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docbeard posted:And of course if you're not in the US that calculus is completely different. Only somewhat--if the US cuts them off, sure you might be able to buy one in Europe or whatever, but it's still gonna be cut off from any future Android/Google Services updates regardless of what country you're in. It does look like they're somewhat less at risk of getting banned like Huawei, though.
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Jan 14, 2021 22:26
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docbeard posted:I think the last time I looked at one of their phones their T-Mobile band compatibility was not the greatest, but that's not an uncommon issue (and also I could be completely misremembering). That's going to become a larger and larger issue with 5g.
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Jan 14, 2021 23:09
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S21 series seems extremely underwhelming The price cut is nice I guess, but the S20FE seems like a better phone
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Jan 15, 2021 00:04
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poo poo, we peeked inside the box and the outcome got measured. https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/01/14/us-may-block-xiaomi-from-american-imports-and-investment/
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Jan 15, 2021 00:08
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What do you guys think about the S21 Ultra? Looks like the regular S21's are not that much of an upgrade or that great of a value.
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Jan 15, 2021 02:01
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I ordered an s21 ultra since I can get it for 400 dollarydoos off. Big processor upgrade - and therefore better battery I hope - in exynos countries and I've been very happy with recent Samsungs. Trying to go a whole year without buying a phone this year as innovations are clearly slowing down after 120hz. See you in 8 months when I buy the fold 3 and/or pixel 6.
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Jan 15, 2021 10:46
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We have a somewhat odd samsung issue. We're in Norway, which is in the NEE region; the phone is an exynos S10e (SM-G970F/DS). Sometime between now and November, it ended up on the 11 beta1 release. However, the Members app does not let us go to the status/beta management tab, since the phone or account is not enrolled in the beta program ... but if we press the button to enroll, we apparently can't because we're already running a beta. Note: We have never previously successfully signed up to the beta program. As far as I know, Norway never got 11 beta for the S10e. The current firmware version on the phone is a build number that has no hits on the internet, is not listed anywhere I can find, and is a few versions behind. The people who have been in the beta program seem to have been through beta2 and beta3 before getting the final version. It seems like 11 is out in Norway now, but there are no updates available in Settings, presumably because no delta updates from this mystery build have been created. So, uh. Wait a few weeks to see if we get a late 11-release OTA? Convince the boyfriend that Odin is actually fairly safe despite every single download being hosted on what looks like a malware site straight out of 2006, find a complete 11 NEE-region firmware somewhere, and try to just bang it on there? Edit: Through some probably inadvisable juggling of one laptop with adb and one wlth Odin, with one pushing some beta 1 imagemand one pushing the stable 11, he managed to cobble together a combo of bootloader and image that let him push the final 11 NEE build. I don't know if it could or should be reproduced. If I go the Odin route, does that wipe the app data? Computer viking fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jan 16, 2021 |
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Jan 16, 2021 01:15
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So I'm on my... third pixel 4 XL right now, and it's started doing a thing where the screen will randomly stop working, and then either come back with a very green tint, or just take like half an hour to start working again. It seems to come back when it's tilted a certain way (but not consistently) so I'm thinking it may be another stupid ribbon cable issue. Oddly though if I can get it to reboot in greenmode, it will come back normally, at least for a while. Yesterday it did this for about 4 hours, then was fine again until this morning. Also noted it wouldn't connect to android auto while it was doing it today, but I think it may have been put into flight mode while I was trying to get it to work. I've factory reset and waiting for the backup restore so I can test it before I log another replacement request. Seems to have started after the last software update, but it has hardware-like feel to it. Wondering if anyone else has had this issue or seen it reported? The other 2 phones developed an issue after a while where the battery meter would stop working, then they would start shutting down in my pocket, then within a week of this starting, would refuse to start up unless the power button was held down, and would shut off as soon as it was released, or once the phone had finished booting. This is a bit different though. Also, keeping in mind each of the replacements after the 1st one have been refirbs, so my sample of Pixel 4XLs is probably not the most reliable ones, but boy am I over it.
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Jan 18, 2021 01:43
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Don Dongington posted:So I'm on my... third pixel 4 XL right now, and it's started doing a thing where the screen will randomly stop working, and then either come back with a very green tint, or just take like half an hour to start working again. It seems to come back when it's tilted a certain way (but not consistently) so I'm thinking it may be another stupid ribbon cable issue. Oddly though if I can get it to reboot in greenmode, it will come back normally, at least for a while. Yesterday it did this for about 4 hours, then was fine again until this morning. Also noted it wouldn't connect to android auto while it was doing it today, but I think it may have been put into flight mode while I was trying to get it to work. There was some guy on Reddit who claimed he fixed phones. He said all Pixel 4 XLs have some weird issue with how they're put together and eventually may have problems. He disappeared randomly and Android Police refused to post about it until a few months later they finally did when either it started happening to them or they got enough people bitching about it. Honestly, I'd say replace the phone with a Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, or Pixel 5 at this point or some other phone entirely. You're not going to get anything but shoddy RMAs at this point as Google doesn't even haven new ones of the 4 line left.
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Jan 18, 2021 03:35
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I've had my Pixel 5 for a week now (coming from a OnePlus 7T) and I think I'll share some thoughts. It'll be brief since I'm not good at these. I like knowing that I'm on a proper update schedule. It's silly but it sorta bugged me when Android 11 hadn't hit the 7T. I bought it under the pretense that OP had parity with Google giving updates. Didn't realize that OP would make a one year old phone sit on the back burner for so long while they released a million budget phones. The size is perfect for me. I loved the huge screen on the 7T, it was great for watching stuff and looked great. But the Pixel is still a good size and fits way better in my hand. I never noticed until I had both in my hands how...huge...the 7T was. I do wish the punch hole was higher up or something. Or the bezel around it were smaller. The status bar feels gigantic. Setting a dev option to "punch hole" or whatever instead of device default helped reclaim a couple pixels at the expense of a very slightly lopsided bezel. On a similar note I really wish I could hide the gesture line. Kinda miss that from the 7T. Haven't played with the camera much but I loved my Pixel 2 camera and though the 7T mostly matched it I think I still prefer Google's way. Portrait lighting looks like a really neat tool. Everything feels super fluid. I have the display set to force 90hz and it's beautiful! Battery is exactly as phenomenal as everyone says. I'm definitely not noticing the lower tier processor since the most mobile gaming I ever do is like a mini golf game or whatever. Overall I'm super satisfied with the switch. It's reassuring knowing my phone isn't going to be abandoned the second the new one comes out. I have a solid boring phone with a great camera that works great. The price helped make me happy too. Used (like new) on eBay with a Pixel Stand for $700 after tax seemed like what I'd pay. If this had launched at $600 without the Verizon tax I'd have jumped on this at launch
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Jan 18, 2021 04:01
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Don Dongington posted:So I'm on my... third pixel 4 XL right now, and it's started doing a thing where the screen will randomly stop working, and then either come back with a very green tint, or just take like half an hour to start working again. It seems to come back when it's tilted a certain way (but not consistently) so I'm thinking it may be another stupid ribbon cable issue. Oddly though if I can get it to reboot in greenmode, it will come back normally, at least for a while. Yesterday it did this for about 4 hours, then was fine again until this morning. Also noted it wouldn't connect to android auto while it was doing it today, but I think it may have been put into flight mode while I was trying to get it to work. I had a similar problem with green tint and flickering/not working screen on my Pixel 3. It was only one incident and seemed to be a physical issue, as it went away after I put it on the book holder on a treadmill as I walked and contemplated what I would do for a new phone.
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Jan 18, 2021 04:51
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The issue has yet to occur today following the factory reset, so lets just hope it was a weird software glitch introduced by the latest update. I got the phone from a telco on a 24 month plan, but while the actual contract was up in 12 months, I still owe about $500 dollarydoos on the phone. Also despite the state of our consumer protection laws in Australia, the telco (all of whom are just as lovely to customers as American ones, somehow) somehow do not have to take back the phone and refund the money you owe in the event that it turns out to be a lemon, and your only recourse is for them to send it back to google for repair (4-6 weeks), or get a refirb replacement through their stayconnected scheme (which costs $15/month but you generally get a new phone in 48 hours). If I had the choice, I would hand it back in and get a Pixel 4a or 5, or I dunno an iPhone or something but I much prefer android these days.
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Jan 18, 2021 06:59
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DrDork posted:Yeah, all the "good" phones are there except maybe the OP 8T. GSM might have a ton more phones, but a whole lot of them are hot trash. What makes the Oneplus 8T a bad phone? I've had Oneplus 3 since 2016 and been considering an upgrade. The 8T with 8GB ram and 128GB of storage with comes with a decent 865 snapdragon and 5G support. Android 11 out of the box if I understood right. It's 548€ as in-store pickup, considering buying one after work today. I mainly want to upgrade because of software and security support.
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Jan 18, 2021 08:42
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Computer viking posted:? That'll tell you the process. It's wordy but it's simply - Download odin - download firmware version (all 5 files are zipped on Sammobile) - flash phone Odin needs 4 of the 5 files. One file is selective, and you can either pick the one that restores or wipes the phones data. HOME_CSC_ is the one to keep your data.
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Jan 18, 2021 08:53
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Right - because those are basically partition images, so you just skip the one that overwrites the home partition? Simple enough, then; thanks. Separately, we still wonder how he managed to get stuck on a samsung beta localized for a region that officially never got that beta, while the beta opt-in claims we are not in the beta program (but can't sign up because we are already running a beta). Oh well, Just Samsung Things?
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Jan 18, 2021 11:20
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Ihmemies posted:What makes the Oneplus 8T a bad phone? I've had Oneplus 3 since 2016 and been considering an upgrade. The 8T with 8GB ram and 128GB of storage with comes with a decent 865 snapdragon and 5G support. Android 11 out of the box if I understood right. Nothing! It's actually a very nice phone, especially for the price. It just wasn't part of the GSMA list the guy was looking at. That's what I was saying--the OP 8T is about the only "good" phone that the list was missing.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:52
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Computer viking posted:Separately, we still wonder how he managed to get stuck on a samsung beta localized for a region that officially never got that beta, while the beta opt-in claims we are not in the beta program (but can't sign up because we are already running a beta). Oh well, Just Samsung Things?
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Jan 18, 2021 22:43
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Don Dongington posted:The issue has yet to occur today following the factory reset, so lets just hope it was a weird software glitch introduced by the latest update. I got the phone from a telco on a 24 month plan, but while the actual contract was up in 12 months, I still owe about $500 dollarydoos on the phone. Also despite the state of our consumer protection laws in Australia, the telco (all of whom are just as lovely to customers as American ones, somehow) somehow do not have to take back the phone and refund the money you owe in the event that it turns out to be a lemon, and your only recourse is for them to send it back to google for repair (4-6 weeks), or get a refirb replacement through their stayconnected scheme (which costs $15/month but you generally get a new phone in 48 hours). So hey they're sending me a pixel 5 because they have no 4XLs left in the refurb pool There's no way that could even be a refurb right? Didn't they only start being sent out a few weeks back?
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Jan 19, 2021 12:16
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Don Dongington posted:So hey they're sending me a pixel 5 because they have no 4XLs left in the refurb pool That could definitely be a refurb, Pixel 5 launched October last year.
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Jan 19, 2021 15:24
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Oneplus 8T seems to have a lot better battery life. I got the phone yesterday and charged it to 100%. Today I'm coming back home after work and there's 62% left after 3h SoT. With Oneplus 3 I managed maybe 2-2½h SoT from 100->15%. That was with a new battery which was replaced by official Oneplus service center. Maybe the apps today are so much more cpu/gpu demanding that processing them with 5yo old hardware is more taxing in 2021 than it was when the OP3 was new. I can't think of any other reason. Anyways I am happy for now, since the phone's 4500mAh battery and power efficiency clearly is more than enough for one day without any fears or need to recharge mid-day. Also the new 20:9 aspect ratio, 4cm taller display is super huge compared to OP3. Ihmemies fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 16:03
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Let's get all the SoC whining out of the way early this year. Qualcomm announced the SD870 which is exactly the same as the SD865+, just with a 100mhz peak boost clock bump. They renamed it to try to head off "lol 2020 SoC" comments. We've been hearing awhile that 5nm is severely production constrained this year. I wouldn't be surprised if most of that fab capacity was taken making SD888 for the S21 series and the rest to the A14/M1. I would expect the vast majority of the other brand upper mid and even flagships to come with the SD870 rather than the SD888 this year. So, I would expect the OnePlus 9 to have the SD870 while only the OnePlus 9 Pro to have the SD888. I would expect an eventual S21 FE (if such a thing exists this year) to have the SD870 rather than the SD888. That also means I would expect whatever Google offers this year, if they go up into the 8 series chips, to be SD870 rather than SD888.
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Jan 19, 2021 16:40
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bull3964 posted:That also means I would expect whatever Google offers this year, if they go up into the 8 series chips, to be SD870 rather than SD888. I dunno why they'd do that. I expect another 700 series.
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Jan 19, 2021 18:29
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CLAM DOWN posted:I dunno why they'd do that. I expect another 700 series. If staying in the 700 series means another $700 or cheaper phone that gets fantastic battery life while providing all the other specs you'd want and a SoC that's "fast enough" that you can't tell the difference between it and the top-tier ones in actual use, then staying with a 7xx SoC would be the smart choice. I mean, my web pages already are limited by my connection, not my phone, app loading and switching seems limited only by the animation time to swap between them, what would I even do with higher SoC performance at this point other than gaming?
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Jan 19, 2021 18:33
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CLAM DOWN posted:I dunno why they'd do that. I expect another 700 series. Because this is google and they'll overcorrect in the one way that makes no one happy.
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Jan 19, 2021 18:41
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I'm not familiar with the Google phone cycle and am planning to get a Pixel 5 sometime in the next couple months. Is there a reasonable chance it will go on sale for $100 off or something that I should hold out for or do they stay pretty fixed on MSRP?
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Jan 19, 2021 18:45
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bull3964 posted:Because this is google and they'll overcorrect in the one way that makes no one happy. I mean wasn't the whole deal with the 5 that the 4 and 4XL were really poorly performing poorly given the amount of viable competition at that tier now, while the 3A and 4A sold really well, so Google did the actual smart thing and shot for something in between? I personally think it was a smart move, and if the uptake of the 5 over the course of the year is better than the 4/XL then I'd say we're more likely to see them further tighten up the specs and featureset for the next $7-800 phone than go back to making phones that only enthusiasts and youtubers buy. Yes tech spergs freaked out because technically the 4 is faster at a handful of things; but it was also the most expensive phone I ever bought, had too many dumb gimmicks; face unlock is a bit useless in the age of masks and not having a fingerprint sensor made that very problematic; battery life is shiiiiiiiiiiit and the XLs seem to be plagued with issues to the point where if I didn't live in Australia, I would be stuck with a dying phone I still owe $500 to the telco for.. If I do open that package tomorrow and find a refurbished 5 I'll be stoked, especially seeing as I'll have paid it off by the time the 6 comes out  If it's another 4 I just hope it will last until I can upgrade for free.
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Jan 19, 2021 23:56
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Don Dongington posted:I mean wasn't the whole deal with the 5 that the 4 and 4XL were really poorly performing poorly given the amount of viable competition at that tier now, while the 3A and 4A sold really well, so Google did the actual smart thing and shot for something in between? Yeah, pretty much the industry as a whole is struggling with the realization that mid-tier phones are now "good enough" for the vast majority of people, and a looooot of people are starting to side-eye the $1000+ tier and asking what exactly they're getting for their money. They also (correctly) identified the fact that an enormous part of the market would really like better battery life than having their apps load 0.1 seconds faster.
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Jan 20, 2021 01:37
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Does anyone else with a Pixel 3 and multiple wifi access points having the same SSID have problems with it not switching to the stronger one? I have a router across the house on the other floor and an AP right under my desk, but all day my phone has insisted on connected to the router rather than the much closer AP. Unifi networking equipment, if it makes a difference.
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Jan 20, 2021 01:56
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DrDork posted:Yeah, pretty much the industry as a whole is struggling with the realization that mid-tier phones are now "good enough" for the vast majority of people, and a looooot of people are starting to side-eye the $1000+ tier and asking what exactly they're getting for their money. Honestly after using my pixel 5 from launch, I think I'll stick with midrange and a long battery life. I get why flagship phones exist, but I just want a long battery and something to browse the net when it gets quiet at work.
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Jan 20, 2021 02:58
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hooah posted:Does anyone else with a Pixel 3 and multiple wifi access points having the same SSID have problems with it not switching to the stronger one? I have a router across the house on the other floor and an AP right under my desk, but all day my phone has insisted on connected to the router rather than the much closer AP. Unifi networking equipment, if it makes a difference. I don't think it will switch automatically and can't see a relevant developer option to do so. Toggle your wifi and it should connect to the strongest network. Edit: found this via google, might work https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wifiroamingfix salt shakeup fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Jan 20, 2021 |
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Jan 20, 2021 03:59
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salt shakeup posted:I don't think it will switch automatically and can't see a relevant developer option to do so. Toggle your wifi and it should connect to the strongest network. I did try toggling wifi, but it didn't help. I'll try that app and report back, thanks.
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Jan 20, 2021 04:12
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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tartar.strongestwifi is what I use and it seems to help. It scans networks to make sure it is on the strongest one.
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Jan 20, 2021 07:34
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DrDork posted:If staying in the 700 series means another $700 or cheaper phone that gets fantastic battery life while providing all the other specs you'd want and a SoC that's "fast enough" that you can't tell the difference between it and the top-tier ones in actual use, then staying with a 7xx SoC would be the smart choice. I definitely notice some sluggishness when flipping around on apps on the 5 vs my note 20 ultra. But not a big deal.
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Jan 20, 2021 08:19
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I'm not noticing anything perceptibly slower about the 5. It's nice having only slightly less screen with significantly less phone vs the 4XL. Overall it's slick as gently caress and I think much better value than the 4xl.
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Jan 20, 2021 11:37
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Sad Panda posted:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tartar.strongestwifi is what I use and it seems to help. It scans networks to make sure it is on the strongest one. The other suggestion didn't work, so I tried out this one. It also doesn't seem to help.
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Jan 20, 2021 14:19
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UnfortunateSexFart posted:I definitely notice some sluggishness when flipping around on apps on the 5 vs my note 20 ultra. But not a big deal. I wonder if some of that is down to the 8GB vs 12GB RAM. I know 8GB is "enough," but more RAM is always more better, and certainly a spec that the Pixel line has had a history of trying to short.
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Jan 20, 2021 17:53
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If they are charging any more than $500 for a phone it should have the absolute most memory and storage space possible at the time of production.
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Jan 20, 2021 18:24
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Don Dongington posted:I'm not noticing anything perceptibly slower about the 5. It's nice having only slightly less screen with significantly less phone vs the 4XL. Totally, same. I shop for camera primarily, but if the pixel stays on the 700 line SoC like this I will be a very happy camper. The P5 is a fantastic phone.
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Jan 20, 2021 19:23
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codo27 posted:If they are charging any more than $500 for a phone it should have the absolute most memory and storage space possible at the time of production. But then how are they going to up-sell you to a $1000 phone? I mean, I'm fine with not having 512GB shoved in my phone, but yeah, ~10GB RAM / 128GB storage should be the mid-tier target these days. LPDDR4 RAM is cheap, you penny pinchers! (seriously, in quantity 1GB LPDDR4 is ~$10, and 2GB LPDDR5 is ~$20, so admittedly a nice chunk out of a $500 phone, but once you're talking $700+ it starts looking stingy)
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Jan 20, 2021 19:25
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codo27 posted:If they are charging any more than $500 for a phone it should have the absolute most memory and storage space possible at the time of production. Stuffing 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD into a phone benefits some tiny minority of users, and I wouldn't want to pay for a ton of storage that I won't ever want. More than that, just packing more RAM in there costs battery life, having 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB or 12GB uses more power all the time, decreasing battery life. There's a sweet spot for both memory and storage, just like CPU. I'd definitely rather save $200 than have a Snapdragon 888 or whatever the fastest thing available this year is.
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Jan 20, 2021 19:26
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