Google Pixel Fold
store.google.com
store.google.com
An iPhone 14 and iPad Pro are gonna' run you $1,600, and be more useful in most cases.
I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket, but do you really need to? And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all.
Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical achievement, this is impressive. But in terms of price and practicality? I don't really see the appeal or value.
I thought that was the consensus... It surprises me that Google is investing money on such a device. Weird.
Unlike other prudent decisions from Google in the last decade?
There are also multiple ways to use the folding screen tech, they can make phone with normal size unfolded screen and small folded form factor instead. Women's pocket sizes alone can sell a lot of those, and there's definitely a nostalgia market for e.g. the razr form factor too.
With Apple bringing Final Cut and Logic to the iPad, they can cut further into the "creative on-the-go" market without having to bother creating a foldable and just leverage their existing tech.
That’s a consensus, true.
I think google has correctly called the direction of travel here
It's just remarkably convenient
On the other hand, I always have my phone with me and I'd definitely benefit for a larger screen when reading emails, websites, documents, planning trips or whatever.
That said, I would never pay that kind of price, neither for a foldable, nor for an iPhone so I guess I'm out of that market niche anyway.
Finally, it’s also part of my three monitor setup for my laptop. The other is a portable USB C powered monitor.
Jokes aside, I never found the bed to be comfortable for any kind of content consumption, even reading books is annoying. And when I already sit upright I might as well have a keyboard too.
I also like to think that long-term maybe they will have the ability to fold out along more than one dimension and potentially be dramatically larger than this, but that's just dreaming at this point.
Not convinced. Having to move back and forth between two devices is a pain. Just like how a powerful laptop with a docking station is much nicer than a cheap laptop and a desktop, even if the former costs more.
I do that a couple times a day. Almost everything that I do with these devices stays in sync through various accounts/cloud in the background. Admittedly I'm just doing this at home, but when I travel, I pretty much always bring my iPad (in addition to the iPhone and my Apple Watch which are on me as long as I'm dressed and awake). I don't have it set this way at the moment, but you can even have any app that you install automatically get added to the other device.
It's very different than a typical laptop/desktop situation since those are harder to sync (depending on what OS/apps/files/etc are involved). However if a lot of what you do is in the cloud, then maybe switching between laptop and desktop is more fluid.
It’s 1600 for iPad Pro alone in Europe.
> I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket, but do you really need to?
Yes.
> And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all.
Majority of people care about convenience, not productivity.
I'd say the market is heavy cellphone users that use apps that benefit from the larger screen.
I don't understand this type of justification.
My fridge would cost around $65k for a 15 year lifetime at $0.50/hour.
It just seems like a completely meaningless way to judge the value of something.
I brew at home and it's 10p for me, is that what you mean?
Neglecting the cost of the $20 press, the water, the kettle, the rinse-water, the mug, and the heating of the water, that's about $0.33 USD / cup?
You'd pay double the price for double the screen size (if more screen size serves a useful purpose to you)
It's really not that hard of a concept to grasp.
I had a 55' TV and I also bought an 85' TV.
I had a 24' monitor. I also bought a 34' monitor
Not a difficult concept to grasp
> I had a 24' monitor. I also bought a 34' monitor
So huge! I don't think I could even fit a 24' monitor in my house. How would you get it through a door?
The newly announced Pixel Tablet screen is 4 times larger than the newly announced Pixel 7a, and they're the same price.
Is the Pixel Tablet supposed to be $2k because the screen is 4x larger?
I really don't know what either of you are talking about with these strange thoughts on pricing.
A concept not hard to understand.
It's to judge it based on the value it gives you per unit of time.
It's the entire justification for investing less in things you use less, and investing more in things you use more. That we generally receive benefits not in one-offs but spread out over time.
Something might not sound so expensive if you frame it as $0.50/hour of use. But it certainly does if there's an alternative that meets your needs that you can get for $0.10/hour of use.
There have been a bunch of times in my life when I delayed purchasing or felt guilty about purchasing something genuinely valuable but very expensive.
But then when you're in year 5 or 7 of using it daily, you're like... best use of my money ever. That's the point here.
If you spend a ton of time needing a large screen, using this for 3 years might be that expensive purchase that pays off for you.
That doesn't make it worthless to figure the approximate cost per time used of a couple of different beds, maybe even a nice one.
Classic sales reframing tactic for obscene 500%+ margin products: You should buy this thing far above market rate because it's worth a lot to you, not because it's priced at a realistic BOM + labor + reasonable profit margin.
And yea, what you stated is why I want a foldable phone
The technology is still in an awkward phase but I think slab phones will be obsolete in 5 years
I am old enough to remember when your average laptop was several thousand dollars, much of the cost of which was due to the LCD display. My daily-driver laptop in college I bought used for like $900 in 2001 (a Toshiba Tecra 780-DVD), but originally all the kit I bought with it would have run close to $6,000.
If it's nearly 2k, it's a plaything for the rich that's both fragile and may have issues that are likely to be poorly supported by the vendor.
I'm not sure whether foldable phones will become what everyone uses, but this is typical for new products that have not started zipping up the S curve.
I thought for sure when I first bought it I'd have to be super careful about the hinge but by now I'm constantly opening it and closing it during the day (though not quite jerked around like an old school flip phone).
I'm amazed at how perfectly it still works almost 2 years later for me, I made a point of keeping my old pixel phone instead of trading it in when I made the upgrade because I was so worried the Flip wouldn't last.
Definitely going to be getting another Flip when I do upgrade again, unless maybe Google launches its own version of that configuration.
I usually do so on my tablet, but before tablets were a thing, I was reading comics on my various touchscreen phones. Pinch to zoom: Mandatory.
I prefer cheaper android phones. My requirements for a general purpose computer in my pocket were long ago exceeded. Reading comics on the go is fine with a phone, better with a tablet (of which I have several, the most expensive one being still cheaper than the cost of the new Pixel Fold even when you add in the cost of my work phone and personal phones).
Computing power is so cheap these days, I am a big fan of just having one-off devices on the cheap. My new Kali Linux box? A $50 refurb Chromebook. Let's not screw with multi-boot shenanigans if we don't have to.
I really don't need a do-everything device. I think most people don't either, they just want one.
$400 is better.
$175 is good.
$50 is great - need subsidies from the carrier for this, IMO.
The folding bit has no value to me, but even if it did, that price point is unacceptable. A phone is something I carry every day and don't treat like a delicate flower. If it costs so much that losing or breaking it would bring financial pain in addition to the pain of the loss of the phone, it's not suitable for my needs.
That said, I'm being overly cautious because I've never actually lost or broken a phone.
I don't have a tablet and wouldn't want one as a dedicated device, but I could absolutely see myself using the tablet features of the Pixel Fold, given that I wouldn't be carrying around an extra device, and it's pocket-sized when folded up. (I usually read a book on my phone when on transit, for example, and would love to be able to do that on a larger screen.) But carrying around a $1800 device that's as easily breakable as a phone? I think I'd be too anxious for that.
I also write notes with stylus on it which is practical unfolded. More real estate for video etc. And then I can just fold it and use it as a phone for calls.
I want a rough, minimalistic foldable like the old school Razr. Something that can take abuse.
I want to be able to flick it open and close with the snap of my wrist and stuff the folded form factor back into my pocket without worry.
I don't care if there's no screen covering the bezel. That'd make it less durable anyway. Two screens, similar to the Nintendo DS is fine.
I'm sick of the smartphone slab and exposed glass. I want a wallet shaped device with a protective plastic or metal shell on the outside.
Put your slab in a protective case and a screen protectir and you get a much more durable device than flip phones ever were.
If it doesn't crack 5 days after you got one, how will you buy a new phone?
> slowness / lack of responsiveness
Are you saying that replacing the battery improved your phone's responsiveness? I knew there was a throttling thing with iPhones but hadn't heard of anything outside of that.
Blame bad Samsung fab. Things like the Qualcomm 888 chipset were notorious for overheating like crazy requiring throttling (used in both Samsung and some Oneplus devices). Need TSMC. Apple had issues all the way back to like 6S era when they sourced from both and the TSMC ones just ran better.
You can override it with a custom rom and messing with EFS on those devices but it's already flirting with battery dangerous temps doing gaming. Better to buy TSMC or strap an icepack to the phone lol.
now, I noticed they weren't 1.5V to start, so they are crap, but it seems it just only goes lower as they age
Normal voltage range for Li Ion is 2.5 to 4.2V, nominal voltage is 3.7V, some manufacturers recommend you never discharge them lower than 3V. So something is off or you have your battery chemistries mixed up.
One application where cells are loaded up really heavily is in RC toys and drones, there lifespan is secondary to performance. But a normal, long-life application for a Lithium Ion battery pack will ensure that batteries are not overloaded (either during charge or discharge).
There are also special cells that can gracefully handle high discharge current (and usually correspondingly high charge currents) typically at the price of some capacity for a given volume.
But in for instance a vehicle or an e-bike you'd rarely see batteries drained faster than the spec, not if you want to use your expensive device for a while.
EV batteries and e-bikes are a whole different animal than what is used in cell phone battery tech.
Also, is 2.0V bad for the battery? It's not great, but it's not Voc of 2.0V. It's Vsc, essentially. Which is a very different quantity.
I would honestly love for phone manufacturers to outright build in some software to build in best practices if they actually exist. Don't let me charge to 100% at first or something!
Phones typically are geared to use the full capacity of the battery.
The demand towards the thinnest phones possible leaves smaller tolerances towards cramming in the biggest battery possible.
I think the galaxy note 4 was the last one with a removable battery therefore something that could run a long time.
An external battery case depending on how you use it can extend the lifespan of an internal battery too.
In the most recent iOS versions, if it can determine when "clean energy" is available near your location, it will also try to charge only during those time periods. I don't think any 3rd party has determined if it is effective.
Just gimme a slider that lets me tell it to only charge to 80% and be done with it.
My electric car by default only charges to 80% unless you tell it you're planning a long drive in order to conserve battery life.
Their help portal has a research summary explaining their sources (the most recent of which is from 2010, so battery tech has likely improved in some respects but it's still a useful reference point): https://accubattery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/210224725-...
I was a big fan, but:
- Nexus 5X support was terminated
- Pixel 1 support is broken; the device used to reset daily (works fine with the original OS)
- They have at least one serious open issue (GPS not functioning, although it can be worked around)
In the end, I had to buy a new phone, that is officially supported. I still donate, but I don't hold my hopes high anymore, anytime that a device gets out of official support.
On iOS if you wanted to translate the text on a button you have to take a screen capture, then translate the screen capture.
This was possible partly because of the stylus hover feature, but also because the Android permission model allowed for applications (translation service) to 'see' the screen of other applications. Something I don't think iOS allows.
If you enjoy using foreign apps, learning languages or living in an area with a different language the Samsung Note series was fantastic.
However, every way involves the text being [selectable] text and not something like an image (unless you use your method). And you said button, and I am not positive if a long-press will trigger the press event.
However, I think with the -a series (7a, etc) they've turned to filling a gap with a reasonably priced high quality device, because Samsung &c low priced handsets are really terrible.
The biggest problem in the market of exceptionally expensive phones is that they don't really look all that different from cheaper ones. Foldable phones solve that.
It’s how the iPhone looked to bb users.
It’s how the Note 1 Phablet looked compared to 4” smart phones
You can only go so big in a phone.
If Apple nails the iPhone max that unfolds into an iPad mini while minimizing thickness, it will be hard to ignore.
Not surprised at all by the cost it's a lot different product and very new. There's people paying 1K for normal phones.
An iphone was also amazing unique and expensive when it first came out. But by todays standards - a $100 android phone is both more powerful and a lot cheaper.
Best extra $400 spent per year or so.
Also feels good to "close" the phone. In ways that locking doesn't quite reach.
If you have all the money in the world the most expensive / exclusive phone you can get is an iPhone, Samsung Fold, or this Pixel Fold.
$118,500 for a diamond-encrusted dumbphone that's still running Symbian, anyone?
There’s a million ways to show off you are rich that would not result in you wasting your time.
https://www.wired.com/story/we-tried-vertus-web3-phone-it-sc...
>“Vertu has changed hands lots of over the past decade, but is still being run by a bunch of folks based out of Hong Kong, very close to the Chinese supply chain,” says Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research. “These folks with renewed focus are rebadging existing models from brands—ZTE, for example—with luxury materials and advanced hardware and software.”
I met a guy once who got sent to Dubai for a week and his only job was to visit all the places a wealthy person might want to go to, while carrying a Vertu phone in his bag. They wanted to check signal strength.
I don't like carrying a bag with my MacBook if I can avoid it
The vast majority of the population doesn't need the kind of computing beast they are using, but it is what gets sold to them. Everybody in society gets a phone and the vast majority of them are technologically illiterate, it's absurd to think that organic demand directs direction in the phone market.
On the site, if you use Google Fi Wireless, and you keep your service for 24 months, then they prorate $700 discount for each month.
I’ve heard so many people make this comment about a variety of things.
I recommend paying closer attention and learning.
The best response is to let people figure out for themselves what they don’t get.
Now I just say "doesn't do anything for my style of cooking"
2. Really excellent emulation device. Powerful enough hardware and phenomenal screen. I use it as-is in portrait mode for the best possible DS emulation on-the-go. I can at least 4x the resolution in almost all games. I can also slap a gamesir controller thing on either side to turn it into a sort of switch-style emulation device. I play ps2, ds, 3ds, gba, gamecube, n64, snes, and nes games on it.
3. Good game streaming device. Mount the controllers on it and use moonlight or steam link to stream from my desktop PC, even if I'm not on local network. Or, use nvidia geforce now or whatever it's called. There's a separate link to servers here in Taiwan through taiwan dageda, so I get ridiculously good connection.
4. Pretty good note taking device with the stylus. This is the use case that drove me to purchase. I'm always experimenting with various ways of (handwritten) note taking, especially on books I read, and having all my notes right there on my phone is really, really nice. I never "forget my notebook" now. Well, unless I forget the stylus lol, or it falls out of my pocket, which has happened 3 times now, and the styluses are an absurd like 50$ or something, so, this device is not nearly ready for mainstream consumption. Similarly, it's great for banging out quick engineering diagrams or designs. I can export to image and throw directly on a ticketing system, or upload into slack. Nice flow, if I get a question from a junior when I'm on a train or whatever.
5. Reading books is very nice on it.
6. Using music-making apps, especially ones with piano rolls and keyboards, is phenomenal. I really wish it had an aux plug though. The jellyphone 2 has that and is the size of a pill bottle, and has dual sim and removable SD storage. No excuses. Although, my version of the galaxy fold 3 does have dual sim.
7. The width of the screen when folded is actually usable on my smaller hands. This was another big driver for getting it. Hilariously, my initial reason for looking for my next phone was, I was tired of big phones, and wanted one I could actually use one handed. Funnily enough the narrow width (that so many people complain about) of the galaxy zfold3 was a big selling point for me.
8. Using maps is really nice on it, and I'm doing this constantly because we're always exploring Taiwan.
In all, I don't think I'm down to drop another 1.8k (1.4 for me because I got it on contract) on a phone any time in the near future. When this phone bites the bullet (and the inner screen is already "tightening" and reducing the flatness of the unfolded state, so one of these days I'm sure I'll overextend and crack the thing) I'm going to get a nice small android something, I heard the Asus zenfone 9 is a good size at a fair price.
As cool as all the features are, it's not like I have all THAT much time to game or make music on my phone, and worse case, I can just toss the thing into my plane-toys bag when I have flights or whatever. The notes taking feature I still use occasionally, especially for diagrams, but I've since moved to a onyx boox e-ink tablet for that, mostly because this lets me hand-write annotate epubs, a feature I've wanted on a device for like, 15 years lol.
So, after ~1 year of using the galaxy zfold 3, I can say, it was worth the money ONLY because it fulfilled like 8 usecases for me. Take away even a couple of those and there's no way it's worth it. A better alternative would be a jellyphone or pixel + a small affordable android tablet in the bag with a stylus. Spend the remaining on a previous version op1 or opz if you're really into music making, or a steam deck if you're really into gaming. Or shit both lmao, you're right that 1.8k is an insane amount of money.
Edit: looking through the marketing material, I'm not seeing any stylus usage on the pixel version. Even if a stylus would technically work, if the responsiveness and sensitivity doesn't allow for note taking, this thing doesn't make any sense to me. On the samsung foldables, the responsiveness of note taking with the stylus beat out literally every other device I've ever tried it with. It is phenomenal.
For example, in Japan, 36.6% of teenagers say they don't use PC at home [1]. It's also a country where people read a lot of comics. Now these foldable screens make more sense, right.
[1]: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/fuwaraizo/20201021-00203217
But of course this one is from Google so it doesn't enjoy Apple's branding premium.
And tablets are still a thing, you can just use them for comics instead of spending $1800 on a phone.
That said, not at this price point and with Pixels not known for their hardware quality. Maybe I’ll wait for when Apple inevitably does their foldable.
I mean not new for humanity, but for Apple.
I feel like carrying small phone and a tablet/laptop is still a significantly better value any way you look at it unless you travel a lot without any storage on your human. I found the most ergonomic travel setup for me is a Lenovo Yoga laptop and the small samsung s22. Both of which can be bought for less than 1800$.
Besides, if this lasts at least 4 years then the amortised price is more reasonable.
Turns out... Plenty. Just like foldables. Samsung has been doubling shipments every year.
By comparison, the standard of "splitting" a single screen results in something that is often too small and awkward to use and with too little screen space for comfortable viewing.
If I could have both in one device, that'd be awesome.
So far however (besides the fact that only Android has foldables), the very visible crease is a dealbreaker for me.
That's what I thought too, but after speaking with a Samsung Fold something owner, and testing it for some time, it's mostly visible only in some angles. Also I imagine it's like notches and holes, you get used and forget about them.
The problem is that they're using the wrong fold. I want my screen to EXTEND outwards. I don't want to go from one screen to open yet another screen. I want it to intuitively either extend, or allow me to fold OUT my content, not in.
Why: I read a lot (pdf, not epubs) and I watch videos a lot.
This device has a 5.8” screen when folded, and a 7.6” screen when open. Looking at those numbers, it doesn’t sound like a very big difference. Yet anyone can see that the 7.6” screen is twice as big as the 5.8” one!
The diagonal only made sense for TVs because the aspect ratio was fixed at 4:3 (and later 16:9). It shouldn’t be used for computer screens or phones.
Example usage: “Did you know the first iPhone’s screen was only nine stevethumbs? So tiny!”
Personally I think people should be talking about bigger things than his tiny hands.
The part that makes the joke funny, is its origins. In the 80s journalist was writing a story about Donald and mentioned his small hands in it. But Donald Trump is so insecure that even 10 years later he kept sending cut off pictures of himself from magazines to the author, with his hands circled with a marker, to prove that his hands werent small. The fact that the marker was gold coloured was a cherry on top.
The sheer stupidity of this entire thing is what makes the (though overplayed) joke funny.
Some random source with not that many details. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/history-donald-trump-small-h...
Thanks for sharing.
It's at the level of a modern SNL skit, all superficial and more of a "mean girl" insult on appearance than satire.
GP was correct in saying "no one cares about that or if it is true." That's not the point, the point is to insult.
Or is "let's go Brandon" not a cheap joke used by "rightists"?
So yes, I think that phrase is a bit deeper than saying someone has tiny hands? over and over for a decade.
I don't disagree that the tiny hands joke is old at this point, but really what is the difference when they both have some origin story and become a political meme aimed at a particular politician?
At a time when "rightists" commonly complain about media bias, this exact sort of bias happens. Then people use it as a dog-whistle for calling out media bias; it's not surprising. As with all polarizing issues, it's best for every individual to consider their own bias. I have found that I frequently don't give a person's opinion a fair shake because I've already concluded that I disagree. Generally, I only do that when I'm not interested in learning.
Anyway, they may both be cheap jokes but this seems a bit like a false equivalence or otherwise misunderstands the argument being made.
But sure, Never Trumpers like Marco Rubio threw the same lame insult.
That's really convenient if you want to make fun of someone. If they get bothered, just call them a narcissist and your insults are justified!
The fact that a public figure would put so much effort into proving that they don't have small hands shows a comically non-proportional response to something they perceive as harmful to their public image. Such sensitivity could most plausibly be explained as a narcissistic injury - and considering Trump's general behavior (always talking how he's the best, the smartest, the most loved, etc.), it fits with the rest of the data.
Again, note that I'm European and my only interest in US politics is strictly one of entertainment. I actually like Trump, for reasons I won't explain here, as it's beyond the point. But I still think he's a narcissist.
The media will stir up controversy anyway, you may as well reply and get your side in, otherwise they are dictating the conversation and truth.
And we're all narcissists... that's nature. It's such a pointless and empty statement.
I strongly disagree. Narcissistic personality disorder is very much real - I have diagnosed family members, and the way their mind works is completely different from one of a "normal" person. I can't quite explain it, but if you experienced it, I believe you'd know the difference.
You believing that makes me think that you either haven't had to deal with a real narcissist in your life, or are a narcissist yourself. The former is more likely, but I don't know you, so I can't speak with certainty.
I see it mainly used when someone doesn't agree with the other person's line of reasoning.
Just right now, my denial of it nearly had you diagnosing me with it.
Might as well just go back to calling people heretics.
> I see it mainly used when someone doesn't agree with the other person's line of reasoning.
I agree, but that's not what you said. What you said was "And we're all narcissists... that's nature. It's such a pointless and empty statement", declaring that narcissism, as a category, doesn't exist.
> Just right now, my denial of it nearly had you diagnosing me with it.
I did not "diagnose" you with it because you disagree with me. The reason I said it's a possibility is because you said that narcissism doesn't exist and that everybody's a narcissist. Depressed people think everyone is depressed, paranoid people think their paranoia is just normal skepticism. Our human mind projects a lot of our own qualities onto others. From your denial of existence of narcissism, I could only conclude that you either don't have a precise representation of narcissism in your mind, or that you do have a precise representation of narcissism but project it onto others as a self-defense mechanism. If my assessment is not true, please tell me what could the third reason be - why else would someone deny existence of narcissism?
But, we see now that you don't think that narcissism isn't real, only that Trump is just a little bit narcissistic, so this whole comment is pointless.
Do you believe it's binary or a spectrum?
At what point do you think people "cross over" to meet a threshold of being a "narcissist"?
> At what point do you think people "cross over" to meet a threshold of being a "narcissist"?
I am not a psychiatrist so this is just my opinion, but as a rough approximation, a person is a "narcissist" if their insistence on having superior status to others starts impacting both them and people around them - a person who constantly has to state how superior they are to others, as if they're trying to remind others of how good they are and not letting them keep it out of their mind, is who I would suspect to be a narcissist. Also a person who can't handle any criticism without immediately pointing out how good they are despite the criticism, or getting angry and putting down the person who gave them that criticism. I could come up with more examples, but I hope you see the pattern.
The main marker of narcissism is the inability to not be praised. It actually stems from deep insecurity - deep down, narcissists actually believe that they're inferior in some fundamental way, so the narcissism is actually a self-defense mechanism that helps them not be miserable. It's basically a compulsion, and compulsion cause irrational behavior. That's why the small hands incident made me think of that.
There isn't a threshold, because as you said, it's a spectrum, and defining a threshold would make it binary. But Trump, from my perspective, is deep in the narcissistic territory, far above any regular people I know in my life. As a performer, it helps him a lot - narcissists are usually very charismatic and sure of themselves, making them excellent performers. But that doesn't make him less of a narcissist.
Seems like people can't get over him in general, we're talking about him in a Google Pixel Fold thread lol.
It's not him repeating it over and over. It's childish and not political satire at all.
Well that should be easily relatable then.
I'm not entirely sure it made sense even then. I completely understand the point (knowing the AR allows one metric to consistently compare and derive the other dimensions) but in my opinion, diagonals became ubiquitous because when looking at TVs, bigger was typically better in the consumer mind and the diagonal is of course one of the largest justifiable dimensions they could plaster over the product and cheaper to print/advertise (less text to put on boxes and flyers).
I think we were handed diagonals in the same way prices are often advertised at near complete fractions of dollars ($9.99): it projects more value to the average consumer's perceived value than it actually provides.
Or a 2 digit number is easier to remember and digest than 3 or 4 digits, and 1 digit is too small, such as measuring in squared feet or meters.
That make it easy to claim “4K resolution*” for a device that, perceptually, is nowhere near the quality you’d get from a 4K monitor.
Many people don't even know it's a diagonal, they just associate the number with having seen the object in real life. You could call it a TV with a size of "16 leafs" or "354 planks". Neither the value or the unit has any meaning.
That should tell you anything you need to know about its durability.
Will never consider Samsung again. They do this weird 3rd party support partnership thing with asurion where they’ll tell you to go to asurion to get the phone fixed but then refuse to honor the diagnostics performed by asurion because they’re a 3rd party, which makes for an awful customer experience. For a $1000 phone you would expect much better support.
All this to say I don’t have confidence in the foldable screen tech, and I have even less confidence with any company that has 3rd party support arrangements with asurion (which google does too)
Flush means the whole thing lies flat on the table, a lump means an edge of it is on the table but the bit on the lens isn't. Recessed would fix that but adds even more size.
Camera glass in Samsung and Chinese phones simply crack from laying them repeatedly on a flat surface. With iPhones one at least has to be unlucky and hit the camera with some rock.
They can design thicker phones to better withstand impact.
They can put back the damn 3.5 audio port
They can go back to screws so we can have removable batteries and easier repairs, like we used to.
My goddam phone is too slim for its own good. It is uncomfortable to hold it. I equiped a case just to make it thicker :/
There were no suitable cases for the Z Fold 4 and other foldable phones (other than the one ugly Spigen case that adds one inch of extra width) that would allow me to enable good protection.
But I think Pixel Fold doesn't have the issue if I choose it. The shape can stay still on the table I think.
Then I happened on a good deal for a higher tier phone, very light compared to what I was used to. Suddenly I'm never dropping my phone.
It seems a no brainer to me. It would keep the fragile e-ink substrate safe, while being more ergonomic and allowing you to have twice the screen real-estate without ending up with the terrible reading experience with too-long-lines that you get from current large-screen e-readers.
The product's timing was off; the first iPad came out while we were still building it, which made it quite a bit less attractive, and it likely could be made much thinner and lighter today. (What really killed it was the founders' inability to secure digital rights from any textbook publishers... though arguably it would still have been a tough product to sell even without that obstacle.)
I couldn't find any pricing info, but I would test drive one for a work setup if I had the chance.
Neat devices but not really pragmatic.
(IMO this is not a bad thing either way)
With a foldable phone, I just unfold it. The convenience leads to using it more and that's a big advantage.
Right now the crease/reliability is a worry, but assuming that is resolved I'd pay $1800 for it.
I’m aware I could obviously still rock a sidebag as a woman, I just generally don’t; lol, and honestly the smaller format of a purse has its advantages, too.
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=mini%20backpack&tbs...
I’m finally almost sold on the concept of a MacBook Air, now that the performance vs. cost factor is there. I never used to see weight or size as a huge factor in hardware but I sure as hell do now.
I upgraded from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 14 recently, and the difference was practically nothing. I didn't think it was possible to experience buyer's remorse after waiting three whole generations, but here we are.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's five years before a phone has some jaw-dropping feature that I just have to buy, and if these are the kinds of innovations Google is investing in, I might even say closer to a decade.
If it wasn't so expensive, and I wasn't still skeptical of the durability of the folding tech, I would buy this. I don't have a tablet for the above reason, but would absolutely make use of something like this.
I can’t, for the life of me, see a difference on performance. It takes better pictures at night and that’s about everything I can notice.
At this point the only “feature” that I want is USB-C. As ridiculous as this is, the only way apple can convince me to upgrade my old iPhone is to change their connectors.
Does the Pixel 7 Pro not fit that description? I just bought one for GrapheneOS.
EDIT: in Private Browsing mode I can access it, but in a normal browser tab it requires me to give my password.
But a phone? I mostly use it to call / send texts and want it pocket sized and durable.
Google hasn't magically figured out how to fix the problem with the screens failing after a few hundred bends; neither has Samsung, which is most likely their display supplier.
On top of that, there is no viable market for a phone over $1200 (and, arguably, no market for over $1000, ask Apple how their sales have been going down since the peak in 2015); what were they even thinking? This is ridiculous even for a halo product.
[0] https://www.anandtech.com/show/14136/samsung-galaxy-fold-can...
From that article, it could be that they test to 200,000 folds because at that point 99.6% have failed, and the 50% failure rate might be at 100,000. Or 20,000. Or 190,000.
I don't think they're saying that 100% of phones will last to 200,000 folds. That would be a bold claim indeed.
You’re also assuming a normal distribution. This very well might not be a normal distribution
Agreed that they probably expect some percentage of RMAs. In fact, I'd argue that "tested to 200k folds" means that 200k gets them enough failures to model the lifetime distribution, so the average lifetime is probably considerably less than 200k.
This guy independently tested a Flip 3, getting authentic humans to perform the folds rather than an automated test rig, and the hinge was the first component to give up after 418,500 cycles with the display itself surviving.
I'm sorry, but I don't trust anyone claiming they've solved it until they've proven after 2 or 3 gens that there are no elevated failure rates.
Maybe this Google phablet will be the first that solved it, but I can't press X any harder for doubt.
it's almost like pixels are designed by AI were all the feedback it have is what youtube reviewers will praise/complain after unboxing a free phone and nothing else. One component that was always bottom of the barrel is modem, because well, no reviewer reviews modems.
gladly not CISO for that org that had a bunch of pixels, but last Pro models had a modem that would heat up to the point of safety shutdown after 30min video calls. Of course there would be no feedback on the OS. Android would just show no data signal with full 4G bars and users would have no idea what was happening. and earlier this year had FOUR remote exploits. In a modem. remote exploits. just marvelous. Whole org had to drop to 3G... i mean, whoever was lucky to be out of the US. Those in 3G-less US were stuck with wifi phones, because they also announced it right before their march update, which only arrived in april. pixels are great.
Yes, surely Google didn't do any market research before investing $$$$$ into developing a new device.
There's enough of a market that Samsung is now on the 4th gen of their Z Fold, and the 5th gen is coming out soon.
I agree, seems pretty aggressive.
A 1000$ iphone is closer to a 300$ pixel 6 than the pixel fold.
Of course, that's not directly comparable, but it's notable.
This is very tempting, but given it's their first attempt and the steep price, I'll probably wait for the Fold 2 to improve on any growing pains.
This is the prevailing opinion among people that would purchase it. It will have disappointing sales numbers and there will be no Fold 2.
That's one way of spinning it. Personally I'd rather have all the Pixel users beta test Android, so I can get the bug fixed version from Samsung.
1. Is the unfolded screen a continuous flat surface? (I.e. is the vertical bulge in the center gone?)
2. Are there gaps around the hinge or screen edge? Is the phone weatherproof?
3. Are there gaps when the phone is in the folded state?
Phone has been rock solid no issue. Love it.
The sensory aspect is another thing, it seems distracting to me to be getting this kind of physical feedback; I don’t like the durability risk either (I suspect this is an especially delicate area of the screen and it is raised too).
In any case I appreciate the response, it’s exciting to hear that folding phones already work well for others.
Nope, no manufacturer has solved this. There is a "crease" in the middle the pixel fold here which is in the middle between the Z fold4 and some of the newer Chinese phone companies that do a "tear drop" folder to limit the creasing effect. So it's noticeable but eventually you'll get over it.
> 2. Are there gaps around the hinge or screen edge? Is the phone weatherproof?
Two questions, yes there is a gap top and bottom in the middle when unfolded. A lot of the newer phones are weatherproof yes but I wouldn't take any phone out in a tornado or leave it lying in the sand at a beach.
> 3. Are there gaps when the phone is in the folded state?
Gaps? Where ? When folded you can think of it as two phone sitting directly on top of each other and attached at one side.
A 'foldable screen' implies a lot of changes in usability and behaviour, most of these companies don't bother with the detail and therefore less than desired experiences.
At least up to Pixel 4 even the alarm clock, merging calls, a bunch of small things felt very off. Apps were not consistent.
That said, screen real estate is nice, if that's your thing and you are not price sensitive, it might work.
Personally, I want a small, thin form factor with only a few apps max and I want it to be robust, always work, with extremely long battery life and for Google/Apple to not hoard all of my personal data.
I fell for the Ryzen laptop hype and bought one around the time of the M1 that was supposed to be about as fast as the M1. In practice it started throttling pretty fast and the performance was way worse than the M1. Also, the battery life was ~3 hours under normal workloads on Linux (with most power optimizations done) and ~6-7 hours on Windows.
The price definitely can't be beat though. Even though a laptop with a 5650, 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD for $400 sounds really unbelievable? Those specs usually go for at least $1200. Do you have a link?
It was only like 6 years ago that leaving your phone in the same room as a running shower was a risky gambit, not sure why we expect ip7 waterproofing on brand new tech.
The dust part is more of a concern because that’s a lot harder to avoid than rain. For example, most people put phones in pockets or bags which not infrequently collect dust. A regression on that is bad for an ultra-premium device which needs a solid market to fund further R&D.
Other than that meh, phones are very limited, and I would rather invest in anything than spend my money on a (very finicky and unreliable) social media machine.
Foldable devices like the Lenovo X1 fold are very nice to work with "on the go": take a Bluetooth keyboard and your office is everywhere!
"Translating speech [...] uses 20% less power." https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/googles-tensor-g2-chip-is-k...
Amazing!
Wow, it's hard to believe how lame their marketing is. Prompted?
"Please write me a slogan to help sell a new smart phone in the style of Apple, but make it sound cooler.."
Casing these phones seems like a challenge
I couldn't imagine financing a phone
Put the money you would have spent buying outright in a savings account yielding 4%.
Tons and tons of people have their cash sitting in a shitty Chase savings account yielding 0.1%, while there are many FDIC insured banks offering at least 3% and up to 5%. As a critical mass of these people realize the options available, they'll rapidly move their money with online transfers causing more banks to collapse. The extremely rapid outflows are what killed SVB, Signature, and Republic who were screwed because they had too many low yielding treasuries because the Fed hiked rates so fast.
I've been yielding over 3% in a Capital One savings account since last year.
They can be purchased quite easily from the US treasury website, or investment sites like Fidelity.
I would not even be bothered to go through the financing hassle for the few tens of $ of interest that would yield.
As far as effort, if it's a high-yield savings account you should be getting one of those anyway, and then the phone-specific effort is a single transfer or doing nothing at all. And the financing itself is probably negligible.
If we were talking a car I would've agreed with you but I'd rather pay upfront for such smaller sums and get on with it.
I'm probably in the market for a new phone this year, and I'd absolutely do the 0% 24-month financing even for a "normal" priced phone. I get that some people are debt-averse, and I understand why, but if you can afford to pay for this phone outright, shying away from the financing plan is irrational.
After that Samsung, and now Google, have released multiple almost $2k devices to complete silence.
And it's pretty niche right now.
Then again, I do live under a rock.
I guess that's why I'm not a VP at some BigCo.
Caveat: this is measuring the size of the phone itself, not the screens, since that was easier to find.
5.8" @ 17.4:9 (outer screen) = 13.73 sq in
7.6" @ 6:5 (inner screen) = 28.4 sq in
For comparison to the Pro
6.7" @ 19.5 = 17.08in sq in
I'll wait for Pixel Fold 2
See “sustainability” paragraph.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/05/samsung-g...
https://i-guim-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w820/s/i.guim.co....
The aspect ratio might allow for always on playback controls and a dedicated area for subtitles which could be nice.
We expect their shipments to grow 73% YoY in 2022 to 16 million units.
Samsung continues to lead the category it created with the first Galaxy Fold device.
Samsung’s share of the foldable market was 62% in the first half of this year.
We expect this to jump to 80% in the second half with its new Galaxy Fold 4 and Flip 4 product launches."
https://www.counterpointresearch.com/foldable-smartphone-shi...
I'm still on the 3, I've had it for about 1.5 years and I use it every day. I love it, especially with the pressure sensitive pen.
It's still working great, so I'll probably wait for the fold 6 or 7.
I think the google/nexus/pixel fold looks nice, but the pixel reliability track record has been pretty grim, so maybe I'll give it an iteration or.... Nine before trying it out.
Both are excellent reference lines.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/google-pixel-sees-hu...
In mid-2022: "...Canalys had Google up 380 percent year over year, and this quarter, the company is up 230 percent."
For those of us outside of Apple ecosystem Pixel 6a for $350 (with some recent discounts) is one of the best modern devices all around. Yeah you can certainly find something even cheaper, but again it will be loaded with tons of non-Google spyware.
[0] https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-market-share-3... (I love how neutral this article is)
No they don't. This is not a common sentiment and it's not even a complaint. It's just mocking their market share. And "no new model" is on a different level from actual product cancellation to begin with.
They do?
Aren't Pixels some of the longest-supported phones, security update wise?
Their IoT and software services might be another story.
Apple's $399 original iPhone SE from 2016 got six years of OS updates and received another security update last month.
Google's original Pixel Phone, also from 2016, stopped getting support at the end of 2019.
The claim was that Google is one of the top few.
Everyone knows #1 is Apple. A citation for Apple beating Google isn't needed and doesn't help figure out whether Google is one of the top few.
Samsung wins either way.
(To be clear I'm joking here, no idea if Samsung are even the ones making the displays)