Google Pixel smartphone
Discussion
AlexC1981 said:
That case reminds me of my granddad. I'm sure he wore a trilby or something in that fabric.
I like it
To be honest I think it makes the phone, I really like it. I like it
A few days on and yeah it's been more of the same as with the 2xl only better and generally just boringly reliable. Although the auto brightness keeps setting to too dull which is getting on my nerves. Hopefully when I keep putting it up it'll learn
Annoyingly today I have lost the ability to cast from Google photos. Has anyone else had this?
I've done some troubleshooting but not fixed it yet. I'm casting to my folk's TV which might be the issue. Odd.
Edit:I must have not understood my dad's tv as it is fine now I am home.
I've done some troubleshooting but not fixed it yet. I'm casting to my folk's TV which might be the issue. Odd.
Edit:I must have not understood my dad's tv as it is fine now I am home.
Edited by dontfollowme on Saturday 26th December 19:34
A few weeks on from my last update and I think my impressions are finally concluded on the Pixel 5.
I'm a bit meh about this phone to be honest. It comes close to being really good but has a couple of individually minor flaws but that add up to undermine it as a package I could wholeheartedly recommend.
The first is the finger print sensor. When it works, it's fine, quite fast. However, it's the amount of times it doesn't work that is starting to get grating. This is mildly infuriating if I'm honest, it always seems to happen at the worst time too. Even trying to add extra fingerprints seems to give sensor dirty errors even after being cleaned. There are quite a few reports about this online and so I'm not convinced the phone is defective, I just don't think it's a very good sensor.
The second is the auto brightness. It is basically completely useless, particularly in fairly low light settings, such as in my living room at night with the lamps and TV on. It constantly sets itself too dark, down to about 10-20% brightness which is too dull for the conditions. I did read that sometimes it's caused by restoring the phone from a backup as I did initially, however I've since factory reset it to try and help (it didn't). There's also a supposed fix in the January patch. That hasn't helped either. I now have to resort to setting the brightness manually, which I feel is crap in this day and age. Apparently it's because the phone has an under screen ambient light sensor, and again, I just think it's not very good.
So there we have it, I have a phone I regularly need to use a PIN to unlock and one where I have to micro manage the brightness. These two things alone are enough to put me off it quite a bit, even though they are first world problems. But I never had these issues on my 2XL.
Ironically people complain about the speakers but I've found them plenty adequate for what they're used for.
Haptics are a bit meh. Having used them for a while they do feel a bit 'budget' feeling compared with the 2XL.
On the plus side the screen has good colour accuracy and smoothness. I did feel like it was more responsive to the touch too, initially. One thing that used to happen on my 2XL was the swiping on the keyboard would randomly not work, and at first the 5 seemed to solve the issue. However lately it's been happening on this too
The camera is as you would expect very good and only the zoom lens or lack thereof is a problem although not as bad as I expected.
The battery life is VERY good and certainly the stand out feature for me.
The size is quite nice but anyone expecting this to be a genuine one handed phone might be disappointed as it's still fairly large, not much difference in width between this and say a standard iPhone 11 or 12. However I'd say it fits into the awkward middle ground of being too big for one handed use yet a little too small to be a great media consumption device. The screen also simply doesn't have the punchiness of say, a Samsung.
Would I recommend this phone? A reluctant yes from me, but only in light of the fact the Android competition is lackluster at the moment, and even then, not at full price. I would say it probably feels like a £400 phone than a £600 one and that's being generous. It's a long way from being as premium as say an iPhone (ignoring preferences about Android v iOS).
I'd probably give it 3.5 stars out of 5 but it could have been 4.5 if not for the FPS and brightness issues.
I'm a bit meh about this phone to be honest. It comes close to being really good but has a couple of individually minor flaws but that add up to undermine it as a package I could wholeheartedly recommend.
The first is the finger print sensor. When it works, it's fine, quite fast. However, it's the amount of times it doesn't work that is starting to get grating. This is mildly infuriating if I'm honest, it always seems to happen at the worst time too. Even trying to add extra fingerprints seems to give sensor dirty errors even after being cleaned. There are quite a few reports about this online and so I'm not convinced the phone is defective, I just don't think it's a very good sensor.
The second is the auto brightness. It is basically completely useless, particularly in fairly low light settings, such as in my living room at night with the lamps and TV on. It constantly sets itself too dark, down to about 10-20% brightness which is too dull for the conditions. I did read that sometimes it's caused by restoring the phone from a backup as I did initially, however I've since factory reset it to try and help (it didn't). There's also a supposed fix in the January patch. That hasn't helped either. I now have to resort to setting the brightness manually, which I feel is crap in this day and age. Apparently it's because the phone has an under screen ambient light sensor, and again, I just think it's not very good.
So there we have it, I have a phone I regularly need to use a PIN to unlock and one where I have to micro manage the brightness. These two things alone are enough to put me off it quite a bit, even though they are first world problems. But I never had these issues on my 2XL.
Ironically people complain about the speakers but I've found them plenty adequate for what they're used for.
Haptics are a bit meh. Having used them for a while they do feel a bit 'budget' feeling compared with the 2XL.
On the plus side the screen has good colour accuracy and smoothness. I did feel like it was more responsive to the touch too, initially. One thing that used to happen on my 2XL was the swiping on the keyboard would randomly not work, and at first the 5 seemed to solve the issue. However lately it's been happening on this too
The camera is as you would expect very good and only the zoom lens or lack thereof is a problem although not as bad as I expected.
The battery life is VERY good and certainly the stand out feature for me.
The size is quite nice but anyone expecting this to be a genuine one handed phone might be disappointed as it's still fairly large, not much difference in width between this and say a standard iPhone 11 or 12. However I'd say it fits into the awkward middle ground of being too big for one handed use yet a little too small to be a great media consumption device. The screen also simply doesn't have the punchiness of say, a Samsung.
Would I recommend this phone? A reluctant yes from me, but only in light of the fact the Android competition is lackluster at the moment, and even then, not at full price. I would say it probably feels like a £400 phone than a £600 one and that's being generous. It's a long way from being as premium as say an iPhone (ignoring preferences about Android v iOS).
I'd probably give it 3.5 stars out of 5 but it could have been 4.5 if not for the FPS and brightness issues.
I have a Pixel 2 now for close to 3 years now, which I really like, but it's becoming a tad buggy (charging, recognizing wi-fi etc.) and now with the roll-out of 5G it feels like the right time to change.
Does anyone have any experience with the 4A 5G? This seems like the sweet spot to me. I found it for a decent price (419€) but want to hear what people think first.
Does anyone have any experience with the 4A 5G? This seems like the sweet spot to me. I found it for a decent price (419€) but want to hear what people think first.
NAS said:
I have a Pixel 2 now for close to 3 years now, which I really like, but it's becoming a tad buggy (charging, recognizing wi-fi etc.) and now with the roll-out of 5G it feels like the right time to change.
Does anyone have any experience with the 4A 5G? This seems like the sweet spot to me. I found it for a decent price (419€) but want to hear what people think first.
I've actually read that this is probably the best value proposition and it's more similar to the size of the 2XL.Does anyone have any experience with the 4A 5G? This seems like the sweet spot to me. I found it for a decent price (419€) but want to hear what people think first.
What you lose from a Pixel 5:
Wireless charging, -2gb RAM, 90Hz display
What you gain from a 2XL
5G, Better camera, including ultra wide, +2gb RAM, +64Gb storage, slightly bigger screen, slightly faster SOC, more up to date software features, extra 3 years of updates
TameRacingDriver said:
A few weeks on from my last update and I think my impressions are finally concluded on the Pixel 5.
I'm a bit meh about this phone to be honest. It comes close to being really good but has a couple of individually minor flaws but that add up to undermine it as a package I could wholeheartedly recommend.
The first is the finger print sensor. When it works, it's fine, quite fast. However, it's the amount of times it doesn't work that is starting to get grating. This is mildly infuriating if I'm honest, it always seems to happen at the worst time too. Even trying to add extra fingerprints seems to give sensor dirty errors even after being cleaned. There are quite a few reports about this online and so I'm not convinced the phone is defective, I just don't think it's a very good sensor.
The second is the auto brightness. It is basically completely useless, particularly in fairly low light settings, such as in my living room at night with the lamps and TV on. It constantly sets itself too dark, down to about 10-20% brightness which is too dull for the conditions. I did read that sometimes it's caused by restoring the phone from a backup as I did initially, however I've since factory reset it to try and help (it didn't). There's also a supposed fix in the January patch. That hasn't helped either. I now have to resort to setting the brightness manually, which I feel is crap in this day and age. Apparently it's because the phone has an under screen ambient light sensor, and again, I just think it's not very good.
Fingerprint reader is lightning fast and 100% reliable for me. Pretty much the same as the P2. I do though have that annoying brightness issue. It's not bad enough for me to manually change things but it's annoyingI'm a bit meh about this phone to be honest. It comes close to being really good but has a couple of individually minor flaws but that add up to undermine it as a package I could wholeheartedly recommend.
The first is the finger print sensor. When it works, it's fine, quite fast. However, it's the amount of times it doesn't work that is starting to get grating. This is mildly infuriating if I'm honest, it always seems to happen at the worst time too. Even trying to add extra fingerprints seems to give sensor dirty errors even after being cleaned. There are quite a few reports about this online and so I'm not convinced the phone is defective, I just don't think it's a very good sensor.
The second is the auto brightness. It is basically completely useless, particularly in fairly low light settings, such as in my living room at night with the lamps and TV on. It constantly sets itself too dark, down to about 10-20% brightness which is too dull for the conditions. I did read that sometimes it's caused by restoring the phone from a backup as I did initially, however I've since factory reset it to try and help (it didn't). There's also a supposed fix in the January patch. That hasn't helped either. I now have to resort to setting the brightness manually, which I feel is crap in this day and age. Apparently it's because the phone has an under screen ambient light sensor, and again, I just think it's not very good.
Gotta admit I'm not bowled over by the P5 even though it does what I ask of it (P2 size but bigger screen and battery). I think part of it is the lower res screen so you actually get no more on the bigger screen. Still its better for my ageing eyes. I also suppose after 3 years nothing much has come along to move things forward - hardware or OS.
Gren said:
TameRacingDriver said:
A few weeks on from my last update and I think my impressions are finally concluded on the Pixel 5.
I'm a bit meh about this phone to be honest. It comes close to being really good but has a couple of individually minor flaws but that add up to undermine it as a package I could wholeheartedly recommend.
The first is the finger print sensor. When it works, it's fine, quite fast. However, it's the amount of times it doesn't work that is starting to get grating. This is mildly infuriating if I'm honest, it always seems to happen at the worst time too. Even trying to add extra fingerprints seems to give sensor dirty errors even after being cleaned. There are quite a few reports about this online and so I'm not convinced the phone is defective, I just don't think it's a very good sensor.
The second is the auto brightness. It is basically completely useless, particularly in fairly low light settings, such as in my living room at night with the lamps and TV on. It constantly sets itself too dark, down to about 10-20% brightness which is too dull for the conditions. I did read that sometimes it's caused by restoring the phone from a backup as I did initially, however I've since factory reset it to try and help (it didn't). There's also a supposed fix in the January patch. That hasn't helped either. I now have to resort to setting the brightness manually, which I feel is crap in this day and age. Apparently it's because the phone has an under screen ambient light sensor, and again, I just think it's not very good.
Fingerprint reader is lightning fast and 100% reliable for me. Pretty much the same as the P2. I do though have that annoying brightness issue. It's not bad enough for me to manually change things but it's annoyingI'm a bit meh about this phone to be honest. It comes close to being really good but has a couple of individually minor flaws but that add up to undermine it as a package I could wholeheartedly recommend.
The first is the finger print sensor. When it works, it's fine, quite fast. However, it's the amount of times it doesn't work that is starting to get grating. This is mildly infuriating if I'm honest, it always seems to happen at the worst time too. Even trying to add extra fingerprints seems to give sensor dirty errors even after being cleaned. There are quite a few reports about this online and so I'm not convinced the phone is defective, I just don't think it's a very good sensor.
The second is the auto brightness. It is basically completely useless, particularly in fairly low light settings, such as in my living room at night with the lamps and TV on. It constantly sets itself too dark, down to about 10-20% brightness which is too dull for the conditions. I did read that sometimes it's caused by restoring the phone from a backup as I did initially, however I've since factory reset it to try and help (it didn't). There's also a supposed fix in the January patch. That hasn't helped either. I now have to resort to setting the brightness manually, which I feel is crap in this day and age. Apparently it's because the phone has an under screen ambient light sensor, and again, I just think it's not very good.
Gotta admit I'm not bowled over by the P5 even though it does what I ask of it (P2 size but bigger screen and battery). I think part of it is the lower res screen so you actually get no more on the bigger screen. Still its better for my ageing eyes. I also suppose after 3 years nothing much has come along to move things forward - hardware or OS.
My wifes has now had 2 4A 5Gs in about 3 weeks- the first one the digitiser in the screen died after about 2 weeks of normal use. Google returns process faultless as always, but quite annoying.
HM-2 said:
I like my P5 a lot, does everything I ask of it, but I also have the above reported issue with the fingerprint sensor.
My wifes has now had 2 4A 5Gs in about 3 weeks- the first one the digitiser in the screen died after about 2 weeks of normal use. Google returns process faultless as always, but quite annoying.
I am starting to think that Google’s phones must have some fairly poor quality control, as I had THREE 2XLs as a result of various faults, as well as a few bugs that never really got fixed (spotty Bluetooth, for example). My wifes has now had 2 4A 5Gs in about 3 weeks- the first one the digitiser in the screen died after about 2 weeks of normal use. Google returns process faultless as always, but quite annoying.
The thing is all phones have compromises. The S20FE 5G for example was another potential, but that seems to have touch screen faults, and although the camera is more versatile, it seems not to be as good as the Pixels.
Then there is the high end stuff, which is extremely expensive, but still has unforgivable compromises; Samsung S20 Ultra / Note 20 Ultra - adverts in the OS and those crappy Exynos processors. The Oppo Find X2 Pro is very expensive, and lacks wireless charging, otherwise it would have been a very strong contender. The Sony Xperia 1-II has a perhaps overly tall screen ratio and rubbish auto mode on the camera. Huawei P40 Pro doesn't have the Play Store. I'm not even sure what LG is up to these days and the rest is Chinese tat like OnePlus and Xiaomi, and to be honest, I'm not sure I really fancy giving the Chinese any more money, or at least, no more than necessary, which probably rules out the Oppo and Huawei as well in any event.
Finally there's the whole iPhone proposition and they are very very nice bits of kit, but I always seem to struggle to like iOS even if it is ultimately very polished. I do have an iPad but some of the software decisions and restrictions are infuriating.
In the end, I'm really not sure what else is going to be any better really...
Gren said:
Fingerprint reader is lightning fast and 100% reliable for me. Pretty much the same as the P2. I do though have that annoying brightness issue. It's not bad enough for me to manually change things but it's annoying
Gotta admit I'm not bowled over by the P5 even though it does what I ask of it (P2 size but bigger screen and battery). I think part of it is the lower res screen so you actually get no more on the bigger screen. Still its better for my ageing eyes. I also suppose after 3 years nothing much has come along to move things forward - hardware or OS.
Same for me. No problems at all with fingerprint thing. The brightness thing is also not a problem. I guess that's down to individual preferences and/or eyesight. But then I'm only comparing it to a pixel 2 which appears to perform exactly the same so other phones may perform better.Gotta admit I'm not bowled over by the P5 even though it does what I ask of it (P2 size but bigger screen and battery). I think part of it is the lower res screen so you actually get no more on the bigger screen. Still its better for my ageing eyes. I also suppose after 3 years nothing much has come along to move things forward - hardware or OS.
The main noticeable difference between the 5 and the 2, which I had previously, is battery life and wireless charging. And battery life is only better because the P2 was nearly 3 years old. Use a brand new P2 and a P5 side by side and you'd struggle to tell the difference. I haven't had chance to benefit from 5G yet as I've spent most of my time at home connected to WiFi since getting the phone a few months ago. The added features to the P5 camera are nice but again, having not really been anywhere to take photos I've not noticed a huge benefit there yet.
Got to say my fingerprint sensor has been 100% accurate and very very fast. To the point where sometimes it has unlocked on the way out my pocket before I start using it.
Screen brightness again has been fine to my eyes. I think I have manually corrected the brightness once in a pitch black room and it has remembered that for when it has encountered the same dark room in the future.
Battery life is really good you have to really go for it to kill it in one day.
Only issue I have noticed is wireless charging is so SLP it isn't worth bothering with. Also moving the phone a cm either way can dramatically change the charging times which isn't good.
For what I paid factoring in the bose headphones I feel like I have put a great deal with this phone.
Screen brightness again has been fine to my eyes. I think I have manually corrected the brightness once in a pitch black room and it has remembered that for when it has encountered the same dark room in the future.
Battery life is really good you have to really go for it to kill it in one day.
Only issue I have noticed is wireless charging is so SLP it isn't worth bothering with. Also moving the phone a cm either way can dramatically change the charging times which isn't good.
For what I paid factoring in the bose headphones I feel like I have put a great deal with this phone.
TameRacingDriver said:
Issue with the sensor isn’t speed, it’s consistency.
Tried retraining the brightness several times but unfortunately it didn’t help.
Disagree wireless charging is pointless. Whack it on the stand at night, gives it a nice slow charge which will improve battery longevity.
A software update has changed the overnight charging when through a cable to slowly charge and only fill the last 10-15% just before the alarm goes off to protect the battery long term. Tried retraining the brightness several times but unfortunately it didn’t help.
Disagree wireless charging is pointless. Whack it on the stand at night, gives it a nice slow charge which will improve battery longevity.
My sensor has had no consistency issues at all so not sure if yours has an issue.
Chilly for June said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Issue with the sensor isn’t speed, it’s consistency.
Tried retraining the brightness several times but unfortunately it didn’t help.
Disagree wireless charging is pointless. Whack it on the stand at night, gives it a nice slow charge which will improve battery longevity.
A software update has changed the overnight charging when through a cable to slowly charge and only fill the last 10-15% just before the alarm goes off to protect the battery long term. Tried retraining the brightness several times but unfortunately it didn’t help.
Disagree wireless charging is pointless. Whack it on the stand at night, gives it a nice slow charge which will improve battery longevity.
My sensor has had no consistency issues at all so not sure if yours has an issue.
I think it's strange to criticise the phone's size when it's exactly the same size as many other phones and the size has been published , so you know it before you buy it.Some of the reviews were negative about the size saying it was smaller than the 4a, for me, that was exactly the reason I bought it, not all of us want massive phones and this came in at the same size as my old one.
eccles said:
My phone has had no issues at all. Fingerprint sensor has been consistent and quick.
I think it's strange to criticise the phone's size when it's exactly the same size as many other phones and the size has been published , so you know it before you buy it.Some of the reviews were negative about the size saying it was smaller than the 4a, for me, that was exactly the reason I bought it, not all of us want massive phones and this came in at the same size as my old one.
It wasn't so much a criticism as an observation regarding it's size. I'd already made comparisons to other phones on the phonesized website, so I kind of knew what I was in for. I think it's strange to criticise the phone's size when it's exactly the same size as many other phones and the size has been published , so you know it before you buy it.Some of the reviews were negative about the size saying it was smaller than the 4a, for me, that was exactly the reason I bought it, not all of us want massive phones and this came in at the same size as my old one.
The reason i mentioned it is because some people were saying how nice it was for one handed use, and certainly is better than my 2xl in that department, but for me and anyone with smaller hands, it's not *quite* small enough to be genuinely great for one handed use. However at the same time it does also look fairly small compared to other phones which might be a consideration for some if the phone will be used for media consumption.
Personally I'm cool with the size I just thought it was worth mentioning.
xx99xx said:
I haven't had chance to benefit from 5G yet as I've spent most of my time at home connected to WiFi since getting the phone a few months ago.
There's still only about 12 places with 5G coverage anyway though. Also it's the biggest waste of time - I already regularly get over 100mbit download and 60mbit upload on 4G and can't for the life of me comprehend what I'd need to do any faster than that. 100mbit is already way more than's required to stream a 4k video....which it would be pointless to watch on my phone anyway on a 6" display.I would rather see absolute blanket 4G coverage nationwide than just 'faster=better' 5G mentality.
Funk said:
There's still only about 12 places with 5G coverage anyway though. Also it's the biggest waste of time - I already regularly get over 100mbit download and 60mbit upload on 4G and can't for the life of me comprehend what I'd need to do any faster than that. 100mbit is already way more than's required to stream a 4k video....which it would be pointless to watch on my phone anyway on a 6" display.
I would rather see absolute blanket 4G coverage nationwide than just 'faster=better' 5G mentality.
You should read up about 5G, it's a bit more than just fasterI would rather see absolute blanket 4G coverage nationwide than just 'faster=better' 5G mentality.
Funk said:
There's still only about 12 places with 5G coverage anyway though. Also it's the biggest waste of time - I already regularly get over 100mbit download and 60mbit upload on 4G and can't for the life of me comprehend what I'd need to do any faster than that. 100mbit is already way more than's required to stream a 4k video....which it would be pointless to watch on my phone anyway on a 6" display.
I would rather see absolute blanket 4G coverage nationwide than just 'faster=better' 5G mentality.
Depends on the network as to 5G coverage. EE has pretty decent coverage in over 100 towns/cities with lots more being rolled out. I did a speed test on 5G a few weeks ago and got 250mb download. Now I don't need that much speed for what I use the phone for but it's handy to have it on the rare occasions when I might need it e.g. away with work in a hotel (rare = not at all for the foreseeable I suspect).I would rather see absolute blanket 4G coverage nationwide than just 'faster=better' 5G mentality.
As I tend to keep phones for 3 years (or to the point when the battery dies), I thought going 5G now future proofs as I suspect more apps will come out with 5G in mind.
jamoor said:
You should read up about 5G, it's a bit more than just faster
The only other thing that seems to be talked about is density/capacity - fair enough on that - but then there's the issue of the fact that due to the frequency bands it's actually worse for coverage distance than 4G - that'll mean an awful lot more masts required to cover the same area. It also doesn't seem to work very well indoors either?Don't get me wrong, I'm all for tech advancement but I'm just really not seeing what the advantages of 5G.
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