Never has it been so easy for me to find photos of an unreleased phone. Never. Thanks to these extensive leaks, We've lowered our expectations of what to expect from the pixel lineup. but since my last article about the Pixel a lot of things have changed and unfortunately not for the better. Now sure the phone looks horrendous but if you look past the looks the Pixel still has some gaping holes.
Still No Exclusives!
My biggest gripe with the Pixel isn't it's price but it's lack of features. Sure it might be a good spec-ed phone but it's nothing eye-catching. I know I'm repeating my self from my last article but 6 months later those points still remain valid. Despite the massive amount of leaks we've had for the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3Xl we've yet to see a revolutionary new feature that will set it apart from the competition. In fact I'm going to argue that this time around the Pixel has even fewer things to set it apart. Last time around the Pixel had the distinction of being the "best" camera as per DxO Mark. Personally I think the whole concept of ranking cameras are flawed but it makes for a great marketing tactic. Overnight DxO Mark became the ultimate authority on smartphone cameras. Now the Pixel has been beaten by not one not two but FIVE phones on the ranking list they themselves praised. When it comes to marketing, "6th best camera of 2017" isn't the best tagline you'd want for your phone that mainly focuses on it's camera. With more and more OEMs coming out with triple cameras, It isn't a stretch to imagine that they are going to outscore the Pixel's single camera. The irony is that in most cases the Pixel might indeed have better pictures due to it's image processing algorithms, but being outgunned the Pixel will have a hard time hitting those high DxO mark scores.Another great reason to get a Pixel was for the stock Android experience that oh so many phones lacked and Google was right with the demise of the Nexus line you'd be hard pressed to find a stock Android device. But alas in the last 6 months things have changed again. For some reason more and more companies are pivoting towards stock android. From the likes of Xiaomi to Motorola to Nokia to OnePlus to ZTE. You get the idea, You have more stock Android phones now than when the original or even the Pixel 2 came out. Why would people buy an expensive Pixel when they can get the exact same software experience on a cheaper , better spec-ed and better looking device. Now it's entirely possible that Google might add a few software exclusives to it's Pixel lineup. But if history is any indication that may not pan out as well.
The Google Assistant debuted on the original Pixel within a few months it was available on every Android phone, Irrespective of price. Look at the Google Pixel 2, Google lens debuted on the Google Pixel 2, You can probably guess where this is going. Google lens is now available on tons of android devices and even iPhones. The whole point of exclusives is that they remain exclusive.
Still Very Much UnderPowered
The Pixel 3 runs the SnapDragon 845 while it is an ageing chip fast approaching the end of it's lifecycle, Phones are still being released today which feature the 845. Don't get me wrong it's still a very capable chip. But if you look at the phones that come out with the 845 they're mostly cheaper devices. Like the Axon 9 or the PocoPhone. These phones are intended towards a different audience and they are significantly cheaper phones and the delay can be expected. But most of the phones that the Pixel will be compared against came out months ago. So its fair to say that the Pixel is kind of late to the game. If you're someone who wants the latest and greatest tech in your phone the Pixel will be running last years tech in about 4 months. In fact most Pixels run last years tech for most of their lifecycles. Okay this is an issue, but it's not a dealbreaker. The 845 is fast and it'll continue to be fast.Where the Pixel does miserably fall behind is in the RAM category. The Pixel 3 is late 2018 phone which has 4 gigabytes of ram. it is highly possible that the 2018 iPhone Xs will have 4 gigabytes of ram to justify it's higher price tag over its smaller cousins. Let that sink in a flagship Android phone (from Google nonetheless) and the latest iPhone of the time have the exact same ram configuration. In an industry who's rule of thumb is to double whatever RAM Apple puts on it's devices, The Google Pixel still features 4 Gigabytes of ram. Now all of this would be fine if the Android on the Pixels came with pre iOS 11 or iOS 12 beta-esqe RAM management, but if we look at the previous Pixels, their RAM management has been moderate at best.
I really hope that the Pixel has a few hidden tricks up it's sleeve preferably a trick that includes all of these leaks to be false and some really really good optimisation from Google.
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