Hacker News Reader

Comment by sylens | Hacker News Reader

I just can't buy into Google hardware anymore. When they first introduced the Pixel, I thought that by version 3 or 4 that they would have made vast improvements and "figured it out", like Microsoft did with the Surface Pro 3 and 4 (which is when that line really took off, letting them expand into laptops and AIO desktops). But it just seems like they went backwards with the Pixel 4, and I don't know if I can trust them again.

Pixel 4a looks decent for the price, though.

View on HN

Same here. I used to buy Google hardware exclusively for my mobile needs because I wanted the pure AOSP experience (without all the crap the other vendors load), but it was very hard (Nexus 5X) to impossible (Pixel C) to get hardware replacement parts, and the premature end of security updates were the final straw for me.

A friend recommended Android One to me [1]. Basically, it's pure AOSP on third-party hardware.

I bought a Nokia 5.2 just to try it out, with the intention of getting the 7.3 when it comes out and I liked the Nokia experience. And I do -- it's simple AOSP.

Nokia promises 3 years of software updates and 5 years for security.

[1] https://www.android.com/one/

AOSP is completely different than pure Android. What you call AOSP is basically android without (other) vendor crap, but real AOSP is also without all of googles proprietery stuff (like google play, push notifications and so on).

So AOSP is basically pure android without googles crap.

I stand corrected.

Well, whatever the official name is, I meant the most pure version of Android but including the Google apps (which I haven't managed to get rid of yet entirely).

>Android One phones have the Google Assistant built in

That's not AOSP. AOSP has no google apps at all.

The serious downside to Android One is the absence of GCam. That photo app is simply the single best one out there. I own a Nokia 7 Plus, and it comes with a Camera app that only shoots blurry photos, even though I don't have shaky hands. Finding a GCam version that worked was a major PITA: I pretty much tried every version here [0]

I'm getting a Pixel 5 on day one, for the camera, camera app and security updates.

[0] https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/

Meanwhile, the Pixel 2XL's default camera app has the single worst video taking experience I've ever seen, comparable to a $100 flip cam from 2008. 1080p at 30fps is all you seem to get, and it suffers from the same max 4gb file size issue that mp4 has had forever, causing skips and stutters when it stops one video file and starts a new one, which happens more often than you would expect because despite the low video quality, the encoding is incredibly inefficient

The Pixel isn't the only game in town for good cameras. Although if you add the constraint that the software extras and bloatware have to be google, then yes it is.

Up-to-date phones with guaranteed software updates, usable interface, and good camera, but not Pixel? Well, I'm interested, but somehow sure that's just a dream.

Links or it doesn't exist.

Edit: I specified Android, but really, I just want a phone with a standard port (USB C) and my apps (WireGuard, NextCloud, Google Photos, etc.)

OnePlus has promised system updates for several years (we'll see). The 7 pro main camera is on par with the pixel 2.

I've been very satisfied with my 3a, though that might just be my personal preferences. I only use my phone for texting, reading Reddit/Twitter, and taking pictures. A phone with mediocre specs and an excellent camera is basically my dream phone.

If the rumors are to be believed, the 5 is significantly delayed because they wanted to figure it out.

Bathtub notch aside, the 3 series are excellent phones and hope in a few years when they need an upgrade that the 6 or 7 is equally good.

Its been downhill since the Nexus 5 imho.

got crucified for saying this years ago

I owned a Nexus 4 and then a 5x... damn that fucking camera app taking 20 seconds to load, making you miss the moment, and then loading a broken image. This happened the first week I had it and I couldn’t be without a phone so I sucked it up. So many good moments missed by that.

Both HW and SW (Android 5) wise.

My last experience with an Apple product was my Apple IIc in college. I have been an Android user since the original Motorola Droid with slider keyboard.

I am thinking about switching the family to iPhones later this year.

(I also feel like I live in fear of waking up each morning to find out the my Fi service will be shut down in three days.)

Heh, I'm in a similar boat here. I've been using Android since the original Motorola Droid, the first "Apple competitor" according to their marketing.

The short support cycle, quality issues, and dropping the unlimited Google Photos backups have me seriously considering an iPhone. While I really love Google Fi, the service hasn't kept up with the competition in terms of data pricing and coverage.

hey they just deprecated group pay with fi! the rest _could_ die any day lol

I took care of a Archos 50 platinum 4G. Even after taking care of it, factory reset, removing and disabling apps, it's still slow.

What's the issue? What are you expecting for them to do? It's just a smart phone and they work fine.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com