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One of the big problems with Pixel phones is their lack of thorough testing. You upgrade and suddenly you encounter strange Bluetooth issues, call problems, or

by nblgbg 2y ago

One of the big problems with Pixel phones is their lack of thorough testing. You upgrade and suddenly you encounter strange Bluetooth issues, call problems, or other features that were working fine before but suddenly stop functioning. Tons of people will be complaining about this in forums, and you won't receive any updates to fix them for months. IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. Adding more AI features won't help unless they start taking their customer service seriously!

ascorbic 2y ago
I've had a Pixel 8 Pro since launch day and have had zero issues with it. Really great phone.
- olyjohn 2y ago
  I had a Pixel 4XL that could not do basic phon calls. 7/10 tries I would get no audio but the other person could always hear me. I wiped the phone and it magically started working, then about a week after that it was back to not working again. Also the back cover started peeling off the phone since all they did was use a tiny bit of glue to keep it on.
- wordofx 2y ago
  [flagged]
- jerlam 2y ago
  Not doubting your experience, but you've had the phone for less than a year and haven't had a major Android version update. You are 1/7th of the way of your total support period. If you can say you have no problems in 2030, that would be much stronger evidence.
  - sigzero 2y ago
    Wow, talk about an unrealistic expectation. 2030? lol
    - practicemaths 2y ago
      People trade in cars every 3 years. I imagine it's similar to phones. Plus phone battery life does degrade pretty heavily over time and heavy use.
      - dogsledsleddog 2y ago
        A subculture trades in cars every 3 years, as in they are resold on the used market for another 13 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_longevity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_longevity
        practicemaths 2y ago
        Do those same cars have 0 problems with them and not require any scheduled maintenance in those 13 years?
        dogsledsleddog 2y ago
        You are talking about the auto market like Japan didn't come in and devastate Detroit. No problems means things about TCO to 16 years and how that plays out. Mid tier Android makers that couldn't secure chipset support beyond 3 years began to realize they have to exit the market a couple years ago, a guaranteed outcome of Apple fixing their story long enough for resale values to impact purchase decisions.
        StevePerkins 2y ago
        Is that really a large subculture, or is that mostly car rental places cycling vehicles through their fleet? The rental companies typically buy vehicles from the manufacturer at such a volume discount, that they're able to flip them onto the used market a few years later and come out even with taxes benefits factored in.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  - ascorbic 2y ago
    Sure, though in the past when I've had problems with phones they've either manifested within the first few months, or it's been 4-5 years down the line when I'm fine with replacing it. I'm not being complacent: it's true I've not had a major OS upgrade yet, and this is of course anecdotal. My main point is that I'm really happy with my first 10 months with the phone, and would recommend it so far.
- wetpaws 2y ago
  [dead]
- mgraczyk 2y ago
  Wait until they update the OS
  - bsagdiyev 2y ago
    I'm in Android 15 beta with my P8P. Zero issues. So where are the problems I'm supposed to have?
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
cbsmith 2y ago
I don't think you can really tie that to the brand. Because it's wrapped on different OEMs, I find it varies from OEM to OEM.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
causi 2y ago
That's been Google phones even since the Nexus days. They review super well then three months after release there's some crazy-ass hardware problem no phone has ever experienced before. Screen discoloration, glass backs cracking while laying flat on a table, power buttons getting stuck, spontaneous camera glass cracking, etc.
- jsheard 2y ago
  The flaws were much more excusable with the Nexus phones since they were dirt cheap, but the price of the Pixels has crept upwards and now they're more or less at parity with Apple and Samsungs flagship prices.
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  My issue is that they are bottom-barrel of repairability. My Nexus phones were described as "designed to fail and impossible to fix" by a repair guy.
  - abawany 2y ago
    But that's not true anymore afaik: they get good repairability scores at ifixit and also have a deal with them to stock repair parts.
SkyPuncher 2y ago
This was a major issue that drove me away from Android. In addition to first party bugs, I got tired of 3rd party accessories not working correctly. My theory was iPhone probably got tested on most 3rd party accessories. However, the fragmentation in the Android space meant I’d have no idea what devices they actually tested with. This is further compounded by the fact that Android isn’t really an open platform, at least in a practical sense. I can’t just load up a patch for something (assuming it exists) without fully switching to some open source ROM that’s going to come with its own issues.
- eddieroger 2y ago
  There's also only one Bluetooth stack on Apple's platforms (presumably shared), so testing is more straightforward. And if so inclined, there's also the Made for iPhone program that requires validation, but again that's with one device in two form factors. It's not a fair challenge comparing Android device support because the task is bigger, though Google could probably do some stuff to make that less painful.
  - londons_explore 2y ago
    Google could just say "Here is our official bluetooth hardware/software. Either use the official hardware/software, or use something else but we will kick you out of the android program if your implementation and ours ever have any kind of difference that is noticeable to a user".
  - AtlasBarfed 2y ago
    It's almost like there should be a, I don't know, STANDARD test suite that peripherals, phones, and chips that want to use the Bluetooth STANDARD would have to pass in order to advertise being compatible with the Bluetooth STANDARD, as directed and administered by the Bluetooth STANDARD organization. Bluetooth is so old that it was coming into use when Computer Shopper was still published. It's been a dumpster fire of compatibility since its inception. There's one of two culprits on the Android side: either its the device drivers, or the OS itself. Device drivers should be capable of being subjected to stringent acceptance standards in order to advertise "Bluetooth". If it's the OS, that's even worse since it is higher up the abstraction stack. At least the device drivers being closer to hardware have an excuse. Bluetooth is 26 years old. A 26 year old industry standard should be better than a coinflip as to whether some bluetooth thingamajig will work with a mobile OS. It's just sad.
PhasmaFelis 2y ago
The win-win solution is to only buy Pixel phones that are several generations old. The kinks are ironed out, they're less than half the price, and for 95%+ of users, they're just as capable as the latest-and-greatest.
- nicbou 2y ago
  They don't get security patches though
  - e44858 2y ago
    Most of the important parts will continue to get security updates: https://www.androidpolice.com/project-mainline-android-14/ https://www.androidpolice.com/project-mainline-android-14/
  - tweenagedream 2y ago
    Which ones? According to https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en pixel 5a is getting eol this month, with the next security update dropping for pixel 6 starting in October 2026 "Last gen" pixel 8 is going to get android and security updates through October 2030
  - londons_explore 2y ago
    Phones are really rather secure. Even a 2 year past security patches android rarely has any of the most severe vulnerability (remote code execution with no action from the user). The common security issues (app can get permissions it shouldn't have) are nowhere near as important if you don't download random APK's from dodgy sites. Overall, my fully patched linux laptop has far bigger security holes than a 2-years-unpatched android.
  - treyd 2y ago
    Thirdparty roms are very good about backporting patches after Google drops support.
    - 2y ago
paxys 2y ago
This describes the average Android phone for sure, but the Pixel line has been pretty solid in my experience.
queuebert 2y ago
So who does make good phones?
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  Nobody, you just have to chose which kind of bad you can tolerate. Personally, I navigate the Android fragmentation mess to avoid Apple's control-freak tendencies. One is annoying, the other is offensive. But I totally see why you might prefer the opposite.
- bitwize 2y ago
  Apple.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Pixel phones are among the best, and getting better as Google gets more experience shipping hardware. I've had a ton of Pixel phones and there are definitely paper cuts here and there, but: > IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. Is ridiculously hyperbolic. OnePlus phones are also really good when new, although updates often introduce new bugs. When OnePlus was more affordable it was less of an issue, but with current prices I expect several years out of a device that expensive. Just get a Pixel.
- croemer 2y ago
  OnePlus used to - until they didn't anymore. OnePlus 8 was excellent. Pixel 8 Pro has the worst mobile reception I've ever had in a phone.
- fortyseven 2y ago
  I've been quite happy with the Galaxy phones since the S21 Ultra.
- StevePerkins 2y ago
  It's crazy that I'm the first person in this sub-thread to mention Samsung, when they are by far the market leader in Android phones. They have decent options at pretty much every price point. For some reason, HN and Reddit just hates this company, and I don't understand why. People talk about "bloat", because Samsung ships with their own apps for things like phone, clock, calculator, etc. But it's trivial to uninstall those, and/or set the Google stock Android counterparts as your system defaults. People get all weird about One UI, but my son has a Pixel and I have a Galaxy and I honestly don't see much meaningful difference between the two (other than his phone getting hot as hell because Google's own Tensor silicon sucks). I just recently switched back to Android from Apple, perhaps these UI skins were further apart in the past? I think a lot of contrarians just hate Samsung because it's the market leader, simple as that.
notfed 2y ago
I've had a dozens od Bluetooth devices (of both computers and headsets), and have never not had Bluetooth issues. I would not isolate "Bluetooth issues" to Android.
- guzik 2y ago
  Well, on the contrary, we’ve worked extensively with Bluetooth since we're in the business of creating wearables. Unfortunately, we've had to compile a list of unsupported Android phones that exhibited unusual behaviors, such as sudden disconnections. I must say that both Samsungs and iPhones have always been rock solid in terms of stability.
- Atotalnoob 2y ago
  Bluetooth on android is quite terrible. Especially BLE, a startup I worked at had a device that broadcast every 500ms for 375ms. We tested over 100 android devices and the best phone had a 40% chance of detecting the device within 5 seconds…
  - dns_snek 2y ago
    Any interesting observations with respect to different brands? What does the overall distribution look like and how does it compare against other devices you tested, e.g. iPhones, laptops?
    - Atotalnoob 2y ago
      Our app was specifically only for androids. We didn’t test anything other than androids, my work laptop, and software defined radios. Different brands, I recall Samsung devices being the worst on average. I believe the better Bluetooth devices were actually nexus/pixel phones… I think the top, by far, was the nexus 9, but it’s been a while. The product was pretty cool that we built. It was essentially tile or Apple AirTags before both of those were around and ruggedized for usage in commercial usage to keep track of items (dumpsters, underwater diving equipment, mining equipment, portapotties, etc). You’d be surprised how easy it is for some of these companies to lose a dumpster or something else of considerable size and mass. Building the mesh network and algorithms to determine if someone passed by, moved, etc the item the beacon was attached to was pretty cool stuff. We also didn’t want to use data as much as possible, but the final determination of “what happened” to the item needed to be server side to ensure we took into account scenarios like 2 unrelated items traveled together for 2 miles, then went their separate ways. So we had to optimize for data, geo, temporal, spatial data, etc. Given the speed a vehicle might travel and Bluetooth range, you could have 1-5 bbroadcasts to detect a beacons presence and update its location so missed detections were critical.
minkles 2y ago
Yeah that. Pixel 6A and 7A. Unreliable as hell. Went straight back to iOS. Edit to clarify: constant problems with payments, bluetooth, eSIMs.
- tomrod 2y ago
  Weird. My 7A runs fine. I do swap out a lot of apps though, like keyboard and application selector.
  - moneywoes 2y ago
    what do you use?
    - tomrod 2y ago
      SwiftKey and Niagara.
itsoktocry 2y ago
>IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. I've had Pixel 3XL, Pixel 5, Pixel 8, and Pixel Tablet all without issue. I realize that can't be everyone's experience, but the idea that you can't "seriously use" these devices is untrue.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  Really? The Pixel 8, my first Pixel, shipped without working USB webcam support, which was one of the advertised launch features. To actually get that feature you had to switch to the beta release track, which of course broke lots of the other things on the phone. Notable things that have been broken for a month or more on the beta track since I owned a Pixel 8 include tap to pay and the unlock screen.
  - PUSH_AX 2y ago
    We could do anecdotes all day. Unless there is hard data on how brittle or robust these devices are it all seems a bit pointless.
    - ibash 2y ago
      No, anecdotes are data. You can't just ignore customers and claim their experience isn't hard data. One of my pet peeves is engineers making excuses for incompetence.
      - mardef 2y ago
        Ok, so my Pixel 1, 3, 5, and 7 have had no problems. Data shows 100% reliability then?
      - izacus 2y ago
        So the fact that my iPhones wifi failed means that they're all terrible products and we shouldn't look at engineering practices like failure rate statistics? Or do we just do that for brands we're not fanboys of like __true__ engineers?
ravenstine 2y ago
> IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. While there's a lot you said that I agree with, I find this statement quite an exaggeration. I've owned Pixel phones for the last 7 years, both with stock and custom ROMS, and as much as Pixel seems to always have weird quirks, it's been reliable enough for me that I don't see why it couldn't be a daily driver. That said, I share your view on upgrading so far that I really hesitate to upgrade anything, whether it's my Pixel phone or something else. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been legit hacked, but I don't have enough fingers to count all the times that software bugs did things like get me stranded, cut me off from my finances, almost get me killed on the road, and so forth. Although I've never been an iPhone user, Pixel is the best Android phone I've used. I'm a bit biased since it's developer-friendly I'm a software engineer, but I've had the least catastrophic issues (and less crapware) with them compared to other phones like Samsung's line. The strange thing about Pixel is that updates seem to always destabilize the UI, and I'll get weird things happening like the lockscreen coming up and remaining frozen for some time.
- dbspin 2y ago
  >I've been legit hacked, but I don't have enough fingers to count all the times ?>that software bugs did things like get me stranded, cut me off from my finances, >almost get me killed on the road, and so forth. I hesitate to defend apple on Hackernews but I have never experienced anything like these issues with any iPhone. Major problem is battery life, other than that I can say the core features of every iPhone I've owned have 'just worked' pretty consistently.
  - patall 2y ago
    Neither have I on all my android phones. Only device that failed me was an iPad 3 (yeah 12 years ago) that I got replaced in the store due to it crashing right in their hands. But hey, anecdotes.
oysterville 2y ago
First adopters are now the beta, or even in some cases alpha, testers and will continue to be for as long as there are enough people willing to sacrifice stability for having the newest tech.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
GuB-42 2y ago
> IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices These were the Nexus. Pixel phones are definitely consumer devices. Nexus phones were designed to be rather generic, meant to be used as a model for other manufacturers and as a test platform for developers. It was when Android really was open (or at least more than it is today). They were usable phones, even good ones, but without any "personality". Pixel phones on the other hand advertises exclusive features, and is mostly picture-focused, hence the name, and also AI, but who isn't nowadays. Nexus advertisement was little more than its spec sheet.
0x1ch 2y ago
The fact that more than once, you could not call 911 due to a bug, should be enough to convince people that Google doesn't test their products or have any quality control.
- eldaisfish 2y ago
  This alone is why I will never buy another android phone. It is inconceivable to me how a phone dialer bug can happen more than once, especially when it involves a life and death situation.
- digging 2y ago
  I would seriously hope that 2 instances of a certain bug, no matter how critical, would not convince anyone that the manufacturer "doesn't test their products or have any quality control".
  - 0x1ch 2y ago
    Any other service wouldn't have bothered me. This was a reoccurring issue across different releases of the Pixel line... If there is a single thing you should be able to do with a cellular device, it's call 911... Not acceptable.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
chimeracoder 2y ago
> One of the big problems with Pixel phones is their lack of thorough testing. You upgrade and suddenly you encounter strange Bluetooth issues, call problems, or other features that were working fine before but suddenly stop functioning. Tons of people will be complaining about this in forums, and you won't receive any updates to fix them for months. IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. Adding more AI features won't help unless they start taking their customer service seriously! I've been using the Pixel/Nexus phones for over a decade, and I find this complaint bizarre. I've had issues with the phones (just like I have with my Apple hardware) at times, but nothing like what you're describing. The real issue with Pixel phones is not that their software or hardware support is worse (it isn't) but the customer support. If my iPhone breaks under warranty, I can walk into an Apple store and get it fixed or replaced immediately. When my Pixel device breaks, even though I live near the flagship Google store, the best Google will do is send me a replacement phone "within 5-10 business days". The customer support experience is a huge issue, and I wish Google would do something about it. But the other points don't resonate at all.
- eldaisfish 2y ago
  More than once, pixel devices were left unable to call emergency services - 911. Just imagine, you are in a life or death scenario and your literal phone has a bug preventing you from calling help. All other issues are minor. I cannot forgive a bug of this nature.
  - chimeracoder 2y ago
    > Just imagine, you are in a life or death scenario and your literal phone has a bug preventing you from calling help. > All other issues are minor. I cannot forgive a bug of this nature. Does that mean you will never use Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, all of which have had carrier-wide 911 outages? Will you never visit the state of Massachusetts, which had a state-wide 911 outage, affecting all carriers, just six weeks ago? This type of failure is bad, but it's unfortunately a lot more common than you think.
    - 2y ago
creato 2y ago
I switched from pixel to iPhone because I was fed up with bugs. I’m going to switch back to pixel for my next phone because I’m fed up with bugs on iOS. It’s really not better, just a different set of bugs.
khaomungai 2y ago
I've had several Pixel phones and using the 6a currently. Never ever had any issues. My strategy is to delay updates for a few days to be not the first one bricking my phone. :)
locallost 2y ago
I've used Pixel 6 for the last few years and Pixel 3a before that. "As daily drivers" whatever that actually means, as I for sure don't have any other phone laying around.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
fullstop 2y ago
I have a Pixel 7 Pro, and my Bluetooth has been fine. No issues there, ever, but I do have complaints about features suddenly not working and it mostly revolves around Google Assistant. It is utterly inconsistent with what it does, and it is maddening. It randomly wants me to unlock the device to play music, but I'm using voice controls because I'm driving. It has my car's bluetooth device set as "trusted" so it shouldn't even require it to unlock to continue, and it's not like asking it to play something on Spotify would reveal any information about myself. Additionally, sometimes it just leaves the screen on in the off chance that it _does_ start to play music, and I feel my pocket getting warm but there's nothing that I can do because I'm driving and I don't want to mess with my phone. If I knew that it was going to leave the screen on I would just queue up music before I leave, but it doesn't always do it and it drives me nuts. I don't think that my next phone will be a Pixel.
shadowgovt 2y ago
Yep. I think I'm in the "fool me twice" category on Pixels now. This is the third one in a row with a bad USB socket.
nebula8804 2y ago
Nice to see they haven't changed anything from the Nexus 5 days. I purposely stayed on the official firmware in the hopes that I would have a seamless experience. The day before an epic trip around Europe, I upgraded to the latest version. It broke video recording so that all videos had garbled audio. Ruined priceless memories. Meanwhile my friend's iPhone 5 was operating perfectly fine and wasn't always running out of battery like the Nexus was. After the trip, I had enough and bought a used iPhone. That was the last time I ever considered Android. This also turned me into a die hard Mac user. Can't believe I wasted years of my life trying to make Linux and Windows work when I could have just used a Mac.

by nblgbg 2y ago

ascorbic 2y ago

I've had a Pixel 8 Pro since launch day and have had zero issues with it. Really great phone.

olyjohn 2y ago
I had a Pixel 4XL that could not do basic phon calls. 7/10 tries I would get no audio but the other person could always hear me. I wiped the phone and it magically started working, then about a week after that it was back to not working again. Also the back cover started peeling off the phone since all they did was use a tiny bit of glue to keep it on.
wordofx 2y ago
[flagged]
jerlam 2y ago
Not doubting your experience, but you've had the phone for less than a year and haven't had a major Android version update. You are 1/7th of the way of your total support period. If you can say you have no problems in 2030, that would be much stronger evidence.
- sigzero 2y ago
  Wow, talk about an unrealistic expectation. 2030? lol
  - practicemaths 2y ago
    People trade in cars every 3 years. I imagine it's similar to phones. Plus phone battery life does degrade pretty heavily over time and heavy use.
    - dogsledsleddog 2y ago
      A subculture trades in cars every 3 years, as in they are resold on the used market for another 13 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_longevity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_longevity
      - practicemaths 2y ago
        Do those same cars have 0 problems with them and not require any scheduled maintenance in those 13 years?
        dogsledsleddog 2y ago
        You are talking about the auto market like Japan didn't come in and devastate Detroit. No problems means things about TCO to 16 years and how that plays out. Mid tier Android makers that couldn't secure chipset support beyond 3 years began to realize they have to exit the market a couple years ago, a guaranteed outcome of Apple fixing their story long enough for resale values to impact purchase decisions.
      - StevePerkins 2y ago
        Is that really a large subculture, or is that mostly car rental places cycling vehicles through their fleet? The rental companies typically buy vehicles from the manufacturer at such a volume discount, that they're able to flip them onto the used market a few years later and come out even with taxes benefits factored in.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
- ascorbic 2y ago
  Sure, though in the past when I've had problems with phones they've either manifested within the first few months, or it's been 4-5 years down the line when I'm fine with replacing it. I'm not being complacent: it's true I've not had a major OS upgrade yet, and this is of course anecdotal. My main point is that I'm really happy with my first 10 months with the phone, and would recommend it so far.
wetpaws 2y ago
[dead]
mgraczyk 2y ago
Wait until they update the OS
- bsagdiyev 2y ago
  I'm in Android 15 beta with my P8P. Zero issues. So where are the problems I'm supposed to have?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

cbsmith 2y ago

I don't think you can really tie that to the brand. Because it's wrapped on different OEMs, I find it varies from OEM to OEM.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

causi 2y ago

That's been Google phones even since the Nexus days. They review super well then three months after release there's some crazy-ass hardware problem no phone has ever experienced before. Screen discoloration, glass backs cracking while laying flat on a table, power buttons getting stuck, spontaneous camera glass cracking, etc.

jsheard 2y ago
The flaws were much more excusable with the Nexus phones since they were dirt cheap, but the price of the Pixels has crept upwards and now they're more or less at parity with Apple and Samsungs flagship prices.
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
My issue is that they are bottom-barrel of repairability. My Nexus phones were described as "designed to fail and impossible to fix" by a repair guy.
- abawany 2y ago
  But that's not true anymore afaik: they get good repairability scores at ifixit and also have a deal with them to stock repair parts.

SkyPuncher 2y ago

This was a major issue that drove me away from Android. In addition to first party bugs, I got tired of 3rd party accessories not working correctly. My theory was iPhone probably got tested on most 3rd party accessories. However, the fragmentation in the Android space meant I’d have no idea what devices they actually tested with. This is further compounded by the fact that Android isn’t really an open platform, at least in a practical sense. I can’t just load up a patch for something (assuming it exists) without fully switching to some open source ROM that’s going to come with its own issues.

eddieroger 2y ago
There's also only one Bluetooth stack on Apple's platforms (presumably shared), so testing is more straightforward. And if so inclined, there's also the Made for iPhone program that requires validation, but again that's with one device in two form factors. It's not a fair challenge comparing Android device support because the task is bigger, though Google could probably do some stuff to make that less painful.
- londons_explore 2y ago
  Google could just say "Here is our official bluetooth hardware/software. Either use the official hardware/software, or use something else but we will kick you out of the android program if your implementation and ours ever have any kind of difference that is noticeable to a user".
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  It's almost like there should be a, I don't know, STANDARD test suite that peripherals, phones, and chips that want to use the Bluetooth STANDARD would have to pass in order to advertise being compatible with the Bluetooth STANDARD, as directed and administered by the Bluetooth STANDARD organization. Bluetooth is so old that it was coming into use when Computer Shopper was still published. It's been a dumpster fire of compatibility since its inception. There's one of two culprits on the Android side: either its the device drivers, or the OS itself. Device drivers should be capable of being subjected to stringent acceptance standards in order to advertise "Bluetooth". If it's the OS, that's even worse since it is higher up the abstraction stack. At least the device drivers being closer to hardware have an excuse. Bluetooth is 26 years old. A 26 year old industry standard should be better than a coinflip as to whether some bluetooth thingamajig will work with a mobile OS. It's just sad.

PhasmaFelis 2y ago

The win-win solution is to only buy Pixel phones that are several generations old. The kinks are ironed out, they're less than half the price, and for 95%+ of users, they're just as capable as the latest-and-greatest.

nicbou 2y ago
They don't get security patches though
- e44858 2y ago
  Most of the important parts will continue to get security updates: https://www.androidpolice.com/project-mainline-android-14/ https://www.androidpolice.com/project-mainline-android-14/
- tweenagedream 2y ago
  Which ones? According to https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en pixel 5a is getting eol this month, with the next security update dropping for pixel 6 starting in October 2026 "Last gen" pixel 8 is going to get android and security updates through October 2030
- londons_explore 2y ago
  Phones are really rather secure. Even a 2 year past security patches android rarely has any of the most severe vulnerability (remote code execution with no action from the user). The common security issues (app can get permissions it shouldn't have) are nowhere near as important if you don't download random APK's from dodgy sites. Overall, my fully patched linux laptop has far bigger security holes than a 2-years-unpatched android.
- treyd 2y ago
  Thirdparty roms are very good about backporting patches after Google drops support.
  - 2y ago

paxys 2y ago

This describes the average Android phone for sure, but the Pixel line has been pretty solid in my experience.

queuebert 2y ago

So who does make good phones?

__MatrixMan__ 2y ago
Nobody, you just have to chose which kind of bad you can tolerate. Personally, I navigate the Android fragmentation mess to avoid Apple's control-freak tendencies. One is annoying, the other is offensive. But I totally see why you might prefer the opposite.
bitwize 2y ago
Apple.
freedomben 2y ago
Pixel phones are among the best, and getting better as Google gets more experience shipping hardware. I've had a ton of Pixel phones and there are definitely paper cuts here and there, but: > IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. Is ridiculously hyperbolic. OnePlus phones are also really good when new, although updates often introduce new bugs. When OnePlus was more affordable it was less of an issue, but with current prices I expect several years out of a device that expensive. Just get a Pixel.
croemer 2y ago
OnePlus used to - until they didn't anymore. OnePlus 8 was excellent. Pixel 8 Pro has the worst mobile reception I've ever had in a phone.
fortyseven 2y ago
I've been quite happy with the Galaxy phones since the S21 Ultra.
StevePerkins 2y ago
It's crazy that I'm the first person in this sub-thread to mention Samsung, when they are by far the market leader in Android phones. They have decent options at pretty much every price point. For some reason, HN and Reddit just hates this company, and I don't understand why. People talk about "bloat", because Samsung ships with their own apps for things like phone, clock, calculator, etc. But it's trivial to uninstall those, and/or set the Google stock Android counterparts as your system defaults. People get all weird about One UI, but my son has a Pixel and I have a Galaxy and I honestly don't see much meaningful difference between the two (other than his phone getting hot as hell because Google's own Tensor silicon sucks). I just recently switched back to Android from Apple, perhaps these UI skins were further apart in the past? I think a lot of contrarians just hate Samsung because it's the market leader, simple as that.

notfed 2y ago

I've had a dozens od Bluetooth devices (of both computers and headsets), and have never not had Bluetooth issues. I would not isolate "Bluetooth issues" to Android.

guzik 2y ago
Well, on the contrary, we’ve worked extensively with Bluetooth since we're in the business of creating wearables. Unfortunately, we've had to compile a list of unsupported Android phones that exhibited unusual behaviors, such as sudden disconnections. I must say that both Samsungs and iPhones have always been rock solid in terms of stability.
Atotalnoob 2y ago
Bluetooth on android is quite terrible. Especially BLE, a startup I worked at had a device that broadcast every 500ms for 375ms. We tested over 100 android devices and the best phone had a 40% chance of detecting the device within 5 seconds…
- dns_snek 2y ago
  Any interesting observations with respect to different brands? What does the overall distribution look like and how does it compare against other devices you tested, e.g. iPhones, laptops?
  - Atotalnoob 2y ago
    Our app was specifically only for androids. We didn’t test anything other than androids, my work laptop, and software defined radios. Different brands, I recall Samsung devices being the worst on average. I believe the better Bluetooth devices were actually nexus/pixel phones… I think the top, by far, was the nexus 9, but it’s been a while. The product was pretty cool that we built. It was essentially tile or Apple AirTags before both of those were around and ruggedized for usage in commercial usage to keep track of items (dumpsters, underwater diving equipment, mining equipment, portapotties, etc). You’d be surprised how easy it is for some of these companies to lose a dumpster or something else of considerable size and mass. Building the mesh network and algorithms to determine if someone passed by, moved, etc the item the beacon was attached to was pretty cool stuff. We also didn’t want to use data as much as possible, but the final determination of “what happened” to the item needed to be server side to ensure we took into account scenarios like 2 unrelated items traveled together for 2 miles, then went their separate ways. So we had to optimize for data, geo, temporal, spatial data, etc. Given the speed a vehicle might travel and Bluetooth range, you could have 1-5 bbroadcasts to detect a beacons presence and update its location so missed detections were critical.

minkles 2y ago

Yeah that. Pixel 6A and 7A. Unreliable as hell. Went straight back to iOS. Edit to clarify: constant problems with payments, bluetooth, eSIMs.

tomrod 2y ago
Weird. My 7A runs fine. I do swap out a lot of apps though, like keyboard and application selector.
- moneywoes 2y ago
  what do you use?
  - tomrod 2y ago
    SwiftKey and Niagara.

itsoktocry 2y ago

>IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. I've had Pixel 3XL, Pixel 5, Pixel 8, and Pixel Tablet all without issue. I realize that can't be everyone's experience, but the idea that you can't "seriously use" these devices is untrue.

jeffbee 2y ago
Really? The Pixel 8, my first Pixel, shipped without working USB webcam support, which was one of the advertised launch features. To actually get that feature you had to switch to the beta release track, which of course broke lots of the other things on the phone. Notable things that have been broken for a month or more on the beta track since I owned a Pixel 8 include tap to pay and the unlock screen.
- PUSH_AX 2y ago
  We could do anecdotes all day. Unless there is hard data on how brittle or robust these devices are it all seems a bit pointless.
  - ibash 2y ago
    No, anecdotes are data. You can't just ignore customers and claim their experience isn't hard data. One of my pet peeves is engineers making excuses for incompetence.
    - mardef 2y ago
      Ok, so my Pixel 1, 3, 5, and 7 have had no problems. Data shows 100% reliability then?
    - izacus 2y ago
      So the fact that my iPhones wifi failed means that they're all terrible products and we shouldn't look at engineering practices like failure rate statistics? Or do we just do that for brands we're not fanboys of like __true__ engineers?

ravenstine 2y ago

> IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. While there's a lot you said that I agree with, I find this statement quite an exaggeration. I've owned Pixel phones for the last 7 years, both with stock and custom ROMS, and as much as Pixel seems to always have weird quirks, it's been reliable enough for me that I don't see why it couldn't be a daily driver. That said, I share your view on upgrading so far that I really hesitate to upgrade anything, whether it's my Pixel phone or something else. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been legit hacked, but I don't have enough fingers to count all the times that software bugs did things like get me stranded, cut me off from my finances, almost get me killed on the road, and so forth. Although I've never been an iPhone user, Pixel is the best Android phone I've used. I'm a bit biased since it's developer-friendly I'm a software engineer, but I've had the least catastrophic issues (and less crapware) with them compared to other phones like Samsung's line. The strange thing about Pixel is that updates seem to always destabilize the UI, and I'll get weird things happening like the lockscreen coming up and remaining frozen for some time.

dbspin 2y ago
>I've been legit hacked, but I don't have enough fingers to count all the times ?>that software bugs did things like get me stranded, cut me off from my finances, >almost get me killed on the road, and so forth. I hesitate to defend apple on Hackernews but I have never experienced anything like these issues with any iPhone. Major problem is battery life, other than that I can say the core features of every iPhone I've owned have 'just worked' pretty consistently.
- patall 2y ago
  Neither have I on all my android phones. Only device that failed me was an iPad 3 (yeah 12 years ago) that I got replaced in the store due to it crashing right in their hands. But hey, anecdotes.

oysterville 2y ago

First adopters are now the beta, or even in some cases alpha, testers and will continue to be for as long as there are enough people willing to sacrifice stability for having the newest tech.

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GuB-42 2y ago

> IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices These were the Nexus. Pixel phones are definitely consumer devices. Nexus phones were designed to be rather generic, meant to be used as a model for other manufacturers and as a test platform for developers. It was when Android really was open (or at least more than it is today). They were usable phones, even good ones, but without any "personality". Pixel phones on the other hand advertises exclusive features, and is mostly picture-focused, hence the name, and also AI, but who isn't nowadays. Nexus advertisement was little more than its spec sheet.

0x1ch 2y ago

The fact that more than once, you could not call 911 due to a bug, should be enough to convince people that Google doesn't test their products or have any quality control.

eldaisfish 2y ago
This alone is why I will never buy another android phone. It is inconceivable to me how a phone dialer bug can happen more than once, especially when it involves a life and death situation.
digging 2y ago
I would seriously hope that 2 instances of a certain bug, no matter how critical, would not convince anyone that the manufacturer "doesn't test their products or have any quality control".
- 0x1ch 2y ago
  Any other service wouldn't have bothered me. This was a reoccurring issue across different releases of the Pixel line... If there is a single thing you should be able to do with a cellular device, it's call 911... Not acceptable.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

chimeracoder 2y ago

> One of the big problems with Pixel phones is their lack of thorough testing. You upgrade and suddenly you encounter strange Bluetooth issues, call problems, or other features that were working fine before but suddenly stop functioning. Tons of people will be complaining about this in forums, and you won't receive any updates to fix them for months. IMHO all Pixel phones are just developer devices and you can't seriously use them as daily drivers. Adding more AI features won't help unless they start taking their customer service seriously! I've been using the Pixel/Nexus phones for over a decade, and I find this complaint bizarre. I've had issues with the phones (just like I have with my Apple hardware) at times, but nothing like what you're describing. The real issue with Pixel phones is not that their software or hardware support is worse (it isn't) but the customer support. If my iPhone breaks under warranty, I can walk into an Apple store and get it fixed or replaced immediately. When my Pixel device breaks, even though I live near the flagship Google store, the best Google will do is send me a replacement phone "within 5-10 business days". The customer support experience is a huge issue, and I wish Google would do something about it. But the other points don't resonate at all.

eldaisfish 2y ago
More than once, pixel devices were left unable to call emergency services - 911. Just imagine, you are in a life or death scenario and your literal phone has a bug preventing you from calling help. All other issues are minor. I cannot forgive a bug of this nature.
- chimeracoder 2y ago
  > Just imagine, you are in a life or death scenario and your literal phone has a bug preventing you from calling help. > All other issues are minor. I cannot forgive a bug of this nature. Does that mean you will never use Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, all of which have had carrier-wide 911 outages? Will you never visit the state of Massachusetts, which had a state-wide 911 outage, affecting all carriers, just six weeks ago? This type of failure is bad, but it's unfortunately a lot more common than you think.
  - 2y ago

creato 2y ago

I switched from pixel to iPhone because I was fed up with bugs. I’m going to switch back to pixel for my next phone because I’m fed up with bugs on iOS. It’s really not better, just a different set of bugs.

khaomungai 2y ago

I've had several Pixel phones and using the 6a currently. Never ever had any issues. My strategy is to delay updates for a few days to be not the first one bricking my phone. :)

locallost 2y ago

I've used Pixel 6 for the last few years and Pixel 3a before that. "As daily drivers" whatever that actually means, as I for sure don't have any other phone laying around.

deleted 2y ago

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fullstop 2y ago

I have a Pixel 7 Pro, and my Bluetooth has been fine. No issues there, ever, but I do have complaints about features suddenly not working and it mostly revolves around Google Assistant. It is utterly inconsistent with what it does, and it is maddening. It randomly wants me to unlock the device to play music, but I'm using voice controls because I'm driving. It has my car's bluetooth device set as "trusted" so it shouldn't even require it to unlock to continue, and it's not like asking it to play something on Spotify would reveal any information about myself. Additionally, sometimes it just leaves the screen on in the off chance that it _does_ start to play music, and I feel my pocket getting warm but there's nothing that I can do because I'm driving and I don't want to mess with my phone. If I knew that it was going to leave the screen on I would just queue up music before I leave, but it doesn't always do it and it drives me nuts. I don't think that my next phone will be a Pixel.

shadowgovt 2y ago

Yep. I think I'm in the "fool me twice" category on Pixels now. This is the third one in a row with a bad USB socket.

nebula8804 2y ago

Nice to see they haven't changed anything from the Nexus 5 days. I purposely stayed on the official firmware in the hopes that I would have a seamless experience. The day before an epic trip around Europe, I upgraded to the latest version. It broke video recording so that all videos had garbled audio. Ruined priceless memories. Meanwhile my friend's iPhone 5 was operating perfectly fine and wasn't always running out of battery like the Nexus was. After the trip, I had enough and bought a used iPhone. That was the last time I ever considered Android. This also turned me into a die hard Mac user. Can't believe I wasted years of my life trying to make Linux and Windows work when I could have just used a Mac.