superchunk said:
bolded ... they are similar in tech/features and similar in price and I used tech specs from each phone company for my statements as well as several comparisons already out from tech sites. You used ebay and someone's opinion from reddit, yet you call me out on research. O_O Umm what? Firstly you didn't link your sources and secondly... I provided that too. When did I use someone's opinion on reddit? There is a link to the article. And yes I used ebay cause it was easy to find... People go on ebay... 1) camera - you admitted they'll be similar but of course we'll have to wait for actual comparisons. 2) Display - you have to look at ppi do to screen size differences. 441 vs 567 or 534 vs 567 and both are same tech (super amoled). I said Pixel was right up there and both were better than iPhone (326 or 401) which is a true statement. Considering the S7 is a larger phone screen size, it requires the higher ppi which is why the similar sized pixel XL has a closer ppi. For all intents and purposes, the displays are very similar and any user is not likely to see a difference. Didn't disgree against the iphone so... And that is quite a lot of a difference considering what you are paying and how it affects your VR experience. Yes the Pixel XL are closer to the ppi but again, you are paying a ton more for it. And yes they will see a ton of difference when using VR and even without it, the value for what you are getting is still less. 3) CPU/GPU - Ok, one variant of the S7 is better than pixel while the other variant... the one nearly anyone in US/CA will buy is not. I'm willing to concede that all-in-all they are similar enough that it won't matter. Umm.. Canada gets the international version. And considering international version is on every country but the US, it is a big deal. Have you looked at the performance numbers? However, you do admit in your column that stock Android is faster than Touchwiz. So not sure why you defend that is somehow ok or can be ignored. Its a simple difference. You want the best responsive Android experience? Get Nexus/Pixel and possibly Moto G/Z. Yes it is faster, I have never said it wasn't. My issue is that its not $100+ faster. 4) Nexus devices get updates first. Now will Pixel devices. All others at best are a few months later to a year, if at all. Your statement that S7 will always get updates is blatantly false. Samsung only pushes one major OS update (maybe two) for their phones and yes, they will do small defect/security fixes, well after nexus/pixel received same. My son's Nexus 5 from 2013 is on Marshmellow, same as S7. S7 will not get the latest OS update 3 years later. Only Pixel has the possibility of being a phone you can keep up-to-date OS post 2nd year... most not post first year. Well, I doubt that since on Google's own Site, it says "2 years of OS updates." The Nexus 5 may have gotten Android M but there is no guarantee that the Pixel will as well... And Samsung does multiple just like every other Android Manufacturer. Like the Galaxy S5 for example released with Android 4.4 and is now with Android M. You bring up one app, Assistant... which is so similar to Google Now + Google Search (using voice) that it really doesn't matter. Is assistant coming to Samsung? Also... what hardware features are you talking about? Heart rate monitor... who cares. That is such a niche feature, might as well call out built-in kickstands that HTC use to push. I don't see why Samsung (as well as others) won't be getting it considering the market share. But the point is, it is a major feature in Pixel that is missing in Nexus 6P which is similar to what every other Android manufacturer does. What is preventing Google's next phone from doing the same to Pixel? 5) Pixel is $650 directly from Google. Not sure why you are talking about Verizon, you can also buy now at Best Buy or Google's site. The unlocked versions (best buy or google site) with with any carrier in the world. In fact, the Pixel has the best set of cellular radios in any phone. It doesn't need an "international version". Go to the tech spec pages and do some research. As for pricing... people buy phones from carriers, stores, amazon or direct. People only go to ebay when they want cheap used shit. You are comfortable with Ebay but most think "new" when they shop on ebay. I provided prices from two largest carriers and the largest retailer in the world, amazon. Because you talked about people buying from carriers and if people are buying them with a carrier, it is verizon exclusive... Infact, you said it again, here it is bolded. People can't buy Pixel from Carriers since it is Verizon exclusive in the US... And if people only go to ebay when they want to buy cheap and used stuff, there wouldn't be new stuff on ebay. Just because you don't doesn't mean others don't. Point is they are priced similarly at the 32GB version. People will see them as $650 phones. For the 128GB versions, you could spend $50-$60 (amazon) on good SD cards to get 128GB or $100 for built-in zero loss 128GB. We'll talk more on storage later. Hmm, I wonder which one is cheaper... 6) 1 (singular) lacking feature. Still not sure what hardware features are lacking that you keep referring to. You've only ever mentioned this and a heart rate sensor. Then here you admit the water resistance is not that important otherwise it would be a deal breaker. Actually, I have listed all those features previously... Like Micro-SD, Better Display and etc. Not sure why you are ignoring those. Again, those are things that the Galaxy S7 has whether they matter to you or not. 7) When wireless charging is default in most cars (not even there yet on new cars) and/or comes default with all major phones (also not even there with new phones), then you can say this feature is not overrated. You also admit it is slower. It will remain slower as all phones upgrade to usb-c and by default become faster. I guess this is the 2nd hardware feature you could call out as technically missing, but this is almost as used as often as that heart rate montor by people. Poor data example, but I work at Amazon in a tech dev center. I can count on one had the number of people who use wireless charging. Hell, does iPhone have that feature? If they haven't copied it, surely its not mass market. Well... Considering many new cars have and are coming out with wireless charging including hondas and toyotas, it will be default in no time. But if I got a new car and I got a Pixel phone, oh look, I can't use the wireless charging feature. Of course the charging is slower but its very convinent. So yes, I do consider it a feature because if I buy a new car today, I don't have to buy a different phone to use this feature. 8) My point with proprietary cables was not related to micro-usb but to fast charge. Currently with micro-usb, you must be using the OEM cable for your fast charge phone to get that feature. As usb-c becomes standard, that feature should be interchangeable with any branded charger. Your phone has micro-usb, pixel has upgraded to usb-c... even apple uses a similar method though proprietary. Umm, you do realize that micro-usb cables that are capable of fast charging are cheap right? 9) Let's combine storage talk to one point as it was confusing above, sorry. Two points with this. Due to the bloat Touchwiz puts on the phone you get less available default storage (as well as a slower user experience). Due to the weak point of a SD card connector and the type of SD Card you use, the data transfer (and lifespan) of internal vs SD card is noticeable. You admit this in your game example. Simple fact is, the technically superior option is to have internal memory. Yes but where the SD card comes in handy is for those files that do not require fast loading. So for example, pictures, videos, mangas, isos, etc etc etc. Put all those in the SD card and put the gamefiles in local storage. This way, you get the best of both worlds... Tons of storage and very fast local loading speed. And of course, you do seem to overstate the responsiveness of touchwiz. Virtually every reviewer out there says that it is very responsive and a great user experience on the Galaxy S7. On top of the technical superiority comes the pointless need to expand as such. Google gives you free unlimited storage for music, pics and video. pics and video are both saved in HD (4k for video), so there is no loss of quality on either. If you use Google's services, which as an Android user I wouldn't understand why you would not, then you don't need 100's of Gigs of space for physical storage. You have unlimited cloud space for free! You talk about latency yet you bring up cloud??? What on earth??? What is slower than expandable storage? Cloud... And yes you would need local space since data isn't unlimited. People have datacaps and slow download/upload speeds. If you don't have coverage, there goes all of that and even if you do, it depends on the reception quality. The user experience you are talking about is far worse than loading it off of the micro-sd card. Its not only slower but it uses data. So you can pay $50-$60 for 128GB SD Card (amazon prices for quality fast cards) with slower data transfer and possibility of losing data at some point OR you can pay $100 for 128GB Pixel and unlimited cloud where you'll have fastest response and near-zero possibility of losing anything ever. This seems like SD cards are overrated and largely unnecessary. And then you talk about speed?? Depending on what carrier, what plan and etc you have, that isn't much of an option at all. It might take you forever to load off a video from the cloud onto your phone, specially at 4k res. And if you don't have wifi, RIP datacaps. Micro-SD cards gives people instant access to all their files and whatnot asap and its not limited to just Video/Pictures/Music. And of course, there have been DMCA take down notices if you do have some music/videos/movies that you aren't supposed to on ur drive but Micro-SD card doesn't have that issue. It really isn't overrated at all. 10) I'm not sure what your point is. Sure most up-to-date version of touchwiz improved on the older version. By the time the next one comes you'll say the same thing and call S7's negatives out as having been improved on. Fact is, touchwiz is not as good as vanilla android. Any feature you have in touchwiz I can likely get in Google Play Store as it is all software. All that is saying is that a bloated experience has improved but is still bloated. The point is that the difference between touchwiz and stock isn't as big as it used to be and many reviewers who loves stock says so. Yes its not as fast as vanilla but its not noticably far off. My point is still the same. Pixel is in the same level of tech and features as any other high-end phone with the one exception of water-resistance that pretty much all others are now doing. Something you agreed was not a deal breaker. Its also in the same price-range. It doesn't have the same level of tech unless you ignore most of the tech and features other phones have and their advantages... I said it wasn't a deal breaker but when you compare it to the phones that have it and have more, it is a deal breaker. There is virtually nothing that the Pixel has apart from the background update thing (Which the 6p is also not getting) that the S7 will not have at a later date and it already had most major things that Android N has 6 months earlier. But the S7 has plenty of things that Pixel will never have. Summary pixel has (to S7) similar display, similar camera, similar cpu/gpu, better connector, better storage, better OS, better responsiveness, better carrier support, similar price, lacks two overrated hardware features (sd card/water resistance). Again, to your original post's point... Pixel is clearly not a more expensive inferior phone. It is a directly comparable high-end phone for the same price. |
Summary
Similar Display - Nope unless you spend even more
Similar Camera - We shall see - Edit: Actually... Pixel doesn't have OIS... So I doubt it will be as good as Samsungs
Similar CPU/GPU - Only in the US. Every other country gets the version where the CPU rekts it
Better Connector - See my response
Better Storage - Nope since Samsung has Micro-SD card
Better Reponsiveness - I agree
Better Carrier Support - As far as Radios go, I agree and never disagreed
Similar Price - You can get a Galaxy S7 for $100 less and if you want the version which matches the Galaxy S7's Display, you have to spend $100 more than the Base pixel which is $200 more than what you can get for the Galaxy S7. Or $100 more than the S7 with US warranty. Either ways, its more for less.
Lacks two Overrated hardware features - Nope. I don't get how water resistance is even considered overrated and micro-sd card certainly isn't
Oh look, paying more for less unless you ignore all the features and call them overrated because you don't use them.
PC Specs: CPU: 7800X3D || GPU: Strix 4090 || RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000 || Main SSD: WD 2TB SN850
