[Android] Thread v. 2018: Pixel 6 is out. Google might be bad at phones.

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  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    emp123 wrote: »
    Alright so Im an absolute moron and I bricked my Pixel 3XL.
    How'd you do that? Is it something that flashing the device couldn't probably fix?

    Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    The 6A is getting very good reviews but I haven't seen one in the wild. I enjoy my 6 Pro, even if I'm not a fan of the wider screen.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    The 6A is getting very good reviews but I haven't seen one in the wild. I enjoy my 6 Pro, even if I'm not a fan of the wider screen.

    Well considering the 6a didn't start shipping until this prior week, and Pixels traditional aren't massive sellers, that's not a surprise.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Barrakketh wrote: »
    emp123 wrote: »
    Alright so Im an absolute moron and I bricked my Pixel 3XL.
    How'd you do that? Is it something that flashing the device couldn't probably fix?

    No, it is so so much dumber. Bricked is probably the wrong word, I was trying to clean out the USB port since it's been a pain to use for like a year (I'd just wirelessly charge and transfer photos via Bluetooth so it wasn't an issue).

    I was scrubbing the port with an old toothbrush but it wasn't having much effect so I figured hey the phone is waterproof maybe some liquid will help. Oh it helped alright, helped its way right inside the phone and now it's dead.

    After sleeping on it I'm kinda leaning towards the 6a but the lack of wireless charging is a concern. Probably not going to find it in a $200 phone anyway though.

    Re screen size, I have big hands and the wider screens are more comfortable for me to hold.

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    edited August 2022
    I ended up grabbing a 6a. Since I pay for Google One I get 10% off the purchase price and then apparently another $50 credit for buying the unlocked or Fi version so it's price is basically in line with the Samsung A53 5G but with an OS and camera sensor I know I like. Plus it'll be here Tuesday/Wednesday which is just in time for the photos I need to take on Thursday.

    Granted that's basically just $100 of store credit, but I can out that toward the next Pixel upgrade should I (when I) do something dumb again.

    emp123 on
  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    Hope the 6a works out for you. Honestly them taking away the headphone jack & physical fingerprint reader (I can live without this one but its still not great) makes me want to look at other options if and when I have to replace this 4a.

    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • autono-wally, erotibot300autono-wally, erotibot300 love machine Registered User regular
    Exchanged my phone's screen and then noticed the replacement has no fingerprint sensor and is missing the phone speaker grille, both issues I unfortunately only noticed after I reassembled it

    I can salvage both from the old screen, but removing the new screen again without destroying it seems like a daunting task, looking at how hard it was to get the old one off.

    The only saving grace is that the screen glue that came with the old one was awful, so it should make it somewhat easier to remove..

    kFJhXwE.jpgkFJhXwE.jpg
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    edited August 2022
    Naphtali wrote: »
    Hope the 6a works out for you. Honestly them taking away the headphone jack & physical fingerprint reader (I can live without this one but its still not great) makes me want to look at other options if and when I have to replace this 4a.

    Honestly the headphone jack has never been a huge issue for me since I can just use a USB dongle and voila headphone jack. That option is less great when the phone doesnt have wireless charging though since now I cant charge my phone and use wired headphones if needed.

    This will be my first phone with a screen based fingerprint scanner so I'll see how it goes, I'm not sure why it moved since the rear scanner was never an issue for me but whatever I'll give it a shot.

    emp123 on
  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    I don't miss the headphone jack since I've already got some wireless buds (yeah they got me) but I do miss the rear fingerprint scanner. I liked that I could unlock my phone as I was pulling it out of my pocket rather than having to pull it out then wait for the scanner to be visible. I also used the notification shade gesture on the rear scanner all the time. It was so nice to be able to pull down the shade without having to reach up with a finger or my thumb.

  • Inquisitor77Inquisitor77 2 x Penny Arcade Fight Club Champion A fixed point in space and timeRegistered User regular
    Never buy a phone model that just came out. Give it at least a month, because that's when you'll start seeing whether or not there are meaningful production issues that would not be uncovered by ~5 days of use by a tech reviewer.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    @emp123 now you have a chance to figure out what went wrong, and how to fix it in the future (hint: next time use 90% isopropyl instead of water)

    https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Google_Pixel_3_XL

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    emp123 now you have a chance to figure out what went wrong, and how to fix it in the future (hint: next time use 90% isopropyl instead of water)

    https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Google_Pixel_3_XL

    Yeah I think Im going to try and fix it myself, sounds like a kinda fun project.

    Compounding the stupidity, I had a bottle of isopropyl just sitting around. Definitely should have used that instead.

  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    It's funny watching my wife use the 6a. She never used gestures before and she's always had a back and home button.

  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    urahonky wrote: »
    It's funny watching my wife use the 6a. She never used gestures before and she's always had a back and home button.

    Ha, I'm having the opposite experience. Apparently my Nexus 5x still works (I thought it died due to the bootloader issue, guess it just needed to be powered off for like 4 years) and I keep getting thrown off whenever I try to navigate around.

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    I'm still annoyed that swiping from the left and the right ended up being the default back gesture instead of from the bottom corners like the original OnePlus implementation

  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    edited August 2022
    I find myself swiping on my Surface to go back and then feeling silly.

    Later I figured out that it does work, but only if the keyboard isn't attached.

    Edit: or maybe it works with two fingers. I don't remember, it's still pretty new.

    SirToasty on
  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    urahonky wrote: »
    It's funny watching my wife use the 6a. She never used gestures before and she's always had a back and home button.

    You can turn that off and use back and home again.

    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Samsung still, in 2022 ships their phones with the home/back/multitasking buttons by default. And the back and multitasking are reversed compared to every other OEM. that last part goes back to how Samsung arranged their buttons when they were still physical hardware buttons. You can reverse the order of the buttons but one of the first things I do when I get a new samsung phone is switch to gestures. It's the second half of 2022. The time of the buttons has long passed.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    wunderbar wrote: »
    Samsung still, in 2022 ships their phones with the home/back/multitasking buttons by default. And the back and multitasking are reversed compared to every other OEM. that last part goes back to how Samsung arranged their buttons when they were still physical hardware buttons. You can reverse the order of the buttons but one of the first things I do when I get a new samsung phone is switch to gestures. It's the second half of 2022. The time of the buttons has long passed.

    we'll just remove those meddlesome power, bixby and volume buttons then, don't need those

    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • Ed GrubermanEd Gruberman Registered User regular
    does anyone actually use the Bixby button? I've had my S9 phone for almost 4 years now and I have never hit that button on purpose or even setup Bixby.

    steam_sig.png

    SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    The newest ones don't have a bixby button.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    yeah Samsung only included it in the 8 and 9 generation (S and Note). It was dumped after that.

    Amusingly starting with the S20 generation a long press of the power button by default will activate bixby. But to Samsung's credit the first time you try to turn the phone off and end up with Bixby it actually does prompt you on the screen to say "hey do you want this to turn the phone off instead?" and links you to the settings page to change it.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    gestures vs buttons (hard and software ones) aside, it's good to have both. for usability and accessibility across the board.

    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    The 6a also does the long press to bring up Google Assistant instead of power/restart/etc options which mentally is weird, but I can probably get used to it since I rarely shut off my phone.

  • LD50LD50 Registered User regular
    wunderbar wrote: »
    Samsung still, in 2022 ships their phones with the home/back/multitasking buttons by default. And the back and multitasking are reversed compared to every other OEM. that last part goes back to how Samsung arranged their buttons when they were still physical hardware buttons. You can reverse the order of the buttons but one of the first things I do when I get a new samsung phone is switch to gestures. It's the second half of 2022. The time of the buttons has long passed.

    My s21 doesn't have the buttons (software or hardware) and had gestures out of the box.

  • ButtersButters A glass of some milks Registered User regular
    My S21 had software buttons by default.

    PSN: idontworkhere582 | CFN: idontworkhere | Steam: lordbutters | Amazon Wishlist
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    LD50 wrote: »
    wunderbar wrote: »
    Samsung still, in 2022 ships their phones with the home/back/multitasking buttons by default. And the back and multitasking are reversed compared to every other OEM. that last part goes back to how Samsung arranged their buttons when they were still physical hardware buttons. You can reverse the order of the buttons but one of the first things I do when I get a new samsung phone is switch to gestures. It's the second half of 2022. The time of the buttons has long passed.

    My s21 doesn't have the buttons (software or hardware) and had gestures out of the box.

    Did you happen to restore a backup from a previous phone? If you do that it syncs the settings, which includes whether you have gesture or or buttons. I can confirm new setups without restoring a backup will have buttons, as I literally "tested" this last week when I factory reset my Fold 3 without restoring a backup to troubleshoot something.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • furlionfurlion Riskbreaker Lea MondeRegistered User regular
    I like the buttons. Modern phones are so big I don't really miss the screen they take up. Never really bothered with gestures much since the launcher I use, Nova, only lets you use them if you pay. I guess I do use swipe up for my apps but that's it.

    sig.gif Gamertag: KL Retribution
    PSN:Furlion
  • LD50LD50 Registered User regular
    wunderbar wrote: »
    LD50 wrote: »
    wunderbar wrote: »
    Samsung still, in 2022 ships their phones with the home/back/multitasking buttons by default. And the back and multitasking are reversed compared to every other OEM. that last part goes back to how Samsung arranged their buttons when they were still physical hardware buttons. You can reverse the order of the buttons but one of the first things I do when I get a new samsung phone is switch to gestures. It's the second half of 2022. The time of the buttons has long passed.

    My s21 doesn't have the buttons (software or hardware) and had gestures out of the box.

    Did you happen to restore a backup from a previous phone? If you do that it syncs the settings, which includes whether you have gesture or or buttons. I can confirm new setups without restoring a backup will have buttons, as I literally "tested" this last week when I factory reset my Fold 3 without restoring a backup to troubleshoot something.

    Maybe? I don't remember. I think I just signed into it with my google account but I could be wrong.

  • GilgaronGilgaron Registered User regular
    edited August 2022
    SirToasty wrote: »
    I find myself swiping on my Surface to go back and then feeling silly.

    Later I figured out that it does work, but only if the keyboard isn't attached.

    Edit: or maybe it works with two fingers. I don't remember, it's still pretty new.

    Laptop touchpads can usually be swiped for forward/back and sometimes other things.

    Gilgaron on
  • SirToastySirToasty Registered User regular
    Gilgaron wrote: »
    SirToasty wrote: »
    I find myself swiping on my Surface to go back and then feeling silly.

    Later I figured out that it does work, but only if the keyboard isn't attached.

    Edit: or maybe it works with two fingers. I don't remember, it's still pretty new.

    Laptop touchpads can usually be swiped for forward/back and sometimes other things.

    Oh that's what it was! Two finger swipe on the touchpad.

  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    Well it happened. I got my kids 2 Pixel 3's to we could play Pokemon Go together. I would just set my phone in Hotspot and we could catch pokemon... The issue is that I'm still on a 4G connection and splitting that across 3 phones was causing a lot of problems. So one time I brought my wife's phone to use a hotspot in and... it worked infinitely better. Likely because of 5G. Soooo I have a Pixel 6a on the way now haha.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Fun story. Got my Fold 3's screen fixed what, 3 weeks ago? Not sure if it's a software issue or a hardware one after they fixed it, but now the outer display doesn't work, or doesn't work 99% of the time.

    It seems very much like a software bug, becuase when I try to use the camera on the inner screen turn on the outer display as a preview screen (an underrated feature), the phone freezes. I've factory reset it a couple times, including one time not restoring from a backup to make sure it isn't a setting. If the device was out of warranty (which it will be in about a month), I'd probably just flash the latest stock rom with odin to see if that fixes it, but it might be a hardware issue and with an expensive phone when it is still under warranty, not going to try it.

    I talked with a dude at the local samsung store today and same deal, it has to get sent in becuase it's a folding phone, so I'll call after work tonight and get that process started. At least it's only about a week. Back to the trusty Note 10+ for a bit.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • The_SpaniardThe_Spaniard It's never lupines Irvine, CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    edited August 2022
    OUENDAN! I mean, HELLLLLP!

    I was just in my Gmail app, and I clicked on an image in an email. I hit the share button and when it gave me the option to select a ton of locations and apps to share the image to. I fat fingered the make this one effing app the default and now every time I hit the share image button in Gmail it defaults to sharing the image to Telegram. I have spent an hour going through a dozen different menus for settings, and apps, and defaults, etc trying to find how to undo this. Can someone please tell me what specifically I need to do to revert this?

    Edit: Never mind, eventually figured it out. Had to wipe all of Telegram's permissions to get rid of the one from Gmail.

    The_Spaniard on
    Playstation/Origin/GoG: Span_Wolf Xbox/uPlay/Bnet: SpanWolf Nintendo: Span_Wolf SW-7097-4917-9392 Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Span_Wolf/
  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    So the next gen of Samsung Foldables has been announced.

    Flip 4: Practically no difference in looks, bigger battery, better speed, improved cameras and better durability water resistance.

    Fold 4: Better ergonomics, slightly bigger screen, better under display camera (more discrete on display), better back camera (50mp), better durability/water resistance. Most important is having Android 12L for folding devices but I suspect the fold 3 will have too.

    All in all very minor updates.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    the Fold 4 also gets a 3x telephoto zoom vs 2x on the Fold 3. That's actually a pretty big deal, I've found that 2x isn't quite enough to be truly useful.

    The hinges on both phones are slimmer and lighter due to a new internal design. They were able to cram more battery into the Flip 4 because of that, but not the Fold 4.

    The Fold 4's screen is apparently thinner/lighter while being as durable as the Fold 3. That's not a high bar as the failure rates are definitley not zero. I'd rather they have made it more durable and not shaved weight, but I bet that's still a physics/materials issue.

    It is admittedly an iterative upgrade, but honestly until there's some breakthrough on materials that go into devices, especially the displays, or battery breakthroughs, I'm not sure we're going to get massive improvements.

    It would be very nice if the Fold's camera, especially the main one, gets a significiant practical improvment, on paper it should match the S22+ (not the ultra). that would be a pretty big upgrade from the Fold 3's camera which is basically what was on the S20 line. The Camera on the Fold 3 is good, not great, and honestly the camera quality would likely be the thing that would get me back to a "standard" phone again if there isn't a big leap there, as I use my camera a lot and do wish the Fold 3's was better.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    wunderbar wrote: »
    the Fold 4 also gets a 3x telephoto zoom vs 2x on the Fold 3. That's actually a pretty big deal, I've found that 2x isn't quite enough to be truly useful.

    The hinges on both phones are slimmer and lighter due to a new internal design. They were able to cram more battery into the Flip 4 because of that, but not the Fold 4.

    The Fold 4's screen is apparently thinner/lighter while being as durable as the Fold 3. That's not a high bar as the failure rates are definitley not zero. I'd rather they have made it more durable and not shaved weight, but I bet that's still a physics/materials issue.

    It is admittedly an iterative upgrade, but honestly until there's some breakthrough on materials that go into devices, especially the displays, or battery breakthroughs, I'm not sure we're going to get massive improvements.

    It would be very nice if the Fold's camera, especially the main one, gets a significiant practical improvment, on paper it should match the S22+ (not the ultra). that would be a pretty big upgrade from the Fold 3's camera which is basically what was on the S20 line. The Camera on the Fold 3 is good, not great, and honestly the camera quality would likely be the thing that would get me back to a "standard" phone again if there isn't a big leap there, as I use my camera a lot and do wish the Fold 3's was better.

    If anything I was hoping it would be a major software improvement this gen of foldables. The hardware is getting minor improvements (camera aside but in technical terms its still expected to be a generation behind these days going off trends) which is expected really as you say, until there’s a major technological breakthrough its all we can expect.

    It just feels like Samsung have resided to leaving the software side to Google now with 12L for the time being and this is really a stop gap to see how 12L pans out.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    wunderbar wrote: »
    the Fold 4 also gets a 3x telephoto zoom vs 2x on the Fold 3. That's actually a pretty big deal, I've found that 2x isn't quite enough to be truly useful.

    The hinges on both phones are slimmer and lighter due to a new internal design. They were able to cram more battery into the Flip 4 because of that, but not the Fold 4.

    The Fold 4's screen is apparently thinner/lighter while being as durable as the Fold 3. That's not a high bar as the failure rates are definitley not zero. I'd rather they have made it more durable and not shaved weight, but I bet that's still a physics/materials issue.

    It is admittedly an iterative upgrade, but honestly until there's some breakthrough on materials that go into devices, especially the displays, or battery breakthroughs, I'm not sure we're going to get massive improvements.

    It would be very nice if the Fold's camera, especially the main one, gets a significiant practical improvment, on paper it should match the S22+ (not the ultra). that would be a pretty big upgrade from the Fold 3's camera which is basically what was on the S20 line. The Camera on the Fold 3 is good, not great, and honestly the camera quality would likely be the thing that would get me back to a "standard" phone again if there isn't a big leap there, as I use my camera a lot and do wish the Fold 3's was better.

    If anything I was hoping it would be a major software improvement this gen of foldables. The hardware is getting minor improvements (camera aside but in technical terms its still expected to be a generation behind these days going off trends) which is expected really as you say, until there’s a major technological breakthrough its all we can expect.

    It just feels like Samsung have resided to leaving the software side to Google now with 12L for the time being and this is really a stop gap to see how 12L pans out.

    It has the dock in the bottom when unfolded so it looks like it is running the 12L update. And apparently 13 integrates the 12L featureset into it, so it's unlikely we'll also see a 13L.

    And really most/all of those software features are likely going to come to the Fold 3 and 2 when Android 13 hits them anyway. We won't know how good/better this stuff is until we see actual reviews of the devices, as all of the "hands ons" that went live today where tech journalists who had an hour to look at all of the products, so not a ton of time to dive deep into the fold's multitasking.

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  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    About 3 or 4 days into owning a Pixel 6a and I really like it. But I think we've reached the point where a new phone isn't such a dramatic change like it used to be. I went from 4a to 6a and it does feel a bit zippier but other than the front screen fingerprint reader it just doesn't feel like it's any different haha.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    urahonky wrote: »
    About 3 or 4 days into owning a Pixel 6a and I really like it. But I think we've reached the point where a new phone isn't such a dramatic change like it used to be. I went from 4a to 6a and it does feel a bit zippier but other than the front screen fingerprint reader it just doesn't feel like it's any different haha.

    oh yeah that's been true for years now. That's why phone ownership timelines are getting longer (i.e. people are keeping their phones for longer periods of time). Phones get what, 10% better every year now, so year to year upgrades aren't going to feel dramatic.

    It's part of the reason why software support is even more of a big deal now, and why I recommend Samsung on the Android side to almost everyone who isn't going to update their phone every year. Their software support is the best in the Android world, better than Google's.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
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