Hacker News Reader

Comment by awill | Hacker News Reader

Rumours are that the smaller version (Pixel) will cost $649, with the Pixel XL costing $749. Ridiculous. You don't compete with Apple by copying their pricing. Compete by having a better SoC, better camera/screen etc..

View on HN

These are supposed to be Google's flagship phone intended for certain audience who wants great specs like Samsung phones and stock android. I for one was waiting for this kind of phones and just hoping that they live up to the expectations on specs.

> Compete by having a better SoC, better camera/screen

Do you think those things are free?

Right, but there is no SoC that can compete with Apple's A10 fusion SoC. Google just buys off the shelf Qualcomm parts, and they are far slower, especially when you take into account that the Google phones need even more horsepower because they run at much higher resolution.

In single core benchmarks, Apple's A10 is king. In multicore it's pretty much inline with others.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/09/14/geekbench-andro...

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is 6 months old, and the iPhone 7 beats it by 5% in multicore benchmarks.

The iPhone has half the number of active cores.

Those A series cores are also larger than the Qualcomm cores.

No .. but Apple makes its rather hefty margin on hardware. I thought Google makes its margins on software and services. At these rumored price points, I'd rather go with an iPhone (and deal with stupid adapters). I bought a nexus 5x last year .. it had a weird screen issue. It was eligible for a change but I didn't want to go through the hassle of mailing it in. With Apple, I could have gone to a retail store. Not saying Apple is awesome .. they are acting like overlords these days (lack of Macbook refreshes, selling two year old hardware at premium prices such as the ipad air 2, etc.) but I guess they can do it because they have no formidable competition. This pricing is silly .. I suspect they will have big discounts by January.

So that this is not just a rant, here is how to fix the situation: I think Google needs to think different ;-) Compete on what Apple cannot give. Aggressive prices, expandable storage and removable batteries. It is sad that Android phones (Nexuses and others) have become more and more like iPhones when it comes to consumer hostility.

Just my personal opinions btw.

I know I'll never get a phone that's that expensive. Getting an expensive phone from Google is even less likely as they are the company most invested in selling me services and invading my privacy.

If I'm to buy an expensive phone it has to basically be a portable PC. Not tied to a vendor or service and not lock me out of repurposing it with custom firmware.

>> If I'm to buy an expensive phone it has to basically be a portable PC.

There's so many off market phones right now, or year old phones that are right around the $350 price point.

I just left Verizon, got a OnePlus 2 (https://oneplus.net/2) for $299 and it doesn't come with all the bloatware you get from carrier subsidized phones and its pretty much stock Android.

Sure you have to dig to find the Nexbit's, Blu Products, OnePlus and Meizu's, but they're out there and are very competitive in that $3-$400 range. Far less than what you're seeing for this brand new models that seemingly coming out every 6 months now.

> Rumours are that the smaller version (Pixel) will cost $649, with the Pixel XL costing $749. Ridiculous. You don't compete with Apple by copying their pricing

That's fairly normal pricing for a flagship smartphone today, regardless of brand/vendor.

Google should start selling a version of Nexus 5x (or equivalent) phone that comes with ads like Amazon Kindle, and price it at $99.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com