Talk to Me About the Big Chin

[TrueBlueKew]

Having a decent sounding speaker for speaker phone calls I understand, and don't disagree with in the least. But... please help me understand beyond that, as I genuinely don't follow.

The Pixel 2 series arguably has the best camera going in the mobile industry, and the straight forward Android experience is highly desirable. But... geeze... I am not a 15 year old riding around on my bicycle, blasting tunes out of my tiny phone speaker. I want a decent sounding speaker for calls yes, but a tiny speaker inside my phone is not going to sound better than a $39.00 or so bluetooth speaker. I care much more about form factor, screen to size ratio and not having this huge bezel/chin on my phone in 2018.

Is that the majority market segment Google is going for? The 15 year old who can't afford/doesn't want to spend money for a better sounding standalone Bluetooth speaker?

I know some of this may sound crass, and it truly is not my intention. However, it's really all that I can come up with when trying to understand. I know that can't be it, there's got to be more angles I'm just not seeing, which is why I'm here asking.

Does anyone reading this, who *genuinely* gives diddly about audio quality, seriously think the Pixel 2 speaker is worth the bezel size, compared to what Samsung has done with the Galaxy 9 series or Apple with the iphone 10/X?

Would be grateful to hear opinions and/or testimonies on how the form factor and sound quality has made a difference in your day to day routine.

Cheers,
TBK

 

[Mike Dee]

Is that the majority market segment Google is going for? The 15 year old who can't afford/doesn't want to spend money for a better sounding standalone Bluetooth speaker?

If a someone can't afford an external speaker then they can't afford a Pixel. It's not about age or cost, for most people it's about convenience as carrying a separate speaker isn't always covenient. I'm not defending the sound or the bezels, however the bezaels don't bother me.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I can really only speak for the first gen Pixel. I like the bottom bezel. The way I hold my phone gives me a place where I will get fewer false touches. My note 5 on the other hand....I still get incorrect touches from my palm.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm not sure of the reason for the design. The large bezels are a deal-breaker for me. I either use headphones or Bluetooth to listen to music. I'd never bother with external speakers on a phone.

 

[SactoKingsFan]

The big bezels have made no difference in how I use the phone. My usage is pretty much the same as when I used the Pixel 2 XL. I mainly purchased and kept the Pixel 2 for the better screen (compared to P2 XL), excellent camera, active edge, guaranteed updates, overall software experience and 2 year warranty.

 

[Nauga]

Does anyone reading this, who *genuinely* gives diddly about audio quality, seriously think the Pixel 2 speaker is worth the bezel size, compared to what Samsung has done with the Galaxy 9 series or Apple with the iphone 10/X?

Yes. I detest bottom-firing speakers. I detest them on phones, and I detest them on my iPad. In fact, they're a massive PITA on my iPad.

I also don't think the bezels on the 2 XL are "huge" or ugly. They are as symmetrical and pragmatic as the front-firing speakers on the 2 XL. Because they point at your face, you don't have to blast them when you shouldn't, and God knows you don't need to turn one hand into a baffle to give the sound a sensible direction if you want to hear them while looking at the screen.

And until Apple figures out how to get rid of that ridiculous notch, I'm not about to accept the iPhone X as an example of elegant design.

 

[Eggmundo]

I get more irritated by the bezels on Pixel 2 the more time passes. All these modern looking phones everywhere now.

I'm even more irritated that not one journalist has got to the bottom of why Google made such a pathetic design decision.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

The bezel isn't just housing the bffs, it also exists in order to allow for the bottom display connections to the board. Apple, Samsung, etc. are able to get away with bypassing this issue because they are able to bend their displays around the bottom of the device.

That said, having no bezel down there, such as on the iPhone X, makes the device fairly difficult to use for games IMO, so I prefer having at least something there, preferably as big or bigger than the Galaxy S9+ bezels.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

I'm even more irritated that not one journalist has got to the bottom of why Google made such a pathetic design decision.

Everything about this seems strange. Journalists have explained why the bezels exist, and it's not objectively "pathetic", you simply dislike it. So either you don't accept the explanations, in which case that's a statement about you, not the journalists - or you're asking for them to explain something that isn't necessarily true (that it is a "pathetic design decision", in which case that's a statement about you, not the journalists.

 

[Eggmundo]

Everything about this seems strange. Journalists have explained why the bezels exist, and it's not objectively "pathetic", you simply dislike it. So either you don't accept the explanations, in which case that's a statement about you, not the journalists - or you're asking for them to explain something that isn't necessarily true (that it is a "pathetic design decision", in which case that's a statement about you, not the journalists.

Calm down. Why does the 2 XL have reasonable bezels then?

 

[Rukbat]

Larger phone with, basically, the same thing in it, so more room to do things without covering them (with the bezel).

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

Calm down. Why does the 2 XL have reasonable bezels then?

Well the four explanations available, two from Google and two from common sense reporting, are as follows:

1) covering bottom display connectors
2) providing a small non screen area for users to touch the display without false touches
3) providing a sense of aesthetic symmetry
4) covering components on the bottom of the device, such as the bottom front facing speaker

I'm sure there are more reasons, most likely due to engineering constraints, but those would be speculation and I haven't seen them reported on.

Furthermore, the P2XL began its life as a third device for 2017, the actual 2 XL was cancelled a few months before production and looked much more like the Pixel 2, just bigger. The one we have took its place and was a different design that was adopted when it was determined that LG could keep up with production when HTC was still unable to get past their own constraints. The P2XL therefore brings with it a lot of design baggage from the V30 device that LG released around the same time. So the primary difference in bezel size has to do more with LG being better at this aspect of design that Google's own engineer team. Now that Google has this design in hand, they were able to adopt it for both sizes of the Pixel 3.

 

[Mike Dee]

And all this time I thought it was because Jay Leno was on the Pixel 2 design team.

 

[Eggmundo]

Ok thanks I appreciate the explanations finally!