Google Hardware Thread · Pixel Phones and Nest Homes

[kingv]

Why did google just rename everything Nest?

It’s a really weird transition. Like usually, best practice would be to merge the brand names somewhat slowly but instead google is like “hey you know that Google Home brand we have been building for 3 years? Thats gone, it’s all just called Nest now, like the thermostat.”

[bork]

Got a Pixel 4 XL today. 

And uh...yup, it's a phone.  Does phone things.  Face unlock is slick.  Camera is nice.  Radar gestures seem kinda shitty unless I'm just doing it wrong.

[Beezy]

Got a Pixel 4 XL today. 

And uh...yup, it's a phone.  Does phone things.  Face unlock is slick.  Camera is nice.  Radar gestures seem kinda shitty unless I'm just doing it wrong.

How's recording video on it, especially in low lighting? I'm still on a Pixel 2XL and I'm hoping it's at least better than that.

[bork]

Will have to get back to you on that- haven't messed with video.  Reviews are pretty high on the camera in general though.  Looks like it's the top Android camera.  Although 4K video recording is 30 FPS.

[Beezy]

The only complaint I've heard that truly makes me second guess getting this right away is the battery life.

[Human Snorenado]

The 90hz screen really drains battery pretty fast, on the OnePlus 7 Pro at least. And the Pixel 4 XL has a slightly smaller battery.

[bork]

Don't buy the regular Pixel 4 That's the one that has a really small battery and has reviewers saying that it can't even last a whole day on normal use. The XL battery could be better but I've seen people say that it's possible Google has some tricks with the software to make things last longer and that maybe why they went with that particular size battery it also makes the phone lighter.  The 90Hz screen is adaptive so it's supposedly will conserve battery life and you can always turn it off if you're that worried about the battery but I've seen some reviews that just said don't worry about it use it as they intended it and the XLshould be fine.  It's certainly lasting longer than my regular size Pixel 2 did. By the way I wrote this post using the speech to text option it's working pretty well it's much faster than the previous phone was although the grammar isn't perfect lol

[bork]

I've read that there's also an issue with the 90 Hz not even working if your screen display brightness is below 75%-- so I have no idea if I'm even using the 90 Hz stuff right now. 

If it's not on, this is still really smooth so color me impressed.

[remy]

I've read that there's also an issue with the 90 Hz not even working if your screen display brightness is below 75%-- so I have no idea if I'm even using the 90 Hz stuff right now. 

If it's not on, this is still really smooth so color me impressed.

You can actually see if you fuck around around with the brightness toggle and then scroll a page afterwards. I have a 4XL and was messing with it last night  It's not a deal breaker but it seems like a really random decision 

[Tasty]

https://www.blog.google/inside-google/alphabet/letter-from-larry-and-sergey/

So long, Larry and Sergei. End of an era.

[Tasty]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/12/qualcomms-new-snapdragon-865-is-25-faster-comes-with-mandatory-5g/

Given that Qualcomm and Android are the "Wintel" of the mobile world, the Snapdragon 865 also brings a few Android-centric benefits. David Ruddock of Android Police reports that Qualcomm will start providing Snapdragon 865 graphics driver updates through the Play Store, allowing users to update their graphics drivers just as they would an app.

💅🏻

[Tasty]

Pixel 4aaayyyyyyyy

[Crash Dummy]

4a is confirmed? my gf got a 3a recently and after a week it overheated and wouldn't switch on so returned it. if a 4a is coming soon i'll tell her to wait for that and use her old samsumg in the meantime

[Tasty]

Nothing is confirmed but OnLeaks tends to be pretty reliable, and Google seems to be settling into a cadence, so a 4a announcement is probably coming in May at Google I/O (if your GF can wait that long.)

[bork]

4a will apparently be noticeably underpowered compared to the regular Pixel 4.  Not sure if that's how it was with the 3a?

[Tasty]

4a will apparently be noticeably underpowered compared to the regular Pixel 4.  Not sure if that's how it was with the 3a?

Hm, depends on your definition of noticeably. Side by side with a Pixel 3, the 3a definitely performs worse, but I mean, you don't shave 50% off the price of something without scaling a few pieces back.

Pixel 3a vs. Pixel 3:
+ Has a 3.5mm headphone jack
+ Has the same image sensor and back camera as the Pixel 3 (but no Visual Core, but that surprisingly wasn't used by the Google Camera app anyways...)
+ Larger battery (+85 mAh on the smaller model, +270 mAh on XL)
+/- Plastic frame instead of glass (more durable, but less premium)
+/- Same amount and type of RAM in both (4GB LPDDR4X)
- Dragontrail Glass screen material instead of Gorilla Glass 5
- Lower PPI and much lower resolution between the XL's (3a: 441 PPI, 3a XL: 402 PPI, 3: 443 PPI, 3 XL: 523 PPI)
- No wireless charging because of plastic frame
- Snapdragon 670 instead of 845 (think of the 6xx line as Qualcomm's "Celeron" line, decent performance at much lower draws)
- 3a has fixed 64GB storage -- no 128GB (or other) variations

Overall I'd say they were very smart about where to compromise and where not to. I haven't used one myself so I can't directly comment on performance, but I think like three posters here have a Pixel 3a so they can probably speak to it.

The 4a will likely:

- Be plastic (no wireless charging)
- Still have the headphone jack
- Still have the fingerprint sensor (despite the Pixel 4 ditching it)
- Use a Snapdragon 6xx chipset
- Have 6GB RAM like the Pixel 4

Would be really cool if they added waterproofing. That's kinda the only hardware feature left I could want.

[Tasty]

https://twitter.com/Google/status/1214225606461677569

"#MySuperG"?

Shades of this abominable naming scheme:

[Nintex]

Hey Google, what about Stadia 

[Tasty]

Hey Google, what about Stadia 

Probably waiting for GDC in March.

[Tasty]

https://www.blog.google/products/chromebooks/whats-new-april2020/

Chrome OS tablet mode actually looking decent (an improvement over the previous state of "hot garbage.")

TVC, you still got your Pixel Slate? Liking any of the new updates?

When I occasionally use my Pixelbook in tablet mode I have noticed improvements over the last couple months. Just wish they would support the Pen better.

[Tasty]

Hey Google, what about Stadia 

Probably waiting for GDC in March.

Also,

[Tasty]

https://9to5google.com/2020/05/05/rumor-android-tv-google-tv/

LOL, time is a flat circle.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/05/06/new-report-seems-to-confirm-next-gen-chromecast-will-run-full-on-android-tv/

Nest Cast huh?

[Tasty]

I find it to be a better experience but I find most Amazon stuff poorly designed.

You can schedule Custom Routines in the Google Home app to trigger music at any time of the day (and/or using a specified command.")

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7029585

See section "Schedule a Custom Routine."

[thisismyusername]

Andy: Is there a phone out there without a pin-hole camera, able to play Gwent which has an OpenGL ES 3.2 requirement, and the ability to open the phone without needing a heat-gun/bunch of bullshit?

Pinhole camera I can take, I guess, even though I hate those. But my god: My Moto G6 isn't able to be opened up like the G4 I owned previously (WTF): https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Motorola+Moto+G6+Battery+Replacement/127829

Why the fuck is there a glass back just to prevent people from opening and replacing the battery?

[Tasty]

I dunno. Repairability isn't super important to me (though it's starting to be, especially in phones I buy other people/family members...)

Pixel 4a this month will have a pinhole camera, not sure about the rest of your reqs but it should be pretty beefy.

[brawndolicious]

Modern phones use glue instead of fasteners probably because it's cheaper to manufacture. Some say the glue construction method helps make it more waterproof too, I dunno.

Tomorrow they're revealing the Pixel 4a and Xiaomi Pocophone F2. Remains to be seen if the Xiaomi will support American 4G bands though. At this point, I think 3G and 5G support is pretty useless. It feels like there's no cheap flagship killers available for the west.

[thisismyusername]

I mean, waterproof is nice. But at the expense of needing to heat up the phone (to dangerous levels), break a glass back ( ) just to get at the battery? (Which apparently is working fine now. I dunno what the issue was with it draining fast yesterday) 

The G4 might not have been waterproof, but at least I could crack the back and fix it myself. I hate this black-boxed bullshit with tech.

[Cryo]

https://www.droid-life.com/2020/05/13/pixel-4-launch-sounds-like-a-massive-disaster-for-google/

 

[Tasty]

Heads definitely should have rolled after P4 but not sure their head of photography should have been one of them...

[remy]

Heads definitely should have rolled after P4 but not sure their head of photography should have been one of them...

Right? Guillotine the one guy that did a good job 

They should chop whoever made the call on battery capacity. I have an XL and love it but the battery made the phone look bad in virtually any comparison

[Tripon]

Pixel being on the high end of the market and still being half a generation behind of other high end phones always seem like a mistake to me. IMO, they should target mid to mid-high end phone market and try to keep it $500 as much as possible. The Pixel a line is a step towards that, but that should probably be the only products and try to upgrade the a line to something everyone wants to buy.

[Cryo]

at least they understand the target market for the a phones uses headphone jacks

[pilonv1]

The Pixel 2 is amazing, how did they fuck up the 3 and 4 so badly?

[Tasty]

I think the 3 is a great phone.

The 4 sounded bad even on paper... Decreasing the battery capacity while strapping on an always-on radar sensor? Lol ok.

Pixel 5 will probably be a mess still.

If they make their own chips like rumors say, then the Pixel 6 would probably be a return to form...

[Tasty]

Also, got a second Titan USB-C key, which means I can finally enroll in Google's Advanced Protection Program to lock shit down. You can setup an Android phone or iPhone as a "key" using Bluetooth, or buy Bluetooth or NFC versions of the keys, but I didn't want anything wireless especially after the Bluetooth key had a recall last year... So, USB-C. Quite happy.

Not happy few services support FIDO2... or those that do still allow/enforce SMS 2FA first, completely defeating the point.

[Tasty]

https://www.phonearena.com/amp/news/Motion-Sense-will-reportedly-not-be-on-Pixel-5_id124688

Womp womp.

Well looks like the Pixel 5 will probably have battery life as a big focus lol.

[thisismyusername]

Also, got a second Titan USB-C key, which means I can finally enroll in Google's Advanced Protection Program to lock shit down. You can setup an Android phone or iPhone as a "key" using Bluetooth, or buy Bluetooth or NFC versions of the keys, but I didn't want anything wireless especially after the Bluetooth key had a recall last year... So, USB-C. Quite happy.

Not happy few services support FIDO2... or those that do still allow/enforce SMS 2FA first, completely defeating the point.

Why not get a Yubikey in that case?

But yeah, FIDO2 not being well supported is why I never really bought a Yubi or any other version of a hardware key.

[Tasty]

Also, got a second Titan USB-C key, which means I can finally enroll in Google's Advanced Protection Program to lock shit down. You can setup an Android phone or iPhone as a "key" using Bluetooth, or buy Bluetooth or NFC versions of the keys, but I didn't want anything wireless especially after the Bluetooth key had a recall last year... So, USB-C. Quite happy.

Not happy few services support FIDO2... or those that do still allow/enforce SMS 2FA first, completely defeating the point.

Why not get a Yubikey in that case?

But yeah, FIDO2 not being well supported is why I never really bought a Yubi or any other version of a hardware key.

I dunno I just trust the Titan brand from having it in my last few phones and Pixelbook. I know the Titan USB-C key is a rebranded Yubikey (while the older USB-A/NFC and Bluetooth ones are rebranded Feitans) but its firmware is custom by Google's security team (same one as the phone/laptop chips), so it seemed like a natural brand synergy thing...

Funnily, when you go to set up Advanced Protection, it recommends only third-party keys (Feitan and Yubico) -- Titan is nowhere to be found.

I've been able to set up both my Titan keys for three services:

- Google (obvs)
- GitHub (just when I've started to rely on it far less...)
- Facebook

Twitter supports WebAuthn but only one key, and it requires you to have SMS 2FA on first, totally defeating the point! IMO all services that allow user accounts should, baseline, support the following:

- FIDO2/WebAuthn
- Setting up multiple keys
- Never allowing SMS 2FA, ever

[thisismyusername]

PSN still uses SMS 2Factor, annoyingly.

Though in a world of "you need to turn off 2Factor and then turn it back on" (a la Steam movement) between phones/apps, I dunno if I can really hate Sony for that when it's just "oh you need to login? Use your number" over "oh, you need to login and got a new phone? Hope you have your old one lol!" 

[Tasty]

Update: Oh snap, Facebook lets you set up two keys too! Nice. So that's like, three services.

And I'm thinking of shadow-deleting my FB account in a few weeks anyways...

[Tasty]

PSN still uses SMS 2Factor, annoyingly.

Though in a world of "you need to turn off 2Factor and then turn it back on" (a la Steam movement) between phones/apps, I dunno if I can really hate Sony for that when it's just "oh you need to login? Use your number" over "oh, you need to login and got a new phone? Hope you have your old one lol!" 

Google Authenticator app just this week got support for moving your 2FA accounts to a new phone.

No more off/on bullshit

And a UI refresh to Material 2 on top of it all

[Tasty]

Bleh FB supports multiple keys but doesn't let you turn off app-based 2FA. It's a step up from requiring SMS 2FA like Twitter but I'd rather switch to hardware keys exclusively... but I realize that ideal world is still a ways off...

[thisismyusername]

GAuth was the fucking worst because it wasn't used by like anything. I used it for like Discord and regretted it. I just use WinAuth now if need-be, otherwise app/SMS until 2Factor standardization gets it's shit together.

[Tasty]

Ugh Pixel 4a delayed until Aug-Sep.

Guess I'll have to settle on a 3a to replace my dying OG.

[bork]

Late on replying to this, but the Pixel 4 XL is still working great for me.  Very glad I didn't get the regular size.

[Tasty]

Google Messages getting E2EE for RCS and Google Fi integration/syncing. And also dead simple cloud-restores.

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-messages-end-to-end-encryption-rcs-google-fi-integration-manual-cloud-restores/

With these I'm pretty much 98% of the way towards finally switching from Google Voice + a third-party MVNO to just Google Fi...

(Looping back around to the 2FA discussion earlier, Google Fi is one of the only carriers that isn't susceptible to SIM-swap attacks, since it uses your Google Account for security.)

[Oblivion]

guys, quickly! is this a good deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347785.p?skuId=6347785

[Human Snorenado]

Yup

[Oblivion]

Use topcashback and you should be able to save another $25

https://www.topcashback.com/best-buy-freebie/

thanks.

so is that a good deal? i don't do any mobile gaming and just looking for a phone with good battery life and camera.

[Tripon]

guys, quickly! is this a good deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347785.p?skuId=6347785

Yes, if for whatever reason you can't wait to pay full price for the Pixel 4a.

[Oblivion]

guys, quickly! is this a good deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347785.p?skuId=6347785

Yes, if for whatever reason you can't wait to pay full price for the Pixel 4a.

how much is that gonna be?

[bork]

guys, quickly! is this a good deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347785.p?skuId=6347785

Yes, if for whatever reason you can't wait to pay full price for the Pixel 4a.

how much is that gonna be?

Unconfirmed, but speculation is $399.

[Oblivion]

guys, quickly! is this a good deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347785.p?skuId=6347785

Yes, if for whatever reason you can't wait to pay full price for the Pixel 4a.

how much is that gonna be?

Unconfirmed, but speculation is $399.

oh well then lol nevermind.

my budget was only gonna be around $250 or so.

[Oblivion]

also, just saw this:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-xl-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347790.p?skuId=6347790

supposedly TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS off? 

what's the catch? was a slightly bigger screen size worth THAT much?

[Tripon]

also, just saw this:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-xl-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347790.p?skuId=6347790

supposedly TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS off? 

what's the catch? was a slightly bigger screen size worth THAT much?

You'll have to activate a new line with either Verizon, AT&T or Sprint for the $219 price.

[Oblivion]

goddamn it. i have t-mobile  :'(

edit: so with best buy's "activate later" option, i can keep my tmobile line, i just have to pay more?

[Tripon]

Sprint just merged with Tmobile. Call a Tmobile rep and see if they help you out.

[Oblivion]

for those of you that use a lot of apps, is 64 GB enough?

[Oblivion]

for those of you that use a lot of apps, is 64 GB enough?

I haven’t had to use more than 64GB much. I offload my images to cloud storage and I also delete text threads frequently. Most of the space on my phone has been eaten up by Spotify offline downloads.

yeah i don't plan on storing much video or photos on my phone. but i do plan on adding a bunch of apps that i couldn't before (FB, Twitter, snapchat, whatsapp, etc.)

[brawndolicious]

guys, quickly! is this a good deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-pixel-3a-64gb-unlocked-just-black/6347785.p?skuId=6347785

The price WITH activation of a new contract is pretty good for a Pixel 3a. So if you have a Verizon/ATT account or if you're willing to switch to Sprint as a new customer, then the discount seems pretty good.

But if you're on T-mobile or any MVNO, the price without the carrier discount is average. Is your current phone getting worn out and if so, what features/price are you looking for?