• General

  • Are you planning to buy Pixel 9?

I upgraded primarily for the sat feature. It's really nice to have that security blanket if outside of cell tower range. I always look for unique features like that when making decisions, slightly better screen/camera etc never moved the needle for me. The early order of double memory was nice, and it has a better battery than my 7. Zero interest in AI "features". With trade-in it was around $449

I also really hope the fingerprint feature is better, it's one of my consistent issues with the 7. Occasionally verges from minor annoyance into infuriating

    If the rumors that they're dropping samsuck starting with the 10 are true, then I'd advise ANYONE thinking of a new phone to wait for that. Or even better for the 11 to give them a year to work out the kinks. If you absolutely need a new phone now, save money and go cheap older/used.

      Nope, I'll be rocking my Fold from last year for as long as possible. This second gen Fold abandoned the wider and shorter form factor that I really like, which I think makes it much more usable. With the inner screen now being almost square, I bet watching 16x9 content on it has even larger black bars, which seems dumb to me. Anyway, the only feature that I currently don't have is a display out or desktop experience, and I can live without that for another year or two.

      matchboxbananasynergy It feels like with Pixels moving towards more and more premium pricing and "flagship" quality, cheaping out on something like Qi2 for a phone that I'm supposed to keep for the next 7 years feels shortsighted.

      A very good objection that I have already raised myself.
      What could this mean for GOS in the future if the devices become exorbitantly expensive and no longer affordable for the general public?

      1. GOS will be relegated to a niche existence?

      2. GOS users will be elite, rich users in the future?

      3. GOS users will have to go into debt in order to continue to be able to buy a Pixel?

      Stuck on one manufacturer and one model series is both a blessing and a curse.
      This could backfire for GOS and therefore for the loyal community.

          AlphaElwedritsch As you very well know, other devices do not even come close to meeting the project's criteria, they're simply not an option. It's not even like we could compromise a little bit to meet them halfway. The difference is enormous. Our security requirements are already lower than what current day Pixels provide to allow room for another potential device, but even with those, nothing else comes close, or if it does, doesn't extend that to be usable by 3rd party OSes.

          The expectation is always that people will have to buy a device to run GrapheneOS, as the project's goal is having robust and secure devices that we work on (especially considering some features are hardware-dependent), rather than broad device support of horrible secured devices.

          As far as we know, Google will continue releasing a series devices which are cheaper than the flagships while hopefully still meeting the proper security requirements.

          Supporting a "budget" device that doesn't even begin to meet the requirements we need to be able to provide security and privacy will not happen. We would essentially be lying to our users by telling them that what they're getting is GrapheneOS, because it would be such a huge difference.

            I was not suggesting to support any other device.
            just a thought experiment about the pricing of future Pixel devices

            AlphaElwedritsch What could this mean for GOS in the future if the devices become exorbitantly expensive and no longer affordable for the general public?

            Well, since inflation is a thing, salaries normally follow inflation. The prices of phones is not really that much higher than what it was several years ago. It is possible for most people to save money to buy a new phone if they are relentless about it. Skip a coffee here and take-away there, and soon you have saved enough for a new phone.

            A new phone is not for the elites. If there was a tier for the elites, it would exist. The super rich can't get a better phone than we do, even if they tried. The only thing they can get is super expensive phones that are lined with diamonds or has a branding like Versace or Ferarri etc. But the hardware it self is not better (often worse).

                nope, had to force myself to upgrade to p8 from p5 to keep up with security, size makes it barely usable with one hand, and p9 is even bigger so passing on this one. honestly these pixels are garbage i hate that fact that none oyher manufacturers offer a relockable bootloader, cause 4 year old s20 is still far ahead of pixel 8 in terms of built quality, screen, camera, when i happen to use my s20 as replacement for broken pixel i enjoy it a lot, rrally not happy whrb the ne pixel comes in.

                someone please figure out a relockable bootloader!!!

                  AlphaElwedritsch i dont think price on google branded GOS supported devices will hit a point where it'll become restrictive to general public, because if for whatever reson it does, other brands would take the opportunity. i don't understand why it did not happen already, cause objectively google pixel is outdated in user facing charcteristics, only security features are well implemented (according to local experts). buyt what is holding other makers from adding that security to their devises?

                    No, I have the P8, holding out for the 10, which should have a TMSC processor.

                      Onlyfun I only buy the Pixel line, because of the security features. I totally agree with you, there are always problems with Pixels. If it's not A, it's B, and if it's not B it's C... etc... However, it's the only phone that can load the official version of GrapheneOS, oh well.

                        secrec We don't know anything about the 10 and how the future SoCs will turn out.

                        TSMC is not some magic thing that is sufficient to make a great SoC. Their process nodes are the most efficient right now, but that does not explain alone why custom Qualcomm/Apple cores perform better than ARM Cortex cores. The key information here is rather that Google will make their own custom cores based on the ARM ISA. We don't know if MTE will get the same kind of support that the current Tensor provides.

                        Samsung's 4LPP+ process isn't regarded as mediocre, and that's what G4 will use along with a new core configuration and updated Cortex cores. I think most people will be pleased by a more efficient SoC. It'd be great if Tensor could offer the same level of raw performance as the latest Apple Silicon SoCs, so here's hoping Google eventually catches up with their custom design, but they may also not.

                            Wonderfall I've never met any example of samsuck silicon that didn't make a better toaster than a processor. And FWIW: There's a lot more samsuck in these current phones than just the cpu, and its ALL pretty piss poor.

                                secrec Ever since G1, Tensor has been increasingly adopting new components from Google's own IP. It's not a new thing, and Tensor chips, while sharing similarities, are more than just rebranded Exynos chips. GPU, TPU, and hardware decoders among others are already different than what you can find in current-gen Exynos chips.

                                Current Exynos and Tensor chips borrow their cores design directly from ARM Cortex. ARM Cortex cores can also be found in various other SoCs. If anything, Apple and Qualcomm have been the exception.

                                At the moment, ARM Cortex cores have the advantage that they have a pretty good MTE support. Qualcomm's own design based on the armv9 ISA seems to have skipped that unfortunately.

                                  Not as long as it uses that cheap ass aluminum. If the next version made the switch to titanium, sure, in heartbeat.

                                    Im running a pixel 7 right now, and am very tempted to upgrade to the p9p if I can find a good deal. It seems to be an upgrade from the pixel 7 is more or less every way possible at least for my usage. Dont really care about the AI features. I normally would wait 3-4 years before upgrading, but it may be awhile before they iron out the TSMC chip in the 10, so if I get the p9p I would wait until the 14 came out to upgrade again most likely

                                      E24 There is no MTE support on Pixel 7 which is an important security feature, so I would upgrade just for that.