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Google Rolls Out New Pixel Phones With Great Cameras At Lower Price Points (buzzfeednews.com) 96

Google added two new mid-range devices to its phone line-up Tuesday: The new Pixel 3a is available for $399 effective immediately, while the larger Pixel 3a XL clocks in at $479. The company is also bringing its entire phone line-up, including last year's Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL, to a range of new mobile carriers, including Sprint and T-Mobile. From a report: The big idea with the Pixel 3a models is to bring high end camera performance and the Pixel ~experience~ (ie: great hardware and design, and Android without any bells or whistles, for people who might find iPhones too basic and Samsung phones too garish/explode-y) to people who weren't going to spend upwards of $800 on a smartphone. So Google lowered the price by about half, reducing costs by using cheaper hardware and materials -- like a pokier processor and plastic housing -- in other parts of the phone while sticking with the same camera hardware. In a briefing ahead of the announcement, Google's VP of product management for Pixel, Brian Rakowski, said the phones are intended for people who would like to buy a Pixel, but are left behind by that phone's $800 (and up) price tag. (And based on the Pixel 3's disappointing sales numbers, there were a lot of people, for one reason or another, who may have been left behind!)
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Google Rolls Out New Pixel Phones With Great Cameras At Lower Price Points

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  • Do you have (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    A free phone with no camera that doesn't track me or steal my data and has Wikipedia installed? I didn't think so

  • Great Cameras! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "Great Cameras" have:

    No Optical Zoom
    No Interchangeable lenses
    No hardware stabilization
    Poor low-light performance
    Poor ISO sensitivity/control
    Poor shutter contol
    Poor aperture control
    Poor flash
    No external flash support
    Plastic lenses
    tiny sensors
    noisy sensors

    Wow, better throw away my 18MP $500 DSLR, and it's $300 zoom, I'm sure a cellphone is just as good, even better!

    I'm sure it's tiny, noisy sensor is more than a match for a larger sensor, and it's plastic lenses are far better than the low-dispersion glass le

    • Re:Great Cameras! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by drafalski ( 232178 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @02:26PM (#58553462)

      Right, because they are obviously comparing this cellphone camera to DSLRs and not other cellphone cameras.

      • Google literally bought and paid for such comparisons for their previous devices.

    • Re: Great Cameras! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @02:44PM (#58553552)

      Lol. Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about, because actually the pixel will blow away a DSLR at low light performance. The DSLR will either give you a very dark frame (fast shutter), a very grainy frame (high ISO), or a well lit frame that suffers from motion blur and may even require a tripod. The pixel is well known for it's low light performance because it uses multiple frames, combines them using gyroscope data to help align, and the software is incredibly good at detecting which elements are moving frame to frame and ensuring they don't blur. Even if you wanted to manually replicate all this with your DSLR, I personally haven't seen any PC software that is anywhere near as good at the merge process.

      I would agree that a DSLR is going to be sharper. A dedicated zoom lens is going to get you way more detail. But my $4-5k worth of DSLR equipment doesn't quite fit in my pocket, and the added weight to carry it is a bit more than the nearly imperceptible weight of my phone (especially since I'll always have a phone with me anyway), so despite my mostly superior DSLR, 95% of my photos are done on my pixel.

      • combines them using gyroscope data to help align

        Cell phones don't have gyroscopes. They have accelerometers.

        And no, they aren't the same thing.

        • combines them using gyroscope data to help align

          Cell phones don't have gyroscopes.

          Well... At least one phone has one [banggood.com] -- or something like that. :-)

      • The Pixel certainly does not use (or exclusively rely on) gyroscopes for aligning multiple pictures. (it's not responsive and precise enough, kind of previous generation VR helmets with gyros vs moderns that use IR cams).

        nearly all modern picture aligning software rely on visual cues from the pictures themselves.

        Hugin is such an opensource image aligner. Normally, it's targeted at making panoramas, but you could tweak it to combine night pictures to reduce graininess.

        in the precise case of Google's Pixel an

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Let us know when your $800 DSLR+lens can make phone calls, send texts, check your email, play games, browse the web, manage your calendar, play music, stream movies from Netflix and the other 9,000 things this $400 smart phone can do.

      • Let me know when your $400 smartphone can cut bricks and make holes in concrete like a $200 drill can.

        This is fun, isn't it?

    • Re:Great Cameras! (Score:5, Informative)

      by danbert8 ( 1024253 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @02:58PM (#58553618)

      Speaking as someone who is a photography enthusiast and has a Pixel 3XL: The pixel camera and software is freaking amazing for what it is. The low light imaging in particular is kind of ridiculous. Can I take better shots with a DSLR? Yes, if I have the right lens and a tripod to hold the camera steady. With the Pixel 3 sensor and software, I can get handheld shots that are miraculous for the lighting conditions. Better than any handheld shot you can get with a huge camera and lens combo. Did I mention that it fits in tight spots? I have gotten really good pictures of dark spots in my engine bay where a DSLR would not fit and any other phone camera would just have a blurry mess of dark pixels. For a cell phone camera and really anything of comparable size, it is the greatest lens and software setup you can get.

      • Speaking as someone who is a photography enthusiast and has a Pixel 3XL: The pixel camera and software is freaking amazing for what it is. The low light imaging in particular is kind of ridiculous. Can I take better shots with a DSLR? Yes, if I have the right lens and a tripod to hold the camera steady. With the Pixel 3 sensor and software, I can get handheld shots that are miraculous for the lighting conditions. Better than any handheld shot you can get with a huge camera and lens combo. Did I mention that it fits in tight spots? I have gotten really good pictures of dark spots in my engine bay where a DSLR would not fit and any other phone camera would just have a blurry mess of dark pixels. For a cell phone camera and really anything of comparable size, it is the greatest lens and software setup you can get.

        I call shenanigans. I have no idea why you're trolling for Google, but I don't believe that you're sincere. If your pixel3XL photos are miraculous compared to your DSLR, then you either have an 15yo DSLR or don't know what you are doing. My DSLR can beat my Pixel 3 in every scenario. Comparing a cameraphone to a real camera is like comparing a battery-powered scooter to a car. Both will get you where you are going, but with a much different experience. They solve different problems.

        My Pixel 3 is ve

        • by Cederic ( 9623 )

          I suspect these people are looking at the photographs on their phone. On a five inch screen the difference in noise and detail is much harder to see, even if the user is capable of using a DSLR properly.

          My phone takes magnificent landscape shots, but I still carried a camera bag full of kit around the world with me on a recent holiday. When you create 60 inch prints it's nice to start from a sharp image with good dynamic range.

    • Re:Great Cameras! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by b0bby ( 201198 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @03:24PM (#58553782)

      I have a Pixel 3, and while it's not as good as my SLR in some instances, it's all I take with me for vacation shots. Its performance in low light is pretty darn impressive, and with the night sight mode low light handheld shots come out better than my Lumix compact which has a pretty big lens.

      So yeah, if you want to geek out get an SLR setup, or keep using the one you have. But for me, the couple of hundred more I spent on the Pixel was worth it to have a decent camera with me all the time. And if these new ones have the same camera, I'd say it's a no-brainer if the camera is what you care about on your phone.

      • by Cederic ( 9623 )

        The stupid thing is that my interchangeable lens camera fits into a pocket more easily than a Pixel 3a.

        So fuck Google and fuck the global phone market for pandering to fucking ham fisted Americans.

        • by b0bby ( 201198 )

          I haven't seen the 3a, but my 3 fits in my pocket just fine. The bigger ones are too big for my taste but the 3 seems like a pretty reasonable size. It's just a bit bigger than my last phone, which I wanted because my eyes aren't what they used to be.

    • i know! it's kind of like i tried hauling a load of gravel in my convertible mustang. it just didn't work!

  • KDE Plasma (Score:1, Troll)

    by SumDog ( 466607 )

    Can you install mainline Linux on it and KDE Plasma or Ubuntu Touch? Are the drivers open source and not binary blobs? If not, then fuck you Google. Fuck you're shitty ass ecosystem and phones that can never be updated due to your shitty bastardized not-even-really-Linux based firmware garbage. Mandate UEFI and unlockable bootloaders. It will literally cost you next to nothing and let the few of us who want real options get those real options.

    • by Krishnoid ( 984597 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @02:23PM (#58553448) Journal

      We're sorry you're unhappy with our operating system. Here's the source code if you want to fix it to work on better hardware, and a full refund of your licensing fees.

      • by tepples ( 727027 )

        We're sorry you're unhappy with our operating system. Here's the source code if you want to fix it to work on better hardware

        Does the source code include "the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable", as the Linux license (GPLv2) requires? I imagine that such scripts would be necessary in order to pass the bootloader's integrity checks. And does it include source for things like Google Play Store?

    • by Ksevio ( 865461 )
      Yeah you probably could install those things if you made a build - but no one develops mainline linux for phones because Android is better suited. The LineageOS project is an open source project that releases builds of Android for many phones. Are there any phones that have fully open source drivers? Usually the baseband is at least a blob. Dunno why you're putting this on Google
      • no one develops mainline linux for phones because Android is better suited.

        I'll agree that Android may be "better suited" for handheld use. But is it also better for docking the phone to an external keyboard and monitor once I get to a desk?

        Usually the baseband is at least a blob.

        If the baseband is the only blob, and it runs on a dedicated core, that would be acceptable to many. That's the rule that Fedora seems to follow: anything running on the same CPU as Linux must be free.

  • From an article on the release:
    the smaller Pixel 3A measures in at 5.6 inches

    A 5.6" screen is the "smaller" option? Screw this timeline.

  • But do they have uSD cards?
  • My 100$ J3
  • I guess cameras 8% better than the competition are nice but at this price point, a plastic phone with large bezels... just doesn't seem super compelling. The oneplus 7 will be out in days and be a full screen phone. You can buy a Motorola for half the price of a pixel 3a. I'm not sure what we're paying for at $500. The clean google experience?
  • by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @02:52PM (#58553580) Journal

    ...with removable batteries and with a stereo jack.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @05:00PM (#58554244) Homepage Journal

      These are pretty close. They have a headphone jack and while the battery isn't trivial to remove if it's anything like the other Pixel phone it's far from the worst either. The main thing that made other Pixel phones hard to open was the glass back, which has been replaced by a plastic one that will likely be much easier to get off.

      • Yep, I was excited to see a phone with a good camera, processor, and a plastic back and headphone jack.

        An SD card slot would be nice, and dual front facing speakers, but this is the most compelling device to me since my Nexus 5.

        I doubt I'll get in on this generation since my current tank of a phone (ZTE Axon 7) seems utterly indestructible and has great LineageOS support. Which is the other thing I'm looking at with this new phone: unlockable bootloader?

        Sam

      • and while the battery isn't trivial to remove

        And therefore, fuck it.

        I'm dead serious, I'm only buying phones with user-replaceable batteries. None of that "just a bit of glue, just a couple of screws here and there" shit.

    • by chrish ( 4714 )

      Just ordered a new battery for my LG G5 for $15 from Aliexpress. The replacement process takes around one minute and doesn't require any special tools or skills.

      This is one of the best designed phones I've seen in the last five years (complete with headphone jack).

  • If I hadn't already bought a Nokia 7.1 recently, I would be clickety-clicking right now to buy the Pixel 3a or 3a XL. The Nokia 7.1 is an Android One phone, and it gets similar updates to the Pixel 3a / 3a XL. The Nokia 7.1 also has a headphone jack, can take a microSD card, and has a decent/adequate camera. I think I would rather have the Pixel 3a or 3a XL, and maybe I still will eventually, but the Nokia 7.1 plus the Nokia True Wireless Earphone V1 can be bought for the same price as just the Pixel 3a XL
  • by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @03:12PM (#58553694)

    Assuming Google does the same things it has done in the past, the Pixels will have an unlockable bootloader. This doesn't sound like much, but with almost no mainstream phone companies offering this (Samsung offers it in every country but the US), this is a deal making point, as it allows LineageOS to be used, or at a minimum, Magisk so kernel level firewall settings can be used to keep rogue apps from phoning home. Plus, one can use Titanium Backup for app level backups, which is nice, as Android has no real useful backup method by itself other than TB or nandroid, and both require either a recovery partition or root.

    This by itself makes the devices worth buying.

  • I have two cats and a dog. I got plenty of shit around here.

    No need to buy Google's.
    • Start feeding them better food. Pet food with less filler ingredients means the dog will leave less google piles in the yard and the cats will bury less apple in the sandbox.

  • The fashion conscious are a fickle demographic. One day the sun comes up, and the brand of your smartphone is no longer the hipster's hip margin.

    What remains are two distinct groups: those who would still pay $800 for an aluminum unibody (if the security updates were guaranteed to last three years), and those who won't pay $800 for an aluminum unibody (because the security updates surely don't last for six years, and neither will the current feature set remain optimal).

    That these two groups are presently in

    • Momentarily I was undecided whether to write "guaranteed to last more than three years" or "guaranteed to last six years" and it came out of my fingers "guaranteed to last three years". My bad.

  • This looks like a successor to the affordable and functional Nexus line of devices. However, the last Nexus products, 6p and 5x, specially the later, almost all met a fiery death by bootloop. And besides the bootloops, the 5X had so many problems (like tinted screen, flimsy headphone jack, only 2GB ram, broken Oreo update, unable to record at 60fps, etc) that I seriously started questioning the judgement and competence of people who designed those phones.

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