Nexus-N/Pixel XL ( 2016 )

[bmac4]

That's the other factor that I have to consider. $815 dollars for a first generation device, while impressive, is hard to swallow knowing they'll get these features in the next round. And since it's something I cherish, I know I'll want to upgrade again. How well will the Pixel retain its value? Hard to say. Either way, I'd have to drop another ~$800 dollars again to get the waterproofing that should've been in this year.

That is thing with tech. I did the same thing you did with the iPhone 7. I kept thinking, why get the 7 when everyone is saying the 8 is going to be Apple's biggest upgrade and amazing. I am glad I decided to get the 7, I love it. Tech will always grow year over year, it's just one of those things you have to decide if that phone is worth buying now or waiting for the better one next year.

 

[spinedoc77]

There are videos out there now where people have been submerging the Pixel/Pixel XL for 30 minutes and they come out with no ill signs. If you want to "take it for a swim," I'd advise against that, but it looks like it's holding up fine if you accidentally drop it in the dish water or toilet.

Let's see what happens when they deny a warranty claim because one of the waterproof stickers turned red. I understand they will deny that claim on a water resistant phone, but at least there is much less of a chance of activating the stickers.

 

[Lava Lamp Freak]

That is thing with tech. I did the same thing you did with the iPhone 7. I kept thinking, why get the 7 when everyone is saying the 8 is going to be Apple's biggest upgrade and amazing. I am glad I decided to get the 7, I love it. Tech will always grow year over year, it's just one of those things you have to decide if that phone is worth buying now or waiting for the better one next year.

If the iPhone 8 really has all of the changes that are rumored, I might get lured back from Android. I even considered going to iPhone 7 from my S7, but I find the screen too small now at 4.7", and the 5.5" is a little too large for me. I wish Apple made a 5".

I won't go S8 unless they can make it as fast as the Pixel. The perpetual lag on Samsung devices is annoying. Even more annoying is the people who claim there is no lag at all on S7. Well, after going from S7 to Pixel it's a wonderful experience.

 

[bmac4]

Has anyone been to Best Buy and seen the Pixel? I am headed by my local store this afternoon and hoped I could take a look.

 

[AppleRobert]

Damn I want that blue .... curse you google ......

Saw one at another Verizon store on display, I did not really care for it and I prefer the black the most.

Is your Honor 8 blue?
[doublepost=1477062804][/doublepost]

Has anyone been to Best Buy and seen the Pixel? I am headed by my local store this afternoon and hoped I could take a look.

They did not have any at my local store yesterday on display or for sale. Have not checked today.

 

[5105973]

Let's see what happens when they deny a warranty claim because one of the waterproof stickers turned red. I understand they will deny that claim on a water resistant phone, but at least there is much less of a chance of activating the stickers.

I think it's probably about as water resistant as my 6SPlus. Which means I can probably safely get a few drops of water on it. But I treat even my "water resistant" S7Edge with care around water. These companies will take any out they can to avoid giving you free warranty service. Why push it...I'm certainly not going to.

Well thanks to whistleblowers we KNOW our information is under surveillance. And these days you can't even join a club that's even remotely political without ending up on some watch list. I wish that were hyperbole but according to countless news articles I've read, it's apparently not.

Perhaps it would HELP in my case for them to see my endless texts about kids, pets, laundry and household disasters and failed cooking experiments and adventures in gardening to know I'm the least likely person to overthrow the government or stockpile Note 7s...mwahahaha! Okay now that's just a joke. I don't mean to steer this conversation off into PRSI.

Anyway, I completely respect your reasoning for avoiding the Googlestalking nature of Pixel. When confronted with the fullness of it myself, I may find its not right for me, either, and return it or learn to like a neutered version of it.

 

[epicrayban]

Woah, very impressive! This might change things...

So is Google pulling an Apple iPhone 6S, where they don't explicitly call it waterproofing but it's actually rather waterproof?

Hope there are more tests like this.

 

[bmac4]

Saw one at another Verizon store on display, I did not really care for it and I prefer the black the most.

Is your Honor 8 blue?
[doublepost=1477062804][/doublepost]

They did not have any at my local store yesterday on display or for sale. Have not checked today.

Ok thanks. I will report back this afternoon if I see any.

 

[MRU]

Is your Honor 8 blue?

Yep - though ironically I think I would have preferred black or white instead .... lol

 

[spriter]

Anyone in the UK know if these are on display in stores?

 

[epicrayban]

Google Play store... every option out of stock.

 

[mclld]

Someone made this comment on another site I was reading and it is so true lol

"That Android community 180...

2 weeks ago: "wtf is this ****?"
reviews hit: "okay it's really good but it still bland and competitively priced expensive"
this morning: "wow it actually looks great in person"
now: "my order says processing, anyone else?""

 

[skiburro]

Someone made this comment on another site I was reading and it is so true lol

"That Android community 180...

2 weeks ago: "wtf is this ****?"
reviews hit: "okay it's really good but it still bland and competitively priced expensive"
this morning: "wow it actually looks great in person"
now: "my order says processing, anyone else?""

every.single.nexus.release it is the same thing. And every single time they turn out to be the Android phone to own. It was once frustrating to watch the cycle in the forums but now I just sit back and smile.

 

[epicrayban]

Someone made this comment on another site I was reading and it is so true lol

"That Android community 180...

2 weeks ago: "wtf is this ****?"
reviews hit: "okay it's really good but it still bland and competitively priced expensive"
this morning: "wow it actually looks great in person"
now: "my order says processing, anyone else?""

Accurate!

To be fair, this happens with a lot of phones. Leaks have that effect. And if reviews do not live up to expectations, then people feel justified. If it exceeds expectations, then people will change their minds. In this case, the Pixels really did exceed a lot.

Kudos to Google.

 

[spinedoc77]

Someone made this comment on another site I was reading and it is so true lol

"That Android community 180...

2 weeks ago: "wtf is this ****?"
reviews hit: "okay it's really good but it still bland and competitively priced expensive"
this morning: "wow it actually looks great in person"
now: "my order says processing, anyone else?""

Lol, that's probably the evolution for me as well. I've definitely come around to it.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Gotta say, this is the first Android phone in years that's gotten my attention. I am disappointed in performance results from the tests that I've seen, but I'll definitely check it out once display units start hitting the local Best Buy. My problem with all the Note phones and the Nexus 6P (my latest foray into Android) were touch response times, which were appalling. I do wonder if this phone has finally fixed this problem.

 

[spriter]

The camera finally getting on par is a big plus for me. Whilst the 6P camera is very good, it needs to be a static scene or subject as it takes way too long to focus, shoot, and process between shots. It's pretty frustrating taking blurry pics of your kids unless they're statuesque.

I've been buying Samsungs for years because of their superior camera package and multi window, while accepting their lazy OS updates.

Now Pixel and Nougat tick those boxes, I'm swayed given it has stock Android and Assistant is promising (been playing on my 6P).

Water resistance, wireless charging, and front speakers are nice but aren't high on my priority list.

Waiting for some hands on with the standard model.

 

[msavic]

I had a chance to play with the Pixel XL and I left with mixed opinions about it. The overall build is premium feeling and the construction is well built but the overall design has yet to grow on me. I will admit that it looks a lot better in person than it does in online rendered images but the design is still relatively "safe" and not exactly eye catching.

In terms of performance, the Pixel is easily the fastest android device I have used and it easily bests my S7E in UI Speed and app launching. The only concern I have is that the demo device I was able to play with for 10 minutes was warm to the touch and that was with what I would consider basic use. It could be that the phone itself is still indexing or completing set up in the background as they did mention they only received the demo device today and removed it from the box this morning.

I'm actually able to comment on battery life but since this would be the first charge on that specific Pixel XL I am not certain with what charge the battery came with. The battery history shows approximately ~90% as the start of the graph. When I handed the phone back it was at 56% battery with 2 hours and 14 minutes of screen on time. This is without an active SIM card and only WiFI connected but that is about what I could get with my S7E when it was brand new.

I did take a few pictures inside the store and the capture speed is quick but I noticed that if I take an image and quickly tap the image icon in the lower corner to view the image I just took. The gallery would still show "Processing HDR+" and a sort of foggy glass effect over the image almost as if the image is not yet loaded. This was relatively hit or miss as sometimes it took a few seconds for the image to finally appear while other times it didn't show the processing message. It's not a big deal but it's something I don't really like especially after being used to the rapid fire image capture on the S7E and the 7 Plus.

I also feel I should mention that white balance tended to a slightly yellowish hue while taking images in store. The lights are very bright and harsh so I can't draw any concrete conclusions but it seems like the 7 Plus I'm using presently did a better job selecting white balance. Overall, the camera app is a major improvement in usability over the Nexus 6P which was frankly embarrassingly slow.

With all of the above said, I'm not sure where my final standing is on the Pixel XL but I am extremely happy Google is putting pressure on the other Android device manufacturers to produce better devices. Hopefully this pushes Samsung to actually optimize and bug test there software before releasing it to the world. As frankly there is no reason Samsung can't produce a device as quick and fluid to use as the Pixel especially considering the manpower they have.

 

[spriter]

Well, I'm in with the black XL. Tried them both out and, after a bit of haggling, got to keep my contract price of £31.50 with £100 upfront.

Bigger battery and QHD swayed me. Build feels good, camera is instant (my big must) and stock Android is a good combo. Hopefully assistant gets better.

Yes, it's a bit conservative in design. But I'm coming from an SE (archaic), and a 6P (Marmite). At least it doesn't have a logo stamped across the front. I was pleasantly surprised how nice the black (actually very dark grey) is in person. Not a fan of the white with all the sensors personally.

Anyway, let's see how this goes.

 

[Marco123]

Well, I'm in with the black XL. Tried them both out and, after a bit of haggling, got to keep my contract price of £31.50 with £100 upfront.

Bigger battery and QHD swayed me. Build feels good, camera is instant (my big must) and stock Android is a good combo. Hopefully assistant gets better.

Yes, it's a bit conservative in design. But I'm coming from an SE (archaic), and a 6P (Marmite). At least it doesn't have a logo stamped across the front. I was pleasantly surprised how nice the black (actually very dark grey) is in person. Not a fan of the white with all the sensors personally.

Anyway, let's see how this goes.

How did you get a XL for £31.50 with £100 upfront?

 

[spriter]

How did you get a XL for £31.50 with £100 upfront?

Upgrade/renewal at CPW. I have two contracts so they sweetened the deal on that basis as a long-term customer. This is for the 32gb XL which suits me as a non-gamer and unlimited Google photos to handle storage.

 

[Hanzu Lao]

Display damage from 1 drop? Doesn't look too good.

 

[KillaMac]

Seems people are complaining about long charge times. When google spouted off about 15 minutes gets you many hours. An hour is only getting 40% charge. Not very good. iPhone does better than that with its small charger.

 

[Technarchy]

Someone made this comment on another site I was reading and it is so true lol

"That Android community 180...

2 weeks ago: "wtf is this ****?"
reviews hit: "okay it's really good but it still bland and competitively priced expensive"
this morning: "wow it actually looks great in person"
now: "my order says processing, anyone else?""

Ha! That's the trajectory perfectly illustrated.

Personally I think the Pixel is the most intriguing and exciting smartphone release of 2016.

Google doing compelling hardware, powerful services and a blistering version of android is the Google phone we've been waiting for.

Not getting into a debate of if it is better or worse than an iPhone 7, or takes the crown of phone of the year from the Note 7. That's irrelevant IMHO.

 

[bmac4]

So thought I would report back. Went to my local Best Buy yesterday, and they had no Pixels on display. I am not a Verizon customer, so I am not going to bother going into one of their stores to get hassled. I will say Best Buy had Samsung stuff everywhere in the phone department. They are trying to sell the mess out of the S7/edge.