Android P launches today in public beta | Hacker News Reader

Android P launches today in public beta

theverge.com

58 pointsel_duderino31 comments

Kinda impressed it launched on multiple manufacturers and devices, this is something Google's been unable to accomplish for the past nine years. I assume this is a Project Treble perk.

That's right, they specifically credit Treble for making this possible: https://developer.android.com/preview/devices/

This reminds me my Nexus 5X is now two years old.

Because that’s all the updates I got. Yay. At least it was cheap.

It's an absurd situation. After starting what's arguably the most successful phone hardware program ever (Nexus), Google has stopped making Nexus phones. The only phone they're selling at all right now is the $650 Pixel 2 with a gigantic 6 inch screen and no headphone jack. And even at that price they're only guaranteeing 3 years of updates.

After getting great and steadily improving hardware like Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, we're now in a place where you can't get a high quality 5 inch phone with a simple rectangular display and headphone jack running vanilla Android at the $300 price point. Exactly the thing Nexus promised to provide.

I fear the day that my 5X dies. I guess I'll end up with something like a Mi A1.

The $650 model is 5 inches, its $850 for the 6 inch model.

Don’t forget the 3 year clock started 6 months ago.

> And even at that price they're only guaranteeing 3 years of updates.

3 years of security updates – you only have a guarantee of 2 years of feature updates.

And even worse, it’s not $650 in Germany, it starts(!) at over $900.

Fuck this, I’m just going to develop for iOS, even that’s cheaper.

Check out https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/

Nokia 6?

It's still alive and well on LineageOS! I'm hoping it'll continue to get support when Android P hits AOSP/LineageOS.. At least until the Librem5 arrives!

Does the camera produce the same quality of image under LineageOS?

Not sure, because I've never used Google's Android image on it. I'd take continued security updates over a slight difference in image quality any day though.

Thanks. I belatedly got my bootlooped Nexus 5x repaired. So, I have another phone for "connectivity". The Nexus 5x still has a better camera. I'd like to keep it connected, for various reasons. But I like the pictures it takes, too. And I'm not ready to drop circa $800 on one of the current "premium" phones.

I had five or so Nexus devices over the years, ending with my Nexus 5X bootlooping 18 months into owning it. I picked up a Xiaomi Mi A1 and I could not be happier—it is part of the "Android One" initiative so it runs AOSP, gets security updates every month, and only cost $300. Great build quality too.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I bought a Xiaomi Mi Band 2 direct from China when it first came out. Circa $20 for a fitness band with a heart rate monitor. (Well, plus shipping.)

But then they DRM-ed the interface, and the third party app I wanted to use first didn't work with it, then didn't work without the official Mi app in place and active. And I started worrying more about data collection and the China connection.

If you don't mind a couple of questions. And no worries if no response.

Any thoughts on this with respect to their phones? I just imagine that if the Chinese government wants to be all up in their firmware and apps/customizations, they will be.

Also, how's the camera, specifically? Do you think it matches the Nexus 5x's? I've read too many reviews of these Chinese models to remember specific ones, but I do recall that camera performance frequently lags somewhat. (On the other hand, the Huawei P20 / P20 Pro's camera performance is lust-worthy.)

Honestly Android 8 was already horrible on the 5x. Android 7.x was lightning fast, super responsive, everything was great. After the upgrade to 8, I had less than 500MB of memory free after boot, and maps could take 30+ seconds to load, and I frequently had pauses ranging from 10 seconds to over a minute.

If my 5x could have stayed on 7.x I would still be happily using it today.

You can't install old Android with Nexus?

You're very lucky then! I'd think that most Nexus 5x phones are stuck in the bootloop by now.

my nexus 5x suddenly died one year ago, before I can get my pictures out etc.

since then I got a cheap moto phone($200) with pictures backup etc, so far so good

If you still have it, and it is/was bootlooping, you can probably still recover your pictures by applying some heat to the chips. I think the problem is bad solder connections. Some people were successful using their oven, I was successful using a heat gun. It worked just long enough to recover my pictures. The second time I tried it, it started sizzling :-)

if i put it to a freezer for a few minutes then I can boot it up, the it gets warm and shut down on its own in about 1 minute.

I do have a heat gun, never got a time to pry open the case and try that fix.

Favourite feature: When you place your phone face down on any surface it is automatically set to DND (Do-not disturb) mode.

My Android One Moto x4 has that feature now. It's awesome.

This is a perfect combo with the always on screen of the Pixel 2. Up for awareness, down for focus.

Noticeably absent from that list of partners is Samsung.

I love my Galaxy S7 but my next phone will definitely not be a Samsung based on the direction they seem to be heading.

Yea, I agree. I like my S8 and I have hopped back and forth between nexus style and Samsung S# phones but with the amount of bloat I get, having to force google launcher, and slower update roll-outs I think I am done with Samsung for awhile.

Too bad Google's lost interest in making good phones people can actually afford to buy. Still rocking my Nexus 5 and I can already tell you my next phone is going to be at least two years old and used.

Maybe there will be an affordable version of the upcoming Pixel 3.

What's P? Pudding? Pecan pie?

Peppermint

Pepparkaka

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