Pixel 5 review: Google spends its bill-of-materials budget unwisely | Hacker News Reader

Pixel 5 review: Google spends its bill-of-materials budget unwisely

arstechnica.com

166 pointsfeross183 comments

I think they spent it perfectly, up to mmWave, which btw is only in US (and maybe Australia?). They managed to add 2GB ram, double default storage to 128gb, increase battery by 50% and still make the phone $200 cheaper. It's the perfect BoM if it wasn't for mmWave.

Paying $100 more for mmWave is ridiculous. That's a 15% price increase for something that most people don't need or care for. The fact that you can't buy the non-mmWave version in the US is what makes this a really bad decision. The same is not true for the 4a 5G, which is $500 on the Google Store without mmWave, but has a special $600 Verizon-only version you can get with mmWave. So I have no idea why they didn't do the same for the Pixel 5. Instead you are forced to buy the mmWave version even if you're getting the device through Google Store and will never use mmWave.

Meanwhile here in Canada it's $800 CAD ($600 USD), so I'm happy I got the phone for a great price. That being said, if you don't care for 90hz display, wireless charging and waterproofing, 4a is definitely a fantastic deal at half the price.

The article points out that it’s slower than the 4a, which is half the price. That’s ... less than great.

In most benchmarks they are basically within the error margin, but I have indeed seen a few where Pixel 5 does strangely poorly. I am definitely curious to know what's causing that, Pixel 5 has a slightly newer version of the same chipset (765G/Adreno 620 vs 730G/Adreno 618). The two best guesses I have is either the waterproofing really messes up with the thermals, or there's some unlying bug causing bad performance in those specific benchmarks.

That being said, in real-life use, unless you're playing some heavy games, phone devices are generally more memory bound than CPU bound in my experience, so the 2GB extra ram will go a long way.

Waterproofing or not, phones are almost always effectively hermetically sealed from a convection point of view and do not rely on convection in any form for cooling. I do not see how waterproofing would interfere with conducting heat away.

Maybe it forces a different internal layout?

The pixel 4a 5g uses the same cpu as the 5, does not have waterproofing, and has the same benchmark speeds as the 5. I think the layouts are different too, based on the fact that the 4a 5g is larger than the 5.

Pixel 5 owner here, I am disapointed at that metric, but I am not disappointed at the speed of my phone. I can see how that would cause others to second guess a Pixel 5 purchase or have buyer's remorse upon learning that.

It isn't in the metric that really matters for day-to-day usage which is disk IO.

The 5 & 4A have the same GPU and the 5 has a slightly faster CPU. Unclear why the benchmark scores are what they are, possibly a worse thermal profile with the 5, but if you're not gaming the faster storage will have far more impact.

I'm fortunate enough to have needed a Pixel 5 _in addition_ to a Pixel 4a, results are nonsensical imo, 5 is _definitely_ more buttery

I think this is the real point; 90hz is way more important than CPU speed in making it feel like an upgrade.

Is it correct to say that mmWave is like 5G++?

(For those of us that don't know)

It’s like 5G part 1; It’s not really an iteration, but a subset.

The important part to understand is that mmWave is really short range and is blocked by walls, windows, and sheets of paper. Phones with it may need to have "windows" to let the signal make it through the phone case to the antenna.

So it basically works outdoors in very busy cities where it's worth it to put an antenna every few hundred feet: Most Americans will never actually benefit from it. It won't work in their houses or anywhere not very dense urban.

Some Verizon stores actually put a mmWave antenna physically inside the showroom so you can see the performance... but it won't work when you step out the door.

Yup.

mmWave will make a big difference for the likes of stadiums and theaters. Places with huge crowds. A feature of the high frequency is it doesn't travel far which limits cross talk and allows you to pack in more antennas to serve more people.

How often Telecoms will want to deploy it is a different matter. My guess is you'll see it go up most often in places where companies want to optimize customer experiences. Likely as a partnership with the various telcos. For example, I could see the likes of Disney deploying it across disneyworld and disneyland.

It's an interesting application, but with Covid-19, it may be a while before places with huge crowds are happening again.

Oh, totally. It's VERY apparent that 5g was developed for a pre-covid world :D

Corona is not going to hamstring the world forever, that’s just some authoritarian fantasy.

I won't be forever certainly. But it's entirely possible that large-scale gatherings like that will be discouraged for at least the timeframe of the next generation of phones, i.e. 1-2 years.

Look at the areas where the epidemic is considered controlled. The first thing they do to show it is organize large scale gatherings, like China with large dance festivals and New Zealand with sports events.

I guess... but like, that's what Wi-Fi AX is supposed to cater to. Apart from voice traffic, which isn't extreme, it's hard to imagine why cellular (which is carrier-specific) would be preferred over Wi-Fi deployment. If the cell towers are in the facility, they need to provide the fiber backhaul either way.

Doesn't 5G have the ability to be carrier agnostic, so that multiple carriers can be on the same antennae? Or am I sniffing glue again?

Nope, carriers buy broadcasting bands. Phones are designed to be able to take in and process the various frequencies that all the carriers use.

Whenever there is a bandwidth auction, you'll have the potential of your phones not having access to your new network's bands.

How we've been handling this is that new purchases often go to newer tech. However, there has been some cannibalism of really old bands (For example, taking a 2g band and turning it into a 5g band). That happens per carrier.

3G is already in the process of being shut down.

Which makes it a little annoying how long they kept making phones that had 4G support but still depended on 3G for calls. Still, it seems like we're on track to get those bands reclaimed at a significantly better pace than 2G.

The major difference is that for wifi, you need to setup your connection to whatever wifi network is provided. With your cell data service, that happens automatically for you. You don't need to go in and explicitly join some guest network and sign their ToS.

Maybe if there was some "cell->wifi" standard that could happen, but I'm somewhat doubtful about the benefits there. You'd also have to be super careful, for the same reason you wouldn't really want to join a random open network.

LTE WiFi offload takes care of securely transiting voice over untrusted networks (like your home network) to the telcos core network using IPSec.

5G has a bunch of frequencies in the same range as wifi, too. They can handle a good chunk of density.

The WiFi industry is working on a new "cell->wifi" standard called OpenRoaming. Pixel phones turned on OpenRoaming support with Android 11.

So it basically only works if you're sitting or walking outside? I'm assuming it wouldn't work if you're in a car/bus (unless maybe a convertible/tour bus?)

I imagine it would work just the same as wifi on buses currently. There will be a mmWave access point inside the bus which will use something else (maybe a cell backhaul?) for it's connection.

As someone mentioned in another comment, the best use case for mmWave is places with very high density such as concerts, sports stadiums, etc where current cell networks and wifi seriously struggle. You don't have channel congestion if the waves can't make it through the walls in the venue.

My guess is that it will be good for high-density outdoor environments like stadia.

Hopefully some other useful applications will present themselves. Cruise ships, maybe? Airport terminals?

Took me a second, but the arent meant "stadia" as in the plural of "stadium", not google's gaming service.

This exactly. mmWave is such an absurd expense for literally no return. I think it came out that basically they were forced to support it in order to otherwise be sold as a 5G device through Verizon, and that forced their hand. But $100 for a service that literally no one can use? Ridiculous.

I can't understand the series of events that have transpired where literally anyone in the infrastructure and network and spectrum teams at VZW have been excited about mmWave and think it's a worthwhile investment. The limitations on the technology make it functionally worthless. Its performance suffers depending on your HAND position. It's about as dumb as trying to transmit data to a cell phone over IR and about as practical. It feels like they landed the spectrum and figured they could make some claims about insane speeds, and then the reality around its limitations set in and the core technology doesn't have any way to get around them.

At the end of the day, mmWave, by its very nature, will not penetrate almost any surface. How anyone thought that meant it was a candidate for radio transmission on moving devices is completely beyond me.

Because it's one of the few things you can actually point at and be like "that's why you need a new phone!"

Same reason why Apple was all about that 5G during the iPhone 12 announcement.

Doesn't matter if it'll never be useful, all that matters is that the feature sheet lists it and a canned demo will show unreal speeds.

5G in general is important. It means compatibility for the future, access to more towers, and access to more frequencies. So sure, you need mmwave to get gigabits per second, but 5G without mmwave still has a good amount to show off and make sales with.

In Europe we hardly have proper LTE and HSCSD support outside main cities, I couldn't care less about 5G.

That depends entirely on what new towers are deployed with. If they keep trickling out LTE, then you can ignore 5G just fine. But if they leapfrog LTE and new deployments devote most of the frequencies to 5G, then you're probably going to want a 5G radio to have fewer gaps in coverage.

> default storage to 128gb

You mean only storage. Even the $400 iPhone SE has multiple storage options, maxing at 256gb for $550.

At least they had the decency to not offer a 64GB option.

I think it's perfect mid-high device without 5G.

>if you don't care for 90hz display, wireless charging and waterproofing, 4a is definitely a fantastic deal at half the price

It also misses the ultra wide angle camera, doesn't it?

you don't understand.

5G is a trojan horse.

5G is about peer-to-peer unblockable communication.

It's the way benign and dumb devices can use phones to phone home.

Everywhere that phones go will increase google's data reach.

You forgot to add that the audio quality is sub par with its below the display speaker that makes it unbalanced from the bottom speaker having weaker output, some displays have a slight space between the body and no one can tell how that'll turn out in a year and CPU is throttled on top of being an average one.

Compared to 4a (not the 5G one), you get better refresh rate (90Hz not 120Hz), more RAM (but 4a already has 6GB), more battery, more accurate fingerprinting sensor, waterproof, wireless charge, almost the same camera quality, lost audio jack port, got slightly heavier and a better design and tries to be a higher class than 4a with its price tag when 5G doesn't mean anything for most which sound like incremental updates that should be set with a similar price tag.

Pixel 4a is the sweet spot for me. Small phone for 2020 standards and works just as I expect it to. I really love the casual design and how it feels in hand. I don't like the glass backs or pure metals. I don't want edge display. I don't care about wireless charging (why do people even feel it's necessary?). I would rather have faster cable charging.

I want a practical phone. I don't care much about gimmicks. The new one plus has 3 useless cameras out of 4. They added two flash and extra cameras for marketing purposes. These little things added by the marketing departments only increase the amount you need to pay and make for a worse experience.

It's super convenient for me to drop my phone in the phone holder when I get in my car and have it start charging, and to just take it out of the holder when I exit my car, without having to plug and unplug the phone. It's different from charging at home since when at home, I pick up and use the phone in my hand even while it's charging, so a wireless charger is less useful, while in a car the phone has to stay in the holder when I am driving, so saving the steps of having to plug and unplug makes sense.

That can be solved with magnetic usb type C charger docks.

Are you referring to the phone holder in the car? I can see how a phone holder with a magnetic charging cable can give similar functionality, with the addition that the home charger would also need to be magnetic so that there is no need to plug and unplug the adaptor. Also, I wonder how finicky aligning the magnetic connection would be in a phone holder -- it's has not been a problem with my wireless charger: either the wireless charger in my phone holder has pretty wide tolerances in alignment, or the holding clips were well designed, as I have not had any instances where it did not align and charge.

Never thought of this earlier. Apples magsafe for iPhones now makes absolute sense.

This is how products get better. Small changes that seem less relevant to people with low product interest.

Meanwhile these features stack year on year til you have vastly better products over time.

This improvement isn't marketing departments. They might spin the improvements to stories and messages but the changes come as continual engeneering improvement in products. Go see a 15 year old phone and imagine we'd stopped adding little improvements there vs today's phones. They work but they are clearly inferior products.

If by "get better" you mean get to the insane situation where you can reasonably describe a $700 phone as a "downmarket" "mid-range" device, then, yeah maybe.

I agree with you but in one plus's example, the two of the 4 cameras were completely useless. You should look up their reviews. The camera app didn't switch to the macro camera automatically like in previous phones which means they were aware that the cameras were bad enough to be useless.

Small convenience at the cost of bigger cut offs isn't practical in a budget phone. Wireless charging is not useful to people looking for a budget phone. Good wireless chargers cost money with very little convenience. They are slower than traditional fast chargers by 3-4x.

Wireless charging is typically included on waterproof phones.

You can take an IP68 phone for a swim in the sea just fine but afterwards the charging port becomes unusable for at least half a day as the phone's moisture sensor will disable the charging port to prevent short circuits until it's completely dry. Not a problem with wireless charging.

I bought the 4a, on a lark, but it turns out I LOVE the phone. I ordered the Pixel 5 because I figured, worst case, I could give the 4a to kid when I get my 5.

I got the 5 and almost immediately returned it. The 4a is just the best spend money on a cell phone for my needs. This is coming from someone who's owned every Google phone since the G1.

What made you return the 5?

The top speaker is horrible, I actually like having a headphone jack and the $350 price is cheap enuff that if I upgrade my phone in less than 2 years, I don't feel like an idiot.

What makes you love it more than say a 3? I loved the 1 and still have it lying around but I just can't say I love the 3 as much which is my daily driver now.

If I had the 3 XL, I would have kept that. I was coming from the 2, and this phone is better in almost all ways (except for water resistance.)

I'm typically an iPhone user, but I, too, bought the 4a. I got it originally for a backup as well as just to have an Android phone again. It is now my daily driver. It's enough phone for me even if it doesn't have the iPhone's blistering speeds. I am pretty sure I won't be spending much more than $350 on a phone going forward. I just don't need anything more.

Yeah, a decent mid range Android phone would be great but it must have stock Android otherwise decent is gone.

That means only Google phones, and Google has been known to change their mind randomly. Can you rely on them having a decent mid range phone the next time you need a new phone? They could just go back to $1300 flagships by then.

I guess the best way of making sure Google has a cheap phone is to buy them and hope that makes a difference? If nothing else you had the phone you wanted for a while, who knows what the future will bring.

If their was a 4a XL it would be the perfect phone for me. Instead, I haven't been able to find a phone that meets all my criteria:

  • unlockable bootloader, rootable
  • headphone jack 
  • > 6.2" screen

You're probably looking for the Pixel 4a with 5G, which will be released in the US on November 19 for $499:

https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a_5g

It has a 6.2" screen, which is not > 6.2", but close enough. It also retains the Pixel 4a's headphone jack, and is rootable and has an unlockable bootloader like all Pixels.

Can't believe that they name it 4a again with even a different form factor. Now if you want to Google for the difference between the original 4a, you get so much results from 4a 5G...

How does the screen in the 4a compare to the 5? Could you tell any difference in quality?

I also picked up a 4a a couple of weeks ago, and really like it.

This replaced my Pixel (1) XL. Screen size is effectively the same while the overall size is much smaller. Better performance, keeps the 3.5mm audio, and cheap enough (even here in AU) to not engender much hand-wringing before or after purchase.

I don't drop my phones, or throw them into bags of sharp things - and always have a soft rubber case anyway - so screen scratches aren't my problem. Most of my calls are via a bluetooth headset. I don't care about 1 or 2mm delta on thickness. While Australia will embrace 5G in urban areas quickly, I spend most of my time 20km away from the nearest 3G antenna, so that feature's mostly irrelevant for me.

I've owned every one since the G1 as well and the the 4a is their best value since my $300 Nexus 4

I have to agree that the under-screen speaker in the pixel 5 is awful. I don't know where to "put my ear" every time I get a call, and as a result the audio quality for calls is terrible - muffled, muddy, unclear, awkward. Switch to speakerphone and it is like someone pulled cotton wool out of your ears so it is not like the network connection is poor, just the speaker. It has been a pain in the backside to use as a result since day one of getting it, and the times when I borrow someone else's phones I am just blown away by their "HD audio" they get compared to the pixel 5.

What were they thinking. This must have been brought up during testing?! Surely?

Its not even like the full-height screen adds anything really as you have a stupid extra-large notification bar as it physically needs to be larger to fit the front-facing camera in.

Finally, it does not connect to 5G where Vodafone UK says there is 5G on their coverage maps (and yes my account is enabled for 5G). Either Vodafone is telling porkie pies on their coverage maps, or the pixel 5 can't connect to 5G and so is a total disaster?

At first I thought the call audio was extremely bad on the Pixel 5, because I've always put the corner of the phone in my ear. Once I read that you have to place your ear over the phone glass instead, the audio became completely normal-sounding.

Google taking the Steve Jobs "you're holding it wrong" approach.

I remember that debacle. I suppose there is a parallel, but with the Pixel 5, it still is very usable with almost zero adjustment, nothing convoluted like changing how you hold an iPhone to avoid shorting the antenna.

Disagree that this is anywhere close to as bad. Asking users to place their ear over the speaker is not a huge deal and reasonable IMO, versus having it not work at all when holding it like a normal person. If you don't like the speaker placement, I understand though.

I would vote for vodafone porkie pies, I never managed to connect in 5G with their giga cube in a week. And the supposedly 5g enabled tower is 100m from my house. You can check the exact position of the tower using cellmapper.net if you have the cell id (under the tools menu there is an ebn id calculator from the cell id)

The reviews for bad audio totally got me to stay away from 5 from 4a. Why get something worse for much higher price when there seems to only be incremental updates for other parts?

I was planning on getting the Pixel 5, but ended up choosing the 4a 5G. Despite the name, it's closer to the 5 than to the 'plain' 4a in nearly all specs [1]. Same camera, processor, and resolution.

The 5 supports higher framerate and contrast, has a bit more RAM, and has some wireless charging features, but the 4a 5G has a headphone jack and is $200 less, so...

[1] https://store.google.com/magazine/compare_pixel

How are you finding it? I'm planning to make the leap off iPhone once my current phone is out of warranty (2 months left) and am in the market for a high quality but not obscenely priced Android phone. Google phones seem to be the least weighed down by manufacturer crapware. The 4a is the one I'm looking at.

I do plan to flash either Lineage or some other custom ROM though.

> I do plan to flash either Lineage or some other custom ROM though.

If you get a Pixel don't do this. You'll just get worse battery life, more bugs etc.

Google clean Android is great.

One plus Nord is pretty sweet.

Yeah was just looking at the OnePlus phones for the first time today... look pretty amazing. Definitely a price premium but if it gets the job done without a Bixby button hey.. could be a winner.

I was in a need of new phone and waited for P5 announcement with my final decision.

P5 is underwhelming if not disappointing.

In the end I am a happy owner of OnePlus Nord. Shame it lack slot for expandable memory but i got a bit over 200GB on it so it should last a while. And on paper it beats every Pixel in bang for money category.

Highly recommend it.

If you think Google's phone has less crapware, you're wrong. Try Samsung's phone and you will find Google's default apps are the crapware.

Crappy design with minimal feature set. Home app alone is unbearably uncustomizable as well.

Yes I would have gone for the 4a 5G as well but I also need the waterproofing.... which it doesn't have but the Pixel 5 does.

A bit off topic but google keep their mouth shut on this issue.

I've got a Pixel 4a and my camera doesn't work. (I have to wait 15 seconds before the "viewfinder" even shows an image and then it might update the picture once every third seconds (if I'm lucky) - completely unusable). And it seems to be a very common issue. The ratings on the camera apps tell that users of seemingly all pixel devices have had this issue since recent updates (for at least a month now).

Not a word from google. I have no idea how to even figure out if this is a hardware or software issue.

Anyone know anything about this?

Nope, but the fact that the Pixel 4a's screen glass is absolute shit compared to any other phone I've had means it scratches stupidly easily. This is kind of known, as far as I can tell, looking at forums, and Google notably was willing to let me RMA over it. Not a damage warranty, straight exchange. There being camera issues sounds entirely in line with that.

I really, really miss my Pixel 3. It was easily my favorite phone. The 4a is simply not a match.

Google engineers internally only really work on the latest device and next year's device.

At this point, while you are technically supported, practically no bugfixes are coming your way.

Return it and buy another phone.

The 4a is the latest phone in the "a" series, being the smaller version of the 4a XL. The phone came out in July 2020.

You should skip to contacting support & getting a replacement. That's unlikely to be a software issue.

I loved the pixel 1. I used it from launch until it finally died on me a few months ago. I upgraded to the Pixel 4 and was really disappointed. My primary complaint is the lack of a fingerprint scanner, the face unlock is simply slower and less effective (especially now that I'm wearing a mask because of covid). With the fingerprint scanner on the Pixel 1 the phone was unlocked before i was even done taking it out of my pocket. The face unlock will never be able to match that.

Im excited that the Pixel 5 reintroduced the fingerprint scanner. I am strongly considering tossing my new Pixel 4 and upgrading it to the 5.

The 4a also has the fingerprint sensor. I think it was a big mistake to not include it on the Pixel 4, but that whole device was gimmicky and weird.

Kind of the like the Pixel 5. Gimmicky and weird, but at least they put the fingerprint sensor back on it.

I realize this opinion is very popular but I had the opposite experience. Fingerprint often took multiple tries or outright failed, while face unlock on Pixel 4 XL has been more reliable and plenty fast. Masks are really the only issue and personally I don't need them that often.

It sounds like the Pixel 5 fingerprint scanner might be hit-or-miss. A few people have reported it not reading fingerprints very well, and even for me, occasionally it doesn't work well (but most of the time it does).

I traded in my Pixel 4 XL for a 5, and despite the 5's weaknesses that are laid out in the article I'm very happy with the switch. I'm running all the same apps but everything feels smoother. I'm not sure why but I'm not questioning it. And the huge battery is awesome.

> the Pixel 5 offers little over the Pixel 4a

The subtitle captures how out of touch I am with regular phone users. I'll be upgrading from a Pixel 2, and had a Nexus 7 before that. My purchase cadence seems different than what I perceive to be typical for iPhone users in particular.

For me, mmWave seems like a nice to have future-proofing feature.

And this reads like a sales pitch crafted specifically for me:

There's no squeeze to activate the Google Assistant, no "Project Soli" hand-waving air gestures, and no Face ID style facial recognition. The only thing you get for biometrics is the tried-and-true rear capacitive fingerprint reader, which works great. There's no headphone jack and no microSD slot, but there are two features you might not normally find in the midrange market: wireless charging and IP68-rated dust and water resistance.

...strangely negative review for a product that seems like a step in the right direction in a number of areas.

How out of touch you are with tech reviewers :D (who obviously follow each cycle). While there's plenty people buying new phones often (or at least in some places getting them regularly replaced through their phone plan), plenty people do not always go for the newest thing too.

No one will be upgrading from the Pixel 4a to the Pixel 5. Both phones are available now, new from Google. Instead, they're comparing your choices for an upgrade to your Pixel 2.

I'm in the same situation, and considering buying a Pixel 4a to replace my Pixel 2 now that security updates have stopped.

I just made exactly that jump, from a Pixel 2 to a new 4a, and I am pretty happy with it (nice screen, battery life is great). It's also an experiment for me, I have been rooting to block ads, but I decided to try do that via DNS over TLS (aka 'Private DNS') and NextDNS. So far it's working pretty well.

> The subtitle captures how out of touch I am with regular phone users. I'll be upgrading from a Pixel 2, and had a Nexus 7 before that. My purchase cadence seems different than what I perceive to be typical for iPhone users in particular.

I think the point is, why not just get the much cheaper 4a?

I'm more time sensitive than price sensitive. My reasoning is more along the lines of: given the trouble of migrating to a new device, why not get the latest? Getting a 4a would probably also cut the support lifetime a new-to-me device by a year or so.

Pixel 4a is released very close to 5.

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en

The Pixel 4a 5G came out at the same time as the Pixel 5. They're basically parallel product lines at the moment.

> what I perceive to be typical for iPhone users in particular

I believe that somewhere, out there, there are iPhone users that change their phone every time Apple puts out something new.

Personally I'm rocking an XS and I haven't even considered getting the 12. I have a friend that's still using a 6 Plus :)

FWIW, I think there are many people like yourself. I'd be curious to know what the "median" upgrade cadence looks like.

Anecdotally, I have a XS, my last phone was a 5S. My parents and SO's parents have 6's, and they're starting to think about upgrading.

I'm personally happy for the revival of the SE model (cheaper, touch id, upgraded processors, battery, etc). That'd probably be my next one, once the XS falls apart.

Sounds like you would be better served by the Pixel 4a, which has all the things you say are important but is quite a lot cheaper.

And that's why it's a negative review...

I've had a lot of Google/Android phones - Nexus 5X - Pixel 1 - Pixel 3 - Pixel 4

Im going back to iPhone. There are too many problems w/Google HW.

The supply chain sucks if something breaks (which happens much more often than my iDevices). My pixel 1 mic stopped working, and it was impossible to find parts to fix it (including for 3rd part repair stores).

My wife's Pixel 3 won't reliably charge wirelessly. You have to reboot the phone 1x per week inorder to get wireless charging to work. So you put it down... And wake up to a dead phone.

My pixel 4 had a terrible Chrome problem until very recently. Chrome would basically lock up the system. The gesture navigation also kind os sucks.

Also, the pixel 4 glass really sucks. I had scratches all over it with the first month... Vs my Moto G7 which has none.

Don't even get me started on the new Android TV chrome cast or the 2 WearOS watches or my chromebox that can't have more than 2 BT devices connected (or it stops working).

The Google/Nexus/Pixel series phones never seem to be perfect. I just don't think Google has the hardware DNA.

On the other hand, pretty much every Samsung and Apple phone I've owned has been perfect hardware-wise.

Samsung hardware is indeed excellent, but there's still much room to improve around delivering updates. Samsung's current commitment is to deliver 3 major OS updates after device launch [1], which is still not enough for a flagship that will work fine even after 5 years.

[1] https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-raises-the-bar-for-m...

The Nexus S was made by Samsung. It'd be nice to see that happen again.

On an unrelated note, my Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 both failed in different ways, but the Nexus S, from the year before the 4, still hasn't.

These days when Google itself doesn't even support a phone for longer than 3 years, you get to think phones are disposable assets and not something you're supposed to love keeping like in the old days hardware.

Makes you think less of trying to buy expensive ones when they get obsoleted real fast.

The Pixel 1 was perfect for me. It's showing its age though, I use it as a semi-permanent hotspot and it needs to be rebooted every 3 days or so.

On paper it was pretty good. For my experience specifically, my partner had to replace her Pixel 1 multiple times for a broken microphone, and they gave her a refurb which she wasn't happy about. Obviously most people weren't affected but it was common enough to result in a class action settlement.

I thought google actually did a great job with the nexus phones. the hardware wasn't perfect, but they were pretty good (and even attractive imo) for the price point.

I have a pixel 2 now. it's good enough for everything I use it for, but it really didn't justify its launch price. it's basically a nexus phone with a fancy chassis and nicer camera. just like my two nexus phones, the volume up button stopped working within a month or two of ownership. it still feels snappy and gets updates, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

> I have a pixel 2 now. it's good enough for everything I use it for, but it really didn't justify its launch price. it's basically a nexus phone with a fancy chassis and nicer camera.

I have a pixel 3a. The "a" series seems to be the same thing, but also at nexus prices.

I remember the Ars Technica review of the 3a saying something like "there were some worries that sales of the 3a might cannibalize sales from the flagship line, to which we can only say... yeah."

> and gets updates

Wife and I also have pixel 2's, and AFAIK October 2020 was the last month we got updates[1] :(.

(although it notes "Pixel 2 Preferred Care customers have telephone support until April 2021.")

Which makes this article all the more disappointing, as we're looking to upgrade for this and the usual reasons :).

[1] https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en

The final update comes in December 2020; they just skipped November. You'll have to upgrade or switch to a custom ROM after that for continued support — it's still a fairly solid phone if not for the lack of updates.

ha, I guess I spoke too soon. any idea what you'll replace your pixel 2's with? pixel 4a looks decent this cycle.

It sounds like you go through a lot of phones. Any particular reason for that? Do you just like to upgrade to the latest, or is it due to the dissatisfaction you're referring to?

TL;dr: Mostly hardware failure.

I didn't mention that my 5X flash died (after 18 months of ownership). Or at least I assume it was the flash...since the bootloader failed screen would loop.

That prompted me to buy pixel 1. My pixel 1 became non-functional because dust got in the microphone...and no replacement parts were available. So I got a moto g7 as an interim.

The pixel 3 is my wife's.

The pixel 4 is my current and replaced moto g7 because it's slow as molasses with newer android.

So basically all my replacements were because of a HW failure or SW slowdown.

This compares to my mom's iPhone 6s that still runs snappy. My brother had a 6 that worked fine until he replaced it for the SE recently.

My kids have used our ipads as skateboards across the tile and they still work fine. I drop them regularly... No problem.

My experience with Google HW is that it is sub par.

that's weird, i have a pixel 2 with latest android and the speed is fine.

that being said, i do have weird issues where the phone reboots when doing video-intensive tasks (recording video, on a vid call)

for apple, iPhone is literally half their income; i think the phone business is a few percentage points for google. not a surprise that you see more attention to detail w/ apple

The 5x's had some serious issues leading to bootlooping for lots of users. You could get it repaired by LG (often free, even after warranty), but you'd still be out a phone for about 10 days and it came back wiped (IIRC), and then you're still going to worry about it.

I'd consider another Google phone, but I just don't trust them to have designed and implemented a phone that's going to last as long as a phone of that price should last. From the latest round of phones though, motorola seems good enough, except the vibration is very hard to miss unless it's on a table; nokia has bluetooth problems with one of my cars and isn't pushing a fix worldwide, even though some countries have had the fix for months; ugh.

Your Nexus 5x failure was likely what the sibling comment indicated, the infamous 5x boot loop. If you had rooted your phone previously, it was possible to work around it by modifying the device-tree and limiting it to only using some cores of the CPU.

LG would fix it for free if you were lucky, they did for me. I think you had a 50/50 chance of them refusing to fix it for free by claiming the failure was due to water damage, even if that was definitely not true. The prevalence of the failure makes me think that every single 5x failed eventually. The timing of the boot-loop failure was such that your alternate Google options were probably Pixel 1 or 2 at the time.

After the 5x failure, I purchased a Pixel 2. It is very fast to this day, but the lack of a microphone jack has been a real thorn to me. My car does not support the bluetooth a2dp profile, I use the USB-C adapter to stream music, and it has put a lot of extra wear on the USB-C connector. It has lasted a long time, and everything else works fine, but it's only a matter of time before I can no longer charge it.

There are a lot of high-quality phones in the Android ecosystem now that run a stock OS. You don't have to stick to the Nexus/Pixel line anymore. Samsung, LG, Moto, etc etc etc.

Not really any reason in switching to iPhones on the weakness of the Pixel line, unless you're trying to make some other political point.

Google doesn't have the expertise or ship enough volume to make good hardware. If I could get a pure Google experience on Samsung-quality hardware, I'd go for that every time.

I have a one plus phone and it is exactly what you describe. I'm very happy with it

> If I could get a pure Google experience on Samsung-quality hardware, I'd go for that every time.

"I'm always here when you need me", moped the lonely Sony Xperia in a distant corner of the room.

The annoying thing is - the Pixel software experience is just really good. I love the call interception feature, the photos are uniformly great, all the Google-y AI stuff is somewhat useful.

I can't get that on any other Android phone, and this year's Pixel seems good but not top-of-line. Honestly I wouldn't upgrade unless otherwise incentivized, but I'm making the switch to iPhone for the first time. This is a bummer since Android is finally a great platform.

I just think Google is making the baseline phones to remove worse phones out of the market. If you want better experience, there are other Android phones.

For another data point here's my anecdote. My wife and I had Pixel 2s and then we upgraded to Pixel 3s. The only issues we've had were self-inflicted. I dropped both my 2 and 3 causing the screens to crack, but they've been fine otherwise. I also still have a Nexus 5 that's currently running LineageOS.

The nexus devices were designed and manufactured by another company. Both my Nexus 5 and Nexus 5X experienced boot loops due to hardware.

Same here for both phones after 1 year...

I have a nexus 5 that bootlooped, and fixed it.

Disassembled the phone, and took off the power button from the main board. Turned out the soldering job inside the power button was badly done, and the looping was due to a piece of solder that had come loose and was shorting the connection.

So now I have a totally functional nexus 5, but to use the power button I have to stick a piece of tin foil down inside where the power button used to be. I have a mod on there that added a 4th home row button which covers all but the 'on' functions of that button.

FYI, I had an Android phone where the power button stopped working. I was able to turn it on by plugging it in and quickly unplugging it.

May be easier than finding tin foil (or aluminum foil).

Thanks, I'll try that.

I got my N5X working long enough to copy off the pictures by disassembling it and using a heat gun. Some people have used their kitchen ovens and supposedly permanently fixed it.

Yeah, that's why I figure it's the bit of loose solder that's the ultimate cause. My solution was to remove the whole mechanism and the solder with it.

Nexus 6P, no bootloops, but the phone would start shutting down once the battery reached about 32% reliably (i.e., with 100% certainty, not just sometimes).

Barely 1.5 years after being purchased new. Combined with the fact that the battery on it was already shoddy and only degraded significantly with time, I legitimately would have to keep my charger always on me, or I might get stuck with a dead phone.

2 of my friends who bought Nexus 6P around the same time also had issues, with one hitting the infamous bootloop issue, and another one experiencing battery issues and automatic shutdown similar to mine.

As another data point I've replaced the camera lens and the glass backplate on my 2. The lens went fine. The glass is something like 0.25mm off in basically all dimensions (height, width, thickness). I can feel the transition when I miss the fingerprint sensor. So 3rd party replacements are "okay." This isn't a huge issue, just annoying since I recently replaced it.

Other than that, which I'd call self inflicted since I've had the phone for years and dropped it a few times and hike a lot, I've had no issues. Maybe the 2 had better QC?

My wife and I were the same. We've had Nexus before, and then Pixels. No problems with any. Wife's currently on a 3, and I was on a Pixel 2.

I had originally planned to upgrade to the 5, but decided to switch to the OnePlus 8 as I was pretty underwhelmed by the 5's specs.

I've been a long time Linux/android guy but I was thinking of trying my first iphone now.

I got lucky and my work bought everyone iPhone SE due to covid. So far I love it. The camera on the SE isn't as good as the Pixel 4, but other than that the iPhone seems better.

Your Pixel 3 wireless charging issue is likely the bloating of the battery. https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/09/10/increasing-reports-...

I actually had this happen and made Google replace it out of warranty (they sent a refurb).

I got a Pixel in the hopes of running LineageOS.

No dice; I was never able to get the Pixel's USB port to do anything other than draw power from my computer. Apparently this wasn't even an unusual problem.

I have experienced a flaky connection for an iPhone as well - plug it in and Catalina would spin endlessly, and when it did manage to connect, it'd fail soon after. Yet other devices were fine. Sometimes QA can't catch every failure, assuming it was hardware and not software.

I believe it was software. I got different behavior depending on (a) which USB port I tried to connect it to (OK, that looks like hardware), but also (b) what mode the phone was booted into.

There are 2 flavors of pixel phones the Verizon and Google, both are carrier unlocked but the Verizon has a locked bootloader. There are work arounds for some of the devices but last time I checked none for the pixel 2xl. If your buying a used one for Lineage good idea to check.

I bought a second hand Pixel 2XL and was initially thrilled until I tried plugging it in and realised it was immediately turning itself off - hard and fast. A quick search came across multiple large threads which never had a single reliable "it's because of X" reason - all sort of cargo cult solutions posted but really the device charging port seems to be somewhat fried but no official acknowledgement that's the case from Google.

* https://support.google.com/pixelphone/forum/AAAAb4-OgUsBZo6t...?

* https://support.google.com/pixelphone/forum/AAAAb4-OgUs4rkbD...

In the end I ended up returning the CEX (2nd hand store) phone to Google who then sent a new device to me. Though I was glad to get it sorted in that way (and do love the device itself - when it works, it works great) it really put me off ever wanting to buy new their hardware fresh. Just seems to have way too many problems.

* https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/cm9dt9/cex_bou...

Google's tech support had my wife factory reset her Pixel 2 for charging problems. Big surprise it did not fix it. We ended up trading in for credit to upgrade to a Pixel 3a, which she still has.

Maybe you've had bad luck with devices? I've stuck with Google phones for a while, and mostly had good experiences. Nexus 5X, Pixel 2, Pixel 4a lately.

The Nexus 5X was great, until it bricked itself. Fortunately, freezing it (literally in a freezer) would get it running long enough to get a few critical bits off.

Pixel 2 was a great phone, no complaints. Only replaced it because the battery life was getting painfully low. And the charging connection got really finicky in the last 6 months or so.

Pixel 4a is also great. Only issue is that for some reason, like a quarter of my contacts names don't show up in the text messenger conversation list. Weird, but I can live with it.

Your definition of "good experiences" differs from mine.

Like "Oh I absolutely loved my new car, ran like a dream. Of course there was that one time it spontaneously set on fire on while I was driving it but other than that, it was excellent."

Well I chuckled at least. But yeah, a car spontaneously catching on fire is completely unacceptable and should never ever happen. A phone's battery life getting worse after 2.5 years of use is pretty normal and expected. The other one with the sudden hard bricking is pretty bad, but it worked perfectly up until then, and it lasted about the normal lifetime of a phone anyways. The parent to mine was complaining about day to day usage issues that I've never had.

I'm not sure Apple is any better, you have safari and apples ecosystem.

Dangerous games you are playing when you give into Apple.

Another anecdote: Two pixel 3as in the family. Both have been flawless. Great value for the price.

The consistency of iPhones and Apple’s predictability really do play in to making the iPhone a easy recommendation.

They clearly understand that phones are now our digital lifelines, not a place to be playing around with weird features.

Apple doesn’t sell a slow phone, even for $399. People complain about Apple’s high prices but the real “secret” is that Apple’s previous generation phones that they continue to sell new are an excellent value.

Their manufacturing is basically perfect. Since the 8/X especially I haven’t heard of any persistent hardware flaw and even before then there was not much to write home about.

You don’t have to wonder when the next iPhone will come out or what it will be like.

iOS never changes based on what phone you have besides minor necessary differences between notch and non-notch phones. I once had to ship my my phone to be repaired, and I was able to restore my exact setup and all data to my backup iPhone 6S. Not only did it work flawlessly, the 6S was still surprisingly fast.

Overall, you really can’t get a phone that lasts longer. Even iPhones that don’t get iOS 14 are still getting security patches. You could feel pretty decently about connecting an iPhone 5S with iOS 12 to a network. Yep, an 8 year old phone - I am positive there are tens of thousands of people still daily driving that phone.

Not to mention app developers can target for newer iOS with newer features when Apple is the only manufacturer to support all the iPhone making them quick to provide updates across the devices. Android still has plenty of Android 5 around today.

Interesting tidbit on camera sensor and output. I forgot how much ahead of its time the Nokia 808 PureView was! Its sensor size still dwarfs the latest and greatest from Samsung - and especially Apple's new 1/1.7 on the 12 Pro Max.

Pixel 5 using the Snapdragon 765G also grosses over the fact image processing is no longer being handled by Google's custom Visual Core (in Pixel 2 & 3). Inevitable perhaps given performance parity, but shows how much of its photography lead Google has relinquished.

Samsung's latest smartphone sensors are 1/1.33 in format...only slightly smaller than the Nokia 808 PureView (1/1.2 in).

The ISOCELL GN1 is 50 MP and 1/1.31, even closer. https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/isocell/mobil...

https://www.dxomark.com/vivo-x50-pro-plus-camera-review-aimi...

The review is missing the point of millimeter wave 5G. The one place you really need that is where there are huge, dense crowds, and many low-power high-frequency cells to support them. Convention centers. Stadiums. T-Mobile CEO: “Millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum has great potential in terms of speed and capacity, but it doesn’t travel far from the cell site and doesn’t penetrate materials at all. It will never materially scale beyond small pockets of 5G hotspots in dense urban environments.”

[1] https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/t-mobile-says-5g-mmwave-de...

Yeah but marketers want to sell using the buzzword as if people's network speed will see a new generation. Besides, who needs more than 100mbps on a phone? You don't need 8k steaming on a phone.

Now that I got a Pixel 4a I'm never spending more than $400 for a phone ever again. It's fantastic.

Had a Nexus 5 and a Nexus 5X.

This is my first Pixel phone. Price is a bit higher than I think it should be, but otherwise I love it.

I don't want a "premium" phone, I want a great all-around phone. This one is it for me.

Google dropped the ball on the gap issue though. Mine doesn't have the problem, but I'm disappointed that others are having an issue with an otherwise great phone.

Is this really the only comment mentioning that massive gap between the screen and the body?!

When the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE was released, I was so sure I was going to prefer it over the Pixel 5. I even liked its photos better in all the camera comparisons-- all except for excessive blue-ing of the sky and the softening of features in selfies that doesn't go away even if you turn off the beautifying feature.

It's just so much better on paper. Faster charging (with separate charger), expandable storage, zoom lens, wider wide-angle lens, 120 Hz refresh, MUCH faster processor. All for the same price as the Pixel 5.

I'd already preordered the Pixel so I figured I'd just let it come and return it after testing both together.

Well, I did test them both together, and I'm returning the Samsung. (Remains to be seen if I'll keep the Pixel 5 or stick with my Pixel 2.)

I really wanted to like the Samsung; I had really high hopes when people said OneUI had gotten better. But it somehow just feels so sluggish. The face unlock doesn't recognize my face a lot of the time, and the on-screen fingerprint sensor (which only lets me register 3 fingers apparently?) doesn't recognize my finger like 60% of the time. So instead of just being able to pick it up and use it instantly like I can with my Pixels, it usually takes 5-10 seconds for me to get into my phone, as I fiddle around to get either the fingerprint sensor or face unlock to recognize me before sometimes having to just swipe my pattern. The refresh rate is 120 Hz yet for some reason it feels like there's a delay whenever I try to swipe through the UI. The camera is good but it bothers me even more than I expected, how much it tries to smooth my face.

Anyway, the point of this comment isn't to be a review of the Samsung phone, but just to highlight how jarring it was to experience all of that after having a Pixel phone that just worked. Even at my P2's 60Hz it feels more snappy than this brand new phone with a 120Hz display and top-of-the-line processor. Granted, I haven't tried many other phones than a Pixel in a while so maybe they're better, but I would just remind everyone that specs aren't everything. The Pixel 5 runs smooth and does everything I want it to well (although it does take longer than I'd like to process photos).

My only problem is that my Pixel 2 also ran smoothly and did everything I wanted it to. The only reason I'm considering the Pixel 5 is the bigger screen and wide-angle camera. So we'll see how I feel in a few days.

I had a 6p and a Nexus 7 (I think) tablet, both were really disappointing and I vowed to never buy Google hardware again. OnePlus has been great, mostly stock android, cheap and reliable.

OnePlus has great software, great hardware and maintain software updates for a decent amount of time. It's what I'd recommend for people who want a phone that just works.

That said, I have a Xiaomi 9T Pro myself because I wanted a phone without a notch/holepunch, a flat display and a 3.5mm jack.

So far my smartphone history has been:

HTC Desire (approx. Nexus1) -> Galaxy Nexus -> Nexus 4 -> Nexus 5 -> Nexus 5X -> Pixel 1 -> Pixel 2 -> Pixel 3 -> ?

My favourites where the N4 and P2. The P2 fixed the shitty cameras, and now it looks like finally the P5 will fix the shitty battery life. Can anyone with a P5 comment on how it compares. I'm glad they finally realized the 4 was a mistake. And from the reviews/specs/features the 5 seems perfect - but I'm worried I'm missing something. I don't want to keep changing phones, it just happens because there is always one deal breaker built in.

I don't think you're missing anything. Coming from a Pixel 1 XL and got Pixel 5 at launch. This is the perfect phone. It finally made me embrace no headphone jack (my single reservation before).

If I could personally design a phone from scratch, I don't think I would do anything different.

-Processor: Not "flagship" - great, save battery, don't get too hot. Not pushing boundaries of reliability. Love the 5g is included for "future-proofing," despite not particularly caring about it now

-RAM: Any more would not be useful, any less would have me wanting

-Storage: I understand this isn't the absolute fastest (ufs 2.1 instead of 3) - this is imperceptible to me. In terms of size, 128gb as the only option removes any sense of FOMO for not dropping more money on space I wouldn't use anyway. No SD, but I never used SD card on any phone ever, despite always popping one in).

-Screen: 432ppi, anything more is just wasting battery. 90hz refresh big increase on 60hz, saves battery from 120hz. OLED color/quality is fantastic. I'm a weirdo that keeps 100% bright on any phone. Any brighter would be unnecessary, indoors or outdoors.

-Battery: Over 4000mAh and has ridiculous battery life; essentially 2 days of normal use. Not the fastest charger ever (18w) but still more than fast enough

-Camera: front high quality for calls; more than acceptable for selfies which I nearly never take. Rear camera is arguably best photography of any phone despite aging (but affordable, reliable) sensor. Video stabilization is remarkable. Video quality is good enough. Love the wide angle sensor. Never had a desire for a dedicated portrait sensor (or any others).

-Software: Obviously the best possible Android experience period. Additionally, when support eventually ends (whenever it does), it's a good gamble that LineageOS (or equivalent) will support Google flagship

-Speakers: under screen ear earpiece. No idea what others are talking about "muffled". It sounds like any top speaker on any phone ever to me (and I have great hearing?). Perhaps I accidentally place it correctly. Additionally I nearly never talk "on the phone", and when I do, it's with headphones. Prefer this to adding a speaker and possibly ruining the aesthetics. Bottom speaker: I expected this to be a big weak spot based on reviews but it exceeded my low expectations. I'm positive other phones may have louder/better speakers but this is perfectly adequate for any circumstance I'm using the phone's speaker

-Design: no gimmicks. The perfect shape, size, and thickness of a phone. Perfect bezel width for aesthetics versus accidental touch input from holding it. Uniform bezels look so nice. Hole-punch selfie camera left offset is the least obtrusive option short of under-screen. Rear fingerprint is my preferred unlock. Face unlock gone, but I strongly prefer that than to ruin the clean design of the front for an unlock option I don't care much about (especially considering Smart Lock options)

-Materials: Love that it's metal and feels solid and durable as such. Not a fan of fragile glass, or "cheap" plastic. Love that despite being metal, retains wireless charging. Resin feels high quality and grippy, but I put a minimal case on it anyway.

Overall summary is the Pixel 5 is the best overall phone out there. Feature-for-feature it is "Second best" at everything (with good tradeoff explanations/decisions), but still first best at Software and Camera. Because of that, it makes the entire package the best possible Android overall phone by my standards and I don't have to feel guilt about not getting "a real flagship."

Google really blew it with the camera. Pixels are known for taking amazing shots and that's where they needed to retain dominance. Instead they removed the telephoto lens and stayed with an ancient sensor. I might have upgraded from my Pixel 4 XL if it was actually an upgrade. The face recognition is useless when wearing masks so just the fingerprint reader would have been enough motivation if the rest of the phone was even competitive.

I agree.

In a world where companies are shipping working 5x optical zooms, and things like the Vivo X50 Pro have a built in gimbal[1] that make the digital zoom usable too I just don't see how the Pixel competes. The software is but that isn't enough.

Just look at the comparison with other cameras: https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-5-super-res-zo...

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bensin/2020/07/16/vivo-x50-pro-...

While I have never been in the market for an Android phone I do appreciate that this review compares Android to Android and did not blunder off into some comparison with iPhones.

It makes it far easier to understand the underlying issues this phone has when compared to other offerings with similar hardware

Idk how anyone with a straight face can say that $700 is mid-range. That's the price of a well performing desktop computer.

What happened to the actual mid-range? The specs for the current $300 phones seem to be worse than the specs for $300 phones 3-4 years ago. How come?

Meanwhile that's about the price of a base model iPhone 12 Mini which a SoC that's significantly faster.

I have been very impressed with the Samsung's M-series phones. Extremely cheap phones with extremely good specifications (great screen, massive battery life). Also not made in China (made in Vietnam).

The biggest downside is the factory firmware has Samsung bloatware.

Samsung apps are so much better than stock Google's. Too bad most can't be installed on non Samsung phones.

Am I the only one who cares about the 4a-5G's bottom bezel? It is thicker so the bezel isn't symmetrical making it an eyesore. I would pay a bit more to have a symmetrical bezel.

I use GoogleFI and my daily driver is a Samsung Note 20 Ultra. It's my first time ever using a top end smart phone (always used budget before) and it's awesome.

Ask me anything.

What made you go high end when phone product cycles are so small that even 2 years old device starts to make you feel you're using an old model?

I've never had a high end phone before and I did it for the camera.

My entire YouTube workflow is done on a mobile phone. I have 512G internal and a 512G Micro SD card on the phone holding both my raw videos and the renders.

Here is an example: https://youtu.be/97YkBdfk7rM

I really miss my headphone jack :(

The Pixel 4a has one, and is faster than the Pixel 5...

Just get USB-c to audio jack plug.

I'm still bitter about the Nexus One I purchased 10 years ago. It was a defective model, with connectivity issues from day 1, and reports saying as much all over the internet. Google basically shrugged their shoulders and told me to fuck off. I paid more for it than the equivalent iPhone, too!

I guess this would be a good place to mention to anyone who wants to buy hardware directly from Google:

Create a separate account and purchase the device through it, that way if you have to do a charge-back because Google's customer service sucks, you can do so without them banning your main account.

(This is not a victim-blame, just a suggestion on how to avoid becoming a victim. Google is definitely in the wrong when it comes to this.)

And yet, I'll still probably get the 5 cause I want wireless charging, the faster screen, slightly bigger battery and I prefer a slightly smaller phone (my reason for not going 4a5G, but may still end up with that to save the $200. We'll see how the Black Friday/Christmas sales are).

And I stick with Pixel because I prefer the "pure-Google" experience and get updates as soon as they come out, no waiting on carrier (Fi) or company.

I still have my nexus 5x.

AMA.

What are you doing?

not spending money on phones. i can tell ya that much.

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