Will the hardware be an upgrade over my 6p?

[Curtendz]

I pre-ordered a pixel 2 XL and will be trading in my 6p. I have a silly question that I'm hoping to get an answer to.

My biggest gripe with my 6P was the vibration motor. I felt like the vibration of this phone is weak and always has been. Most times if the phone is on vibrate in my pocket I won't feel it. It's a long way from the Samsung devices or an iPhone. Which in my opinion have very very strong vibrations. The last LG made phone I had was the Nexus 4 and while to this day it's still one of my favorites ever I thought the vibration on that was kind of weak as well.

Can somebody that had an original pixel compare the vibration to the 6p.

Also I always thought the speakers on my 6p were bad. One was louder than the other and I usually had to turn the volume all the way up to hear something if I wasn't in a silent room. I really hope these issues have been addressed by the Pixel 2 XL.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I agree with you about the weak vibration on the 6P. My speakers were pretty good though. I've never owned an LG phone, but now I'm curious if the weak vibrate will continue on with the Pixel phones.

 

[Richard Servello]

Huh? That's an odd question. the first gen pixel XL was a major upgrade from the 6p. This is an upgrade from Pixel XL.

 

[maverick7526]

Huh? That's an odd question. the first gen pixel XL was a major upgrade from the 6p. This is an upgrade from Pixel XL.

I wouldn't say the first gen pixel was a huge upgrade over the 6P. In SOC, and camera yes, everything else was a bit of a push. It felt like an iphone/iphoneS type of thing. If you wanted a larger screen, and stereo speakers, the pixel wasn't an upgrade at all. This year though, the XL2 is what it should have been last year.

 

[cyndie1030]

I wouldn't say the first gen pixel was a huge upgrade over the 6P. In SOC, and camera yes, everything else was a bit of a push. It felt like an iphone/iphoneS type of thing. If you wanted a larger screen, and stereo speakers, the pixel wasn't an upgrade at all. This year though, the XL2 is what it should have been last year.

My 6P started acting up on me over the summer where it would go from 50% battery to zero and shut down in a matter of minutes. I called them early September and they exchanged it for a Pixel XL. That phone was an upgrade from the 6P. I was shocked how buttery smooth and fast it was.

So it was a no-brainer to me to upgrade to the Pixel 2 when they were giving me $400 trade-in on the Pixel XL they had just given me free a month earlier. I was completely happy with the Pixel XL but the trade-in with the side squeeze, three more years of updates and the faster processor, more RAM and better camera? Heck yeah!

 

[CarbonOak]

My 6P started acting up on me over the summer where it would go from 50% battery to zero and shut down in a matter of minutes. I called them early September and they exchanged it for a Pixel XL. That phone was an upgrade from the 6P. I was shocked how buttery smooth and fast it was.

So it was a no-brainer to me to upgrade to the Pixel 2 when they were giving me $400 trade-in on the Pixel XL they had just given me free a month earlier. I was completely happy with the Pixel XL but the trade-in with the side squeeze, three more years of updates and the faster processor, more RAM and better camera? Heck yeah!

My 6P also drops from 15-25% straight to 0%, but I only noticed it the past month or two. I seem to have missed that window where you could exchange for a Pixel XL.

But yes, that Pixel 2 is absolutely an upgrade over the 6P. Even after a factory reset and refresh after Oreo, my 6P is noticeablely sluggish in places, especially when loading things. Can't wait for my Pixel 2 to come in

 

[Nonymous666]

Regarding OP's vibrating motor concerns...

I've owned a Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and Nexus 6P and all have had weak vibrating motors. My 6P is by far the worse. Completely useless.

Somebody I work with very recently changed over from a Motorola X Pure to a new Pixel that he got a good deal on because of battery issues he was having with the Motorola.

The vibrating motor on his Motorola seemed great. I would be walking with him on a noisy street when he'd get a text and even I could hear the motor start vibrating.

He loves his new Pixel, except for the vibration. He ended up installing some app on it that causes the vibrating motor to continually vibrate when he gets certain notifications and it doesn't stop until he acknowledges the notification. He says he *eventually* notices the vibration with that app.

So, in my experience, Google phones just don't have good vibration. I, too, and hoping the Pixel 2 XL gets a decent one. But I'm also doubtful. (I'm assuming the smaller P2 will be same as last year's.)

 

[Curtendz]

Regarding OP's vibrating motor concerns...

I've owned a Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and Nexus 6P and all have had weak vibrating motors. My 6P is by far the worse. Completely useless.

Somebody I work with very recently changed over from a Motorola X Pure to a new Pixel that he got a good deal on because of battery issues he was having with the Motorola.

The vibrating motor on his Motorola seemed great. I would be walking with him on a noisy street when he'd get a text and even I could hear the motor start vibrating.

He loves his new Pixel, except for the vibration. He ended up installing some app on it that causes the vibrating motor to continually vibrate when he gets certain notifications and it doesn't stop until he acknowledges the notification. He says he *eventually* notices the vibration with that app.

So, in my experience, Google phones just don't have good vibration. I, too, and hoping the Pixel 2 XL gets a decent one. But I'm also doubtful. (I'm assuming the smaller P2 will be same as last year's.)

Thanks man this is the answer I was looking for. You're 100% right though the vibration is always weak!

I know the software is an upgrade, I had the same battery issues as people stated above. However I purchased from Best buy so I couldn't get an exchange.

My only concerns are vibration and speaker volume.

 

[Richard Servello]

I wouldn't say the first gen pixel was a huge upgrade over the 6P. In SOC, and camera yes, everything else was a bit of a push. It felt like an iphone/iphoneS type of thing. If you wanted a larger screen, and stereo speakers, the pixel wasn't an upgrade at all. This year though, the XL2 is what it should have been last year.

I would disagree 10000000000000%

I have both. The 6p is really choppy now and gets about 1.5 hrs sot. The pixel XL after a year is as smooth as the day I got it and gets 5 hrs sot.

 

[Richard Servello]

Regarding OP's vibrating motor concerns...

I've owned a Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and Nexus 6P and all have had weak vibrating motors. My 6P is by far the worse. Completely useless.

Somebody I work with very recently changed over from a Motorola X Pure to a new Pixel that he got a good deal on because of battery issues he was having with the Motorola.

The vibrating motor on his Motorola seemed great. I would be walking with him on a noisy street when he'd get a text and even I could hear the motor start vibrating.

He loves his new Pixel, except for the vibration. He ended up installing some app on it that causes the vibrating motor to continually vibrate when he gets certain notifications and it doesn't stop until he acknowledges the notification. He says he *eventually* notices the vibration with that app.

So, in my experience, Google phones just don't have good vibration. I, too, and hoping the Pixel 2 XL gets a decent one. But I'm also doubtful. (I'm assuming the smaller P2 will be same as last year's.)

I use a smart watch to get notifications. My phone is always on silent.

 

[pseudoware]

Wow, I passed on the Pixel and kept my 6P. I wish I had those batteries issues that others had. :/

 

[maverick7526]

I would disagree 10000000000000%

I have both. The 6p is really choppy now and gets about 1.5 hrs sot. The pixel XL after a year is as smooth as the day I got it and gets 5 hrs sot.

You are comparing a 2 year old phone to a 1 year old phone. I was still getting 4-5 SoT after a year with the 6P. I didn't have any issues with the 6P until about month 13-14 or so. Last year's pixel was meh. It wasn't a significant upgrade over the 6P in any way, besides camera, and SOC. Everything else was basically a push.

 

[Jonneh]

You are comparing a 2 year old phone to a 1 year old phone. I was still getting 4-5 SoT after a year with the 6P. I didn't have any issues with the 6P until about month 13-14 or so. Last year's pixel was meh. It wasn't a significant upgrade over the 6P in any way, besides camera, and SOC. Everything else was basically a push.

I completely agree with this sentiment. I didn't upgrade to the 1st generation Pixel from 6P for the same reasons. The 6P still had the stereo speakers and was a fantastic device. These days the battery is pretty crummy, but otherwise everything still works great. I'm only upgrading because I can keep stereo front-facing speakers and upgrade all of the internals now with actually-good upgrades.

 

[vzwuser76]

You are comparing a 2 year old phone to a 1 year old phone. I was still getting 4-5 SoT after a year with the 6P. I didn't have any issues with the 6P until about month 13-14 or so. Last year's pixel was meh. It wasn't a significant upgrade over the 6P in any way, besides camera, and SOC. Everything else was basically a push.

To put things in perspective, I swapped out to a regular Pixel from my 6p at the one year mark. I was worried about battery life (3450 vs 2770mAh) but wanted to move back to a smaller device. The best I ever got on my 6p was maybe a bit over 3hrs SOT. Still better than I had got with most any phone I've had, but nothing stellar. With my Pixel, the majority of the time I'm getting right at 4hrs SOT. It's been that way since day one and is still that way unless I spend the majority of the day in a bad signal area.

Now part of it I'm sure has to do with the SD810 vs the SD821. While the 810 probably performed better in the 6p than any other phone, it still had it's issues. Whereas the 821 was a pretty solid chip. That, in combination with the optimization Google did on the Pixels, and the lower resolution/smaller screen on the Pixel contributed to me getting better battery life on it than the 6p. Since I don't do VR, the lower resolution doesn't bother me.

Something else I have noticed is that the Pixel rarely gets warm, let alone hot. Whereas the 6p would do it fairly regularly, and in some cases very hot. So while you say it's only the camera and SOC that got upgraded, in my experience that probably made the biggest difference of anything. Obviously the speakers were a downgrade going to the Pixels, but other wise there's nothing the 6p had that I missed over the Pixel.

But I will agree, they really should've done things like front facing speakers and waterproofing on last year's model. Whether the rumor about Huawei pulling out late in the game is true or not, had they added just those two features, I believe there wouldn't have been so much griping about the Pixels. The prices would've still made people balk a bit, but it would've been easier for most to take with those features included IMHO.

 

[pappy35]

I have a 6P and it's gotten to where I can't really get more than 2 - 2 1/2 hours SOT. got it just as the Pixel was announced so mine is only a little over a year old. I decided then against the Pixel as I really liked front firing speakers and, since I'm not a 'power user' the 810 was fine for me and it still is. I went to Verizon and played with a P2 really like it. Now that they've gone back to dual speakers I'm all in. I'm just waiting for my wife to decide whether she wants an iP8 or iP10.

 

[Richard Servello]

my battery life was **** last year when I got my pixel.

 

[maverick7526]

I have a 6P and it's gotten to where I can't really get more than 2 - 2 1/2 hours SOT. got it just as the Pixel was announced so mine is only a little over a year old. I decided then against the Pixel as I really liked front firing speakers and, since I'm not a 'power user' the 810 was fine for me and it still is. I went to Verizon and played with a P2 really like it. Now that they've gone back to dual speakers I'm all in. I'm just waiting for my wife to decide whether she wants an iP8 or iP10.

I'm there right now, but I've had my 6P for 2 years. I can barely get 2hrs of SoT. If they had used a better battery this wouldn't be an issue. I also have the issue where if it's cold outside the phone shuts off, which can be kind of annoying lol

 

[vzwuser76]

I'm there right now, but I've had my 6P for 2 years. I can barely get 2hrs of SoT. If they had used a better battery this wouldn't be an issue. I also have the issue where if it's cold outside the phone shuts off, which can be kind of annoying lol

Didn't have that issue with the cold, but I'm getting about what you are for SOT (my 6p is my backup and used for websurfing if my Pixel is charging). I didn't figure there were any issues with the batteries, just with the SOC. But that would explain the issues.

 

[CarbonOak]

I'm there right now, but I've had my 6P for 2 years. I can barely get 2hrs of SoT. If they had used a better battery this wouldn't be an issue. I also have the issue where if it's cold outside the phone shuts off, which can be kind of annoying lol

I had that too. Had to keep my phone in an inner jacket pocket when out in the cold.