> One challenge for the future, and those seven years of updates, will be the 8GB of RAM. Google is already calling devices with 8GB of RAM "hardware limited" when it comes to future AI features, so be prepared for that. It's a budget phone, though, so you have to make some trade-offs.
1) 8GB ram is hardware limited, 2) $499 is a budget phone???
I'm very happy with my recently acquired Moto G Stylus 5G 2023. It's $250 and has 256GB flash (vs 128GB for the 2x as expensive Pixel 8A), has an SD slot so I can put in another 1TB of flash (2TB soon), has a headphone jack (I still prefer wired headphones), actually has decent battery life, and the battery (per ifixit) is not all that hard to replace though I would still much prefer a swappable one.
I don't think of $250 as a budget phone either. More like midrange. The budget version is the G Play 2024 which is $129 or $149 depending on Moto's whims.
Have you seen how much an iPhone Pro Max or Galaxy Ultra costs?
Also factor in how many years of SW updates are you getting on those cheap Motorolas and also the quality of the software.
Hardware bang for the buck ain't everything. If the software is full of ads on those cheap phones or is buggy(like it was on my OnePlus), then your $250 phone ain't worth shit in terms of frustration it's gonna cause you long term.
Cute thinking Samsung's own apps are spyware crud. Is Apple's iCloud app also crud spyware?
If you wanna see spyware crud Try buying Chinese phones with Candy Crush and third party Chines apps and games you can't uninstall and show you ads in the menus.
The less software (beyond stock Android) that a phone has, the better off it is IMHO. My last Moto phone (a G4) was almost entirely stock and that made me more inclined to buy the new version. Unfortunately the new phone had a bunch of bloaty apps but I managed to remove or disable almost all of them. Many of them were from Google if that matters. There is an app called Universal Android Debloater (UAD) that does this automatically but I didn't find out about it til afterwards.
I'm not noticing any ads from the software on my phone. I am still working on replacing the Google stuff though, since it is presumably spying even if it isn't spewing ads.
On a recent iphone setup I didn't notice ads per se, but instead there were constant pitches to buy subscriptions to Apple services. I found that just as bad as ads.
The Moto G's currently come with 3 years of security updates and 1 Android major version update. That is probably good enough. More than 3 years out, the phone hardware probably can't keep up with the increased levels of software bloat. My old phone had 2GB of ram which was fine when I got it, but near crippled now.
Which bottom of a barrel did you have to scrape to get a phone with 2GB of RAM in recent history? My OnePlus 3 from 2016 had 6GB back then and my Samsung Note 2 before that had 2GB .. in 2012.
> Google is already calling devices with 8GB of RAM "hardware limited" when it comes to future AI features
which... yeah, I think that's true? You can run smaller LLMs in 8GB, for example, but it's a tight fit and you're going to be limited to really really small models.
Granted, I suspect this will result in the floor for "acceptable RAM" to go up considerably, which... we'll see if that's good or bad.
> $499 is a budget phone???
Yeah no that's nonsense. You can get a moto g for $99 (!) on sale at https://www.motorola.com/us/specialsright now and that's... I mean, that's an old model, but it's perfectly serviceable yet.
$250 would have been a budget phone 5 years ago. If you're buying an unlocked phone from a brick and mortar store, $350-$500 is the minimum for a brand-name phone. If your are based in the US/EU, you may only have brand name phones available.
I thought Motorola and Samsung were both brand names here in the US. Here is Motorola's current budget line. All are below $300. Admittedly the best deals are the 2023 models but that is a regular thing with them. If I wanted a cheap phone today I'd probably get the 2023 G 5G at $149.
I don't know about brick and mortar stores, but I've purchased a brand new moto e for <$150 within the last 5 years, and I'd call Motorola "brand name".
I was really hoping they would go back to having a headphone jack on the 'a' series of pixels.
I picked up a 7a pixel and fooled myself into thinking it "can't be that bad". But bluetooth is the worst technology to ever grace our airways, dongles fucking suck, and it's been a constant source of annoyance since I got it.
I guess I'll be picking up something other than a pixel when it comes time to upgrade. But there is an ever shrinking number of options that have both a headphone jack and allow bootloader unlocking/locking...
I have three devices: personal laptop (thinkpad/linux), work macbook, personal android.
It's absolutely insane trying to get exactly the one I want connected to my earphones. Basically, I have to make sure two of them have bluetooth off, so the third one reliably connects. Otherwise, sometimes left earphone will connect to one device, and right to other.
This is a deficiency of the protocol that there is no sane way to do this.
I guess this is were Apple does things well within ecosystem.
I have: personal MacBook, work MacBook, personal iPad, personal iPhone, and an old personal iPhone I use as a lower-distraction music player. I also often connect to my Fire TV stick to listen to TV without disturbing others in the house.
With my AirPods, this is all pretty seamless these days. I never have to turn Bluetooth off on them.
Managing one pair of headphones that connects to more than one device is a nightmare, everything always auto connects/disconnects when you don't want. Many devices don't have a temporarily disable connection attempts toggle.
I use Bluesnooze [1] on my Mac for that reason, it won't even disconnect when suspended otherwise and you have to log back in to turn off BT. It's pretty easy to disable on phones/tablets otherwise.
Depending on the client device, you can often put it into pairing mode immediately upon turning it on to prevent auto-connect, then click connect from the desired host device. Still annoying but slightly less so than having to disable bluetooth on every other nearby host.
because I might be charging the phone or something else that requires that port. I don't want to use a dongle. I want the same 3.5mm aux jack that continues to work reliably for many decades, and continues to support headphones older than the internet instead of the disposable bluetooth stuff they try and sell you today.
>Same camera setup on an "AI-powered Amazing Camera"
I don't know how to describe it, mediocre, I guess? Don't get me wrong, they surely did polish the phone, but apart from its out-of-the-box tuned camera, it has no value beyond actually mid-range phones in $300-400 range with a tuned GCam loaded on them.
I own a Pixel 8. I've been impressed with it's performance and the general feel of using it over the past months. With Pixel 8a, the gap between A series phones and the non-pro version seems to be diminishing way too fast.
They still need to fix the modem issues and thereby increase battery life.
Already had my fill of Pixel 7 Pro problems. The screen failed to register any touches on it, twice. Once within warranty, once outside it. Best I could do is file a claim with my credit card company for a measly $300.
For a $1200 phone.
Had a bizarrely similar experience with the Pixel Watch.
The screen just failed to respond to touch. Wasted an hour figuring out how to get into fast boot mode. After a factory reset, it started working, but it doesn't get much more than 12-16 hours of battery time before needing a charge.
After losing a lot of money, time, and patience, I'm done with Google anything. Their hardware is garbage and they seem to have failed to address these issues with newer Pixel releases. Not sure what the point is of having 7 years of updates when the phone's hardware will barely last one of those years. And good luck with support.
Switched to a Samsung A54, and although it is slower and laggier in some aspects, the hardware is solid and I've been impressed at how clean OneUI is.
Tip: When your Pixel screen fails to respond to touch, you can at least plug in a USB mouse and recover what you can before tossing it into the dead gadget drawer.
still the ugliest, mud crawling looking phone in the arena. I mean, it's such a disgusting looking stare that I don't wanna touch it with a 10 feet pole. Get an industrial designer, preferably someone who lives near beautiful landmarks, like an italian person and don't let the engineers tell the individual what can and can't be done.
I'm not paying a cent for it, until they sort this design mess out. Also, the android opsys' looks also needs some love.
I cannot wait to read the reviews about which core piece of smartphones they fucked up with this one. After 3 Pixels, ALL with issues that never should have
been present, I decided Google can shove it's Pixel phones.
I prefer AOSP, rather than all the shitty overlays, so I went with Pixels and just FML. Complete pieces of shit.
What kind of fucking clowns make a smartphone with a shitty, barely functional fingerprint reader, in this decade?
GL to anyone that uses them, and I sincerely hope YMMV.
> Also GrapheneOS supports almost exclusively Pixels, so I would think that they aren't that bad.
I don't think that necessarily follows; GrapheneOS uses the Pixel line because it lets you install a custom ROM and relock the bootloader, and they're a security-focused ROM so that's a big deal to them.
Hmm I think it's not only that: "We strongly recommend only purchasing one of the following devices [those are exclusively Pixels] for GrapheneOS due to better security and a long minimum support guarantee from launch for full security updates and other improvements": https://grapheneos.org/faq#recommended-devices
Sure. My point was just that there is value for those who care about security.
Also I have quite a few friends (many Android devs) who have had Pixels for years, and seem happy. My point was that I don't think Pixels are particularly bad. In fact, they are pretty good in some metrics. And very far from being "pieces of shit" like the original comment is saying.
I personally have a Fairphone, which I believe is very good in what it does. But very different from e.g. a Samsung flagship, of course.
I swap between Androids and iPhones every 18-24 months, so I can stay current on both. I use both equally well, and find both to be fine, generally.
I've used a lot of Androids over the years, but the Pixels, in my case, all had substantial issues that never should have been, which really is garbage, considering the price.
> After 3 Pixels, ALL with issues that never should have been present, I decided Google can shove it's Pixel phones.
I can understand issues, but what I can't forgive is Google not taking responsibility for those issues.
My mother had a Pixel 3 that died an EDL-death at around 3 years old. She wasn't a heavy phone user, and this was obviously a defect, but yet Google would do nothing (Case ID [9-9224000032592] Google). They suggested paying $411 for a repair when second-hand phones were selling for $300.
My mom was planning on trading it in when the Pixel 6 was released, but it failed about a month before and as it wasn't working Google also wouldn't accept it towards an upgrade.
7-year software upgrades are great and all, but by not standing behind their hardware I really can't recommend buying them.
At some point Google needs to think about why these phones exist. Nobody buys them and there is no way their hardware division is turning a profit. After Stadia, I bet this is next.
Google doesn't sell your data. Why would they? It's their entire business. They spend so much time and money to collect it, just to hand it over to a competitor?
Google makes money selling access to you/figments of your data.
In that case I would like to know their commitment to not share data that could potentially, down the pipeline be bought by unknown parties / criminals, and, that they have a commitment to not display malicous ads, that elders click on and get scammed
What ads? I've had a pixel 7a for month, stock OS, and I'm not sure what you mean. I certainly don't get any ads via notification except for from 3rd party apps.
It's possible you have some Google app running and that's what's doing it? I would look into which apps the notifications are coming from, you should be able to completely eliminate the problem.
I keep my notifications for almost all of my apps turned off. This includes "important" apps like Google Maps and Google Drive.
I only keep notifications ON for apps that I really really care about, which are mostly communication apps like WhatsApp, Signal etc.
I don't miss a thing. I feel mobile notifications are a cesspit full of crap. Every fucking website or app or game wants to send you notifications, and they're almost always 100% useless.
I use a Samsung phone and I in fact put all the muted apps in "deep sleep" as well.
I wish Apple's ads were delivered as notifications. Then I could disable them. But Apple allows me to disable notifications for everyone but themselves.
I get emails, popups, and banners on my iPhone. They're on my lock screen, in the Music app nav bar, and draped across the top of Settings. They repeatedly nag me to upgrade my iCloud storage, try Apple Music, see what's new in Apple TV, and check out their financial services. They hassle me on macOS too.
Windows 10 is tame in comparison. I just got a Pixel phone and it pesters me more than my iPhone did, but not by much.
The worst are the apps that will constantly bother you with an in-app popup to enable notifications, e.g. Goat. They make it come up randomly so you'll accidentally click on it.
Or apps that you pay for (Spotify Premium, Tidal) that will constantly bombard you with marketing in-app popups at random times. So instead of listening and enjoying my music, I can accidentally click on one of these landmines and get redirected to something I do not want.
I cancelled Spotify because of this. Will also cancel Tidal after my trial because they just copying the same ugly tactics as Spotify.
I don't know what the hell you managed to install on your phone but there certainly aren't any ads outside of free ad supported apps on any pixel phone.
> One challenge for the future, and those seven years of updates, will be the 8GB of RAM. Google is already calling devices with 8GB of RAM "hardware limited" when it comes to future AI features, so be prepared for that. It's a budget phone, though, so you have to make some trade-offs.
1) 8GB ram is hardware limited, 2) $499 is a budget phone???
I'm very happy with my recently acquired Moto G Stylus 5G 2023. It's $250 and has 256GB flash (vs 128GB for the 2x as expensive Pixel 8A), has an SD slot so I can put in another 1TB of flash (2TB soon), has a headphone jack (I still prefer wired headphones), actually has decent battery life, and the battery (per ifixit) is not all that hard to replace though I would still much prefer a swappable one.
I don't think of $250 as a budget phone either. More like midrange. The budget version is the G Play 2024 which is $129 or $149 depending on Moto's whims.