Woke up on Monday and my Pixel 6 Pro wasnt quite fitting in the case while i was checking news while having coffee on the morning. Pushed it in and it didnt seem to fit right. Took the case off to find it had turned itself into a spicy pillow and was splitting along the side. Was 1 month inside warranty, messaged support who told me it was wear and tear initially. I made it quite clear i wasnt accepting that and there wasnt even any way that internal adhesive failing would be wear and tear, never mind battery expansion. They agreed to replace it with a refurb as a goodwill gesture, how very nice of them. I upgraded the same day to a S23 Ultra and have sold the refurb to a reseller.
Not much of a story. The Pixel 6 uses a different method of reading fingerprints that involves shining a bright light at your finger to read it. All of my other phones didn't use light like that.
So when I tried to unlock it one night with my finger off center, it surprised me with a full brightness white flash.
Using the sensor behind the screen turns on a surprisingly bright circle of the screen behind your finger, even with the rest of the screen dimmed (say, because you're in bed with the lights out) it's the same brightness, probably just 100%. Presumably it helps the sensor work better. Move your finger a bit too much and that brightness hits your eyes. Which can be uncomfortable at the surprising level of brightness.
The brightness adjustment sucks, basically 50% of the slider does nothing. Also randomly dims at top brightness and won't let me go back to max brightness manually.
Fingerprint sensor is complete and total shit. I maybe get 10% success rate unlocking phone, while app fingerprint unlock is at 80% success.
Google disabled the HDMI out for no reason other than they want you to use Chromecast.
Battery is good and wireless charging is good with a branded Google wireless charger, pathetic with any aftermarket wireless charger.
Not major issues but the brightness and fingerprint issues are an annoyance several times a day and it just builds up, you know?
I get all the updates and the Google specific features are great. Camera is fine. Works well with Mint Mobile. I get good 5G in my area where I didn't get good reception on my last phone with same service.
I would probably go back to OnePlus or try NothingPhone, wouldn't do a Pixel again.
Ouch. I'm not surprised though. The 6 sounded like a total mess when I was researching for a phone replacement recently. Why they got rid of the back fingerprint sensor or didn't go with the better type of sensor is beyond me.
I'm going back to a one plus phone probably after 3 pixel shit shows.
My favorite thing about the P6P? The phone can't even be used in direct sunlight. Oh and then there's the cellular signal and switching issues, also garbage battery life and auto brightness adjust.
The fingerprint reader, the shitty front facing camera ... fuck this phone. It will be gone by the end of the year.
I had a bad experience with my first one and never went back, plus it's Google. I'm just exercising recreational outrage and stirring the pot cause i saw the sub lol
I think I had the first one. Battery life was absolutely garbage and wouldn't last a day. Google was constantly trying to hoover up my data, even after I turned off location tracking if found it was still saving where I was moving. I turned off automatic updates until one day I decided to update my phone and it fucked it up to the point where it was functionally bricked. Also the UI makes me think that they are trying really hard to be an iPhone but with enhanced privacy violations.
Man, I had the Nexus One, Nexus 4 and 2 consecutive Nexus 5's (first one took a swim in the toilet, still worked, just started to lose signal regularly).
Was exceedingly happy with all 3 phones. Especially the 5, which was a 250€ phone with top of the line features (including NFC, 10 years ago!)
The next Nexus was shit and then Google decided to go with the Pixel brand, because people wouldn't accept Nexus phones to be so goddamn expensive while having far more limited features than the Nexus models used to have.
And I've looked at almost all Pixel models since and was not impressed by even a single one of them.
Man, I wish someone would bring out a modern equivalent to the Nexus 5, a phone loaded with every current and on the horizon tech, for 250-300€.
I actually quite liked my Nexus 6P and Google Pixel 2XL. The stereo speakers and fingerprint reader on the 6P were my favorite. I wish I could find another phone with speakers like the 6P had.
Besides the boot loop of the LG one, it was better than the Pixel. I feel like with the death of Nexus, Google abandoned its power users to lure the causal iPhone leaning consumers
Totally agree. When Nexus was dropped the switched focus to the casual user.
Then there is the network switching issue thay is still present on PIxels. Switching cell > wifi or the other direction requires a reboot for network. Granted it isn't as bad as it was a year ago. Still a ridiculous bug thay has been around for years on the pixel
The Pixel phones haven't been 'vanilla Android' for a while now. The Pixel launcher is just a way for Google for more easily serve ads and paid 'news' stories to you. The only thing I really like about my Pixel 6 Pro is the camera, otherwise it is an over-priced piece of hardware.
Yup, and because of that I get the privacy and security I want thanks to GrapheneOS, get the benefit of Google, my paid apps, and Googles apps not having god like spy power over my phone, which is the biggest spit in the face to Google there is. Money well spent.
Security first and also privacy focused OS. Hardened kernel as well as app isolation. The Google Play Services (if you install them) dont have root access so you're not being surveiled by the Good, yet have all the benefits of Google stuff like access to your paid apps, and since verified boot is maintained, things like banking apps that usually have an issue with custom OS's still work.
Been around for many years, Incredibly stable and large community behind it. Been around since the Nexus' when it was still CopperheadOS.
The Pixel 3A is the best phone I've ever had, and I'm sad to be switching to a different company with my next phone. Being said, I've heard about the problems with newer Pixels, so I suppose I'm not too bummed out about switching. Still, gonna miss Call Screening.
Right now, I'm looking at the Galaxy Xcover6. It's the only phone on the market besides the Fairphone that has 5g support, removable battery, and expandable storage through a MicroSD slot. The downsides are that it doesn't support wireless charging (not a deal breaker for me), and it obviously doesn't have call screening. I'm teeter tottering right now, but I'm still mulling it over. I'm sure if I wait another year there will surely be another phone that checks these boxes, but as I'm sure you know, the 3A is starting to give out on me. Remains to be seen what I'll do.
My 3A has been amazing. Still works ok. Only considering an update because I want the security updates and don't want to fuck around with Lineage again.
I loved my 3a so much. I upgrade to p7p and it's fine, really good. But the 3a was just such a good experience and feels so good in the hand. Miss you bb.
While I do agree with you to some extent. I've been pretty happy with mine so far.
I still don't like the way you have to "backup" everything locally though. They're forcing you to use their cloud service for that with no other first-party option (yes I know ADB is one, but that's depreciated and could go away at any point in time.)
After exclusively using pixels for years, I used to be right there with you until I bought my pixel 6. My experience was so bad I'll never buy another pixel again. Still sad about it but there are other things I'd rather waste my money on.
I like that a controversial opinion in the same instance as the topic being mentioned is actually thought over and not insta-downvoted because everyone wants their echo chamber