Out of the Loop - It's Been Awhile

[Morty2264]

Good to see you back around, Jeremiah! Love my 2 XL -- the only thing I can't seem to do with it is take a bad picture with the camera. I've since gotten my wife on a 1st gen Pixel XL and my parents on a 1st gen Pixel, so we are now the Family Pixel!

Good job on converting your family to the world of Pixel!

 

[B. Diddy]

Well, I've had my Pixel 2 for three days. Still getting used to it but enjoying it more and more by the hour. Have a couple minor gripes with the launcher but otherwise really no issues. Would have liked the bigger screen of the 2 XL but between the extra $200 and the size I'm pretty happy with the regular Pixel 2.

Finding a case has been a pain in the *** though. Wanted something with a little color and most of anything good is black. Screen protectors kind of suck too.

I routinely install Nova Launcher on all of my phones now. Pixel Launcher has some nifty features, but I don't like how you can't remove the At A Glance "widget," and I prefer being able to infinitely scroll through homescreens rather than get stuck on a Google page at one end.

I like Caseology. Their cases are very protective, although definitely not the slimmest around. I have the burgundy Parallax case for my 2 XL, but here's the link for the 2: https://www.caseologycases.com/products/google-pixel-2-parallax-case

 

[B. Diddy]

Does anyone know if the manual brightness slider has any effect on the adaptive brightness settings?

I feel like if I move the brightness slider to 0% with adaptive turned on, when I'm in a fully dark space the screen gets darker then if I have the brightness slider at say, 50%.

Maybe this is just me? Not sure. Since the adaptive brightness adjusting doesn't actually move the slider at all, I'm not sure what I like it set at. Of course if having adaptive turned on is just completely separate from the slider I suppose it doesn't matter.

The way I understand Adaptive Brightness, the slider location acts as the center for the screen's range of adaptive brightness, depending on the ambient light. So if you set the slider to, say, 50%, adaptive brightness might vary the brightness from about 40% to 60% (I'm making these numbers up, since I don't know the exact range).

The situation you describe about moving the slider to 0% when in a dark space makes sense, because the screen will always dim to a certain extent in a dark room (there's no need for a bright screen in a dark environment).

Remember, the slider won't actually adjust on its own as part of adaptive brightness -- you're setting the general range that you want for the adaptive brightness by adjusting the slider yourself.

 

[Theot]

I routinely install Nova Launcher on all of my phones now. Pixel Launcher has some nifty features, but I don't like how you can't remove the At A Glance "widget," and I prefer being able to infinitely scroll through homescreens rather than get stuck on a Google page at one end.

I like Caseology. Their cases are very protective, although definitely not the slimmest around. I have the burgundy Parallax case for my 2 XL, but here's the link for the 2: https://www.caseologycases.com/products/google-pixel-2-parallax-case

Yeah I've been using Nova Launcher for several years myself. However the main reason I used it was because the experience was terrible on the Samsung and LG launchers I've always had. So with this one I really wanted to just try the pixel experience as Google intended with their launcher so I'm going to give it a couple weeks with a pixel launcher and see how it goes and really at this point I'm only really missing being able to swipe down anywhere on the screen to expand the quick settings and notifications.

I've been predominantly a Spigen or Diztronic guy with my cases. I kind of want to try something different. I looked at the Parallax case and it was in the top options but I ended up ordering a slim armor right directly from Spigen because it wasn't available on Amazon. I paid a little more but I had the Tough Armor (which was available on Amazon for the pixel 2) on my S7 and while I really like the protection that offered it was just a tad too bulky so the slim armor looks perfect for me I hope.

That said, I've been taking the temporary case I've got on this off and using it naked at home and I have to say I really like the feel of it without a case. I'm just terrified to leave the house without a case on so I'm playing with the idea of getting a dbrand skin and just going that route because I love the way the phone feels without a case on and at least that would offer some extremely minimal protection if any.

 

[Theot]

The way I understand Adaptive Brightness, the slider location acts as the center for the screen's range of adaptive brightness, depending on the ambient light. So if you set the slider to, say, 50%, adaptive brightness might vary the brightness from about 40% to 60% (I'm making these numbers up, since I don't know the exact range).

The situation you describe about moving the slider to 0% when in a dark space makes sense, because the screen will always dim to a certain extent in a dark room (there's no need for a bright screen in a dark environment).

Remember, the slider won't actually adjust on its own as part of adaptive brightness -- you're setting the general range that you want for the adaptive brightness by adjusting the slider yourself.

I've been playing with it the last couple days since getting mine Tuesday and that's kind of what I'm finding to is that adaptive brightness just gives you a range. Today I've had it set at 30% with adaptive brightness on and that seems to work pretty good for me it's plenty bright enough when I was outside and wasn't over bright in the dark or in low light.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm just terrified to leave the house without a case on so I'm playing with the idea of getting a dbrand skin and just going that route because I love the way the phone feels without a case on and at least that would offer some extremely minimal protection if any.

Here's my cautionary tale about that: Last year, when I had my Nexus 6P, I decided to try a SlickWraps leather skin (https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...-wraps-skins-for-nexus-6p.html&token=hXPBEEOc). Looked cool -- but about 2 weeks later, while I was sitting at an outdoor table at a restaurant with the phone in my somewhat shallow front pants pocket, it slipped out and CLUNK hit the stone floor on the upper left corner. Nice new crack on the screen.:'( Fortunately, I had Nexus Protect, and when I sent the phone back, they ended up replacing it with a Pixel XL (1st gen)!

So never again will I go caseless! Although I guess if this always led to getting an even better phone as a replacement, maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea ...

 

[Theot]

Here's my cautionary tale about that: Last year, when I had my Nexus 6P, I decided to try a SlickWraps leather skin (https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...-wraps-skins-for-nexus-6p.html&token=am2fKk6s). Looked cool -- but about 2 weeks later, while I was sitting at an outdoor table at a restaurant with the phone in my somewhat shallow front pants pocket, it slipped out and CLUNK hit the stone floor on the upper left corner. Nice new crack on the screen.:'( Fortunately, I had Nexus Protect, and when I sent the phone back, they ended up replacing it with a Pixel XL (1st gen)!

So never again will I go caseless! Although I guess if this always led to getting an even better phone as a replacement, maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea ...

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm worried about and can see happening.

 

[Joltcola1234]

I grabbed a clear white mnml case for my Pixel 2 XL. I've never damaged one of my phones in over 15 years. never had a cracked screen, nothing, so I'm not worried about a bulky protective case. something super slim that still shows off the phone is a must.

 

[Morty2264]

I routinely install Nova Launcher on all of my phones now. Pixel Launcher has some nifty features, but I don't like how you can't remove the At A Glance "widget," and I prefer being able to infinitely scroll through homescreens rather than get stuck on a Google page at one end.

I like Caseology. Their cases are very protective, although definitely not the slimmest around. I have the burgundy Parallax case for my 2 XL, but here's the link for the 2: https://www.caseologycases.com/products/google-pixel-2-parallax-case

I agree - Caseology is awesome, and has some pretty stylish cases for the Pixel 2 line.