My feelings after a month into the pixel

[popkurn611]

I am a phone nut too and can understand where the OP is coming from but the Pixel is more than the sum of its parts. I enjoy this phone more than any of the 20 phones I owned this year due to the great overall experience. That, I find more important than all the other flagships this year. The AI alone is worth the cost and it can only get better. Good luck in finding your perfect phone.

Very well put and I as well am a phone nut. I have gone through about 4 phones in the last 4 months and I end up reselling all four until I got the pixel. My two biggest factors in a phone are battery life and size/comfort. Anything else to me is a gimmick or plus. My second favorite phone is the s7 edge which I'm keeping, but it is not buttery smooth and even though it's a 5.5" screen which I am steering away from the form factor makes it feel like a 5.2 inch screen with its curbed edges and no side bezels.

 

[spawndoodling]

I bought the Pixel, which is ironic given my prior posts criticizing its shortcomings at a premium price (and even contemplating switching to an iPhone). I compromised even more, it seems, by buying the smaller Pixel after having owned the gargantuan N6 and N6P.

The reason I bought one is simple - Verizon had an amazing Black Friday deal and Sprint was no longer going to honor my nearly decade-old unlimited data plan (instead trying to con me into their data-throttling Unlimited Freedom plan which is a dumpster fire).

The Pixel is a solid phone and so long as it works this way a year and a half from now, I'll be satisfied. But I can't help but notice that it's the first phone I haven't oogled over since getting. I put it in a case on day one, had the tempered glass affixed to the screen, and haven't thought twice about removing it to gush over my phone or even telling friends I got a new phone since.

For hardcore Android fans like all of us, this has been slightly difficult for me. However, I remain convinced that the value of the Pixel's blandness and uninspiring consistency will show itself over time. All of my oogling over the N6P resulted in a phone that stuttered over itself on HDR+ photos and had a ton of problems with lag two months in. I loved my N6 at launch but ended up with a phone that became functionally inoperable, hampered by insane lag, a malfunctioning camera, and a strange tendency to shut off one of its cores as it lost battery.

In the past, I've been enamored with flashy design and an endless line of features. But the bare-bones, it just works approach may be the most sensible thing for me to do at the moment. The Pixel very much is that phone at the moment.

 

[rslifkin]

It keeps the stereo tracks. Diesnt change them. Makes the sound more full.

I'm on the opposite side of this one... Stuff to create fake "surround" effects and make sound more "full" and such makes it sound like crap. It ends up sounding all kinds of wrong, etc. Much like how feeding sound to the rear speakers in a surround setup when listening to stereo audio is wrong and sounds terrible.

 

[anon(470989)]

I am a phone nut too and can understand where the OP is coming from but the Pixel is more than the sum of its parts. I enjoy this phone more than any of the 20 phones I owned this year due to the great overall experience. That, I find more important than all the other flagships this year. The AI alone is worth the cost and it can only get better. Good luck in finding your perfect phone.

Same here. Even had the Axon 7, which was a really great phone (I do agree though that the "surround" effects just make audio sound like echoed garbage). But in the end, it just didn't win me over like the Pixel has done. Well done Google.

 

[Topweasel]

It keeps the stereo tracks. Diesnt change them. Makes the sound more full.

How is it any different than DD TrueHD or DTS lossless in that respect?

 

[BOSSY TEXAS CHICK]

As a fellow phone “nut” I completely understand the OP's plight… And being called a nut is pale in comparison to what the hubby says EVERY TIME I become disenchanted with a phone I bought that I “thought” was going to be “IT” (lunatic, phone junkie, crazy…lol)

I have to say that “you knew that going in” doesn’t TRULY hold up when it comes to phones, because many times things I THOUGHT I’d love about a device (and KNEW going in) DIDN’T turn out as great as expected, but the reverse is ALSO very true. Many times I’d get a device thinking a feature it offered is one I’d NEVER use (that I KNEW it had going in) and was very surprised & delighted in its usefulness…

I for one wasn't wow'ed by anything about the Pixel, 'specially that price tag....Ouch!

Sometimes ya just can't get a feel for the little bugger till you've had it up & running a couple of weeks...Glad you were able to sell it and not catch a loss : )

BTC

 

[wordfool]

I'm sorta with the OP, although I've only had the Pixel a week or so. I needed to buy a new phone because the digitizer on my Z3 Compact was starting to die, and I was debating between the S7 and Pixel (sorry Sony, but your cameras still suck and your new X Compact is lame compared to the old Z Compacts).

I wanted a phone with a very good camera because I love taking pics and the camera on the Z3 was depressingly bad (I was duped by all the glowing reviews when it came out). I also wanted a phone with decent battery life. So I took a gamble on the Pixel (non-XL). On those two counts the Pixel has met or exceeded my expectations -- awesome camera and long battery life that is not far off my Z3's. So I'm satisfied... ish.

But beyond those two features, I find the Pixel very "meh" and bland. The two-material back panel just looks weirdly cheap, like it was designed by a committee of nerds rather than an actual designer. A case of "it looks worse in person than in the photos". The phone is bigger than it needs to be and has less inside than it should (see what Samsung managed to cram into the S7 for proof). The Quite Black looks quite terrible in bright light because of those strangely gray bezels on the front that just scream to be Actual Black. The single speaker is embarrassingly bad for a flagship (I think my Nexus One had a better speaker). And Google "ran out of time" to include IP-68? What does that even mean? Surely if you're designing a phone you have a list of features to include before you even start, not a list of features to tack on at the end.

And IMO therein lies the problem with this phone -- it has the looks and the feature set of a phone thrown together in a rush, with little thought for overall design and "no time" for what are now arguably standard "flagship" features for a phone this price. It really does look and feel like a phone that Google dragged off HTC's drawing board, slapped on a few new materials and colors, and shoved out the door. And for this we get to pay as much as the other flagships -- namely the iPhone7 and S7, both of which are very polished, well designed products.

Normally I keep my phones for several years, but I suspect with the Pixel I'll happily sell it early next summer if something decent comes out of MWC in the Spring.

 

[o4liberty]

You can't get much better than the 7 edge now a days until the 8 series is released.

 

[I800C0LLECT]

It keeps the stereo tracks. Diesnt change them. Makes the sound more full.

Thanks for that. Now I do appreciate processing for unconventional approaches. I know that's weird... In car audio there a lot of compromise and processors help fill the gap...t/a, active crossovers, fir filters, phase correction, etc.

However, most all of this helps correct for physical placement and other environmental issues. I just prefer stereo when it comes to headphones. I guess I need to find an axon 7 and have a listen. My droid turbo sounded great and my pixel sounds just the same. But I love my audiofrog speakers in the car. Despite not using the fancy aqstic(sp) Bluetooth compression it sounds great streaming to my car audio.

I don't have any complaints other than I'd like to draw my own response curve when using headphones. The eq options are very lacking in just about every app I've seen for Android

 

[Aquila]

Thanks for sharing! Do you think you would have felt differently if you waited and picked up one for $240 on Black Friday?

A couple notes from the list above:
--The Pixel Screen does some things better and some worse than the S7, they've very comparable. Are you using the Pixel in sRGB mode or in the default mode? Are you using the S7 in basic mode or another mode? Either way, both the S7 and Pixel screens are much more accurate than the Axon 7 and neither have the color shift that the Axon 7 has when viewed at an angle, but that's neither here nor there.
--Google Assistant on the Pixel does do quite a bit more that Google Now does not do and I'm expecting that gap to widen rather than become more narrow. The basic functionality is the same, but Google Assistant is a much better product, even in this early stage.
--When you say neither the S7 nor Pixel have great audio, I have to assume you mean through their speakers? Agreed. Both suck. Through their headphones, the Pixel has a definite edge, but on both speakers and headphones the Axon 7 has a pretty substantial lead.
--On no environmental protection, I think this may have been a mistake, because both the S7 and Pixel do have dust and water resistance ratings, though the S7 is stronger on both fronts. AFAIK the Axon 7 was not certified at all.
--I'm surprised to see that you prefer the S7 camera over the Pixel when both are in automode. I know several reviews have had mixed results, but the general consensus is that the Pixel is the stronger shooter in most conditions. Did you do a lot of comparison shots between the two? How do you feel the Axon 7 camera compares to the other two?

IMO the Axon 7 is one of the more interesting phones of the year. When it was in preorders it sounded like they were going to try to support Verizon and Sprint, which never happened, but that issue notwithstanding, IMO the Axon 7 is what HTC should have released for their 2016 phone. Yes, it's a midranger - and HTC should have been playing in that space since they've lost their ability to compete in the flagship space, despite still have very decent quality to their devices. It even looks like what we would have thought an HTC phone would look like. I give the Axon 7 2 thumbs and both elbows up for a rating.

 

[ultravisitor]

But the bare-bones, it just works approach may be the most sensible thing for me to do at the moment. The Pixel very much is that phone at the moment.

Pretty much why I'll only consider a Pixel or an iPhone at the moment. Maybe a Motorola.

 

[nyc_rock]

I wouldn't call it being rude, but I respect your opinion. I was merely stating some facts. I do understand your point of being unsatisfied, but he mentioned he liked the battery life and not much else. This phone was advertised as the best camera phone to date (which he didn't mention at all) with unlimited backup. It was also advertised with google AI, which he did mention, but I do not have anything to say about that yet. Point being, he didn't just buy a phone and turns out he was unsatisfied, he bought the phone knowing he was more than likely going to be disappointed because it doesn't provide what is important to him in a phone.

People shouldn't buy a Toyota knowing it doesn't make 400hp and then go to Toyota forums saying, "after 30 days, I believe this car is too slow because it doesn't make as much power as my previous Infinity" even though Toyota only really advertised reliability and MPG.

In this scrnario is the Pixel the Toyota? Because google isn't marketing it as a Toyota.

 

[waynew73]

I bought the Pixel, which is ironic given my prior posts criticizing its shortcomings at a premium price (and even contemplating switching to an iPhone). I compromised even more, it seems, by buying the smaller Pixel after having owned the gargantuan N6 and N6P.

The reason I bought one is simple - Verizon had an amazing Black Friday deal and Sprint was no longer going to honor my nearly decade-old unlimited data plan (instead trying to con me into their data-throttling Unlimited Freedom plan which is a dumpster fire).

The Pixel is a solid phone and so long as it works this way a year and a half from now, I'll be satisfied. But I can't help but notice that it's the first phone I haven't oogled over since getting. I put it in a case on day one, had the tempered glass affixed to the screen, and haven't thought twice about removing it to gush over my phone or even telling friends I got a new phone since.

For hardcore Android fans like all of us, this has been slightly difficult for me. However, I remain convinced that the value of the Pixel's blandness and uninspiring consistency will show itself over time. All of my oogling over the N6P resulted in a phone that stuttered over itself on HDR+ photos and had a ton of problems with lag two months in. I loved my N6 at launch but ended up with a phone that became functionally inoperable, hampered by insane lag, a malfunctioning camera, and a strange tendency to shut off one of its cores as it lost battery.

In the past, I've been enamored with flashy design and an endless line of features. But the bare-bones, it just works approach may be the most sensible thing for me to do at the moment. The Pixel very much is that phone at the moment.

I'm with you. It's the 1st phone that I haven't gushed over and the things I think I like most about it, outside of the back fingerprint button, are really Android 7.1 related. I have a Samsung 7 Edge, after having to replace the Note 7 that I really loved, and found that the 7Edge started to slow down just 2 months into having it. And the primary thing slowing it down seemed to be the Edge screen panels, and I wasn't even using many of them at all (like 3). At first, I didn't intend to buy a Pixel, and was just more curious than anything; but then my 7Edge caught the bug from the recent security update where the Wi-Fi keeps turning on/off and draining the battery in minutes because of the scanning settings. Had I known at the time that all I had to do was turn off the scanning until they eventually release a patch, I may not have bought the Pixel. 7edge has same screen size and smaller body. But after 2 factory resets and reinstalls (and that was the best support could tell me at the time), I decided to buy the Pixel unlocked from Google.

With that said, although I too have complained about the bezels, it is true that i make less mistakes typing, taking pictures and holding it in general, so it actually is better for me. I also think the bezels were also intended to help gamers and to all for more spacing so that it could have the right placement with the Daydream device. And I have to say, there is a lot to say for a phone that just works...no stutters, no slowdown, just works. And for that, I'm please with my definitely expensive purchase.

I miss my S-Pen far more than I thought after having been on the Note 4,5, and 7; and so for now if the N8 comes out next year, I likely will go back to Sammy, but for now I think I'm sticking with my Pixel over the 7Edge, and okay/happy with that,...just had enough of all of Sammy's glitches and eventual device slowdowns.

 

[turb0wned]

People shouldn't buy a Toyota knowing it doesn't make 400hp and then go to Toyota forums saying, "after 30 days, I believe this car is too slow because it doesn't make as much power as my previous Infinity" even though Toyota only really advertised reliability and MPG.

My Toyota make well over that

 

[Topweasel]

In this scrnario is the Pixel the Toyota? Because google isn't marketing it as a Toyota.

Not the guy talking about a Toyota. But I have to wonder if you are trying to be obtuse. The company at question could be any and the Pixel could be Google's Lexus. But the company doesn't matter in the original analogy. The point is you don't go by a product with a laundry list of pros and cons which are all available and then complain about the cons, ignore the pros and then call it a disappointing product.

You can certainly say hey the pros don't matter and the cons kill it for me so I am not going to purchase it. That is a smart move. It's stupid to say well I ignored everything and spent more money than I wanted on a phone because everything I knew the phone didn't have, I wanted and everything it did have I didn't want. It's a bang the head on the desk type of move.

Personally it's the best phone I have owned. Why because I knew what it was good at, I knew what it didn't have. It's just so happens that everything outside wireless charging and water resistance O wanted the phone had. That the missing features I wasn't to worried about (removable storage (which we will never get), small bezels, ois, and so on). Their really isn't a personal well you don't know until you have used it a while thing with phones like people state (cept adjusting to new OS). You decide what is important, you give them a slight mental ranking, and choose a phone that gets you more of what you want. You don't buy a phone you know you are not going to like because it doesn't have what you want in some strange reality where you don't get what you want but are still happy.

 

[Rumblee1]

How is it any different than DD TrueHD or DTS lossless in that respect?

I use the Dolby atmos for watching HD movies that have dolby encoded. While it isn't a decoder in full, its giving you the same effect as you'd get in the theatre. It really is amazing. The audio player is a hifi dac player that sounds great as well. I dont use dolby when just listening to music. If you read professional reviews on the A7, most agree that its the best audio on any smartphone.

 

[I800C0LLECT]

The surround sound algorithm is one thing and I can appreciate that. Actual processors do transform sound in some way. However, DACs are snake oil if you ask me. A DAC isn't anything special. HTC 10 uses the same hardware but different software setting for amp output on the pixel.

A DAC doesn't add or remove anything to the experience

Chalk it up to $10K cables, power cords, servers sound different, and everything else under the sun that can't be proved. There's even a coating you can add to CDs to be sure that the laser reflection is optimum. Lord knows what hi-fi you're losing out on if you don't use it.

http://www.realhd-audio.com/?p=4185

Go check out pro audio and see how they market gear. Why don't they focus on the same points and produce similar literature?

Random abx testing

http://www.head-fi.org/t/486598/testing-audiophile-claims-and-myths

 

[I800C0LLECT]

Here's an article about 16 bit vs 24 bit DAC...

https://www.google.com/amp/www.thev...dio-hi-res-explainer?client=ms-android-google

 

[I800C0LLECT]

Here's an article about 16 bit vs 24 bit DAC...

https://www.google.com/amp/www.thev...dio-hi-res-explainer?client=ms-android-google

He also mentioned why the HTC 10 sounds different from the LG v10. It's not because of the DAC either

 

[JerryLerman]

Interesting post. You've confirmed my reasons for not getting the Pixel (last week I instead bought the HTC 10 for $200 off for Black Friday at the HTC site plus an extra $125 for my old phone). Lack of expandable memory and what appeared to be, from reading the specs, inferior audio (audio is important to me too) were the two most major reasons I thought it wasn't worth the price. I was inches from deciding on the ZTE Axon 7 but an article about back doors found in Chinese phones put me off from buying any device made by a Chinese company.

First time here on these forums and am disheartened by some of the idiotic responses your post has gotten. I would encourage the moderator to delete posts of these sorts because they add nothing to the conversation and can only prevent participation.

Jerry