Pixel 3a

https://blog.google/products/pixel/io-pixel-3a/

by vanilla_nut • 7 years ago

309 325 7 years ago

jahabrewer• 7 years ago

I'm really excited to see Google return to this price point. I was distraught when they discontinued the Nexus line.

Which is funny, because the Nexus 5 had a more pixel dense screen and supported wireless charging at a lower price point.

nkozyra• 7 years ago

Motorola continues to carry this torch with it's G-series, near-stock, sub-$300 phones.

techntoke• 7 years ago

True, but my G5 Plus lags a lot at this point. It has always been noticeably slower than other higher-end phones. I am really tempted to get the new Pixel 3a.

TwoNineA• 7 years ago

Motorola continues to carry this torch with it's G-series, near-stock, sub-$300 phones.

They also come with almost non existent Android upgrades.

quasse• 7 years ago

My G4 Plus has been a tank. It survived a motorcycle trip through the Yukon mounted to the bars of my bike without any more protection from the elements than my windscreen.

I unlocked the bootloader but then never installed a ROM because the stock one is close enough to vanilla Android to keep me happy.

e402• 7 years ago

The Moto x4 (no longer available, but it was until recently) is really nice. I hope there's an x5, in the future.

robocat2• 7 years ago

I would also consider Nokia (HMD global).

near-stock

I have now got a Nokia 7+ which has "Android One" (very close to AOSP) and it has been a great piece of hardware which gets updates. I think HMD Global dealt brilliantly with the security issue that affected some phones.

I agree about Moto though, in the past I have bought four Moto phones (G1, G3, G3, G4 - two were presents) and I had zero hardware faults (although they all stopped getting updates far earlier than I like). A G3 and G4 are still in daily use. One G3 broke a screen (teenager), and I can't remember who I gave the G1 to when I upgraded.

Multiple previous experiences with Nexus line have left me disappointed, and so far the Pixel's have been too expensive for me to want to learn the same mistakes again.

Hopefully the 3a will be better!

thaumasiotes3• 7 years ago

Motorola continues to carry this torch with it's G-series, near-stock, sub-$300 phones.

Except that they seem to have wholeheartedly jumped on the "I need a phone so big it won't fit in my hand" bandwagon. As far as I could tell last I checked, they don't sell anything in this size range.

linguae• 7 years ago

Same here. I ended up buying an iPhone SE two years ago to replace my Nexus 5 because I did not want to spend $650 for a Pixel phone. While unfortunately it would be difficult for me to switch back to Android since I have an Apple Watch that I love using, I am very happy that Google has decided to return to the Nexus-style price point. I loved my Nexus 5, including its stock Android and its two years of updates from Google.

dmos622• 7 years ago

it would be difficult for me to switch back to Android since I have an Apple Watch that I love

Vendor ecosystem lock-in triumphs again.

paulddraper2• 7 years ago

Too bad they haven't gone back to the size of the Nexus 4/5 though :/

vuln• 7 years ago

I am wondering how durable these plastic bodies are going to be... Seems like it would be cheaper and easier to replace a plastic body, versus metal and glass... I can't wait touch one. The price is near perfect.

Someone1234• 7 years ago

All the plastic phones I had were more durable than metal or glass. They scuff a little easier but plastic absorbs the hits rather than bending (metal) or cracking (glass).

Plastic is only unpopular for social reasons -- it is seen as less "premium." But aside from that it is basically the ideal material for phones, light, durable, allows wireless charging, allows signal penetration, etc.

SketchySeaBeast4• 7 years ago

I miss when they had a plastic removable back and battery - it would hit the ground and three pieces would go flying, but that's 3 different vectors for kinetic energy, instead of just one composed entirely of glass.

jpetso• 7 years ago

Not to mention that it often comes with a grippy coating that prevents the phone from sliding out of your hand.

Oh, and not to mention the fact that everyone needs to put a plastic or rubber case on their metal or glass phone, so not only do people not get to see their "premium" materials on a day-to-day basis but also it's now significantly blown up in size.

_raoulcousins• 7 years ago

Difference for me has been how hard it is to find a repair shop that has parts in stock and can turn around a repair quickly on a non-Galaxy/non-iPhone.

Supermighty2• 7 years ago

I'm glad to see plastic make a return. I don't mind the metal, but I couldn't buy a glass backed phone. I remember when the Nexus 4 came out, people everywhere had broken glass backs.

EpicBlackCrayon• 7 years ago

Anecdotally like another comment says, all the plastic phones I've had have been way more durable than any glass phone, maybe with the exception of the Essential Phone. But then, it's made out of titanium so there's that.

int_19h3• 7 years ago

Tough modern polymers are generally more durable in drop tests. Plastic, when it doesn't crack, just springs right back. Metal bends, and stays bent.

If you look at military guns these days, almost all of them have polymer magazines. This is one of the reasons why.

megaremote• 7 years ago

Are you? They have been using plastic in phones since the very beginning.

kentt2• 7 years ago

Glad to see some cheaper phones from Google. The Nexus 4 and 5 were the best phones I've had.

However, I still want a headphone jack and a smaller phone. I'll be riding out the original Pixel for as long as possible.

sharcerer• 7 years ago

it has a jack.

mattnewton• 7 years ago

I think you are in luck: https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/07/the-headphone-jack-is-back...

gordon_freeman2• 7 years ago

I am on Nexus 6P and is still going strong for me.

neogodless2• 7 years ago

I really liked my 6P, but I bought it used and started to find the battery life untenable before I hit the 2 year mark! Then the Pixel sale hit and I got a 64GB for $400.

My only headphone jack use case is my 1970s receiver, where I use an RCA adapter. Plan to test the USB-C adapter but haven't tried it yet. Don't love the idea of two adapters...

But otherwise I love the Pixel 3.

Wheaties466• 7 years ago

It looks like it does indeed have a headphone jack.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/07/the-headphone-jack-is-back...

mjevans• 7 years ago

They honestly don't realize how much of a feature that is. This is literally a kill if missing feature for me. I'm not due for a phone replacement yet, but when my device does end up reaching end of life I'll probably replace it with the successor of the 3a.

kentt2• 7 years ago

Whoops I didn't even notice since it seems like new phones don't have them. My mistake

DragoCubed2• 7 years ago

The Nexii were so cool

I'm very disappointed in this new Google.

briffle• 7 years ago

Perhaps you could elaborate on why you think they are not cool?

kawsper• 7 years ago

I was waiting on this for so long, but ended up with a OnePlus instead, excited to finally see them released, it will be great for the Android ecosystem.

lousken2• 7 years ago

plastic back => replaceable battery?!

andybak• 7 years ago

Oh - my dream phone. Headphone jack, SD card slot and a big and replaceable battery...

manfredo9• 7 years ago

My Samsung Galaxy S5 from back in the day had all of those. Easy to root too.

DragoCubed2• 7 years ago

If only

scotchio• 7 years ago

As an iPhone user who hasn't touched Android in years:

You could literally replace that special marketing video at the top of the page [1] with any other Android / Google phone and I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

Just feels like a bunch of shiny blah without telling me anything useful. Might as well replace with a toaster. Maybe that's the point...

On a less critical note though, glad Google is pressing cheaper phones. The standard for a reasonable phone is all over town these days

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc7LlUtQgNw

EnFinlay• 7 years ago

That's my perception of all phones, iPhones included.

OldFatCactus• 7 years ago

Pretty standard marketing for all phones and "smart" devices these days

SketchySeaBeast4• 7 years ago

What specifically stands out to you about that being an ad for an Android phone instead of an iPhone? I can't see a huge differentiation.

vanilla_nut• 7 years ago

Apparently this phone doesn't use Gorilla Glass, but instead uses something called Dragontail glass [1] according to the Verge's review [2]. Tempted by the prospect of a great camera, a headphone jack, and an affordable phone, but there really doesn't seem to be much information about the glass out there.

I suppose if it was in the Xperia phones it can't be that bad -- I never noticed any issues with the glass on them. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragontrail) [2](https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18530449/google-pixel-3a-x...)

judge2020• 7 years ago

From the articles I've read, the glass is less impact resistant.

manfredo9• 7 years ago

The tech specs between the 3a and 3 don't show too much of a downgrade:

* Screen is smaller, but on the Pixel 3a XL version the screen dimensions excluding the notch appear to be the same.

* Same 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, but no 128GB persistent storage option on the 3a. 64GB is usually plenty anyway, though.

* Processor is somewhat slower: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 670 2.0GHz + 1.7GHz, 64Bit Octa-Core on the 3a. vs a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 2.5GHz + 1.6GHz, 64Bit Octa-Core on the pixel 3.

* 3a removes wireless charging. Never used it on my Pixel 3 XL.

* Under the sensors section, the normal Pixel 3 has "Advanced x-axis haptics for sharper/defined response" whereas the 3a does not.

* 3a only has one front facing camera instead of dual front cameras.

* 3a has a headphone jack. Personally, I adjusted pretty well to Bluetooth headsets but some people really appreciate the jack.

Overall seems like a modest downgrade for a big drop in price. Most of the stuff cut out seems like premium features where the dollar-to-user-value ratio isn't very good. The only significant downgrades seem to be processor speed and dropping the second front facing camera. It's probably also safe to assume more economical build materials and fabrication. Specs taken from Google Play store:

https://store.google.com/product/pixel_3a_specs

https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_3_specs?hl=en-US

bluedino3• 7 years ago

Thanks to Pixel 3 discounts, the 3a is only $200 less (or 33%)

asdfasgasdgasdg• 7 years ago

Difference is less even than that if you got it a couple of weeks ago. My Pixel 3 cost $450, and it's the 128GB. If I could have gotten the 64GB, it would have been only $400, which is the same price as the Pixel 3a?

modwilliam• 7 years ago

Pixel 3a will also be getting discounts, though. It's only launch and you can already get a $100 gift card at best buy with it

pound2• 7 years ago

Screen is bigger on 3a (vs 3). Also there is no Visual Core on 3a.

manfredo9• 7 years ago

What does the visual core do? Also it looks like the pixel 3a's GPU is downgraded to Adreno 615 from Adreno 630 on pixel 3.

throwayEngineer3• 7 years ago

3a has a headphone jack. Personally, I adjusted pretty well to Bluetooth headsets but some people really appreciate the jack.

I've been buying old Pixel OG phones. One had a broken screen after leaving it in my backpack hiking(and leaving rocks near it), another from water damage.

My wife got one with my recommendation.

4 OG pixels. Why? Fast + aux cable.

I can see myself upgrading to a 3a.

tw042• 7 years ago

The 670 is a far bigger downgrade than you indicate. Yes it's "only" 20% slower from a pure clock speed perspective, but performance is more like half.

It's also missing the IP68 certification - after having a waterproof-ish phone, I would never go back.

akhilcacharya3• 7 years ago

How does it compare to the OG Pixel or the Nexus 5?

manfredo9• 7 years ago

Do most mobile users encounter applications where processor speed is the limiting factor? Almost all smartphone usage in my experience is bottle necked by network IO. I don't really use my phone for gaming or anything intensive - I guess people expect their phones to run Fortnite these days so maybe processor speed is more important.

parthdesai• 7 years ago

I mainly use my smartphone to browse web/reddit and for uber/lyft. The drop in performance doesn't really matter when you compare it to the price drop.

scilro• 7 years ago

My Pixel 3's charging stopped working after a few seconds underwater, so I don't think it's that much of a loss anyway.

Ajedi322• 7 years ago

Is there a site that has benchmarks of mobile SoCs? I've been using notebookcheck.net, but it doesn't seem like it has benchmarks for the SD 670.

Diederich2• 7 years ago

* 3a only has one front facing camera instead of dual front cameras.

Can take a wag at characterizing how much of an impact this would have on normal, day to day picture taking?

My wife and I are still on Pixel 1s, and we still love the camera.

Am I safe to assume that the single camera (and associated hardware/software that Google provides) on the Pixel 3a will be substantially better than the camera on the Pixel 1?

Thanks!

frosted-flakes• 7 years ago

Note that this is the front camera, which most people only use for video calling and selfies. Personally, I've never used the front camera, so it having only a single lens doesn't really matter to me. Any serious photography will probably be with the rear dual-lens camera.

CarVac• 7 years ago

It has image stabilization and a less flare-prone design than the Pixel 1's camera which looks directly through the back glass.

Supermighty2• 7 years ago

The price is nice, but what is the lifetime compared to something costlier. A S10+ cost almost twice as long, but if it lasts twice as long then it's a wash.

Though, Google still wins when it comes to updates. Even given that project treble would make the process easier, I doubt that Samsung will really take advantage of it.

mtgx• 7 years ago

I would've preferred the much newer Snapdragon 675 with Cortex-A76 vs the A73 in the Snapdragon 670. Some Xiaomi phones have already launched with it for $200. But Google didn't seem to care enough for that change, despite the fact that the new chip also has much better ML performance, too.

Youden3• 7 years ago

I think this looks like a better deal when you compare it to the flagships but you have to remember that flagship prices have been exploding and midrange has thriving competition.

For $280, right this second, you can buy a Pocophone F1 from Amazon which has essentially the same size screen as the Pixel 3 XL, 6GB RAM, an SD845, an SD card slot and decent support from Xiaomi so far. Hell, the beastly Razer Phone 2 is only $499 right now and has some crazy specs relative to the 3a XL.

I know I'm dreaming but Google needs to get back to what made it great in the first place: Put flagship specs into midrange priced phones.

hn_throwaway_99• 7 years ago

That said, a lot of people (myself included) buy Google flagship phones because they get Android OS and Google Service upgrades (like Assistant) the fastest. Many of us have been burned by other Android vendors who put a layer of turd on top of stock Android.

kyriakos• 7 years ago

You essentially pay for the software upgrade gurrantee by Google.

Bud3• 7 years ago

Pocophone F1?

Sure, if you want to trust all your most personal info to Xiaomi. I don't know any security folks who consider that a rational choice anymore. I don't want Beijing having that info on me, plus the ability to surveil me at any time.

lorenzq• 7 years ago

The point of a flagship phone is to push the envelope, not compete with midrange devices. If someone else is filling the midrange niche better than Google I don't really see a problem, buy that phone instead. Google can better differentiate with a flagship and by doing so pushes the rest of the industry forward on features. These features that were costly to develop will later propagate to midrange.

dddddaviddddd2• 7 years ago

The Pixel camera is the one feature that's not available in other mid-range devices.

avtar• 7 years ago

I'm really glad that it has a headphone jack but I wish they had placed it at the bottom. I'm nitpicking but after going from a Nexus to an iPhone (when they used to have headphone jacks) it just made sense to not see the cable dangling near the top of the display.

kpozin• 7 years ago

On the other hand, when the jack is on the bottom, if you plug in headphones and want to put the phone in your pocket, you have to place it upside down.

biotech• 7 years ago

* 3a has a headphone jack. Personally, I adjusted pretty well to Bluetooth headsets but some people really appreciate the jack.

For me, phones lacking a headphone jack is an absolute deal-breaker; the result is that I feel that there is a limited selection for new phones. This feature alone makes the 3a a huge upgrade regardless of the other features.

manfredo9• 7 years ago

A nice pair of bluetooth headphones makes a pretty big different. I got a HD 4.40BT, and it's very good. Battery life is impressive and charges quickly. I can skip tracks, pause, adjust volume without taking out my phone. I don't have to dig into my pocket when I want to listen to something. Audio quality is not noticeably different from my wired headphones at a similar price. It does mean that I have 4 pairs of headphones relegated to desktop and piano use, but the convenience factor was well worth it to me.

https://en-us.sennheiser.com/wireless-headphones-bluetooth-h...

2muchcoffeeman3• 7 years ago

If your hand is forced to go wireless I can recommend the Fiio BT receivers. You can keep using your favourite headphones, sounds pretty good, far cheaper than BT headphones.

https://www.fiio.com/bluetooth_products

m-p-3• 7 years ago

And they even had the audacity to tease Apple about the headphone jack being still present on the 1st Pixel just to remove it themselves on the 2nd and 3rd.

Johnny555• 7 years ago

That's what I thought too, but then I just bought enough $10 usb-c to headphone dongles for all of the headphones I usually use (one at home, one at work one in the car and one in my backpack). iPhone dongles work on the Pixel too.

Sucks to have to pay $40 just to restore the functionality of the headphone jack, but kept it from being a dealbreaker.

diminoten• 7 years ago

Maybe you should re-evaluate this position, if it's severely limiting your phone selection.

lern_too_spel• 7 years ago

It's telling that the marketing page doesn't highlight the headphone jack even though it's a feature that most people want and most reviewers note. They don't want to admit that they "bravely" (stupidly) jumped off a bridge twice in a row with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 just because their supposed competitor did it.

hef19898• 7 years ago

So true! When I got my Pixel 2 XL I wanted to bite my a for not having checked for a jack upfront. It kind of works with an adapter, I still prefer jacks so.

ZeroCool2u• 7 years ago

Also, it loses the Pixel Visual Core that the Pixel 3(XL) has.

OkGoDoIt• 7 years ago

This seems like a major issue given they are doing more and more machine learning inference on-device and android is trying to standardize on a framework for on-device ML inference.

Assuming that the Pixel Visual Core is a generic tensor processing unit similar to what the iPhone has. It’s possible I’ve got some things confused here. The important question is does the 3a have a hardware accelerated ML inference chip or is it just GPU?

PhasmaFelis2• 7 years ago

3a has a headphone jack.

Well, shit, I might have to buy one now.

sridca• 7 years ago

How does the camera quality compare, especially Night Sight?

neogodless2• 7 years ago

Check the Anandtech.com quick take. The gist is that the camera is the same. Startup is a bit slower, and so is special effects processing like HDR, and presumably Night Sight. But the image quality should be nearly identical to the Pixel 3/XL.

onlyrealcuzzo2• 7 years ago

Isn't the 3 water resistant but the 3a is not? I don't have a water resistant phone, but that's actually a feature I wouldn't mind paying more for.

chias• 7 years ago

It probably has something to do with the headphone jack. It's hard to drill holes into something and make it water resistant.

copperx• 7 years ago

Is the 3a an upgrade or a downgrade from the Pixel 2? That's what I would like to know.

NeverFade• 7 years ago

Serious question: why would I care about a faster processor, unless I plan to use my phone for something exceptionally demanding?

If I don't plan on engaging in these few very specific, highly demanding applications - high-end gaming is really the only one that comes to mind - would I really need much processing power to run the handful of apps like email and instant messaging that most people seem to use their phone for?

Even games would likely run fine as long as they're the casual ones most users play. I suspect high-end processors are really only useful for the top 1% (if that) of folks who want to play high-end games, and as such they seem like a great place to cut costs.

sixothree• 7 years ago

Furthering your point, the amount of speed improvement to make the processor future proof seem to be more than you might get.

Gorbzel• 7 years ago

Sad to see so much gaslighting regarding processor speed. Of course SoC performance matters! The Verge has already reported a Pixel 3a “feels noticeably slower” than a Pixel 3. For years Android devices have lagged Apple’s mobile offerings and most desktop machines by up to 40% not only when it comes to benchmarks, but also in real world and JavaScript performance (…because it’s not like JS is used much these days is why you would care about a faster processor).

Also, this reeks of elitism: the technorati crowd in SF who can afford such things get to have flagship devices for their “very specific, highly demanding applications.” Meanwhile, “most users” of the most revolutionary invention of our lifetime only need to use their phones for “email and instant messaging.” Filthy casuals. (Can’t believe the comment actually went there).

Call the Pixel 3a what it is: Alphabet’s product marketing teams do an absolutely terrible job leveraging their brand(s) to explain their device offerings or even why they’re making their own hardware. As such, consumer confusion leads to laggard sales of a flagship device.

Trying to leverage what they have, Google introduces the Pixel 3a to take on what looks to be a growing midrange market. If it works, more power to ‘em, but let’s focus on facts and price points, not vague assertions about who needs what level of performance masquerading as questions from throwaway accounts.

planckscnst• 7 years ago

I have yet to have a satisfactory Bluetooth experience even after spending a bunch on what was supposed to be an okay set (Jabra Sport Elite). I'm not extremely picky with earphones. I normally use $10 Panasonic earbuds. The audio quality of any Bluetooth headset I've ever used isn't just bad: it's painful. I'm a little bit amazed at how much other people seem to accept in terms of degraded quality for loosing a little wire and I'm wondering if I just have really bad luck.

mankyd• 7 years ago

This sounds like bad luck to me, but who knows. I use a pair of over-ear noise canceling bt headphones, and they sound just fine. I wouldn't call them amazing, but I'm not sure I can tell the difference between them and any other sub $100 headphones.

One catch that I noticed: there are two profiles I can connect to my desktop with. One is simple audio streaming (a2dp maybe?) and sounds fine. The other (hsp?) supports microphone input and the sound degrades quite noticeably. Maybe you're connecting via this second mechanism?

dethac2• 7 years ago

So the Pixel 3a XL loses out on resolution (the Pixel 3a does not... go figure) vs the Pixel 3 counterpart.

The SD670 performs close to the SD835 in CPU, but noticeably worse in CPU. It should be noticeably worse in CPU than the 845 due to its 2+6 configuration rather than the 845's 4+4 configuration.

You get eMMC storage with F2FS (acceptable, but slower than UFS 2.0/2.1)

You get glass from some Japanese manufacturer instead of Corning.

Plastic body (yay!)

It's a number of compromises (not minor by any means), but the price is a pretty noticeable drop.

drusepth2• 7 years ago

Thanks for the breakdown. One other thing missing on the 3a is water/splash resistance.

Personally, of all these bullets the presence of the headphone jack is what made me order one immediately (upgrading from a 5X). I hope all the people complaining about the headphone jack disappearing from other phones put their money where their mouth is and also order phones that _do_ include jacks so criticism of its loss is taken a bit more seriously.

codeduck• 7 years ago

also on a 5x which I love, but which is showing its age. Likely to also upgrade to a 3a

izacus6• 7 years ago

There's one thing you don't mention and it is very important for overall device performance: storage speed.

3a has a cheaper eMMC storage which is showing numbers closer to the original Pixel. Pixels 2 and 3 have faster UFS storage so they'll probably run a bit smoother.

odiroot• 7 years ago

So close yet so far, alas. They had an opportunity to win the compact market in 2019 and they decided to go for 150mm+.

I'm seriously sad about this. It could have been my next phone for years if only they cut it by 10-12mm.

antpls• 7 years ago

Does the 670 have the same AI compute capabilities than the 845 ? Newer Qualcomm chips include dedicated AI processor, which is probably what you would want for the next few years.

StavrosK• 7 years ago

Why aren't Xiaomi phones more popular in the US? This is basically a Redmi that costs $150. Don't they support the US bands?

richardhod3• 7 years ago

This is frequently because people don't trust that there's not spyware in them. Whether there is or not, the Chinese government's control over businesses in its realm is stronger than the American government's, and even less transparent.

zabana• 7 years ago

Corporate racism mostly. I find it Ironic that people complain about the relationship between xiaomi and the chinese government but will not mention the fact the Google have been spying on their customers for years now. But somehow only foreign companies have nefarious motives.

terryf• 7 years ago

The jack is back! Now I wish I hadn't bought the pixel 3 when it came out! Glad to see the voice of reason prevailing.

throwaway55554• 7 years ago

I plan to keep my iPhone 8 for a few years, but I sure hope Google sells a ton of these things so that others will start to target this price point aggressively. I don't see Apple doing it, but, hey, that's their cheese.

throwayEngineer3• 7 years ago

Apple thrives on exclusively. Not specs and features.

For them, charging more money is the next step, like it or not.

The only way for them to compete, is to not. You buy Apple products for Fashion, to prove you can afford it.

Or at least, that's what has worked for a decade. Features is not what Apple brings, they bring Fashion.

bollockitis• 7 years ago

I can't speak for anyone else but I certainly have never bought an Apple product to prove I can afford it. In emerging markets -- where the average buyer can't afford more than a cheap Android phone -- there might be some truth to this but in the US, iPhones aren't exactly "exclusive."

theturtletalks• 7 years ago

I can see why it seems that way, but most people stick to Apple due to lock-in.

For me, it's Apple music. I've been using iTunes since the first iPod Nano and have an extensive library. I was planning to switch to Spotify (since the android Apple Music app is abysmal). But Spotify doesn't allow you to upload your own music (lots of mixtape songs in my library).

So eventually, I gave in and went back. I even tried Google Music since they let you upload your own songs, but the sync app kept crashing and never uploaded songs right away, but your milage might vary.

So that is Apple's play, locking in customers. I know friends who came back to Apple due to iMessage and even the Apple Watch, which is a blatant lock-in product.

threeseed• 7 years ago

This is such nonsense.

(a) iPhones are not that expensive if you consider they are lasting longer and being supported longer than their competitors.

(b) I don't think you understand fashion. It's not exclusive or interesting to have an iPhone when they make up half of all phones you see everyday in Western cities.

(c) Most phones these days are still being sold on contract plans and so even if phones were $10,000 many people could still easily afford it when it's broken down to a monthly payment.

eanzenberg2• 7 years ago

Nah. We buy apple products because we got work to do and don't have time to fiddle with rooting our devices :)

Redoubts• 7 years ago

They continue to sell last years model to capture the lower end.

jaabe• 7 years ago

I have an iPhone XS, but I’d probably downgrade to a pixel 3a and give my wife the XS, if google sold them in Denmark that is. They don’t even sell the pixel 3 yet though, so there is a fat chance of that.

Anyway, I like Apple and have been a long time user of their phones since my Samsung S2 died to planned obsolescence. I pay google to handle my email though.

After years of trying everything, outlook, iCloud-mail, tutanota, protonmail, fastmail, Runbox and a bunch of others I ended up buying a GC account instead because google is just better at it.

So my calendar is google, my mail is google, I have space on google drive, I use google docs and of course I use google maps. So I kind of feel silly on iOS.

I upgraded to the XS from a 5S when the smaller screen size started to annoy me, but the truth is that I don’t need the power and the XS is too heavy for my weak hands. :p

saagarjha• 7 years ago

Google's apps on iOS are pretty decent, though, and you can always like those services to the built-in apps if you prefer those.

Youden3• 7 years ago

I'm not sure what you're talking about, this price point already has tons of competition. OnePlus, Pocophone, Huawei, Xiaomi and of course Samsung all have decent-spec phones in this price region.

I think the only complaint I have is that nobody else is putting nice cameras into these phones or giving them decent software support.

izacus6• 7 years ago

Yep, also no security features like the Titan M chip (it's effectively a Yubikey on device).

paulddraper2• 7 years ago

nobody else is putting nice cameras into these phones

That's the differentiator.

giving them decent software support

And that: stock Android and fast updates.

km3k3• 7 years ago

Pocophone, Huawei, Xiaomi

You can't find these in stores in the US, so there's little competition there. Even OnePlus only sells the OnePlus 6T in stores.

z6• 7 years ago

The timing is a bit odd. Why would you buy the Pixel 3a over a mint Pixel 3, which is about the same price (maybe even cheaper when adding taxes).

batiudrami• 7 years ago

The only way these get close to the same price is if you aren't comparing apples to apples. A grey import 3 without taxes might get close to the official 3A from Google on launch day, but give it a month for stock to become more available and discounting to start and there'll be a significant price difference.

sparrish• 7 years ago

Does it support wireless charging? I can't seem to find any info on that and I'm addicted to that feature. Can't imaging going back to dealing with desk spaghetti.

manfredo9• 7 years ago

No wireless charging. Personally I find that having a desk-mounted power outlet gets rid of desk spaghetti. Also buying shorter USB cables so that they don't get spooled up cuts down on desk spaghetti.

SketchySeaBeast4• 7 years ago

Have you used wireless charging long? I'm worried about the effect the extra heat has on the longevity of the phone's battery.

singingboyo2• 7 years ago

I see this concern a lot, but I can't say I've ever noticed heating issues and I always use the Pixel Stand at night.

I'm somewhat unlikely to notice battery life issues, though - my usage is very variable, and I charge a lot (combination of using android auto and habits from my previous phone)

mrbill3• 7 years ago

No wireless charging on the new phones.

I used the heck out of it in the Nexus 5 days, but got so used to plugging in my Pixel 1 in the interim that I hardly used it at all once I got the P3.

haunter• 7 years ago

I'm not from the US, what are the sales taxes (VAT) there? I mean for personal purchase.

I wonder casue $1 = 1£ once again. So the $399 US price (net) becomes 399£ (gross) which is $522 atm.

eugeniub• 7 years ago

Sales tax is not included in the price, so if you buy the $399 phone, the sales tax is added on top of $399. The amount depends on state and city laws. Usually about 7.75%, so the $399 phone would cost about 430 total.

pwinnski• 7 years ago

We don't have a VAT. Each state/city has its own "sales tax" rate, which is the closest equivalent, and those vary from 0% to more than 10%.

Twirrim2• 7 years ago

There's three tiers that I'm aware of, state, county, and city. So much fun. I don't envy anyone that has to figure this mess out.

neaden• 7 years ago

Sales tax in the US is a local thing, some states have 0, some about 10%. Then cities or other local bodies can have a sales tax on top of that.

froindt• 7 years ago

No universal sales tax, it varies by locale. Sometimes specific blocks or neighborhoods have different sales taxes than surrounding areas.

For rough reference, is not uncommon to see 7% sales tax. Sometimes higher in bigger cities.

ksec5• 7 years ago

A 20% VAT on top of $399 is $479. which is about £369, so you are paying £30 more, I guess that is fair since the consumer protection (?) are better than in the US?

bluedino3• 7 years ago

The Verge says it feels noticeably slower

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18530449/google-pixel-3a-x...

Also, even to my bad eyes, the camera quality isn't quite as good as the Pixel 3, due to the additional processing that this phone doesn't do

IronWolve• 7 years ago

Samsung 670 would be slower than a flagship, and you can always get flagships on sale after a couple months for upto 1/2 off. Not sure the pixel is worth the money.

Andrex2• 7 years ago

Pixel 3a also lacks the Pixel Visual Core that shipped in Pixel 2 and 3, which also may explain some of the discrepancy.

sparky_z• 7 years ago

I though that only affects processing time, not the end result.

amanzi• 7 years ago

These look like fine phones for the price, but Google still don't know how to sell phones worldwide. Currently only available in: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States. (https://support.google.com/store/answer/2462844)

sidcool2• 7 years ago

In India, it will be available starting 15-May. The price point in India at ₹ 39,000 is quite expensive. Most people in India go for sub ₹ 20,000 phones. I have a Moto G5s+ I bought 2.5 years ago for ₹ 12,000. It's still working fabulously well.

flavor82• 7 years ago

The glass on the screen on my Pixel 3 is the worst I've had in recent phones (Nexus 5, Moto X4). The rest of the phone is...fine. It picks up scratches really easily, and cracked in a moderate fall onto a wood floor. Both prior phones took a lot more abuse. My wife has the same phone and the exact same experience.

singingboyo2• 7 years ago

Just to remind everyone that anecdote != anecdata, I've got a 3xl with one of the fabric cases. No scratches yet, and it's even been dropped a few times with nothing to show for it. In short, I think the screen is great.

It's certainly a far cry from my previous phone (Galaxy S6), which was dented and scratched within a month (maybe two? it's been a few years). I had to give in and buy a protective case for the S6, but I don't see that happening for the 3xl.

Chances are it's very dependent on what you do with your phone, as always. Mine sits on a desk/table or plugged into my car most of the time, and only ends up in my pocket (without keys!) when I'm walking somewhere.

flavor82• 7 years ago

For sure. They have a different and more easily scratchable surface though - that's fairly noticeable. I had no change in behavior between it and prior phones. Barely got any scratches from pocketing them over the years, got multiple deep scratches on this one in the first week and more since. Bad batch? Maybe? Still sucks for an $800 phone. (Which I got effectively for free via Fi, so shrug.)

classichasclass• 7 years ago

I had the same thing happen as well. I upgraded from a OG XL to a 3, and while I love everything else about the phone, it picked up several noticeable scratches within just six weeks. I have a screen protector on it now but it was still very frustrating since I didn't do anything I can recall to merit picking up any damage.

Meanwhile, the OG XL still looks new.

what_ever• 7 years ago

I don't use screen protector and glass looks good so far after 4 months.

PHGamer• 7 years ago

my only problem with this is i feel burned by the pixel 2. I bought the blue one from verizon and the android messanger app would lose text messages from people and sometimes when I called people they couldnt hear me.

IWillScoop• 7 years ago

I've been rocking an Galaxy S6 Edge+ for the last few years, would this be a worthwhile upgrade?

kavinskyy• 7 years ago

Coming from someone using an S7 Edge since its release, I don't think it would be an upgrade for me. I'm losing more than I'm gaining, I don't think I can go back to a non-waterproof/water-resistant phone which doesn't have wireless charging.

From an S6Edge+ perspective, if you're missing out the latest software updates and need an upgrade in the camera department, then go for it. Otherwise, there may be a better choices in the market or just go with a "premium" smartphone to future-proof for another 3-5 years.

Edit: spelling

jtl9992• 7 years ago

I wish the OLED display used higher frequency PWM or DC dimming instead of PWM. Otherwise it seems to be a decent device.

rsp1984• 7 years ago

Recently my old Google Nexus 5 phone quit after five years of dutiful service, so I went looking for a new phone. I was completely blown away by how competitive the Android world has become and much prices have come down.

In the end I have decided for an Honor 9 Lite that cost me a measly 159 Euros. The result? It is the best phone I've ever had and I am not missing anything.

So, I cannot see why anyone would want to spend more on an Android phone these days. What additional value does a Pixel 3a give me that would justify an almost 3x premium?

sounds• 7 years ago

They (Huawei) don't have a good track record keeping their software up to date:

164 days to update, Jan. 2019 - https://www.androidauthority.com/android-pie-fastest-manufac...

163 days to update, June 2018 - https://www.androidauthority.com/android-oreo-fastest-manufa...

Ajedi322• 7 years ago

Considering GP was still using the Nexus 5 two years after Google dropped support for it, I doubt that matters too much to him.

abrugsch2• 7 years ago

Almost the exact same experience here... Though was a N5X not a N5 and the 9 lite was £120 but it's been a great phone for the money and gets updates with Pie coming in june/July. Bootloader is locked though so once updates stop it's recycle fodder and by then there might be a goog phone I like again.

jasonvorhe• 7 years ago

Camera, the USP of the Pixels? Software updates? The USP of Pixels and !Nexus? A sleek version of Android? No carrier/OEM bloat?

Wowfunhappy2• 7 years ago

How does the blog post not even mention the headphone jack?!?

The first thing I did was a cmd+F for "jack" and "headphone" and "audio"—if there's no headphone jack, I have no interest in reading further. Since my searches came up with nothing, I assumed the headphone jack wasn't present. Would still be assuming that if not for the comments here.

ChuckMcM2• 7 years ago

Ok the cynic in me hears: "Buy this $400 phone that becomes about as useful as a Nokia candy bar phone of old if you turn off Google Web and Location services."

Does anyone know if the camera features work if you turn off the tracking bits? I realize I'm a bad data cow for kicking at the milking machine when I'm in the barn but it has become more painful for me of late.

martythemaniak• 7 years ago

Why would the camera not work? You won't get unlimited storage, but you can buy a non-google photo backup service.

The camera probably compares favourably with Nokia candybar-era DSLRs

ChuckMcM2• 7 years ago

Why would the camera not work? You won't get unlimited storage, but you can buy a non-google photo backup service.

You could ask why do any number of services that Google advertises as "phone features" not work when you disable Google's ability to track you? Google sells the data it collects, it is part of their revenue model, and the only way to enforce that you give it to them is to deny you access to things if you opt not to. It is of course their right to do so, and so they do. It just gets more and more egregious.

My favorite example is that Google won't let you save "places" in the Google Maps application if you don't turn on location services. Apple Maps can save your locations just fine, even my Garmin in-car Navigator with no Internet connectivity at all can do that. But Google won't let you, unless you accede to letting them milk your data for their own use.

izacus6• 7 years ago

The camera still works if you disable privacy bits on your Google account.

yhersk0vitz• 7 years ago

Anyone else thinking that google is using the cheap device to collect even more in depth user data which is how it really makes money off the phones?

djsumdog• 7 years ago

Can I install a mainline Linux distro and KDE Plasma Mobile or Ubuntu Touch on it? Or is it all a big pile of kernel hacks and binary blobs?

I'm getting sick of these absolutely useless, Google-tracking devices. After several of my own repairs, my ~2 year old Sony/Android is flaking out (another problem with modern phones: their shitty lifespan which just contributes to e-waste) so I ordered a Nexus 5X and plan on switching to KDE Plasma. I hope it will force me to help write any apps that are missing for it to be my daily driver and help contribute to a truly open source eco-system.

I hope the Purism 5 and Pine Phone make it through their funding/pre-orders as well. We need more real alternatives to this garbage the two big players keep feeding us.

Microsoft should just offer to unlock all their devices. UEFI+ARM would be a great start for trying to get mainline Linux running on those devices.

mrbill3• 7 years ago

I'm currently using a Pixel 3, but just ordered the 3a as my new "backup" phone (replacing my OG Pixel 1 and a P1XL I bought refurbished).

I'll probably use the 3a as my primary phone for a month so I get the $100 Fi credit on my account, then move back and put the Fi data-only SIM in the 3a.

Now I just need to sell the P1 and P1XL...

CabSauce• 7 years ago

Maybe don't buy a backup phone?

robbyt• 7 years ago

Yeah, if you can get a phone delivered to you next day, why would you keep an extra phone around? (Unless you need it for development/testing)

tibiapejagala• 7 years ago

store.google.com: "We aren’t in your country yet"

This is bizzare. We have Apple/Samsung/Huawei/xiaomi stores on every corner somehow. At least they offer google search here.

eBombzor• 7 years ago

Is 3 years support the best it'll get in Android world? I've been itching to get an Android for some time now but I can't justify spending a couple hundreds for a phone that'll only last for so long and is already slow. This is in comparison to my 5S which still gets the latest iOS support since I bought it in 2013 (6 years!) while being decently fast (thanks iOS12).

bubblethink2• 7 years ago

At the moment it's 3. It will likely increase at some point. This is not a bad value though. Wait for some deals and you'll get to roughly $100/year cost of ownership.

AcerbicZero• 7 years ago

My experience with Android has been one of declining "helpfulness" and usability in general. I stuck with Android for a long time, (Nexus One - Pixel 3) but with every release Google made pure Android a little worse, and simultaniously made it just a little bit harder to work around the "new" Ad delivery technologies ("Features"). Google Now, the Google search bar, Hangouts with full SMS integration (those were the days), all lost to the Big-G's quest for Ad revenue.

iOS isn't dramatically better, but it is dramatically more consistent as far as an everyday phone goes. I still keep the Pixel 3 on Fi around, hooked up to my car because Android Auto hasn't been entirely ruined yet and CarPlay leaves a lot to be desired.

fredley• 7 years ago

I found 90% of my issues with Android were resolved by switching out the launcher. No more unhideable 'home' screen of toxic news and ads, no forced google search bar, and I can make it behave any way I want w.r.t. gestures (or not).

ubercow13• 7 years ago

Yes aren't those just features of the launcher? I am using Nova launcher and I don't think I can activate any Google feature with any gesture or button press.

amelius• 7 years ago

Is it ownable (rootable)?

jtl9992• 7 years ago

With exception of the Verizon model the bootloader on all Pixel devices can be unlocked (iirc) but it wipes data for security reasons.

herpderperator2• 7 years ago

I had just read this and then my colleague came over and showed me his Pixel 3a. I thought they just released it?! Turns out it was delivered in an hour and it was just ordered after the announcement. Nice.

yyhhsj0521• 7 years ago

Wow where do you live?

herpderperator2• 7 years ago

SF Bay Area :-)

This was the service (from Google Store's checkout page): https://puu.sh/DpgdZ/e0c4d3a068.png - it came way earlier than the quoted 4pm.

tjbiddle• 7 years ago

Wow! That's a great marketing tactic - Make sure it gets into as many hands as possible while the hype is still alive.

thiht• 7 years ago

2 years ago my Nexus 5x died and I struggled a lot to find a replacement. I finally bought the exact same Nexus 5x, that I'm still using. I'm glad they finally released the rightful heir of the 5x :)

abrugsch2• 7 years ago

I hated that there was no real replacement. I'm on a honor 9 lite as a transition phone and it's been a worthy if flawed stand-in while I wait for the true N5X successor. (I'm not convinced the P3a is it though)

onirom• 7 years ago

I don't know if that was a good idea considering there is a soldering problem on the Nexus 5X which shorten its lifetime to around 2 years, CPUs just fail after some times. I preferred to take a Android One device since then, cheaper while being similar in speed. (Phones such as Nokia 6.1 and so on) but the Pixel 3a is nonetheless cool, hope it will don't have conception issues!

duxup• 7 years ago

This seems like the spiritual successor to the Nexus 5x.

Mid-range phone and specs with a great camera.

Also if you're a google fi customer you can get a $100 credit, that drops the price substantially.

yodsanklai• 7 years ago

It doesn't seem competitive compared to Chinese phones (xiaomi, huawei, oneplus), is it? For instance a Xiaomi MI9 SE seems better value (dual sim, metal body, smaller with a bigger/better screen...).

ehsankia• 7 years ago

When it comes to price and pure hardware, nothing beats chinese phones, but the premium you're paying goes into better software and support.

eertami• 7 years ago

Even Samsung... in the UK you can buy a S10e for cheaper than the 3A XL.

ksec5• 7 years ago

Interesting, that is news to me, has it always been like that for Samsung? I was always under the impression most Smartphone or Electronics devices has a 1:! US:UK/EU pricing due to VAT.

So the S10e is only £669.00 in the UK inc. VAT? Are there any further discount from main-street retailers?

km3k3• 7 years ago

Is that some special discount on the S10e?

S10e - £669: https://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-s10/buy/

Pixel 3a XL - £469: https://store.google.com/gb/config/pixel_3a

uberstuber• 7 years ago

I don't care about bezels or absurd amounts of RAM.

All I care about in a phone is the camera and headphone jack, so I ordered one. Good move Google. I wasn't expecting to buy a phone for another 6 months or so.

xchip• 7 years ago

And how many years will the battery will last?

abc-xyz• 7 years ago

I suspect 2-3 and then the phone will power off after 5 minutes of usage despite having 100% battery, or power off when opening the camera app. Then you'll be stuck with a really powerful phone whose specs could easily be usable for 5-10 more years, but you're out of luck because the battery is impossible to replace..

It feels shortsighted that people are willing to buy phones that doesn't have replaceable batteries.

alexnewman2• 7 years ago

I just got a pixel 3a. Finally leaving apple. The fact that they have a headphone jack was the main reason.

novaRom4• 7 years ago

Are you happy with the speakers? I just watched few random YouTube reviews and they all say sound on 3a is bad.

alexnewman2• 7 years ago

Nothing glaring about the sound , I didn't expect much but I haven't upgraded since the iPhone se and it's better

skilled• 7 years ago

Oh wow! A Google phone with Google Assistant and Google Maps? Who would've thought!

voltagex_2• 7 years ago

$649 for the non-XL in Australia. Christ.

aesthethiccs• 7 years ago

400 usd to aud is about 570Aud, so is this a report to ACCC?

they should atleast be within the 570 range. 650 is a bit of piss take.

also google support in Aus is terrible at best, had a dead nexus 5x , sent back for replacement had to pay for new phone, still fighting for a refund...

tonny747• 7 years ago

Don't forget 400 USD won't include tax. So 570AUD + GST is $627.

bsharitt• 7 years ago

This is the price point I've been missing and I've go one ordered already. Sure Nokia has been pretty good in this range, even with updates I think, but Verizon is the better carrier option in my area, so they're a no go. I like the Motorola stuff in theory, but they've got that same 3rd party manufacturer updates problem. I've got a Moto G5 Plus, which is a fine phone, but it's likely stuck at Android 8.1 for the rest of its life, and even that update from 7 took a very long time(after 9 launched).

irl_zebra2• 7 years ago

I have a Pixel XL, original one, and it's always been good. This makes me want to switch, partially for the smaller size. I see my Pixel has a snapdragon 821 chip, and the 3a has a 670. Can anyone comment on whether the 3a would generally be faster/better than my significantly older original Pixel XL? I don't know much about phone chips, but it generally seems that the 670 is better than the 821 from a cursory Google search.

77ko• 7 years ago

From personal experience, a pixel 2 is significantly faster and smoother than a pixel 1, and the internet suggests the 670 chip in the 3a is slightly faster for general use than the 835 in the pixel 2, though for gaming its somewhere b/w pixel 1 and 2 as the 670 GPU is b/w the 821 and 835.

So for normal use, its definitely a upgrade to a pixel 1, and a slight upgrade over the pixel 2.

irl_zebra2• 7 years ago

Thanks!

izacus6• 7 years ago

It will probably be about the same - for the performance you percieve on Android the CPU isn't as important (unless you run games). Storage performance is the one that makes all the difference - and Pixel 3a's eMMC storage is showing pretty much the same numbers as the original Pixel.

inyorgroove• 7 years ago

Am I the only person who insists on buying phones with micro sd card slots? Still Google's phones are useless to me.

I have a legitimate reason. It only happened on one phone, but it validated my decision. If the phone fails to boot for whatever reason I can get most of my important data out. Photos and videos were all just fine on my trusty micro sd card, no spying cloud services required.

driverdan• 7 years ago

Compared to the two year old Pixel 2 this is disappointing. The screen is better but it appears to have the same cameras and a significantly slower CPU. Its radio is only cat 12 too.

You're better off buying a used Pixel 2.

xhruso00• 7 years ago

Anyone noticed that Google is cheating with Google Photos backup? Only hi-resolution gets backed up. To back up original resolution one has to buy Pixel 3. I am kind of pissed of this marketing.

snypox• 7 years ago

Kinda cheap move if you ask me.

izacus6• 7 years ago

Not giving you free GB of storage on their servers forever is a "cheap move" for 400$ phone?

sidcool2• 7 years ago

It's not a cheap move. It's like when you get special offers on your car when you buy a new one, like free service. Down the line you are expected to pay for it.

helloindia• 7 years ago

Even for Pixel 3, the free unlimited storage with original resolution is till Jan 31, 2022. I wonder what happens to photos stored after that. Downgraded and resized?

https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6220791?co=GENIE.Pl...

izacus6• 7 years ago

None of that - the photos uploaded at "original" quality after that date will start counting towards your Drive quota.

Same as what happens when you switch to another non-Pixel phone.

novaRom4• 7 years ago

I don't really care if my phone is Android or iPhone or whatever. All I need is fast Firefox with ad blocking enabled, some messaging apps, quick camera, stereo front speakers, headphone jack, gps, quick charge, large battery, small weight, and NO bugs.

Today I find no phone can fully satisfy these criteria. Is 3a different? Let's wait a little bit for more extensive reviews.

aembleton• 7 years ago

Which of those criteria does the Nokia 8 fail to satisfy?

novaRom4• 7 years ago

I never heard about that phone, sorry. I thought Nokia is out of smartphone business already many years ago. But I will check YouTube reviews, thanks. Glad they are back.

dagw• 7 years ago

Why is Google completely unable/unwilling to do global roll-outs of their phones like everybody else does? Is it a production capacity problem or some sort of weird marketing strategy

jokowueu• 7 years ago

Should be 300$ and 400$

apricot13• 7 years ago

I was recently given a pixel 3 XL, I tried so hard to get on with it but the fingerprint sensor on the back ruined it for me (and google pay on london buses is embarrassingly slow).

having the sensor on the back means you cant quickly access your phone when its sat on your desk without picking it up. its such a small thing but it made a big difference. Plus unlocking it out and about was all sorts of precarious finger gymnastics.

winningcontinue• 7 years ago

totally opposite problem for the iPhone in the front for me. looking at a phone beyond just finding out the time while sitting at the desk was a hassle for me. Bad angle for both phone and neck. Having the phone picked up and the censor in the front was too unnatural and required too much dexterity I didn't possess.

alkonaut• 7 years ago

Pushing the premium camera in the mid-range phone is genius. It probably hurts their margins because fewer people will buy the higher spec model, but this is surely a response to the Apple lineup which is basically "to get an upgraded camera at all in your next iPhone, you need to pay twice as much as you did for your last one".

I'd be perfectly happy with an iphone 7 having the iphone XR camera. I have zero use for a bigger screen, smaller bezels, faster processors etc. None. I call, read some websites and take pictures. I also want to be able to repair my screen very cheapl (No iPhone I owned has had less than 2 screen replacement due to drops).

I hope Apple will go this route too, but I'm not holding my breath - I think apples strategy to charge me $1k+ for my next iPhone camera is genius, because I'll probably do it.

josteink• 7 years ago

This phone caught my attention because they added the headphone jack back in.

Unfortunately the screen is still huge, even in the non "XL" version. I'd rather not move to something bigger than my iPhone SE.

dustinmoris• 7 years ago

When the Pixel 1 came out I bought it pretty much instantly in November 2016 and was amazed by how great the camera and the quality of the entire phone was. As someone who was very much invested in the Google eco system this was the perfect phone for me and when Google announced the Pixel 2 I was over the moon. Unfortunately the Pixel 2 was a huge disappointment. I still find my Pixel 1 to take overall better photos than the Pixel 2. The quality of the Pixel 2 also felt much cheaper. When the Pixel 3 arrived I thought initially that this was the long awaited upgrade, but again I was left extremely disappointed. In my opinion the original Pixel phone was the first device which I thought could finally contest the Apple iPhone, but since then I think this was a one off lucky shot by Google and everything which has followed was extremely below my expectations.

Today I still use my Pixel 1, but it's starting to drain battery a lot faster than what it used to a couple months ago and I'm probably going to buy a new iPhone this year again.

I've also started to rely less on Google since they started to become so unreliable in recent years. I don't use Chrome anymore (FireFox rocks again!), I use DuckDuckGo for search, I use Office365 instead of the G-Suite and I'm eyeing up a different Music provider as I think that Google Play will sooner or later get shut down too. The only things which I find difficult to replace is Google Drive and Google Cloud which I use for work related things. Funny how things quickly change and how much other products have caught up again so that the change hasn't been difficult at all so far...

ddeck• 7 years ago

Despite claiming for years that they are working hard to bring their devices to more countries, the availability is pretty embarrassing:

Pixel 3a (1 more country than the Pixel 3 - +India)

Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States

iPhone XR

Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Herzegovina, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the UAE, UK, US and US Virgin Islands. Israel, Armenia, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Macau, Maldives, Myanmar, Ukraine and Vietnam.

ksec5• 7 years ago

Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States

Doesn't that covers 80% of the major market volume ex-China?

After all Google isn't exactly a hardware company, and it doesn't seem they want to be one either.

Pixel 3a

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