Upcoming 2017 Google Pixel XL May Feature 'Squeezable' Frame for Activating Google Assistant

[Sasparilla]

Have to call a bogus on LG building the Pixel 2. HTC will be building it (that's also why it might have the squeezable side feature which HTC has rolled out with its latest). The display may be coming from LG though.

There was some confusion regarding LG for manufacturing because they supposedly landed the contract to be building the Pixel 3 (they don't have the greatest reputation). HTC's contract with Google went for 2 generations of Pixel's supposedly.

 

[Karma*Police]

Don't judge it based on the sales. Of course they were never going to compete with Samsung or Apple. But it is a great phone, if you've ever used one. Very snappy, great camera.

Let's be honest, it's an overpriced Nexus which has been rebranded so that they can charge more. In some ways it's actually worse than the Nexus. It's a good phone, not great. It's slower than the iPhone and that design is an embarrassing rip off of the iPhone. I expect more from a company that basically prints money.

They should have kept the Nexus and lower price point, especially since they use off the shelf everything... even the camera is nothing special... the magic is in their software but software can only do so much.

 

[FasterQuieter]

Funny, I wrote an email to Tim Cook last September suggesting that one way to lose the home button would be to make a squeezable phone. The new haptics in the iPhone 7 gave me the idea of a phone with a squeezy personality. I wonder if the new iPhone will have this? Not that I am suggesting for one second that my idea would be the cause.

 

[FelixDerKater]

Walking past the Pixels at Best Buy, it's easy to confuse them for iPhones. As the bezels go away across the board, that will become an increasingly difficult task.

 

[Madchad]

1. Dumbest smartphone feature I've seen in a long time.

2. The first Pixel just recently hit the 1 million sold mark. This is not an iPhone or Samsung competitor.

I love Gruber’s take

‘Looks great. If this is legit, they’ll sell thousands more of them than last year.’

 

[Cloudkicker]

Eh, people said many things were a stupid gimmick that were new features and turned successful. At least it's not a feature that every phone has on the market. People said Retina screens were stupid, now look.

Ahem... some smart rich dude in the tech industry once said if you have to use a stylus, it's a fail.

Jury still out on a headphone jack removal being "brave", but I expect a verdict shortly.

Nice to know OLED is finally/officially now not a stupid gimmick as of this Fall.

 

[Madchad]

LOL don't judge it based on sales. I love that one. Fine: It's literally less than half the speed of the iPhone. It does not have a linear haptic motor. No pressure sensitivity on the screen. No stereo speakers. Not water resistant. Screen is dimmer than the iPhone and doesn't support native DCI-P3 color gamut. It's much thicker. Despite having a very good camera, Pixel only includes a single lens system so it only has crappy digital zooming, and without optical image stabilization, the video isn't as good. The fingerprint scanner is on the back. The design is as ugly as it gets. Anything else? I would have given it a + for a headphone jack but since getting AirPods for my wife and beatsX for myself, I realize a headphone jack is a waste of space. Wireless freedom is amazing.
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How does Siri require two hands? It requires zero hands ("Hey Siri") or one (hold down the home button). You're either very daft or you've never used an iPhone before (which is highly correlative with such a state). Squeezing a large phone will often require adjusting your grip on the phone to do so. You operate a phone by resting it in your fingers while your thumb reaches around to tap around on the front screen. Siri requires you to press on the front screen (or just talk). Squeezing the phone will require many to bring it in closer/more centered on their Palm, making it impossible to reach the far side of the screen with your thumb.
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It will become a Samsung competitor well before it becomes an iPhone competitor. That's a given. Right now, it's neither.

Asking what you want every time you squeeze a bit too firmly; how annoying!

I already turned off Siri for coming on when I held the home button too long (and as I never use the pointless thing obvs).

Maybe I am as heavy handed as my girlfriend says...

I turned that off a while ago too , but I use ‘hey siri’ about 30 times a day.

 

[basketmac]

Back mounted finger print scanners are the best IMO, my phone is always turned on and unlocked as I pull it out of my pocket. I definitely can't say that with the awkward placement of the iPhone's scanner.

I like the way the new Pixel is looking so far, but I don't understand the point of the squeeze sensor...

I don’t have a problem pullling my 7 Plus out of my pocket while unlocking it. Not saying it isn’t awkward for others, but just hasn’t been an issue for me.

 

[burgman]

Does everyone realize that HTC already has this feature?

I guess I'm missing this, but what do you do after you squeeze the phone to activate this AI feature? Do you talk to it? If so, I'd think voice activation would make more sense.

You think maybe it's a clue on who is making it, brilliant find there
Many of the rabid Apple fans here completely miss the goals of the Nexus/Pixel line and the long game. Feeling the need to defend Apple and attack anything not Apple is funny given Apple, or any large international company for that matter couldn't care less about you.

 

[MH01]

Find me an iPhone 4 review that calls the Retina display stupid. I'll wait.

I believe the reference is to "retina" marketing , it's just resolution bump that was sold as some perfect eyesight match .....blah blah.... all these features are just hardware with wanky markerting terms.

 

[CarpalMac]

What's next? Bending, spitting or pissing on a phone to activate a feature? A stupid gimmick is a stupid gimmick.

Right up until the moment Apple do it, when suddenly you stop with the childish exaggerations and think it magical instead.

 

[MH01]

You think maybe it's a clue on who is making it, brilliant find there
Many of the rabid Apple fans here completely miss the goals of the Nexus/Pixel line and the long game. Feeling the need to defend Apple and attack anything not Apple is funny given Apple, or any large international company for that matter couldn't care less about you.

It's worse than that. Every year the iPhone is just becoming another "phone" and in my view looking more and more like android devices. Industry is copying each other. And the aspects of the android design the posters here were so vocal against, are not praising just cause apple has implemented them. For me each year all phones, be it apple or android are getting packed with crap gimmicks.

 

[CarpalMac]

NO ONE WANTS THIS FEATURE.

Newsflash: USING BLOCK CAPITALS DOESN'T SUDDENLY MAKE A WILD ASSERTION TRUE.

 

[MH01]

Not that useful but good job Google? If this was Apple everyone would be calling it a stupid gimmick like they did with 3D Touch.

Read the thread mate, or did you miss all the people calling it a stupid gimmick? When apple introduces it, you can tell us how brilliant it is....now that's the problem on these forums....

 

[MrX8503]

Why is the back made of part glass and part metal?

 

[Reksy]

Exactly. How is this not useful?

You squeeze your phone to trigger the best virtual assistant on the market. I can see any number of instances where this would be the most convenient way to activate it.

It has one flaw that makes it entirely useless to me...It's only useful if your device is unlocked. If you enable the "trusted voice" feature to allow your voice to unlock it then anyone can. My brother can unlock my phone via voice, 2 of my coworkers can...etc etc. It's really insecure and poorly implemented.

Why do I need to unlock my phone to get the weather or set an alarm? Siri lets you do a lot while unlocked and it doesn't compromise security. I really regret going back to Android for a phone cause my 10.5 iPad pro is usually near me and I find I use siri a lot more.

Oh and another flaw...you can't fluidly speak to it. You cant say "Ok Google what's the temperature outside?". Android, being a laggy OS (even on my Pixel XL), you have to say OK google, wait for it to wake up, then ask its question.

Sure it can get you better information, but only if you deal with how slow it is and how insecure as well.

 

[mingravity]

Back mounted finger print scanners are the best IMO, my phone is always turned on and unlocked as I pull it out of my pocket. I definitely can't say that with the awkward placement of the iPhone's scanner.

I like the way the new Pixel is looking so far, but I don't understand the point of the squeeze sensor...

but if its on a table u have to pick it up to unlock. atleast for me its on my desk/table 8-9 hours a days compared to 2 hours or so when i am traveling.

 

[mariusignorello]

So squeezing is the new highlight feature. Interesting..................

 

[iReality85]

1. Dumbest smartphone feature I've seen in a long time.

2. The first Pixel just recently hit the 1 million sold mark. This is not an iPhone or Samsung competitor.

The Pixel has always been a tech geek, DIY phone. For those who value running stock Android (good idea) which is straight from the source, Google. Although it is a solidly built phone, it doesnt garner the pizazz and marketing that it's Samsung and HTC kin do.

Back mounted finger print scanners are the best IMO, my phone is always turned on and unlocked as I pull it out of my pocket. I definitely can't say that with the awkward placement of the iPhone's scanner.

I guess, if you always have your phone in your pocket. I and plenty of others keep our phone on our work desk. Having to pick up my phone to unlock it would grow old very fast.

Exactly. How is this not useful?

You squeeze your phone to trigger the best virtual assistant on the market. I can see any number of instances where this would be the most convenient way to activate it.

I'll give props to this, seems innovative. It's essentially 'quiet mode' for bringing up the assistant, which can be useful in certain situations. Or for quickness.

 

[Abazigal]

Right up until the moment Apple do it, when suddenly you stop with the childish exaggerations and think it magical instead.

That's because in such a hypothetical scenario, Apple will do what they have always done - take an emerging product category with a frustrating user experience and deliver a polished product made possible by its control over both the hardware and software.

 

[Tech198]

So squeezing is the new highlight feature. Interesting..................

I'd rather touch phones the squeeze.

 

[sk1wbw]

One thing nobody's really addressed so far are the durability costs of implementing such a feature.

The major drawback for the U11 was the softer, squeezable metal rendered the phone less structurally sound. Refer to 4:39 and watch the results in the video below:

Given that Google had one of the sturdiest phones in the Pixel, the tradeoff doesn't seem worthy of praise.

Not really. Anything and everything will bend and break if you bend and break it. It won't break and bend if you don't try to do so. If you don't want a bent and broken phone, then don't bend it until it breaks. I've never had a bent or broken phone because I've never tried to bend one until it breaks.

 

[TroyBoy30]

can't wait. love my pixel xl and i love the fingerprint scanner being on the back. its so much better that being on the front

 

[MacBergin]

Exactly. How is this not useful?

You squeeze your phone to trigger the best virtual assistant on the market. I can see any number of instances where this would be the most convenient way to activate it.

Why would Google put Siri on the Pixel?
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can't wait. love my pixel xl and i love the fingerprint scanner being on the back. its so much better that being on the front

Except for those times when its sitting on any surface and you can't or don't want to pick it up to unlock the phone. In my case that would be way too many times. Fingerprint on the back seems useful in very few instances.
[doublepost=1499863955][/doublepost]Seems like you'll be activating the assistant or tuning on your flashlight when you just meant to raise or lower the volume.

 

[deuxani]

Have to call a bogus on LG building the Pixel 2. HTC will be building it (that's also why it might have the squeezable side feature which HTC has rolled out with its latest). The display may be coming from LG though.

There was some confusion regarding LG for manufacturing because they supposedly landed the contract to be building the Pixel 3 (they don't have the greatest reputation). HTC's contract with Google went for 2 generations of Pixel's supposedly.

AndroidPolice reports that Google was testing 3 phones, 5" one that looks like the current Pixel, a bigger one made by HTC and a bigger one made by LG. The HTC one got canned and they are going with this LG one (codename Taimen). So I do think this is all LG.