Pixel 5
store.google.com
store.google.com
Now I'm not a habitual phone upgrader, I tend to replace my phone when the old one wears down or breaks. I bought the Pixel 4 after my Pixel 1 died and was fairly unimpressed overall. Their headlining market points for the Pixel 5 just... aren't that interesting.
- 5G: Doesn't really matter to me. 4G is plenty fast for everyday use and I wouldn't try heavy enough streaming off data to even need to increase
- Wireless charging: not new
- Photos in the dark: not new
- Google Assistant: not new... and honestly, kinda crap. I turned off a lot of permissions on my phone and the assistant is virtually useless now. I can't give it commands from the lock screen or do even basic things with it unlocked while driving. At this point I'll probably root and just put a custom ROM on there because nothing google packaged with the phone is all that useful.
The battery is nice, but its also not worth a $800 price tag.
I think Google needs to stop chasing the iPhone and go back to the Nexus style of simple+good+affordable. Even the 4a seems like a stronger value proposition imo.
EDIT: I just noticed that they brought back the fingerpint unlock on the back? Okay, that is a huge plus; the face unlock is a generally shitty feature usability wise. I was kinda upset when I gave up wireless charging for the Pixel 1 but fell in love with the fingerprint unlock on the back. When I went to Pixel 4 and lost the fingerprint in exchange for Wireless charging I kinda felt like I made a poor choice. Now that they finally combined the two I'll give them credit.
I'd like to know sensor size. Not "pixel width." Sensor size+aperture, to a first order, is what you want to know about a camera.
I think Google just made me into someone who'll look elsewhere when my Pixel 3 falls apart.
It's just not compelling enough to upgrade, and believe me, I don't even need much of a reason.
It was unreliable piece of &^*&^%&^, I had to teach it my fingers every week during the cold season (which in my country is close to 7-8 months) and during summer I had to do it only once a month maybe - during winter the air gets colder fingers dry out especially if you have allergy (and I do).
And it was slow, I did unlock with pattern faster.
As for battery, I don't feel that it is poor in Pixel 4 (I ditched Pixel 3 as soon as the preorders for Pixel 4 started), but I use wireless charging all the time, I have it at work and at home, so my phone is almost always at 100%.
And now I'm puzzled, why did they bring back fingerprint scanner in Pixel 5? Apple didn't bring it back after they jumped the face unlock wagon.
Not to mention inferior CPU/CPU in Pixel 5, it looks also worse than even in Pixel 3, but the price is still premium.
So basically now we get a Nexus quality phone with Pixel price point.
But "age of facemasks" depends on country. In mine I need to wear masks only in stores, public transport.
But in those places I also need to wear gloves, so both ways of unlocking phone are unavailable to me.
And still, Apple manages to keep their unlocking mechanism.
Otherwise I agree, my battery life feels fine, and the upgrade to the 5 doesn't seem all that worth it.
Oh and a trivia about Pixel 4 Soli (which is a gimmick, nothing more), I was wondering why my music suddently restarted so frequently when I was in car.
And I found out why after few days - since a week we have a lot of rain, so when I drive I have windscreenwwipers and this was somehow being picked up by soli (when my phone was mounted near windshield, but not that near) :)
I live in the Canadian prairies, so cold + long winters are no stranger to me, and the fingerprint just always worked. The face unlock fails more in the winter because I'll be wearing a scarf or headcover which renders it useless. Heck, even in the summer it fails frequently because I'll have sunglasses on
and that is that it no longer beeps after saying "hi google", so no idea if it's actually processed the wakeup word
and then sometimes it no longer responds after commands, e.g. "set alarm for 8am", so you have no idea if it's actually done it
until a month or so ago you could work around this by uninstalling the updates, but now they've done something to the clock app so if you do that you can't set alarms with it at all
annoying
according to a search... apparently this is a common problem
This kind of feels like the complaints that a site is broken then you find out the person commenting has disabled javascript. Of course it's less useful with all the permissions locked down.
Anecdotally I find it really useful, I get people have privacy concerns but given I'm not willing to uproot my email and change all the sign ups I'm using either gmail or direct google login for I'm already pretty exposed to Google. I use it a lot driving since I can just squeeze the bottom sides of the phone to launch it.
As for the fingerprint reader that's weird, they had both on the Pixel 3 (at least the XL version I have), don't know what would have changed to make it not possible on the 4.
My issues in general which lead me to locking down the permissions, and not really looking back, is that its frustrating to work with. If I'm trying to text hands free in my car it has random delays that have no audio cue to work with. If I'm holding the phone, I can feel its vibrations telling me when its ready... but I'm driving, so handling the phone itself seems like a poor choice.
After that I tried some things like "Ok Google, when I get home remind me to put the trash out"... to which point it launches a calendar app and requires me to manually press things... or mishears me and just tries googling for random shit. Again, not helpful while driving.
I tried playing with it. I had my navigation open while commuting in an unfamiliar corner of the country once and I said: "Ok Google, I need to use the bathroom"... so it google searched constipation cures.
For the record, the permission it wants me to enable is Web & App Activity Tracking... which should not block me from voice texting but here we are.
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Nitpickiness aside, it just isn't that special anymore is it? I don't see what's so special about a niche, buggy voice prompt that requires me to run apps manually half the time. Its a nice feature to include, but it has never felt like a "selling point" to the phone lines.
For example I don't think reminders has geofencing at all so you're asking for something it just can't do. If you are just asking it to remind you of something at a certain time it will just do it no manual interaction required.
For the bathroom thing there's one leap that makes it tough, Google doesn't know if a place has a public restroom, at least it's not something they surface on Maps if they do, so to answer that it'd have to have had a manual thing added saying gas stations, rest stops, etc. generally have public toilets.
Are you on vibrate with no alert or media volume? Mine plays a little boop boop noise when it's initialized the mic and is ready for me to speak...
RE: Bathrooms - You hit it mostly on the head. I just wanted to find a gas station, fast food, restaurant, typically anything that would have public washroom access. I had no idea how far until the next town, what services they had, etc.
RE: Voice promtping. I had full bluetooth media volume (I always drive listening to podcasts) but virtually never have notification sounds on.
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I think I do understand why there's limitations. But it gets to the point where if every use-case I have for a voice assistant is "we're just not there yet" then at a certain point that voice assistant is useless.
Microsoft Word had voice typing in like 2003 or some shit. If GA is only really good at doing Google searches or typing my voice in a text it honestly isn't that impressive of a feature to me; its gimmicky and not "flagship feature" imo.
EDIT: Another example. One of the very first things I tried doing with GA on my Pixel 1 was "What are the highway conditions?" as I was preparing for work. The google result I got was for something like Arizona highway conditions... even though I live in Sask. Canada.
As far as reminders and stuff go I'd recommend just trying that sometime when you're not driving just to see what the workflow is like. Sometimes you just have to set something up the first time you use a feature (like picking which calendar you want reminders saved in) and then from that point on it's transparent.
My guess is that with the 4, they wanted to try to move in the same direction as Apple with facial unlock and therefore didn't think it was worth the cost to add a fingerprint reader, but then COVID happened and it turns out that unlocking with your face is impossible when wearing a mask, so they've realized that a fingerprint sensor is still useful.
(This is coming from a Pixel 4 XL user who has been frustrated with the lack of fingerprint sensor since shortly after getting it but doubly so since wearing a mask has become a mainstay of my daily life).
* Google has not been able to put together the new features that would justify this flagship cost
* Because they cannot, they should instead focus on their strengths which are simplicity, all around quality, and affordability (e.g. the $349 4a)
I loved Nexus (and the Pixel 1) because I'm getting them straight from Google without contract to my wireless provider and without their additional bloat software. I like getting updates direct from the source in a timely manner and I figure they want their brand on quality product.
At this point it feels like they're using their brand to justify overcharging on something which is hardly better than a lot of the market competition. Its a fine proposition if they're the clear winner in all things Android but they really aren't anymore, why keep pretending and just go back to that niche of: Quality, Simple, Affordable?
I'm not particularly concerned about the Pixel 5's price since I assume there will be a 5a next year. People who care about 5G might buy it, but you don't have to.
Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G[1], which was announced on the same day and with the similar price tag as Pixel 5, comes with Snapdragon 865 processor, 5000mAh battery, 6.67" display size, and wireless charging, but lacks an OLED display, a dedicated security chip, a water resistance rating, and a "zero-bloatware" Android experience.
I would still pick any Pixel smartphone over any Xiaomi smartphone, if they were available in my country. But at least there is an open-source tool on Github for safely removing most of the Chinese bloatware that comes with Xiaomi devices[2].
> fingerpint unlock on the back
> 4G is plenty fast for everyday use
I bought a Moto G7 Power a couple years ago. 5000mAh battery, and a low-energy processor. I can do 3+ days without charging. Fingerprint unlock on the back. 4G wireless.
It's under $200 USD right now. This, after years of whatever the flagship android phone was.
I'd still highly recommend it though. It's a great phone overall and comes without q lot of preinstalled bullshit.
But at $200, buy one every 12 months and you're still ahead compared to buying a flagship every 2 years.
My only hangup is that the camera is not great. I don't take a lot of photos, but it was a noticeable step down from the Pixel 1.
It irritates me that this has been a feature off and on since the Palm Pre or before, and that phone makers alternately trot it out as new shiny and then silently take it away again at random times. Every device should have it, IMO, for the convenience.
Not to mention the pixel 4's glass design makes it heavy.
I like to have Qi for ear buds, watch or something like smaller battery devices, but not for phones that has big batteries.
It would be nice if my phone could be like my computer (running Debian). I can always install a new OS version on it. It never gets permanently cut off from receiving security updates.
To be fair, I also could care less about the spec sheet. Given the screwy market segmentation caused by the 865, and the fact that new and substantial WiFi/Bluetooth/USB upgrades won't consistently hit devices for another few months, I've more or less written off 2020 as a gap year for anything high-end regardless, the way I should have the year that the 810 shipped.
In the meantime, what could be really interesting is the kernel - specifically, if this supports GKIs out of the box, and what comes out of the XDA crowd if it does. (They're not required to use in testing until device kernels begin moving to 5.4, but given that the Pixel line generally implements these kinds of architectural changes first as reference devices it would still be a safe bet I think.) This could lead to a lot of traction for projects like Halium, for instance.
That's exactly what they did. The recently released $349 4a reviewed really well, most reviews compared it explicitly to the original Nexus.
What's sad is that Pixel phones even after 5 generations have had at least one tragic flaw which would be a deal breaker for many;
- Pixel 1 - Giant bezels
- Pixel 2 - OLED burn-in and color issues
- Pixel 3 - Gigantic notch
- Pixel 4 - Radar which still isn't proven to be useful, no ultrawide camera.
This is first time that Google made a flagship phone (3a and 4a are still midrange) that doesn't have any obvious flaws, so I hope it changes fate of Pixel line for good.
CPU is 16% slower than Pixel 3 one, so two generations back.
(I'm on a Pixel 3 now!) Spouse has 2 XL which I think I like a pinch better than my 3 but not enough to switch out. I went from a Nexus 6P and this is definitely better but also not an overwhelming upgrade. Just happy to resume getting updates and have a great camera.
The 4 and 5 do not interest me, and "latest updates" is not nearly the value proposition it was 5 years ago (or maybe I'd miss it...?) So I definitely expect my next phone to be non-Google like OnePlus or maybe Motorola.
If you are used to the pixel series, prepare to be disappointed by the "value add" brought to android by other vendors. This device is supposed to be close to "vanilla" android, but it still has several annoying modifications that make it worse than the devices Google sells directly. Newer OnePlus devices have even more extensive changes, too.
I doubt I'll every buy a non-google Android phone again. The software and update story of the Pixel series is still the real compelling value there, and it's worth the premium.
The Pixel 2 was good, as was the 3.
Half of the phones to come out over the last 5 years felt like they were engaged in a useless gimmickry arms race and it's a really clever move to be the first to pull the plug on that trend IMO. I for one was not expecting it.
Of course, I'm not going to buy because I have both the 3XL (this phone, best phone ever IMO, indestructible and does the things I need well) and the 4XL which I don't use as face unlock was annoying to begin with and now, simply put, useless.
In a year where company execs can, for instance, present a watch and with a straight face say "up to 18 hours battery life" I like to think that these guys brought some sanity to the table.
They figured out what people care about, refined those elements and dumped the rest of the useless crap. Who actually uses AR apart from a few pokemon players and some other niche uses, who cares about a 5% better camera when all cameras are amazing, and who wants to pay >1000, when phones have reached a reasonable performance level in any category. Which phones of the last three years are too slow?
It feels like the grown-up version of the smart phone. One size offering which falls in the sweet spot, amazing camera, fast refresh display, the only biometric that people actually like, and it's waterproof.
Face recognition is dead in the water, unless the law becomes having QR codes on face masks. That's why my pixel 4XL is still new and unused.
Additionally, a lot of people have less disposable income in light of recent events.
My pixel 3XL is still great so I'll hold off for now, but I'm super happy to see this type of "evolution". Just my ten cents.
Disc: Googler.
Europe, EU member, not even a non-EU country. Oh well see you next year then. Maybe one day.
Edit: a visual guide to Google in 2020 https://i.imgur.com/DiXEYBF.png
https://www.techrankup.com/en/smartphone-processors-ranking/...
I'm rocking a 3a and rare desire for a faster processor/CPU. more battery life is more important than additional performance once you hit a certain point.
More games are doing parallel releases with similar engines and graphics between consoles, the PC, and phones (Genshin Impact, for example (even though I loathe their business practices)).
https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/3926726 https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/3970865
Honestly, the thing that stood out the most on this page was that they were using Quibi to show off the screen. Paid product placement?
Same and definitely paid.
Seems like a dumb move on Google's part to associate with a brand that is largely unknown and on (already) on life support.
I am a bit confused that those features are being promoted in 2020 when my S3 from 2012 also has those abilities. Maybe it's just the promotion, but it doesn't really feel like a phone that I must buy.
It also looks like the 4a 5G has two sub-models for different networks, whereas the 5 has them all in one model. So if you desire more portability between 5G networks, the 5 is a better option there.
That's pretty much all I could see as notable differences. Not saying any of that is worth the price difference, but perhaps it explains it a bit. I am definitely going to wait for the inevitable Black Friday deals they do shortly after release. They discounted $200 in past years, which makes the 5 much more palatable to me.
After a while of use, some of those (more RAM/battery/screen/body material) are not tangible changes you notice. But, yeah, am with you on needing separate devices for different networks and that maybe 5a might be the right value-for-money.
Effectively you're just paying for 90hz screen, 2GB+ RAM, IP68 rating, wireless charging, but also losing the 3.5mm headphone jack and a bit screen real estate. Same storage (128GB) and SOC (765G).
One thing to remember is that these Pixel phones are likely produced by different teams at Google. The flagship phones are made by the US team, whereas the *a-series made by the former HTC team based in Taiwan (which Google acquired a few years ago). Latter has more experience with phone-making so perhaps unsurprising the outcome.
These are selling on eBay for £200 currently, though I'm sure that price will drop a bit once the market gets flooded.
If you do sell at that price though, that brings the price of the phone down to £399, and at that price it is a steal.
The Pixel 4a is a great phone for £350, and this brings a bigger battery, faster CPU, 5G, wide-angle lens, 90hz screen, wireless charging, water resistance, and 2GB more memory for an extra £50 if you are able to offload the headphones.
Google Pixel / XL: 1,893 / 2,285
Google Pixel 2 / 2 XL: 5,556 / 5,402
Google Pixel 3 / 3 XL: 6,359 / 6,934
Google Pixel 4 / 4 XL: 8,722 / 8,656
Google Pixel 3a / 3a XL: 5,334 / 5,088
Google Pixel 4a: 6,476
The following phones use the same Snapdragon 765G SoC as the Pixel 5:
Motorola Edge (4-6GB RAM): 6,717
OnePlus Nord (8GB / 12GB RAM): 7,036 / 7,190
With 8GB RAM, the Pixel 5 should have a performance score comparable to the Pixel 3 XL.
Also, I think Google should commit to four year updates now.
865 is faster, costs more, uses more energy, and takes up more board real estate.
If the next gen 8 series qualcomm can integrate the modem, it might be an easier decision. Currently the 765g seems like the overall superior solution, even if somewhat slower.
I don't know how to compare the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 765G with Octa-Core in the Pixel 5 to the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855* with Octa-Core in the Pixel 4.
I wonder if Google Fi is going to do anything special with 5G? I haven't noticed any particular announcements.
Edit: pulled the trigger. I'm so glad they went out of stock on the regular google store, because that reminded me to buy it on the Fi store, where I got better trade in value, and the green one is available.
https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=10386&idPhone...
Am I missing something? Will people actually buy this?
However I also edit big, 47MP jpegs from my Leica on my Pixel 2XL and amusingly I'm not sure if it will be faster or slower to edit on the Pixel 5, given the processor. Alas the 2XL has cracked in 3 corners and is held together by tape, so to the 5 I go.
This seems like a pretty cool feature. I used to be on Android and remember Google making calls on my behalf for reservations, but this feature is done on-device it seems.
I have yet to see any web page scrolling animation that is smooth doesn't cause Jank. And it is very bad experience. I remember the Trash Can Mac Pro website had that website design , and I cant imagine any Pro actually like that. ( And the current AirPod website as well )
These low frame rate animation actually cause me headache and making me throw up.
On a more general note, I totally agree with you: scroll hijacking is a real issue and very very few people actually take care to implement it correctly. The New Yorker is one of the few who usually get it right in their interactive stories.
You and I aren't the real customers of the artists that built this page, the people paying their consulting fees are.
So not this one.
Also you can't basically skim through the page / infos as everything is oversized and all over the place.
Eventually I closed the page without knowing much about the phone (I noticed the lack of jack plug though).
N.B. Pixel 5 has a Qualcomm 765G chipset
The phones sold 5 or 6 years ago were good enough on any of those metrics by my standards: I look at my 5 year old phone, look at the new ones, and realize that just the hassle of setting a new one up wouldn't be worth it.
Also they need to scrap all the Google software crap like "Google Assistant" out of their marketing. I have yet to meet someone who would consider anything like that a feature. People expect it to be an annoyance at best - that's those who don't give a fuck about privacy.
I like the Google assistant. It's useful for "set timer 15 minutes" while my hands are dirty from cooking. (I had an even better use, "Remind me at 8 PM to take out the trash" while I'm driving, but for some idiotic reason "Reminders are currently not available for GSuite users"[1]).
[1] https://support.google.com/assistant/thread/11607814?hl=en
To visit, try: https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_5?hl=en-US
If that doesn't work: First open a private browser window, then go to: https://store.google.com/us/?hl=en-US®ionRedirect=true
then in the menu, pick 'Pixel', 'Pixel 5'.
Perhaps continental Europe?
No headphone jack, thus not even up for consideration.
Just curious, which flagship smartphone of any manufacturer offers a headphone jack in 2020?
In any case, Pixel 4A 5G has a headphone jack – and comes with the same processor as Pixel 5.
So, it's either water resistance and wireless charging, or a headphone jack nowadays.
There's the builtin assumption that I care about flagships. I don't. I only care about headphone jacks. Thus, my options are limited to devices with headphone jacks.
Regarding flagships, I could get a flagship now, or get a better (than the current flagship) non-flagship phone for much cheaper, by the next generation.
If they hate my money, so be it. I feel no pressure whatsoever to replace my OP3, and once I do, chances are I'm not going to get a flagship, by the look of it.
>In any case, Pixel 4A 5G has a headphone jack – and comes with the same processor as Pixel 5.
Exactly my point.
>it's either water resistance and wireless charging
I don't care about wireless charging. Water resistance, it would of course be nice to have, but I haven't ever accidentally destroyed a device with water before, so it's not like I need the feature, unlike the headphone jack.
Besides latency being a pet peeve of mine, I do play really tight rhythm games on my phone, I have for several years, and this isn't something I'm willing to give up. Both bluetooth and external DAC+Amp devices have higher latency than headphone jacks.
No, my point was that your comment about Pixel 5 not having a headphone jack was a bit pointless, because no smartphone manufacturer offers a headphone jack in its flagship device in 2020.
Please elaborate further.
So, if a headphone jack was a requirement of yours, a flagship Pixel device should have never even been in consideration.
I haven't given up on "sane" -with a headphone jack in them- flagships being released, but as you say it's pretty bad lately.
I click on the link, and it should show me all the information of Pixel 5, because that was my intention when clicking on it.
If it is not available in my country, simply show a big banner saying it is not available. Why are they deferring me to somewhere else.
Users: I know I cant get it, but can I at least look at it? Google: Nope you cant. Go Somewhere else.
And this is Google's fourth year into selling Pixel Phone.
I'm super tired of glass backed phones because I have broken every single one I've ever owned.
Did he piss off the Pixel team with saying that 4 was "a massive victim of its own hype"?
* lightweight 151g even though it support 5G and battery is increased.
* 8GB of RAM (Pixel 4 was fewer 6GB even high-end)
* Fingerprint auth again!
Currently I don't want 5G because it increases weight by adding antennas and battery capacity but not much value compared to faster 4G. Anyway, 4G high-end devices are no longer released so this is an acceptable device with 5G.
I wish they'd make a proper 7" phone. Not 7" because it's super elongated (Galaxy S20 Ultra), but like the old Nexus 7, minus all the bezels. Because the Nexus 7 was wider than phones are today, it has like 30% more screen space than a 7" phone.
This year's pixels fixed the cameras and fingerprint sensor luckily, but screen sizes and resolutions are downgrade :(
Seriously considering note 9 before it's too old...
And now they removed it and put a CPU/GPU that is slower than in Pixel 3.
I was hoping that Apples push for that would force other manufacturers to adapt it also.
Its a huge disappointment. I ended up buying my first choice Oneplus Nord.
That and the 3 popups makes me wonder, who is this built for??
I mean, well prepared marketing page should cause me to think about the product, hopefully favorably, not about completely pointless misuse of scrollbar that some web designer with a huge workstation probably could run fluidly.
'The ultimate', 'super fast', 'hyperspeed', 'Extreme Battery Saver', 'Superfast downloads', 'Ultrasmooth streaming', ' superfast signal', 'ultrawide lens', 'jaw-dropping', 'super-smooth panning'.
They should finish with 'If you don't buy it, fuck you!'
The ultimate 5G
Google phone.^1
Buy Pixel 5
Smooth, fast performance.
More RAM lets you move from
task to task, super fast.
Sing in the rain.
It can take a splash or spill, no problem.^2
Power up without a plug.
It charges wirelessly, and shares battery life.^3,4
Sorta Sage
Just BlackAnd the color names are "Sorta Sage" and "Just Black"....
I would love to switch from ios to android. I actually want to move back to an android device. My dilemma is, i want an apple credit card (or something similar) and better cameras compared to apple
Why an apple credit card? Like, when you say "something similar" what would apply?
Pixel 1, Pixel 2, Pixel 3, Pixel 3a, Pixel 4, Pixel 4a, Pixel 5.
You're mixing in Nexus 6P, of the Nexus line, which ended five years ago.
Newer versions within the same number of inches were dealt with by smacking some arbitrary letters like "X" and "P" and sometimes the year "(2013)" in the case of Nexus 7.