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May 22, 2018 20:14
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Pixel 2 or Priv?
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It so happens that I've found myself in possession of a Pixel 2, | |
Google's new flagship Android device. My current device is a Blackberry | |
Priv, which I hitherto have had little complaint for. | |
For some time now I've been a technological skeptic; the notion that | |
newer is better does not appeal to me, and I believe that the presence | |
of additional new behaviour doesn't necessarily mean greater general | |
utility. | |
So here I am holding this shiny new phone and looking at my Priv. I | |
gave the new phone a fair shake: I set up my primary Google account, | |
sync'd in my favourite apps and gave it a go. The device is notable | |
faster at switching applications, but the applications I use don't | |
appear to be notably faster in and of themselves. Of course, the VR | |
experience is greater than zero and so is clearly superior, but for a | |
device that will reside on my desk or in my pocket the capacity for | |
which it can drive a facebox is of no importance to me. | |
In terms of other features, there's this finger print scanner that, as | |
you're setting it up, the device warns you is less secure than a | |
four-digit pin. Fine, I thought, I won't use it then. Only it kept | |
asking me to set it up. "Please set up your phone to be less secure," | |
it begged, "it will make your life convenient." No thanks, and I wonder | |
how that will fair when the back is covered by a phone case. | |
There's this... Squeeze to interact? I dunno, you can squeeze the phone | |
to turn the page in readers and to acknowledge a setup screen. Again, | |
not sure how much utility is there when its inside a phone case. | |
I suppose Google doesn't expect Pixel 2 owners to use the device inside | |
a case; but they sell case accessories at the Google booths at Best | |
Buy, so maybe they do? | |
And there's a dongle for your headset! Dooooongles! | |
The device uses USB-C, which is neat, but the box doesn't contain any | |
sort of adapter. Just at USB-C cable and a USB-C wall wart. The fuck? | |
Do they expect everyone who has a Pixel 2 to purchase a new laptop as | |
well? The new laptop I received for work this past summer doesn't even | |
have a USB-C port. It's like Firewire all over again. | |
It doesn't have a physical keyboard. AFAICT, Blackberry remains the | |
only source of physical keyboards on smart phones now that it seems LG | |
has abandoned the idea. I guess that doesn't matter for 99% of users, | |
but I am the 1% for whom it does. | |
It doesn't have any means by which one can expand the storage. Google | |
really wants users to avail themselves of the unlimited Photo storage | |
they provide and Google Music. They want all your data, and despite the | |
phone costing nearly a thousand dollars, they aren't interested in | |
providing a means by which users can carry their whole music | |
collection, photo library, and work documents on-the-go without also | |
agreeing to their cloud user agreements and so allow them to use your | |
data for business intelligence. Sell me shit, give my data to American | |
authorities on demand, and so forth. | |
It doesn't have DTEK, so I can't see which apps are using what | |
permissions with what frequency. | |
It has much lower latency audio output, but I don't think it's as loud, | |
and so I expect it's not as good for video calls with Freija's | |
grandparents. | |
It has Android 8, whereas the Priv is stuck at 6, but I can't really | |
tell the difference, as a user. Particularly because I use Microsoft's | |
Arrow interface. | |
The Google suite is more streamlined and so more useless than ever, and | |
I've long since switched to Microsoft's Office tools. Office Lens is | |
fucking amazing, so is One Note, and combined with a One Drive account | |
it's all just so well integrated. I can print to One Note on my PC and | |
it appears in my Quick Notes on my Phone, where I can scribble on them | |
and that shows up on my PC; on any device I can import those into... | |
Well, you get the idea. I could use these on the Pixel 2, of course. | |
The Pixel 2 is going to stay on my desk. Ultimately, it's a work device | |
and I don't want to put it at risk, but I probably would've felt the | |
switch was a step backwards regardless. |
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