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Ars Technica is declaring all non-Android-Apple mobile platforms to be officially dead. No surprise, really, but it's a good thing to see such an important part of the technology market where Microsoft can *barely* be called a distant third.
How's the Pixel, fleeb? Worth the upgrade from a Nexus?
I've had no problems with my Pixel XL.
It takes gorgeous pictures, runs very well, and I even played around with the VR stuff it enables, and found that kinda fun, too (although not that many titles at the moment).
I have never been one to use a camera in the rain, so I will probably be okay with its lack of water-resistance.
Oh, it has some pretty useful features that people might overlook, though.
For example, I configured it to automatically join an open wifi that it finds acceptable (no screens that require you to log in) and establish a VPN so you don't have to worry about the openness of the wifi point. While there are not very many places that have a decent, properly open wifi, there is one restaurant that I enjoy going to that does have it. So I got to see it work, and it's very nice.
It does a better job of detecting the amount of light than previous google phones have, such that it can dim the screen properly.
I enabled this LED notification thingy that lets me know, inobtrusively, when I've received a notification by occasionally flashing an LED on the phone.
I had this feature with a previous phone and liked it.
You can configure the notifications that show on the locked screen in a way to make them hide information you don't want openly seen on that screen, which is nice. You can also hide the notification altogether if you prefer.
Basically, it has worked very well so far. No trouble at all.
I read that the Pixel 2 is suppose to have a cheaper version, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2B, but I am not sure.
But but but... only Crapple devices are overpriced!!!!!
Anyway, you can still have a lot of fun with your Nexus 5: https://www.kali.org/kali-linux-nethunter/
iPhone 7 $649US
Pixel $649US
So yes it does appear that Google is finally copying Apple after all. :)
I'm not spending that kind of coin on a phone. To be honest, I'm perfectly happy with my Nexus 5, but the mic is busted again, and the non-replaceable battery doesn't have much of a runtime anymore. Both are fixable with some effort.
Or maybe I'll get a Huawei so the Chinese government has direct access into my home and work networks.
Samsung and lots of other Android manufacturers have had and have phones in that price range.
And almost all chips in any phone and probably most other hardware are manufactured in China, they already have access to all the networks. There are close to non open source driver for chinese chips, and even if there are, you need some binary blob most of the time. Richard Martin Stallman tries to use open source hardware, if you do so, you probably lag at least 2 generations behind.
Call Trump and tell him to force all component manufacturers to build american plants. He gives a shit about environmental and health issues anyway. But expect phones to double in price, when you pay american style exploitation wages instead of china style slave wages. ;)
RMS would have an apoplectic tantrum if he heard you using his name and the phrase "open source" in the same sentence.
I'm not really concerned about proprietary chipsets/drivers, particularly in a phone. I'll buy a CheapChinese(tm) phone if it is compatible with my carrier's network in the US. I just don't want the crapware that some manufacturers and carriers load on top of the base OS and then mark as non-removable.
Wait at least until end of the month, when MWC is taking place here in ye olde europe. Jolla has something to unveil, maybe a stunning new phone with their actual GNU/Linux. Unlike that depraved bastard OS that was devised by Hitler at Google.
https://blog.jolla.com/letter-jolla-ceo/
I think there's a trend towards the 'non-locked' phone, which costs more, but you can do whatever the fuck you want with the phone without having to worry about plans or some nonsense.
So, yeah, it costs more, but it's unlocked... at least to the degree you want to do anything unlocky with it. Like, say, switch to another cell phone service.
I don't know, maybe I'll buy a new battery and when I disassemble the phone to install it I'll try to fix the mic again. I don't actually have any desire for a newer phone.
My sister has long been complaining that her old (S3) mobile phone was performing poorly, chewing up battery and she was having problems with it. She now has a new phone and I asked her for her old phone. I performed a factory reset, and I am using it for one game, a poker clock and a dash cam. Works great, the battery lasts forever with wireless off and in airplane mode.
No I don't. I still have my S3 as a working phone, my current desktop came with XP (now with Linux). Car and computers, use them under the wheels fall off. YES there are wheels on a computer.
And that's likely to be the case for a lot of people now. When even a midrange phone, a couple of years old, is good enough to take and share pictures and videos, check your email, browse the web (and for banal people, to check fecesbook) ... why upgrade? We've hit the point where more computing power isn't really going to make someone want to upgrade. Now if they can make huge improvements in radio performance or battery life, that would probably appeal to a lot of people who were otherwise satisfied with their current handsets.
(Or the phone makers could all do what a certain cheap chinese phone manufacturer based in Cupertino does: fit every device with proprietary connectors and change them every couple of years.)
My friend's iPhone is a lot better, but still not as good as my S3. Sensors are getting cheaper, but not necessarily better.