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Google Unveils Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL With No Headphone Jack (venturebeat.com)
From a report: Google product chief Mario Queiroz today unveiled two new Android 8.1 Oreo smartphones at the company's annual hardware event: the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. The smaller Pixel 2 sports a 5-inch, 1080p display, with a 16:9 aspect ratio that was until this year the standard on Android flagships. The larger Pixel 2 XL, meanwhile, has a 6-inch, QHD+ display in an 18:9 aspect ratio, in line with 2017's flagship smartphones. The Pixel 2 thus still has a large bezel while the Pixel XL 2 has a noticeably reduced bezel profile, although certainly not the smallest we've seen. As always, smartphone size also dictates battery capacity: 2700 mAh for the Pixel 2 and 3520 mAh for the Pixel 2 XL. Here's the rundown: Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM, either 64GB or 128GB of storage, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, a 12-megapixel rear camera, front stereo speakers, a fingerprint scanner on the back, a USB-C port on the bottom, and no headphone jack. "Use your existing analog headphones with the included adapter," Queiroz said. [...] The HTC-manufactured Pixel 2 will be available in Just Black, Clearly White, and Kinda Blue on October 19. The LG-manufactured Pixel 2 XL will ship in Just Black and Black & White on November 15. The Pixel 2 will be available for $649 (64GB) and $749 (128GB) while the Pixel 2 XL will come in $849 (64GB) and $949 (128GB) flavors.
Fi-licia.
"You dont need SD cards, put it all in the cloud! Oh by the way, data is $10/GB"
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Google, please, we need AFFORDABLE Android phones! And by "affordable" we don't mean trashy third-world shit phones, either.
All we want is the next generation of what the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones were. Give us reasonably sized phones that have reasonably good displays and reasonably good performance with reasonably good cameras and with reasonably good quality at a reasonably good price.
We don't need top-end everything, but nor do we want bottom-end shit, either. Give us a good middle-of-the-road phone.
It's not even really about finding the money. Many of us can come up with $700 without any problem. The problem is that we don't want to drop that much money on a top-end phone. We'd rather spend $300 to $400, and get something in the middle. The problem is that we don't find anything like that these days, when in the past we did with the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones.
It's dumb to pay $700 or even $1000 for a phone that can be so easily damaged or lost, or worse, become artificially "obsolete" after only 3 years.
Google, give us something like the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 5 were!
Given that the original Pixel is absolutely horrible at playing back music via Bluetooth I'd call this a pretty ballsy move. Google doesn't appear to have any idea how to fix the problem on the Pixel either. Mine will start skipping during music so bad you'd think I was listening to a CD player in 1994 going down a gravel road.
By using bluetooth, you lose out on high-fidelity audio. A simple test: listen to a high-quality recording via bluetooth on your car, then try listening to the same audio through the AUX without the volume turned up too high as this can also create a different type of distortion. The muffling of the bass with bluetooth will be clear as daylight. This is why I never use bluetooth audio.
No. Android users aren't really counterparts to Apple users. If it was Apple, Android, or some other name, I couldn't care less. All it is is cost/functionality. Brand identity, style points, and hipster trendiness doesn't factor in, one way or the other. This camp vs. that camp is the wrong way to look at it. We're even more different than Apple fanboys than you think.
In debates about Christianity, there are two groups: those looking for answers, and those looking to just ask questions.
For a device that starts at $600+, I expect a minimum of 6GB RAM. You get 4GB in devices in the $200 ballpark. Plus, these Pixel phones do not take SD cards. Thanks but, no, thanks.
The lack of a headphone jack gets all the attention. I think Google left off the headphone jack as a distraction. The real story is that Clips camera. It decides when to take pictures of what is "interesting"? How is that done? Does everything potentially interesting get streamed to the mother ship so that Google's algorithm can determine if it is "interesting" or not? And what exactly is the definition of "interesting"?
Maybe Google has two different "interesting" filters. One that the consumer sees the results of. And one that Google privately keeps the results of.
But not to worry. It's all okay. Google says it's not evil. And you can trust Google to tell you the truth. Because Google is not evil. I know Google is not evil because Google says so. And I can trust Google's statement because Google is not evil.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Even my flip phone had a screen with more than 2 pixels. I don't care if they are XL sized pixels. You can;t even write an ascii charcter with that. let me know when they reach VGA quality
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
... make one that magnetically docks onto the phone (ergonomically, not like the Apple Pencil shit that sticks out of the device by several inches), and which charges whenever the phone itself is being charged so that I never have to worry about charging the earpiece separately.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I still love Android. Of course, I use Samsung and they still have headphone jacks. No need for me to ever consider a Pixel 2. See, that's the advantage of Android - actual CHOICE about features, not just "which color and what size" like you get with Apple! If choice is confusing to you, then by all means live with an Apple product, but if you want to actually have a choice from dozens of manufacturers of a few hundred models - Android works nicely.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Don't decent bluetooth headphones receive the actual audio file and do the decoding themself?
It should in that case be as good as what's on the phone. I assume that's what "0 latency audio" means.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
As I've said before, it did take Courage take take on all the initial Nerd Rage generated by removing an ancient obsolete port that the Nerd Hipsters all love and want to keep forever.
Even when we are beings of pure energy they will manifest a physical ear and one audio jack specifically so they can use a wired headset and feel superior.
It has nothing to do with "nerd rage" and everything to do with usability. I have multiple pairs of headphones that I often use (work, office, bedroom, etc), plus I regularly plug my phone into various line-level inputs. The lack of a 1/8" jack means I would either have to 1) always carry a dongle around with my phone or 2) keep a dongle with every device I *might* connect to.
Audio exists outside the realm of cell phones, and analog audio isn't going anywhere. Removal of built-in analog out on phones is a definite hindrance.
Seems like you don't know who the nerd hipsters are, or you're just disingenuously projecting. Perhaps you've been called one too much for being too willing to accept whatever your tech fashion overlords dictate? If the former, here's a clue: nerd hipsters are the ones who will not hesitate to throw out what still works because the next version is out, and will spend hundreds on a record player that only has USB-C out because they are "cool" right now.
People want a headphone jack because their headphones and PC speakers, which they like and which still work, can connect to their PC, their music player, other mobile devices, their car (AUX IN) and everything else with speakers. Furthermore, almost none of said speaker-having things have a USB-C port at all. Replacing everything to suit one new thing is grossly impractical. A complacent "dongle here dongle there" attitude quickly turns into needing to bring a bag around for everything which is also grossly impractical. USB-C ain't so universal.
Even when every type of device has a USB-C port and not a headphone jack, suddenly every old pair of headphones is relegated to the landfill or requires the production of even more unnecessary and otherwise useless dongles which would double what gets added to landfills later.
Then you have the unpleasant DRM/"smart" aspect of USB-C which definitely won't be used against the public when head office/government decides pirated or politically unpleasant content just won't play.
And lastly you have the problem of it being the only port on the device, meaning you can't multi-task without yet another dongle.
I don't know why I'm bothering to reply though. Morons refuse to listen to reason.
All of which can use a simple, and included (or extremely cheap), adaptor...
Easy enough if you only ever connect to one device. Not so easy if you connect to multiple devices, especially when they aren't yours, at your home, etc. In such cases, buying a dongle for each device is not only not feasible, it's impossible. Which leads back to carrying a dongle everywhere.
That dongles for Apple and Android devices are not interchangeable only adds to the problem.
All of which can use a simple, and included (or extremely cheap), adaptor...
Using an adapter isn't a good alternative. It would qualify as "better than nothing", I suppose, but it's still a downgrade.
Buy two or three of these and attach them to your headphones. Problem solved.
Maybe in theory, in practice it'll get transcoded. However it is possible it is being transcoded to AAC @ 250kbps, and other than moster cable customers no one is going to claim there is a difference that can be perceived.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I'd say that if you're going to buy one of these phones, you're already looking at spending $700-$900 on the device, so you should just plan on spending another hundred or so on the "audio problem". Add that to the purchase price when you decide whether to buy.
The additional cost is annoying, but the main issue is still having to deal with adapters where they otherwise wouldn't be necessary. 1/8" plugs and jacks are ubiquitous. Lightning and USB-C, not so much. I use Bluetooth for certain things, but there are applications where it isn't a reasonable solution.
Ah, I see you can't hear very well. Enjoy your low-fi.
You're seriously arguing that a $1 headphone jack adds cost to a $600 phone?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law