Google reveals Pixel 7 phones with 1.7 Stadias of security fixes promised On Thursday Google held an event in Brooklyn, New York to introduce revised Pixel phones, along with the Pixel Watch mentioned at the search giant's developer conference in May. There was also a glimpse of a Pixel tablet due next year. The Pixel 7 Pro ($899) and the Pixel 7 ($599) both use Google's new eight-core Tensor G2 …
Ordered yesterday.
I was already in the market for a new phone, and this one ticked all the boxes. (apart from headphone jack, but I'll just need dongles - already have one for Pixel 4, which now goes to child #3)
As for 7 years of support, there's no way the battery will be any good after that long, and they aren't easily swappable. It will be interesting to see what the iFixit score is.
This is a LOT cheaper than the equivalent iPhone.
And Google doesn't have its usual excuse this time - they make both the drivers for the SOC & the OS those drivers connect to.
I was hoping the Pixel 6's "5 years security only" is them getting their feet wet, but apparently Google just likes having one finger on the trigger at all times when it comes to supporting their products.
Aye. My Samsung's probably had its last update now, which means they have a year more than they promised but is still galling. While I'd like a better camera, the one I have isn't a crock of shit like the one on its predecessor turned out to be, so I think I'll be checking out alternative ROMs in a few months. It'll be bliss to go back to having proper ad blocking.
Be interested to know how your battery is holding up after 7 years!?
I see it's a 35 minute "moderate" difficulty swap out on iFixit on the 6s, whereas the iPhone 14 is a 2-3 hour operation (also "moderate").
With my old Nokia it used to take 10 seconds. That's progress.
"I see it's a 35 minute "moderate" difficulty swap out on iFixit on the 6s, whereas the iPhone 14 is a 2-3 hour operation (also "moderate")."
So, is it any easier with Androids?
Battery replacement for iPhone 6s seems to be something between €40 to €60 (including labour) here in Finland. I'll gladly pay for the service. Best case I make an appointment for their service desk in the local shopping center and pick the fixed phone after having a cuppa / buying groceries in the meantime.
IPhone 5s is got its latest/last(?) security update on August this year. That's already 9 years of support. Google, the tiny underdog in mobile phone market of course cannot be expected to have such support resources. /s
Yeah, I take your point. I'm probably going to struggle to replace the battery in my Pixel in 3 years.
However the choice is not between a Pixel 7 and an iPhone 6S, it's between a Pixel 7 and an iPhone 14... and the iPhone 14 is going to cost a LOT more than €60 to replace the battery.
So, the choice for me right now is do I slap down £800 for a Pixel 7 XL or £ 949 for an iPhone 14 which is probably going to be just as unrepairable, plus they threw in a Pixel watch. There's no way I'll have this phone in 7 years, probably by then one of my kids will be done with it.
Still, a bit more than 5 years of support would have been nice.
"Still, a bit more than 5 years of support would have been nice."
Oh, if only Google insisted its Android licensees gave 5 years of support I wouldn't have to suffer so much iPhone users' smugness boasting about upgrading to yet another new IOS version. It's worse than having to concede Amazon CS is why so many of us pass money to a company we shouldn't.
"So, is it any easier with Androids?"
The reason many people prefer Android over Apple is choice. Is replacing the battery any easier? Depends entirely on which phone you have. A fancy 4-figure Samsung flagship? Probably not. On the other hand, I can change mine in about 10 seconds. Software updates are more of a problem, with Qualcomm being one of the main obstacles. But hardware is almost entirely a design choice by the manufacturer, and it's still very easy to find a phone that you can just pop the back off with a fingernail if that's what you want.
Zero deviation from the norm? Just a Google chip that lets Google do Google things faster? A headphone jack is out of the question because Bluetooth beacon scanning is a great backdoor for location data. It can't have much storage or nobody will pay for Google Cloud. It can't be super performant or people won't pay for Stadia...oops.
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