and exploited.

This is an entirely different subject. The software can be upgraded/updated during the life of the mobile phone. And when it comes to chip makers mistakes, which led to vulns like Spectres, they are likely to affect several generations of chips anyway.

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#739
post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do, but they were also doing it before the phones were routinely designed to be waterproof, and I don't recall an epidemic of water-related phone-killing incidents.

you don't mind so much when it is a 50$ phone, a bit more on a 1100$ one. Not that I understand why anyone would pay more than 250$ in a smartphone really.

Well since even the average Android phone’s selling price is $285 the last time I checked, maybe it says more about your lack of insight than anything else?

Re: Pixel 8 Pro

#740
post #646

This is a meta comment, but I think it's extraordinary that we're only 15ish years from the first smartphone release and we've already reached the "boring" incremental improvement phase for these tiny pocket supercomputers. Consider how long it took PCs to reach the same stage (with a fraction of the adoption). It was like 20 years from Kenbak-1 to the 90s PC era.

It's because of how limited they are. Companies gave up trying to add stuff, and are in fact removing stuff and sensors in an attempt to up the sales of watches, earbuds etc etc. As long as it sells , they won't bother with better improvements

If I could plug them into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor setup and be running a full fledged OS they'd be exponentially more interesting than current. Their usefulness is hindered in their current form. Yes I know about Dex.
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