Why Google's $400 Pixel 3a convinced me to never again buy a $1000 smartphone | Hacker News Reader

Why Google's $400 Pixel 3a convinced me to never again buy a $1000 smartphone

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52 pointscpncrunch63 comments

My issue remains privacy. I can’t help but feel that every swipe and key I type into an Android will be added to some profile on me.

You may already know about this since it comes up a lot on HN but I am keeping an eye on https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ development for this reason.

While this is great, I'd rather have a cheaper phone, less than $150.

Not to brag but I'm dying for a low end open smartphone, with the same concept of the raspberry pi.

Until last year, I was buying refurbished S5's on Amazon for that price. Unfortunately, the set of apps I run finally bogged that phone down.

Couldn’t you setup a g-suite profile, and use that? I mean it would cost you money, but I’m not sure where you can find privacy and ownership for free these days.

Um, Apple?

MicroG? Or simply drop Play services and such and use a different ROM?

Actually one of the best things about Android is that you can drop all the Google apps. Don't use the default Google keyboard but install your own. Don't want to see ads in YouTube? Get YT Vanced. No ads in apps ever? DNS66. Want the Play Store apps without Google? Yalp.

That doesn't change the fact that you need google play services for most of the phone to work. It can be done, but it's a huge pain in the ass.

Try GrapheneOS (https://grapheneos.org)

Support for Pixel 3a and 3a XL will be added soon.

But don't you lose the software/drivers that makes the camera great?

Heaphone jack is a great bonus in my book, but then again I am described as a neckbeard by some of my non-imaginary friends.

I won't buy a phone without a headphone jack.

Or at least without USB-C: at least then I can use the same headphones on my laptop, iPad Pro, and phone.

Audio over USB (or charging port) is nice when you don't want to use your headphones while charging your phone

2019, when a headphone jack is a bonus.

I feel like one has Stockholm Syndrome when they are excited to be given a 'headphone jack.' On a serious note, vote with your wallet! There's at least two of us.

Been on a Pixel 2 XL, ordered pre-release (my 6p died around that time) and I viscerally hate that it doesn't just have a headphone jack. Keep thinking of moving to a 3a XL, just can't bring myself to, not worth it... hoping the next release keeps up the trend though.

Also glad to see a return to mid-range class phones. It's what the Google line (Nexus) had always been. One Plus has been pretty close too. I just don't think it's worth more than $500-600 for a phone. I honestly don't like paying more than $300, but there's nothing close to that of decent quality it seems.

Holding onto my current phone for at least another year. At least the battery tech seems to have finally matured.

My Nexus 6P died in the fall of 2018 and I had to upgrade so I got the Pixel 3. If i knew they were going to make a $400 Pixel 3a I would have waited. Really pissed about this release cycle and I feel like I wasted money I didn't want to spend.

You just read my bio.

So you would have gone over 6 months with no phone?

sorry when i say "died" i mean the battery life was under 2 hours without needing to be charged again

Does the 6P have a replaceable battery?

after being an iphone user for years i switched to Android when apple released iphone 7. up to iphone 6s the innovation was worth upgrading but since then 'flagship' devices have been adding just gimmicks while charging 4 digit amounts. I got my OnePlus 5T for 499 and two years later it works like it did on its first day. Unlike iphones that would slow down after exactly 1 year when a new iphone was released. right now 400-500 dollar phones do everything a phone is supposed to do and lack nothing compared to flagships. you can tell most people agree with this judging by weak sales of new releases. customers are holding on to their phones for 2-3 years and rightfully so. smartphone frenzy is over and looks like 'few hundred dollars' is the new budget people think its worth.

I'm tired of even $400-500 every 2 years, for seemingly the same thing over and over. I'm going to do battery replacements as long as the device survives. (I'm 2 battery replacements into my Nexus 6P).

I bought Nexus 5 about 4-5 years ago. It's been fine since. Never felt the need to upgrade until last week when I bought the 3a, hope it has the same long term cost performance as my last phone.

I had a Galaxy 5 and when the time came I couldn't find a quality battery replacement for it. I bought a "new" official battery, but it had been on the shelf so long it didn't hold a charge either. I tried an aftermarket battery, but it started buldging.

Are the newer batteries doing any better... mine literally caught fire (small explosion) at the service location when they took it apart. Been on a Pixel 2 XL since, man I miss a headphone jack, can't even find the damned adapter and the two I bought on Amazon don't work (compatible my ass).

The 6P was a great phone (charging/battery issues aside). Glad to see Google returning to the mid-range.

I am a IPhone 6 user and my contacts and other data on the apps has kept me glued to the iOS ecosystem.

How do you port the iOS data to an android system ?

you can export contacts into Google contacts but you will lose all your imessages

Hopefully the 4a comes with ip67 or ip68 certification; it’s really the only missing feature from the 3a that gives me pause. I don’t want to have to worry if I walk outside and it is raining, or my phone slips off the bathroom sink edge and ends up under a stream of water.

Agreed. This Pixel 3a could be my next phone if not for the lack of IP67 or IP68.

I've had various iPhones and Androids over the years, most recently iPhone 6s+, 7+ and XR. I just yesterday bought a Oneplus 6T and am very happy with it. I've had the Xr for a few months now and it's been my least favorite iPhone. For me, it's a little heavy compared to even the older pluses. And the display isn't all that much chop for a premium phone. I'm glad it's a work phone, because I don't think I would ever have forked out over $1200 AUD for it. As much as I appreciate the privacy angle of the Apple ecosystem, it turns out that I've really missed just being able to install what I want on my phone. It's been liberating being able to customize what I want to not what Apple allows you to. Also, with Oneplus phones, you really do get 'flagship' quality phones without having to fork out the money.

To be fair, if you've only had the phone for a single day it's a little too early to tell how well it's going to pay off :)

I was a happy owner of the OP2, and currently the OP6. I doubt my next phone will be a OnePlus, though. While the OnePlus are great phones, the prices have risen to flagship levels over the years. The new OP 7 Pro starts at $669, a far cry from the $299 of the original OP One.

I use Xiaomi Mi Max 3 I got for $230. $400 is still 50%+ overpriced.

I have the MI A2 (~$230). It's spec'd very similarly to the Pixel 3a and has stock Android. It's been available for almost a year now.

Cool. I had thought all of Xiaomi's phones came with MIUI. I didn't know they sold this Android One Device as well.

What's the encryption story with Pixel 3a? I know when I lock my old iPhone 6 that not even the Federal Government can get into it. Can the same be said for the Pixel?

I thought the federal government was able to from the whole San Bernardino shooting suspect's phone?

They did get into his phone

> They did get into his phone

I'm not a hacker, But I am a skeptic; wouldn't it behoove the Gov't to just pretend they had to pay a private hacker a boatload of greenbacks to crack an Iphone? I mean, that's the smart play, no?

What would they stand to gain from that? They had to use a 0day on it, they would never use that on the general public.

> What would they stand to gain from that? They had to use a 0day on it, they would never use that on the general public.

Again that would be the beauty of it. If they did have to use a hack Apple didn't know about. We don't really know how they cracked it--only what "they said". Maybe it was a Day Zero, maybe it wasn't. If the NSA has access to Everthing that Everyone does online, (and Yes I do know that E2EE is unbreakable, but were Apple engineers using that to communicate?); its possible they know as much, if not more more, about the architecture than Apple does. Have you seen the size of their data centers, and the extremes they go to for spying on us.

And speaking of Gov't State sponsored crackers: here's a nice litte article about one of our (The USA's) allies [1] who break iOS, allegedly--When Ever They Want To, not a Five Eyes Nation but still a close ally.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pajkkz/its-almost-impossi...

That entirely depends on the strength if your password. That iPhone 6 had a 4 digit PIN plus a hardware salt. 4 digits is bad as that's only 1000 guesses to get the correct code (if you get the salt). The iPhone 6 had additional code to stop brute forcing, and that was the crux of the issue. Eventually they paid someome for a software exploit (the FBI director at the time, Comey complained that was "unsustainable").

If your extra paranoid about the government or whoever decrypting your phone, use a strong passphrase and only use it for decrypting your phone. Also turn if off before any interactions with police/TSA/NSA/whoever. This will work for any reasonably new Android. If you don't trust me feel free to dig into the code yourself!

The Pixel 2+ have an equivalent to the iPhone's Secure Enclave: https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/titan-m-makes-pixel-3...

But honestly, the government will either shoulder-surf your PIN code or make you unlock it with your finger, or just snatch the phone from you while its unlocked.

They bought an exploit to unlock the San Bernardino phone, but they only really needed to do that because the owner was dead and Apple stopped their routine cooperation.

If the federal government is in your threat model, this is the wrong place to be protecting.

>make you unlock it with your finger

https://www.zdnet.com/article/police-cant-force-us-citizens-...

Another ruling:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/05/10/the-u...

This is not at all settled law, so it is not safe to assume the government can't force you to provide biometric decryption data.

https://reason.com/2019/01/15/search-warrants-and-compelled-...

https://observer.com/2019/05/police-force-unlock-phones-nj-s...

They will drug you and beat you to shit until you unlock it.

Wonder why you are so naive and think that they won't do bad things if they are _really_ interested into getting into your phone.

From what I understand, the pixel 3a contains the titan m security hardware that is detailed here: https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/titan-m-makes-pixel-3... (this talks about the pixel 3 but the 3a has the same thing from what I have read)

... but of course XKCD got it completely right: https://www.xkcd.com/538/

My son wanted a Pixel to replace his iPhone but wouldn't buy one because like Apple it didn't have a headphone jack to enable him to use it in his car for music. He bought a Huawei instead.

I am not yet ready to replace my iPhoneSE but I'll be going Android as well - and if Google will provide a headphone jack they are in the running, but ONLY if they provide a headphone jack.

From what I saw, the 3a has a headphone jack.

Yes - that is what interested me.

I’d like a new post a year from now, telling us how the phone overall has aged. And another after 18 months.

Another big one is resale value. I can be sure that my iPhone depreciates at give or take AUD$200/year and there will be people that would buy it.

With something like this the resale value tends to tank pretty quickly and becomes difficult to sell.

Why does this even matter? Resale value is just interesting if you don't plan to use a product to its fullest and maybe till its death.

Choosing phones by looking at how much you can make of it a year from now is part of the problem this world faces.

Initial investment being offset by resale price is a better reflection of overall cost which would make someone make a more informed decision.

But, erm, this is more about recycling.

Device reuse (and a market for second hand electronics) is actually something beneficial to the world, not something harmful. It affects repair economics.

For what it’s worth I imagine this device’s EOL would be less than an iPhones too, where there is still a market (and software updates) for the five year old iPhone 6.

Slightly off-topic: I have an iPhone 6 that I believe cost me $299 in 2015. Whenever it dies I'm going to continue with Apple but I guess it will be the first time I don't buy a current model. I just can't justify the cost of a $899+ device for my use-case.

The iPhone 6 retailed for a minimum of $649. Your comparing subsidized to unsubsidized prices. Its not a fair comparison, the difference was just paid monthly as part of your cellphone contract.

You're right. Thanks for the correction.

Look, I just want a Moto G4 with a better camera, that's it. I'm not going to pay $400.

I swore off the Pixel lines when Google gave up on the flagship-beating Nexus. Seriously, try explaining to your parents that they'll be getting a worse camera than what was in the Nexus 5X if they want to stay at the $400AUD mark. Hopefully now I can point to the 3a as an option, although it's $650AUD here.

You still wasted 200 american pesetas lmfao

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