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Comment by makeitdouble | Hacker News Reader

> The Google Pixel 6a is good, it takes great photos, and it has great software. Nevertheless, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s missing quite a bit of what other people are looking for. Most people don’t care if their phone has the best camera in whatever class their phone is in, they just want a phone that takes good photos for social media.

So it takes great photos and has great software, but misses what users really want, which is taking photos and using the software?

The actual point of the article seems to be on phone carriers, which are a big problem, but every country that successfully dealt with that stared with setting up strong corporate oversight. I'm not sure the US is there yet.

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Agree Also, > The thing about the Google Pixel 6a is that in the U.S. market, it’s a great value phone. There are basically no other offerings in the U.S. that can provide as complete an experience at that price range. Flagship chipset? Check. Great cameras? Check. Long-term software support with timely updates? Check. It’s got all the basic boxes of an excellent phone… but it costs $449.

Do you want a phone with these features for a great value? I don’t understand the article’s criticism??

Hey there! Author here.

This isn't a criticism of the Pixel 6a, per se. This article is not meant to be a critique of the 6a, but rather, is using it as a tool to illustrate an overall greater point. The reason you don't understand the criticism of the 6a is because it's not supposed to be criticism.

The phone costs a lot, and a lot more than most other devices that are in a similar boat of "mid-range". It has a lot of bells and whistles that normal consumers won't necessarily care for, because it doesn't matter how great the camera is when a lot of people are just using their phones for the likes of Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. A Nothing Phone, Nord 2T etc will get 80% of the way there in the camera department after the photo is on social media, and most people won't care for the difference.

However, the primary argument of the article is not to critique the Pixel 6a. Far from it. The problem is how the reason it's considered good value is because of the US carrier market. This article is primarily taking aim at the US carrier market and not the Pixel 6a. It's just a tool being used to illustrate a point.

I think one point you might have missed in your analysis is the form factor. I'm in Europe and I'm seriously considering getting a Pixel 6a because it's the smallest one amongst the phones in this price range. It's not small, but it's also not a comically large slab that doesn't fit any pocket as some of the other "good enough" phones out there. That, plus 5 years of security updates and a stock Android experience are enough to justify the price difference which is not even that big anyway - 469 Euros vs 400 Euros for Nord 2T, same price for Nothing Phone etc

It's got a really meh display though. All other midrange phones do 90 or 120hz. Like the $300 Samsung A52s.

I've been looking at the pixel 6a for Calyx but it's really not a good deal for me.

In the current ecosystem, if you're in the market for an android and are fine with Samsung's software, I'm not sure there is much reason for not buying a Samsung phone.

They are hard to beat on the hardware front, and will have a model at almost every size and price point. The only market they don't seem to be covering is hardcore gaming phones.

I'd choose a Pixel phone to have the software fully managed by Google (the camera being tuned to be neutral is part of the package), but I definitely don't see them (or any other maker) as a "good deal"

Speaking of Samsung I wonder if anyone here has experience with the x cover pro series. Looks like a pretty decent deal for a phone with a user removable back and replaceable battery? Looks like Linux kernel 5.4 Android 12

https://youtu.be/o0T9p4nZx4o

At almost EUR 600, I just can’t justify it though :/

https://gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_xcover6_pro-11600.php

I have an Xcover 4S, not the pro. Though I don't use it anymore. We also have a ton of those at work. The Xcover 5 (also non-pro) too.

It's an ok phone for the 120 euro I paid for that, I bought mine second hand for hiking. They get really long support from Samsung because they view them as an enterprise product (whether it's the enterprise edition labeled one or not!)

However, they are SLOW. The screens are kinda crap LCDs, even in direct sunlight a good OLED screen is much better. I don't know why Samsung sticks with LCDs on these. If they'd have used transflective LCD like most outdoor GPS devices I could see the point for outdoor readability but they don't, they're just cheap crap LCDs worse than what they put in their $200 budget series. OLED is better than they crap they put in these phones in every way. In the past Samsung mentioned they did this because OLED screens cracked more easily, however this cannot be a thing anymore since most OLEDs now use flexible plastic substrate, even in non-foldable phones.

The XCover Pro 6 uses the 778G chip though which is the same as I have in my Galaxy A52s and it's ok. Be aware, Samsung usually pairs this chip with very slow UFS2 flash (Snapdragon 8 models come with UFS3.1) so installing apps is tedious. But during normal use it's ok.

It's kinda cool that this phone has DeX but with only 6GB RAM and a midrange processor with slow flash I wouldn't expect too much of it.

They make you pay an extra feature license to use the side "push to talk" button with apps like MS Teams by the way so be aware of that. I'm a HAM operator so I'd like to use that but it's less interesting this way. It also stops people from building the PTT functionality in apps because nobody has the license anyway.

But I haven't seen the new Pro 6 yet no. It looks ok but yeah the prices are HIGH. And battery availability is tough, I've had a hard time finding an official battery for my 4S. Samsung doesn't sell them directly and a lot of the batteries on Amazon are fakes. Meaning the NFC stops working as this is part of the battery (Samsung WHY???), and you have questionable safety. This kind of undermines the idea of a replaceable battery, if you can't buy genuine batteries easily. Sure, it's a bit old by now, but this is exactly the time when you'd need a new battery.

But really, for 300 euro you can get a Galaxy A52s which is roughly the same phone in terms of specs. Exact same processor and ram. No replaceable battery but half the price, with a much better OLED screen with in-screen fingerprint. Put a tough case on it (I use the Spigen Tough Armor on mine, 15,99 euro on Amazon) and a good screen protector and it's just as indestructible as the XCover Pro IMO. And even if you break it and have to buy a totally new one you still spent only the same as an XCover Pro 6. The A52s still even has a 3,5mm jack like the XP6. The A53 doesn't and it has a slower exynos CPU so I'd recommend the A52s instead.

Also, don't overestimate the ruggedness of these devices. They're 'business rugged' at best. Even with the XCover 4S I used a Tough Armor case on top of it.

My problem with Samsung is that depending on your region you get a different CPU.

Not in the (upcoming) future, at least wrt the high end devices: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2022/08/snapdragon-8-...

Not having seen these displays, I wonder why would anyone care about a higher frame rate. It scrolls even more smoothly? It sounds like a luxury feature or maybe audiophile nonsense.

It's something you get used to. Since having a 120Hz phone, going back to 60Hz feels really jittery and cheap.

I don't think I want to get used to that. Hedonic treadmill go burr.

Well if it wasn't a genuine improvement it wouldn't be so addictive. IMO it's worth it and my galaxy A52s has better battery life than any phone I've had in recent years and that's with 120Hz on.

I can even limit the battery to 85% (to make it age slower) and still last a whole day with ease.

So I don't think this is a heavy trade-off.

Trust me you can tell the difference between 60 and 120. Whether or not you care is another question. But is a better screen nonsense? If that was so we'd still have 20 inch black and white monitors.

What's wrong with a 3a/3aXL?

The OS is dead. No more security updates (now for the 3a; soon I think (if not already) for the 3axl).

This article entirely misses why this series of phones is named "Pixel". Pixel provides a top tier camera at a mid tier price

Does it? The Pixel 6a's primary sensor has really been showing its age for a while now, and often struggles to contrast really dark spots with really bright spots. We talked a lot about that in our comparison of the Pixel 5 to the iPhone 13 Pro. It's part of why Google needed to upgrade the Pixel 6 Pro camera, and I wouldn't really say the 6a is a "top-tier" anymore. It's still really good, but there are a ton of phones that do way better nowadays.

> So it takes great photos and has great software, but misses what users really want, which is taking photos and using the software?

I think the charitable interpretation of that part of the author's statement is "Users only need a camera that is decent enough, since there are more important things. Google focuses too much on the camera".

I had that thought, until the focus went to phones available in eu/asia, with One+, Nothing, POCO being mentioned, and none of those are brands targeted at average users only caring about a phone that basically works with no fuss.

Even Xiaomi feels a bit borderline, they have very affordable and mass targeted phones, but anyone not caring that much would go no wrong with a Samsung, probably discounted at the same price as the equivalent Xiaomi phone.

The main beef against the Pixel phones seems to be that friend's story about the back getting hot sometimes, which is valid, but anecdotal to say the least.

I don't know why but using Google Maps on my 6 Pro for navigation there is a chance it will complain about overheating then go into a degraded state followed by finally shutting down. It takes quite sometime before it will cooled enough to be turned back on.

It doesn't happen consistently and it seems to only happen when I'm actually driving with the navigation turned on. It's incredibly frustrating when it happens. I've tried different phone placements, even placing it directly in front of an AC vent but it still occasionally happens.

I usually don't charge it while driving but it has happened twice while charging as well.

I don't know which world you are living in. Poco and Redmi blow Samsung off of all the ground. Samsung charges for the brand and is super expensive when you can get similar or better phone from Xiaomi.

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