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Comment by fsckboy | Hacker News Reader

Bit of advice I'm looking for, if my question resonates for you: I've had Pixels in the past (pretty distant past at this stage) but I generally found the experience to be too "beta" or "experimental", in that various features would not carry over to a new Pixel, and I'd have to get used to something entirely different all over again. In contrast, I've enjoyed the Samsung approach, and I love the Fold. (I also carry iphones, I like gadgets)

Should I try the Pixel Fold, might I like it? (looking for opinions from people who recognize my story; no need to tell me things like "nobody can answer that for you")

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I only bought a Pixel because of GrapheneOS.

I think I've never had this few issues with a phone. (I only had Samsung phones before this)

It feels even better than the Android that the Pixels ship with, I used it for a day before I flashed GrapheneOS, and I can completely understand why one would not buy a Pixel again if they only experienced the Stock OS.

I'm always interested in trying things like that, but I'm not that into playing some sort of "jailbreak cat and mouse" over time. If I install GrapheneOS, is it automatic after that for security updates and whatnot, or do I have to do some weird two-hands-three-fingers reboot and manually download, etc?

Yes, it's fully automated OTA updates with GrapheneOS.

(running it since 9mo on my Pixel 8)

What about banking apps ? Do they work correctly ? Do they complain that you don't have genuine phone ?

My banking apps all work (three different german banks), but the app from my health insurance does not want to work.

Relevant recent submission:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41215126

Graphene OS has automatic updates, prompts you for reboots after installing them via notification.

Speaking as a Calyx user since 2020, the install experience was a bit finnicky, and it required no ongoing manual maintenance. My understanding is the web installer is pretty easy now though.

One caveat: Unlocking the bootloader deletes the disk. This is a reasonable security measure, but it means you don't want to use the phone for anything important before installing Graphene.

What excited you about Graphene?

Probably the top reason I wanted to get GrapheneOS was the privacy/security aspect of it, this includes: no google play services by default, multiple user profiles (more than the Stock OS can have), a network permission for apps (this normally can't be toggled), disabling all usb data connections (can easily be activated in the Settings if I need it), Bootloader can be locked again after flashing the ROM and much more.

It also has very frequent updates, and my phone will get them for a long time (also true for the Stock Android on Pixels, but that one really sucks), which was also very important for me, as I want to be able to use my phone as long as possible.

What made this even more appeling is the possibility to install sandboxed google play in a seperate profile/user for apps that really need it, which works surprisingly well, and even then the google play services don't run with elevated permissions like they normally do, but with the same permissions like other apps.

And the battery life is insane, if I don't use my phone it basically does not loose any battery, and even with heavy usage I don't need to charge it daily.

So GrapheneOS was the easiest way to start degoogling (kind of ironic using Google Hardware) my mobile phone, while still being able to run nearly all of the Apps I need.

Oh right! I think I have that on a tablet. I was confusing it with the alternative to Android that Google is developing when I asked you about it. Thanks for the info.

https://grapheneos.org/features#grapheneos

Many of those are appealing

I'm not sure why you think you'd like the Pixel fold more than the Samsung Fold. Their dimensions are similar, but you've already said you dislike the software experience.

I had the Nexus 5, Pixel 1, 3a, and now 7a, with a couple other phones in between which each time drove me back to Google hardware and their flavor of Android. If you didn't like the software in the early days of Pixel, or even in the Nexus days before, you probably still wouldn't.

>I'm not sure why you think you'd like the Pixel fold more than the Samsung Fold.

a hypothetical answer to my question could be: "yes, worth trying the Pixel experience again, but stay away from the Fold." my question had two dimensions.

but thank you! very informative. yes, I had most of the Nexuses, then into the Pixels

Personally can't imagine someone thinking "I hate the pixel experience" and then actually preferring samsung's, which is way worse.

Personally I view the Pixel experience as "clean", but I've heard it described as "sparse" by Samsung fans.

i probably write in too parsimonious a style compared to how people read: my complaint was not about the pixel experience, it was about the experience moving from each pixel version to the next back in earlier days, it was about the deltas.

I can learn any system, but I want one and done. I don't want to keep having to learn all the time when it comes to things like muscle memory.

i hate gestures, for example. If I could configure/control them, alright, but I don't like when some touch that used to be unnoticed or neutral suddenly starts wiping out what I'm doing. my mantra when it comes to coding UIs: job number one is never ever lose anything the user has typed

Why is it worse?

Samsung's experience is objectively more customizable (you can have custom color schemes, custom keyboard layouts, macros and more).

At the same time, samsung defaults have neutral design, while google screams at You "this is a google app" almost everywhere.

I guess the only downside is that samsung's UIX is heavier on the performance side, but in context of flagships it doesn't matter much.

So again, what makes you say pixels experience is better?

i used to think that too. but then ss fold device changed my mind.

the problem mostly come from the tensor chip where apps/games are not optimized for it. can't imagine using a top flag phone (pixel 8 pro) at the time with sub-optimal performance.

the fold is so much money that I never even considered it. For what they're charging (where I live, I guess) I can get a macbook air or an ipad pro and still buy a nice pixel with the change from the price of the fold. Not really worth it to me.

I've never used the fold, I'd be a bit concerned about the screen wearing at the crease. Damage is another thing to be worried about.

As for the pixels, my advice is to hold off buying the latest until like Feb or even May. Google pretty aggressively drops the prices after release so waiting just a little bit will save you several hundred dollars. By Feb, generally the phones have been pretty stable.

Black Friday usually gets a couple hundred $ off as well. Only risk is that if the phone (or watch, etc) is selling well then they won't discount it, so you might end up waiting a long time or waiting a couple months and still paying full price. I always try to hold out for Black Friday though unless my old phone is broken.

Hm... difficult question. I got a Pixel Fold at half price second hand. What MKBHD says about the Pixel Fold is absolutely true: it has the best outer screen/folded experience of all the foldables. Most of the time, I use it closed. And, apart from the abysmal screen brightness, it's a perfectly fine phone when folded.

There are still very few apps that support the full screen properly and while you can force apps to run full screen on the big screen, their automatic UI layout will simply blow up the lower and upper portions of their interface so that you don't see that much more.

Most Google app, obviously, have proper support and YouTube is definitely the primary use case for the big screen. Insanely, Google Maps loses features when viewed unfolded (WTF?). But even among the Google apps, though, most don't really use the space in a useful way. They often just put some hamburger menu permanently on the screen. Nice, I guess, but you won't bother unfolding the phone just for that.

Web browsing/reading is great on the unfolded screen. That's where the near-rectangular aspect ratio works best.

Honestly though, while I'm keeping an eye on what's happening in the foldable space, I think my next phone will be a boring old slab phone again.

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