> Google Assistant: not new... and honestly, kinda crap. I turned off a lot of permissions on my phone and the assistant is virtually useless now.

This kind of feels like the complaints that a site is broken then you find out the person commenting has disabled javascript. Of course it's less useful with all the permissions locked down.

Anecdotally I find it really useful, I get people have privacy concerns but given I'm not willing to uproot my email and change all the sign ups I'm using either gmail or direct google login for I'm already pretty exposed to Google. I use it a lot driving since I can just squeeze the bottom sides of the phone to launch it.

As for the fingerprint reader that's weird, they had both on the Pixel 3 (at least the XL version I have), don't know what would have changed to make it not possible on the 4.

Yeah, it is a bit nitpicky, but overall I've been totally underwhelmed with Google Assistant. Maybe it was their marketing for how "advanced" of an AI it is (when all they really mean is its voice recognition is pretty strong).

My issues in general which lead me to locking down the permissions, and not really looking back, is that its frustrating to work with. If I'm trying to text hands free in my car it has random delays that have no audio cue to work with. If I'm holding the phone, I can feel its vibrations telling me when its ready... but I'm driving, so handling the phone itself seems like a poor choice.

After that I tried some things like "Ok Google, when I get home remind me to put the trash out"... to which point it launches a calendar app and requires me to manually press things... or mishears me and just tries googling for random shit. Again, not helpful while driving.

I tried playing with it. I had my navigation open while commuting in an unfamiliar corner of the country once and I said: "Ok Google, I need to use the bathroom"... so it google searched constipation cures.

For the record, the permission it wants me to enable is Web & App Activity Tracking... which should not block me from voice texting but here we are.

---

Nitpickiness aside, it just isn't that special anymore is it? I don't see what's so special about a niche, buggy voice prompt that requires me to run apps manually half the time. Its a nice feature to include, but it has never felt like a "selling point" to the phone lines.

There's definitely some limitations, but once you know how to phrase queries in a way it understands them GA gets useful. You're not conversing with a person still you have to phrase the question right just like we all learned to do with search engines when they first came out.

For example I don't think reminders has geofencing at all so you're asking for something it just can't do. If you are just asking it to remind you of something at a certain time it will just do it no manual interaction required.

For the bathroom thing there's one leap that makes it tough, Google doesn't know if a place has a public restroom, at least it's not something they surface on Maps if they do, so to answer that it'd have to have had a manual thing added saying gas stations, rest stops, etc. generally have public toilets.

Are you on vibrate with no alert or media volume? Mine plays a little boop boop noise when it's initialized the mic and is ready for me to speak...

RE: Geofencing - GA actually doesn't take in reminders for prompts like "When I get to work" or "When I get home". Give it a try and see if it works better for you

RE: Bathrooms - You hit it mostly on the head. I just wanted to find a gas station, fast food, restaurant, typically anything that would have public washroom access. I had no idea how far until the next town, what services they had, etc.

RE: Voice promtping. I had full bluetooth media volume (I always drive listening to podcasts) but virtually never have notification sounds on.

---

I think I do understand why there's limitations. But it gets to the point where if every use-case I have for a voice assistant is "we're just not there yet" then at a certain point that voice assistant is useless.

Microsoft Word had voice typing in like 2003 or some shit. If GA is only really good at doing Google searches or typing my voice in a text it honestly isn't that impressive of a feature to me; its gimmicky and not "flagship feature" imo.

EDIT: Another example. One of the very first things I tried doing with GA on my Pixel 1 was "What are the highway conditions?" as I was preparing for work. The google result I got was for something like Arizona highway conditions... even though I live in Sask. Canada.

I've had an iPhone since Google Assistant really became a "thing," but I use my Google Home all the time to get answers to questions that I'm surprised it's able to parse, like "what was the name of the dog in <movie title>", or "what song has the lyrics <insert lyrics here>". In fact, I'd say that 9 times out of 10 it gives me a pretty decent answer to any question I ask it. Of course, that may be because I'm familiar enough with the limits of technology to know what types of questions not to ask.

As far as reminders and stuff go I'd recommend just trying that sometime when you're not driving just to see what the workflow is like. Sometimes you just have to set something up the first time you use a feature (like picking which calendar you want reminders saved in) and then from that point on it's transparent.

That's interesting I guess? Having a voice assistant to answer google searches really isn't something I'm interested in. As I discuss this more and more I feel like I'm just not the target customer for what their "Assistant" is trying to reach.

> As for the fingerprint reader that's weird, they had both on the Pixel 3 (at least the XL version I have), don't know what would have changed to make it not possible on the 4

My guess is that with the 4, they wanted to try to move in the same direction as Apple with facial unlock and therefore didn't think it was worth the cost to add a fingerprint reader, but then COVID happened and it turns out that unlocking with your face is impossible when wearing a mask, so they've realized that a fingerprint sensor is still useful.

(This is coming from a Pixel 4 XL user who has been frustrated with the lack of fingerprint sensor since shortly after getting it but doubly so since wearing a mask has become a mainstay of my daily life).

I'm honestly not sure I understand that you're complaining there are no new features whilst saying they need to go back to simple + good + affordable. It's pretty affordable for the CPU, RAM, storage etc. I buy Pixel phones specifically because they don't come with any """useful""" shit. Because useful typically means 500MB of RAM POS bloatware bundled in with the vendor's ROM and buggy home screen replacement.

It seems straightforward to me:

* Google has not been able to put together the new features that would justify this flagship cost

* Because they cannot, they should instead focus on their strengths which are simplicity, all around quality, and affordability (e.g. the $349 4a)

Thanks for taking my word soup and putting into a way more concise comment.

I loved Nexus (and the Pixel 1) because I'm getting them straight from Google without contract to my wireless provider and without their additional bloat software. I like getting updates direct from the source in a timely manner and I figure they want their brand on quality product.

At this point it feels like they're using their brand to justify overcharging on something which is hardly better than a lot of the market competition. Its a fine proposition if they're the clear winner in all things Android but they really aren't anymore, why keep pretending and just go back to that niche of: Quality, Simple, Affordable?

But don't they have that covered? The 4a looks pretty good.

I'm not particularly concerned about the Pixel 5's price since I assume there will be a 5a next year. People who care about 5G might buy it, but you don't have to.

This isn't a flagship cost. It is $700 for the Pixel 5 vs. $1,000+ for an iPhone.

The fairly equivalent iPhone 11 is $799. That does look like flagship cost ballpark to me

But the iPhone 11 isn't flagship, it's mid-tier.

Apparently it's also without a headphone port, which is a deal breaker for me.

While I agree, you should definitely grab yourself a set of Jabra 65-85t bluetooth headphones and transition to the future :)

I lost my Pixel 3 recently and upgraded to a Pixel 4 (but had a Pixel 1 as well). You skipped right to the worst incarnation - no fingerprint unlock, mediocre battery life.

Yeah, seems that they listened, I'm very pleased that they are bringing back the fingerprint sensor for Pixel 5.

Why? Face Unlock is a godsend, Pixel 3 was my first phone with fingerprint scanner and I hated every minute of using it.

It was unreliable piece of &^*&^%&^, I had to teach it my fingers every week during the cold season (which in my country is close to 7-8 months) and during summer I had to do it only once a month maybe - during winter the air gets colder fingers dry out especially if you have allergy (and I do).

And it was slow, I did unlock with pattern faster.

As for battery, I don't feel that it is poor in Pixel 4 (I ditched Pixel 3 as soon as the preorders for Pixel 4 started), but I use wireless charging all the time, I have it at work and at home, so my phone is almost always at 100%.

And now I'm puzzled, why did they bring back fingerprint scanner in Pixel 5? Apple didn't bring it back after they jumped the face unlock wagon.

Not to mention inferior CPU/CPU in Pixel 5, it looks also worse than even in Pixel 3, but the price is still premium.

So basically now we get a Nexus quality phone with Pixel price point.

I'm having the exact opposite issue -- going from the Pixel 3 to 4, Face Unlock is absolute trash. With FP I already had my finger on the reader as I was pulling my phone out of my pocket / picking it up, and it'd be unlocked and ready by the time I had it held up. Face Unlock fails every other try, adding a few seconds to the unlock, it doesn't work with masks. It's super frustrating and no amount of re-learning is fixing it. Pattern/PIN unlock isn't an option (keep in mind this is also your encryption key for full device encryption), so having to type in a passphrase even occasionally is a PITA.

Otherwise I agree, my battery life feels fine, and the upgrade to the 5 doesn't seem all that worth it.

Oh, in my case Face Unlock is reliable, sometimes to reliable, when I try to put my phone away it suddenly unlocks because my face was near :)

Oh and a trivia about Pixel 4 Soli (which is a gimmick, nothing more), I was wondering why my music suddently restarted so frequently when I was in car.

And I found out why after few days - since a week we have a lot of rain, so when I drive I have windscreenwwipers and this was somehow being picked up by soli (when my phone was mounted near windshield, but not that near) :)

Yeah I had to disable the proximity sensor for the music controls, it 1) triggered constantly when I didn't want it to, and 2) took 4-5 tries when I actually tried to use it (ie swipe to the next song with dirty hands in the kitchen). It's a neat idea, just unpolished.

Personal opinion: Face unlock in the age of face masks might as well not exist. Ideally, both options should be available concurrently.

Yeah, both options would be best.

But "age of facemasks" depends on country. In mine I need to wear masks only in stores, public transport.

But in those places I also need to wear gloves, so both ways of unlocking phone are unavailable to me.

And still, Apple manages to keep their unlocking mechanism.

"Keep phone unlocked until I imminently enter and exit a store" would be an interesting feature.

I'm surprised you had as much trouble with the Finger scanner as you did. I never had to retrain my fingers in all the time I've owned it (going on 4 years now)

I live in the Canadian prairies, so cold + long winters are no stranger to me, and the fingerprint just always worked. The face unlock fails more in the winter because I'll be wearing a scarf or headcover which renders it useless. Heck, even in the summer it fails frequently because I'll have sunglasses on

It's only $799 CAD, which puts it into the mid range with all this price inflation.

Good catch, I'll edit.

Google Assistant was actually pretty interesting – they have a new feature called 'Hold for Me' that allows you to put it on hold when you're in a call waiting queue with someone like your bank and it'll let you know when it's your turn. That alone seemed pretty big to me! Demo: https://twitter.com/ow/status/1311373805814767619

Looks useful indeed, but is it related to assistant in any way apart from branding? It seems like something that they can just put in the phone app.

Looks really useful, but that's software side. Hopefully other versions will be getting that update as well. Wouldn't make sense to gate that behind the Pixel 5, but maybe they will.

The price is very disappointing. Similarly spec'd Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G will cost about $300.

For an additional comparison:

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G[1], which was announced on the same day and with the similar price tag as Pixel 5, comes with Snapdragon 865 processor, 5000mAh battery, 6.67" display size, and wireless charging, but lacks an OLED display, a dedicated security chip, a water resistance rating, and a "zero-bloatware" Android experience.

I would still pick any Pixel smartphone over any Xiaomi smartphone, if they were available in my country. But at least there is an open-source tool on Github for safely removing most of the Chinese bloatware that comes with Xiaomi devices[2].

[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_10t_pro_5g-10437.php

[2] https://github.com/Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools

> The battery is nice, but its also not worth a $800 price tag.

> fingerpint unlock on the back

> 4G is plenty fast for everyday use

I bought a Moto G7 Power a couple years ago. 5000mAh battery, and a low-energy processor. I can do 3+ days without charging. Fingerprint unlock on the back. 4G wireless.

It's under $200 USD right now. This, after years of whatever the flagship android phone was.

I've got the same phone, used only the charger provided with it, followed as many of the battery saving rules as I could and after about a year and a half it's down to needing a charge every night after a day of heavy use.

I'd still highly recommend it though. It's a great phone overall and comes without q lot of preinstalled bullshit.

Yeah, it's been a couple years for me and the battery is showing it's age- but I didn't charge it last night, and I'm still at 33%.

But at $200, buy one every 12 months and you're still ahead compared to buying a flagship every 2 years.

My only hangup is that the camera is not great. I don't take a lot of photos, but it was a noticeable step down from the Pixel 1.

Yeah, the camera's not the best, I think there's two other versions of the g7 though. One of them has a better camera, but doesn't have the battery life. I think it's the g7 play but i'm not entirely sure.

> Wireless charging: not new

It irritates me that this has been a feature off and on since the Palm Pre or before, and that phone makers alternately trot it out as new shiny and then silently take it away again at random times. Every device should have it, IMO, for the convenience.

I liked the Pixel 1's metal backing which is my understanding why Wireless Charging was not possible. All things considered, the tradeoff of metal phone vs. wireless is a pretty good choice to have depending on how you use your phones.

Not to mention the pixel 4's glass design makes it heavy.

Personally I hate Qi charging because it's bad for battery health due to heat and it increases weight by coil and surface material like glass.

I like to have Qi for ear buds, watch or something like smaller battery devices, but not for phones that has big batteries.

I'm honestly more disappointed that they didn't bring wireless charging or waterproofing to the actual midrange with those specs.

To be fair, I also could care less about the spec sheet. Given the screwy market segmentation caused by the 865, and the fact that new and substantial WiFi/Bluetooth/USB upgrades won't consistently hit devices for another few months, I've more or less written off 2020 as a gap year for anything high-end regardless, the way I should have the year that the 810 shipped.

In the meantime, what could be really interesting is the kernel - specifically, if this supports GKIs out of the box, and what comes out of the XDA crowd if it does. (They're not required to use in testing until device kernels begin moving to 5.4, but given that the Pixel line generally implements these kinds of architectural changes first as reference devices it would still be a safe bet I think.) This could lead to a lot of traction for projects like Halium, for instance.

I am still using a Pixel 1, and I am completely happy with it, aside from the degraded battery life. If the Pixel 1 was still receiving security updates, I would be happy to stick with it. I would just replace the battery. However, I think security updates are somewhat important, so I will probably end up buying a new-model phone.

It would be nice if my phone could be like my computer (running Debian). I can always install a new OS version on it. It never gets permanently cut off from receiving security updates.

the google assistant was reasonable, but now it's become crap because of one minor change

and that is that it no longer beeps after saying "hi google", so no idea if it's actually processed the wakeup word

and then sometimes it no longer responds after commands, e.g. "set alarm for 8am", so you have no idea if it's actually done it

until a month or so ago you could work around this by uninstalling the updates, but now they've done something to the clock app so if you do that you can't set alarms with it at all

annoying

My Note 8 still beeps to let me know it's ready for my command. Is this a model-specific thing?

It should be possible to re-enable the beep in settings, just like for Google Home devices.

it's been a problem for around 10 months, reverting the app version fixes it but has other side effects

according to a search... apparently this is a common problem

> I think Google needs to stop chasing the iPhone and go back to the Nexus style of simple+good+affordable.

That's exactly what they did. The recently released $349 4a reviewed really well, most reviews compared it explicitly to the original Nexus.

I would add that honest specs would help.

I'd like to know sensor size. Not "pixel width." Sensor size+aperture, to a first order, is what you want to know about a camera.

It's all useless. With a regular camera, absolutely, but I don't think the Pixel has changed its sensor since the 2? It's all post-processing improvements.

I'm impressed that you managed to get through the crazy multi-directional animantions during your scroll-through and were able to collect any info.

I think the only new things I saw were the ultrawide lens and the lighting effects in Google Photos, which were neat but not breathtaking.

Pixel 4a (4G) must be for you. If you need much cheeper, it's Xiaomi's chance.

I love shopping for new devices and it's about time for me, coming from a Pixel 3. I skipped the 4 because it seemed like a sideways step rather than an upgrade, and disappointingly, the same seems true here.

I think Google just made me into someone who'll look elsewhere when my Pixel 3 falls apart.

It's just not compelling enough to upgrade, and believe me, I don't even need much of a reason.