[UPDATE 10/4/16] It is official! Pixel and Pixel XL (formerly Nexus 2016)

[Zaap]

Amazing thing to me, of all those, the Huawei just blows the others so far away as far as design, it's not funny. The Google phone just isn't even trying- that design is embarrassing alongside the others. It sure as hell shouldn't cost as much, let alone more.

I take back what I've said in doubt of a brand like Huawei. Since other makes don't even seem to be trying any more, maybe it's time for one company that does seem to be trying hard to rise to the top. The P9 is seriously interesting- especially alongside that line up of backward looking, hack BS. (And yeah, even the S7 is a bit roundy-round boring)

 

[Red Storm]

Amazing thing to me, of all those, the Huawei just blows the others so far away as far as design, it's not funny. The Google phone just isn't even trying- that design is embarrassing alongside the others. It sure as hell shouldn't cost as much, let alone more.

I take back what I've said in doubt of a brand like Huawei. Since other makes don't even seem to be trying any more, maybe it's time for one company that does seem to be trying hard to rise to the top. The P9 is seriously interesting- especially alongside that line up of backward looking, hack BS. (And yeah, even the S7 is a bit roundy-round boring)

Yeah the Pixel is embarrassingly ugly compared to some other high end phones. Its looks do not match its price tag. Huawei definitely seems to be making better looking phones than other OEMs, but I think the Note 7 is the best looking phone ever made.

 

[Crono]

Yeah the Pixel is embarrassingly ugly compared to some other high end phones. Its looks do not match its price tag. Huawei definitely seems to be making better looking phones than other OEMs, but I think the Note 7 is the best looking phone ever made.

I'll take the HTC 10 in Camellia Red, but the Note 7 in Coral Blue isn't too shabby. I also really like the Honor 8 in blue.

 

[Red Storm]

I'll take the HTC 10 in Camellia Red, but the Note 7 in Coral Blue isn't too shabby.

I actually don't even think of the colors when I judge a phone's looks. I'm looking at strictly the physical design.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Amazing thing to me, of all those, the Huawei just blows the others so far away as far as design, it's not funny. The Google phone just isn't even trying- that design is embarrassing alongside the others. It sure as hell shouldn't cost as much, let alone more.

I take back what I've said in doubt of a brand like Huawei. Since other makes don't even seem to be trying any more, maybe it's time for one company that does seem to be trying hard to rise to the top. The P9 is seriously interesting- especially alongside that line up of backward looking, hack BS. (And yeah, even the S7 is a bit roundy-round boring)

What is it about making a square with barely rounded corners vs. a square with more rounded corners that makes the "more boxy" phone look like it's trying harder? I guess that's subjectivity for you.

Personally, I'm not captured by the Pixel XL's looks, but the slate look of a phone has been fairly hammered down and settled on for like 8 years now. Seeing phones look similar to each other is not surprising to me.

I would also certainly take Pixel's new Pixel Launcher over Huwei's awful Emotion UI.

 

[deathBOB]

The front is fine. I just can't get over the glass pad on the back. It looks awful and I don't understand why it's necessary given current radio tech.

 

[quikah]

So, if this thing is a success, Google Assistant and the PIxel launcher will be exclusive to Pixel line?

 

[agent00f]

What is it about making a square with barely rounded corners vs. a square with more rounded corners that makes the "more boxy" phone look like it's trying harder? I guess that's subjectivity for you.

Personally, I'm not captured by the Pixel XL's looks, but the slate look of a phone has been fairly hammered down and settled on for like 8 years now. Seeing phones look similar to each other is not surprising to me.

I would also certainly take Pixel's new Pixel Launcher over Huwei's awful Emotion UI.

Sharp made that crystal phone and now have a prototype with actual rounded corners to the screen so it can go right to the top edge. IMO it's the look of the future.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Sharp made that crystal phone and now have a prototype with actual rounded corners to the screen so it can go right to the top edge. IMO it's the look of the future.

I agree. I even saw 1 review that noted they had no usability problems with the screen, but I read several did.

Having a screen like that, in my opinion, will require a UI shift that makes it so that the extreme edge of the display is no longer necessary to activate functions. Several reviewers notes that attempting to use functions that relied on off-edge to on-screen swipes were troublesome, especially those that came from the direction of your holding hand, as unless you use both hands, you have to balance the phone open handed to run your thumb across it.

I agree that the border-to-border look will no doubt be the future. Practical or not, it looks nice, and people want that.

 

[monkey333]

if there's so much emphasis on design, case manufacturers should be critiqued as well. I would imagine most people here (myself included) are slapping their 650 + phones in a case. nobody is going to see the phone itself.

 

[Crono]

if there's so much emphasis on design, case manufacturers should be critiqued as well. I would imagine most people here (myself included) are slapping their 650 + phones in a case. nobody is going to see the phone itself.

I use clear TPU cases for nicer looking phones. Still protects from scratches without muting the design much.

Plenty of phones I've kept "naked", though. I wouldn't dare do that for something with a glass or partial glass back, or with curved displays. Pretty much all the flagships now (with a few exceptions like LGs, or niche phones like Caterpillar's) are fairly delicate.

 

[Roland00Address]

Ben Thompson of https://stratechery.com/ on his podcast, has a great episode (see link below) explaining what Google is trying to do with the pixel. First before explaining you have to understand some background. Google (not Android) is a company that made its money by being a horizontal structured company with almost no variable costs. It costs the same amount of money to do ads for 1 million devices, 10 million, 100 million, etc. Thus marketshare and data are the most important things for Google to makes lots of money, for it does not matter who makes your phone devices, it does not matter what OS the device used as long as they were using google homepage, and google apps and thus were being served google ads, and google was also getting all of this data.

Thus it was not in Google's interest to have an Android vs Apple war.

Now Google did not create Android, instead they bought a company 2 years prior to the first iphone being shipped which was Android, and they then used Android to push Google Services. The bad thing happened was sibling rivalry. The sibling (Android) did not understand do not piss off your other sibling (iOS) for Google wanted both to thrive. Thus in 2010 we had a counterproductive war where Android announced they were at war with Apple (this was the time of the HTC Thunderbolt, announcing Honeycomb, etc, aka late Android 2.3 to Android 3.0). 2 years later Apple swapped to Apple Maps, and removing Youtube from being preinstalled (instead an app in the appstore). Apple did this for they felt they needed a backup in case Google went total war on them, and some shots were pre-emptively fired such as not having turn by turn directions on iPhones but did having them on the Google Maps App for Android. (Aka Android Apps had more features than iOS apps if the app was made by Google)

Now this is not saying these other services made by Apple are good or that the google services are better. What did occur was that Apple was now denying Google of all this valuable data, and possible ad sales for no real reason. Google the parent company does not want a marketshare war between Android and iOS.

-------

But in 2016 all of this is different. This is because the Google of the web years, and the mobile years made money by selling visual ads. You had to be looking at a computer or visual screen. This is different in an assistant market / ai market which can be voice in how the computer gives the user data, or is visual but we are talking very short amount of information. Getting the 1st response being the desired response is a whole lot more important for this type of way of using your device and you can't just slip advertisements into it.

Thus you need to make money some other way. Pretty much some form of subscription service, some form of fee service like a credit card (he does not really address this), or selling premium devices with large margins, aka similar to what Apple does.

http://exponent.fm/episode-091-googles-new-business-model/

So you need to think of the Pixel devices as not Android devices or Nexus. The Nexus was supposed to be the high end android devices, while with the pixel you are getting a device that is running Android but everything is about the Assistant. The Assistant is what separate your $650+ phone from other $650 phones. The assistant is also why you pay $650 for a Google Pixel vs a similar other high end phone that may cost $400 or $450.

Put another way the Pixel Phone is the transition device from the Google of 2009 to 2016 to the new AI focused Google that starts today, but really does not become the main focus of Google till some year in the future lets say 2020. The Pixel Phone is Google attempt to switch to another type of revenue structure.

 

[Zaap]

What is it about making a square with barely rounded corners vs. a square with more rounded corners that makes the "more boxy" phone look like it's trying harder? I guess that's subjectivity for you.

Kind of like asking, why design anything at all? What makes *anything* better than anything else in that sense? A flour sack with arm and neck holes cut in it works just as well as a decent shirt. And sure, I'll gladly pay $35,000 for a box with 4 wheels and one to steer with, vs a nicely designed vehicle... except I won't.

If we were talking the first smartphones, that's one thing, but in a market that's matured enough already that a consumer can expect form AND function, I just think that design is absolutely terrible on the form side of the coin. To each their own though.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Kind of like asking, why design anything at all? What makes *anything* better than anything else in that sense? A flour sack with arm and neck holes cut in it works just as well as a decent shirt. And sure, I'll gladly pay $35,000 for a box with 4 wheels and one to steer with, vs a nicely designed vehicle... except I won't.

If we were talking the first smartphones, that's one thing, but in a market that's matured enough already that a consumer can expect form AND function, I just think that design is absolutely terrible on the form side of the coin. To each their own though.

Keeping the "I" in mind, and "to each their own", and we're in complete agreement. To you, the design is bad, but your subjective opinion means nothing towards the objective consideration of whether or not a design is truly bad or not (Does it enhance or hinder usability? Compared to what? In what quantitative measurement?)

I know this is AT and a large number of its denizens like to imagine themselves smarter than a small army of Engineers, and Marketers, but statistically that's unlikely.

I'd rather believe that there's a reason why things are done the way they are. Whether or not it's for a good reason remains to be seen. We'll have an army of reviews on launch day, and I think some interesting observations will be made as it gets in more people's hands.

Until then, I'll say in my own opinion the design seems fine. I don't mind tasteful bezels, and watching the videos when in hand, the small bezel at the bottom seems perfectly fine for balancing the phone in my hand, and being able to reach across to the bottom while the phone is in one hand. It's also fine for putting a thumb across it to help balance it when holding it by the edge. The bezel doesn't bother me at all. I get that those really into the borderless look won't like it though.

Like I said before:

I guess that's subjectivity for you.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/04/hands-on-with-the-google-pixel-and-pixel-xl/

 

[Zaap]

You can imagine otherwise, but the reason the phone looks like it does, is money.

It's a $300 cheap ass phone design (almost generic), being sold for a lot more than that. It's like a blank HTC just had sitting around, and the word was, yeah just put our innards in that. Maybe zhuzh it up some with some glass on the back cause that's 'premium!'

Other designs that look better, and provide more function to boot easily prove this isn't top of the heap 2016 design (waterproofing anyone? Wireless charging? Larger bezel maybe, but to accomodate an actual function like capacitive buttons... Heeeellooo.... 2016 calling....)

But imagine away that it's an awesome modern design compared to others that actually are.

 

[Kazukian]

I think the next generation should be more compelling.

The sales #'s of this generation will be interesting to watch.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

You can imagine otherwise, but the reason the phone looks like it does, is money.

It's a $300 cheap ass phone design, being sold for a lot more than that. Other designs that look better, and provide more function to boot (waterproofing anyone? Wireless charging? Larger bezel maybe, but to accomodate an actual function like capacitive buttons... Heeeellooo.... 2016 calling....)

But imagine away that it's an awesome modern design compared to others that actually are.

You are a strange person to believe in your feelz so adamantly, but believe away. There's not much worth in discussing your subjective opinion as an objective fact. So if you need to keep shouting it on a random forum so that you can you can reinforce it to yourself, it's not against any forum rules.

 

[zerocool84]

You can imagine otherwise, but the reason the phone looks like it does, is money.

It's a $300 cheap ass phone design (almost generic), being sold for a lot more than that. It's like a blank HTC just had sitting around, and the word was, yeah just put our innards in that. Maybe zhuzh it up some with some glass on the back cause that's 'premium!'

Other designs that look better, and provide more function to boot easily prove this isn't top of the heap 2016 design (waterproofing anyone? Wireless charging? Larger bezel maybe, but to accomodate an actual function like capacitive buttons... Heeeellooo.... 2016 calling....)

But imagine away that it's an awesome modern design compared to others that actually are.

All hands on and reviews says otherwise about the build quality.

 

[agent00f]

Ben Thompson of https://stratechery.com/ on his podcast, has a great episode (see link below) explaining what Google is trying to do with the pixel. First before explaining you have to understand some background. Google (not Android) is a company that made its money by being a horizontal structured company with almost no variable costs. It costs the same amount of money to do ads for 1 million devices, 10 million, 100 million, etc. Thus marketshare and data are the most important things for Google to makes lots of money, for it does not matter who makes your phone devices, it does not matter what OS the device used as long as they were using google homepage, and google apps and thus were being served google ads, and google was also getting all of this data.

Thus it was not in Google's interest to have an Android vs Apple war.

Now Google did not create Android, instead they bought a company 2 years prior to the first iphone being shipped which was Android, and they then used Android to push Google Services. The bad thing happened was sibling rivalry. The sibling (Android) did not understand do not piss off your other sibling (iOS) for Google wanted both to thrive. Thus in 2010 we had a counterproductive war where Android announced they were at war with Apple (this was the time of the HTC Thunderbolt, announcing Honeycomb, etc, aka late Android 2.3 to Android 3.0). 2 years later Apple swapped to Apple Maps, and removing Youtube from being preinstalled (instead an app in the appstore). Apple did this for they felt they needed a backup in case Google went total war on them, and some shots were pre-emptively fired such as not having turn by turn directions on iPhones but did having them on the Google Maps App for Android. (Aka Android Apps had more features than iOS apps if the app was made by Google)

Now this is not saying these other services made by Apple are good or that the google services are better. What did occur was that Apple was now denying Google of all this valuable data, and possible ad sales for no real reason. Google the parent company does not want a marketshare war between Android and iOS.

-------

But in 2016 all of this is different. This is because the Google of the web years, and the mobile years made money by selling visual ads. You had to be looking at a computer or visual screen. This is different in an assistant market / ai market which can be voice in how the computer gives the user data, or is visual but we are talking very short amount of information. Getting the 1st response being the desired response is a whole lot more important for this type of way of using your device and you can't just slip advertisements into it.

Thus you need to make money some other way. Pretty much some form of subscription service, some form of fee service like a credit card (he does not really address this), or selling premium devices with large margins, aka similar to what Apple does.

http://exponent.fm/episode-091-googles-new-business-model/

So you need to think of the Pixel devices as not Android devices or Nexus. The Nexus was supposed to be the high end android devices, while with the pixel you are getting a device that is running Android but everything is about the Assistant. The Assistant is what separate your $650+ phone from other $650 phones. The assistant is also why you pay $650 for a Google Pixel vs a similar other high end phone that may cost $400 or $450.

Put another way the Pixel Phone is the transition device from the Google of 2009 to 2016 to the new AI focused Google that starts today, but really does not become the main focus of Google till some year in the future lets say 2020. The Pixel Phone is Google attempt to switch to another type of revenue structure.

This is a pretty revisionist narrative. It was absolutely in google's interests to control the growth market mobile platform much as they can, so it only makes sense they wanted android to win. Otherwise why bother. And win they did, exactly the same way that microsoft did against apple on the desktop, again through Job's hubris in allowing a good-enough competitor to undercut them.

ios/apple mobile platform is basically dead internationally speaking, and the US is the only market it has with enough share to push imessage or such. That last bastion of premium phones is what google is trying to attack in 2016, and in rather unspectacular fashion.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I'm pretty sure the non-revisionist narrative was Apple will be dead by 2014, every dev will dump iOS for Android because marketshare, users will dump iOS for because customization / open source / cheap phones and all the great innovations will only come from Androidland.

 

[agent00f]

I'm pretty sure the non-revisionist narrative was Apple will be dead by 2014, every dev will dump iOS for Android because marketshare, users will dump iOS for because customization / open source / cheap phones and all the great innovations will only come from Androidland.

Apple was fated to repeat history with Jobs v2. Recall macos was able to wobble along for a while the first time.

 

[UNCjigga]

I really, really wanted to like the Pixel XL, but I think I'm finally switching from Android to the iPhone 7. Let me preface that by saying I'm on Verizon, will always be on Verizon, and can take advantage of upgrade pricing or monthly payment plan. However, I just think the iPhone 7 Plus is a better phone for the money. Also, I really like Apple's "new phone every year" plan that bundles the phone and Applecare in a monthly payment--not sure if Google is offering something like that directly from the Play Store?

 

[Deeko]

I ordered the Pixel. We'll see. If it's not worth it I'll just return it.

 

[gorcorps]

I really, really wanted to like the Pixel XL, but I think I'm finally switching from Android to the iPhone 7. Let me preface that by saying I'm on Verizon, will always be on Verizon, and can take advantage of upgrade pricing or monthly payment plan. However, I just think the iPhone 7 Plus is a better phone for the money. Also, I really like Apple's "new phone every year" plan that bundles the phone and Applecare in a monthly payment--not sure if Google is offering something like that directly from the Play Store?

I had a similar thought, but after using an iphone 6 for the last few months for work I don't think I could make the switch (again) to Apple. I have a 6p now which I'm not thrilled with, but both OSes are aggravating for different reasons.

 

[ControlD]

I had a similar thought, but after using an iphone 6 for the last few months for work I don't think I could make the switch (again) to Apple. I have a 6p now which I'm not thrilled with, but both OSes are aggravating for different reasons.

Yeah, every time a new iPhone comes out I have the same thought pattern. "Maybe I should go back to iOS.". Then I use my iPad for a bit and realize I just wouldn't be any happier, and probably more irritated, going back to an iPhone.