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Android Oreo Helps Google's Pixel 2 Smartphones Outperform Other Android Flagships (hothardware.com)
MojoKid highlights Hot Hardware's review of Google's new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones: Google officially launched it's Pixel 2 phones today, taking the wraps off third-party reviews. Designed by Google but manufactured by HTC (Pixel 2) and LG (Pixel 2 XL), the two new handsets also boast Google's latest Android 8.0 operating system, aka Oreo, an exclusive to Google Pixel and certain Nexus devices currently. And in some ways, this is also a big advantage. Though they are based on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor as many other Android devices, Google's new Pixel 2s manage to outpace similarly configured smartphones in certain benchmarks by significant margins (Basemark, PCMark and 3DMark). They also boot dramatically faster than any other Android handset on the market, in as little as 10 seconds. Camera performance is also excellent, with both the 5-inch Pixel 2 and 6-inch Pixel 2 XL sporting identical electronics, save for their displays and chassis sizes. Another notable feature built into Android Oreo is Google Now Playing, an always-listening, Shazam-like service (if you enable it) that displays song titles on the lock screen if it picks up on music playing in the room you're in. Processing is done right on the Pixel 2 and it doesn't need network connectivity. Another Pixel 2 Oreo-based trick is Google Lens, a machine vision system that Google notes "can recognize places like landmarks and buildings, artwork that you'd find in a museum, media covers such as books, movies, music albums, and video games..." The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are available now on Verizon or unlocked via the Google Store starting at $649 and $849 respectively for 64GB storage versions, with a $100 up-charge for 128GB variants.
You're an idiot. Nerds might be interested in new tech products and their benchmarks versus other similar products. By your standard, any post that discusses new products in a favorable way is an advertisement, regardless of how much the product might be of interest to nerds. I actually like to know when new products are released, and there have always been stories like this posted on Slashdot. Of you don't like the article, don't read it.
I mean it's great that it can monitor your audio 24/7 and can make some nice numbers flash up in a benchmark and all...
But, uh.
Replaceable battery? Rugged/IP68? SD card slot? Headphone jack? You know.. things that actually matter?
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
A while ago, people had issues with "Google" Nexus 5 after the Android OTA upgrade. Despite the fact that Google called this as Google Nexus 5 and was sold from Google website, it refused to take the blame and told customers to contact LG as it was LG which made the phone and it was responsible for any issue with the phone. Pixel 2 is made by HTC. Who will be responsible for servicing and support? I upgraded by Nexus 5 to iPhone. 11 months later, I had issue with headphone jack (it was detecting as headphone connected even when it was not). I took it to Apple store and told them that I am traveling and need urgent fix. They gave a brand new phone. Can we expect Google to do the same? If not, you are just buying an HTC phone advertised by Google.
Google could put an end to it by simply not allowing it in the license agreement. Of course, more than a handful of features have made their way from vendor overlays into vanilla Android, and I'm not sure Google would have considered those features for inclusion had they not been proven beforehand, so maybe there's some benefit to the current system.
I'm honestly torn on the issue. On one hand, the vanilla experience does lend itself to system updates more readily than what we have now; on the other hand, innovation has to come from somewhere and most of what Google adds to Android isn't originating from within Google.
Perhaps, at the very least, Google should require vendors to submit any proprietary drivers so that Google can release vanilla builds for every device; they would also need to require that any carrier- or vendor-specific apps be released on the Play store, to prevent any model-specific features from being locked behind those apps. Then, you could have the vanilla experience on any phone without losing and vendor- or model-specific functionality which may have made you choose that phone in the first place.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
>"with both the 5-inch Pixel 2 and 6-inch Pixel 2 XL sporting identical electronics, save for their displays and chassis sizes"
And they also share the:
* Lack of headphone jack
* Lack of wireless charging
* Lack of swappable batteries
* Lack of SD card support
* Lack of serviceable battery?
But not the lack of price... so, go ahead and cough up $650 or $850, anyway, because we are giving the public what they want. And to think I am STILL using a Nexus 5 which has at more than half of the above lacking features, and was around HALF the price.
Well project Treble is supposed to make it so that they can update Android separate from the vendor implementation, from what I understand one side effect is that all phones could run stock Android. Whether vendors will let you is another story, but hopefully at least now you'll get timely and long lasting updates.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Google could put an end to it by simply not allowing it in the license agreement.
No, they really couldn't. Google has to walk a fine line, especially with Samsung, but with several of the major players. Push too hard and they're perfectly capable of pulling an Amazon... but far more likely to be successful. Even the smaller players could potentially band together, or make a deal with Amazon.
You think Android fragmentation is bad now? It's nothing compared to what we'd have if Google pushed too hard and lost control. Eventually it would re-consolidate, I think, though probably not entirely. In the short term it would be a mess.
Of course, more than a handful of features have made their way from vendor overlays into vanilla Android, and I'm not sure Google would have considered those features for inclusion had they not been proven beforehand, so maybe there's some benefit to the current system.
This is true.
most of what Google adds to Android isn't originating from within Google.
This is not true. Google does pick up a lot of ideas from other OEMs, but it's definitely not the majority.
Perhaps, at the very least, Google should require vendors to submit any proprietary drivers so that Google can release vanilla builds for every device
Treble is a better approach, I think. The idea is to provide a standard hardware interface that is tested and validated, both with a set of low level tests (the Vendor Test Suite) and by flashing a vanilla AOSP system image and running the app-level API tests (the Compliance Test Suite). So Google doesn't have to release vanilla builds, you (or your favorite community) can just build your own -- assuming, of course, that you can unlock your device's bootloader.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.