[HN Gopher] Google Pixel Fold
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Google Pixel Fold
Author : anorphirith
Score : 73 points
Date : 2023-05-10 19:29 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (store.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (store.google.com)
| kmac_ wrote:
| Looks good and for foldable with guaranteed 5y support and clean
| system the price is ok-ish. But I'll pass, not available on my
| market.
| ollien wrote:
| I understand the laws of physics are in effect, but the big thing
| keeping me from even remotely considering a foldable is the
| durability of the internal screen. The newer Galaxy Fold's have
| some sort of plastic/glass composite, but it still scratches
| super easily, and it's not serviceable at all.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| > Google says the phone has IPX8 dust and water resistance,
| which means it's not dust-resistant at all
|
| That should tell you anything you need to know about its
| durability.
| kernal wrote:
| Do you consider the Z Fold 4 durable? It's also IPX8.
| stilist wrote:
| The Live Translate video shows 'aqui' instead of 'aqui'. I don't
| know if that's an error the software actually makes, or if the
| person who composited the text into the video had the wrong
| spelling.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| Given that folding phones have a history of being fragile and
| Google has a history of dropping support for the devices they
| sell quickly, do they really expect a $1800 device to sell at a
| time when flagships that sell for half that much are not moving
| like they did a couple of years ago?
| shrimp_emoji wrote:
| > _Google has a history of dropping support for the devices
| they sell quickly_
|
| They do?
|
| Aren't Pixels some of the longest-supported phones, security
| update wise?
|
| Their IoT and software services might be another story.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| > Aren't Pixels some of the longest-supported phones,
| security update wise?
|
| Apple's $399 original iPhone SE from 2016 got six years of OS
| updates and received another security update last month.
|
| Google's original Pixel Phone, also from 2016, stopped
| getting support at the end of 2019.
| gibspaulding wrote:
| Typing this on a Pixel 2a running Android 12. It is out of
| support now, but that's not too shabby for a $300 phone from
| 2017.
| netdur wrote:
| the buzzle is huge
| dzink wrote:
| $2000 might be better spent on a phone that doesn't have an
| operating system scheduled to expire 2-3 years from now. Every
| iPhone I've owned has had multiple lifetimes with family after
| the 3-4 years of use I might get out of it. Androids are
| scheduled to expire.
| jefftk wrote:
| "Pixel 6 and later phones will get updates for at least 5 years
| from when the device first became available on the Google Store
| in the US." --
| https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=...
| dzink wrote:
| That should be 5 years from when you buy it. Planned
| obsolescence is not worth the same price as a product that
| will last 10 years.
| [deleted]
| alexkukharenko wrote:
| But didn't Samsung Fold phone fail? Why did they make it? I am
| still not certain about holding this thing.
| neom wrote:
| "Foldables continue to be the fastest growing smartphone
| product category this year.
|
| We expect their shipments to grow 73% YoY in 2022 to 16 million
| units.
|
| Samsung continues to lead the category it created with the
| first Galaxy Fold device.
|
| Samsung's share of the foldable market was 62% in the first
| half of this year.
|
| We expect this to jump to 80% in the second half with its new
| Galaxy Fold 4 and Flip 4 product launches."
|
| https://www.counterpointresearch.com/foldable-smartphone-shi...
| ChrisClark wrote:
| Fail? They are launching the Fold 5 in a couple months now.
|
| I'm still on the 3, I've had it for about 1.5 years and I use
| it every day. I love it, especially with the pressure sensitive
| pen.
|
| It's still working great, so I'll probably wait for the fold 6
| or 7.
| salimahmad wrote:
| Isi kerdit
| salimahmad wrote:
| Rm10000
| barbazoo wrote:
| https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_fold for us that are
| not in the US.
| mkl wrote:
| Thanks. Somewhat astoundingly, the Google Store's search button
| doesn't pop up a search box for me (on desktop Chrome).
| anttiharju wrote:
| I wish the url was updated to this
| pedrocr wrote:
| That would fix this particular post but Google has had this
| problem for a decade now and it's not like they don't know
| how the web works. Turning a link to a specific product into
| a generic view into their store like nothing is wrong is just
| broken. They keep handicapping their device business with
| these policies and methods.
| dang wrote:
| It was posted that way but our software followed the redirect
| to https://store.google.com/product/pixel_fold?hl=en-US. I've
| reverted it now. Sorry!
| manningthegoose wrote:
| I just don't understand who wants these foldable phones,
| especially at the $1799 price point. I guess a use case is
| wealthy frequent travelers who don't want a separate device with
| a larger screen to watch movies/videos on the go? Someone help me
| out here.
| pstanger wrote:
| hi, I want these folding phones. Though I took advantage of the
| ridiculous trade in offers that Samsung usually promotes with.
| Everything is just nicer on the bigger screen: messaging,
| browsing, videos, gaming. And that screen is always in my
| pocket. Can't read the QR code menu at the restaurant? Here,
| look at my pocket tablet.
|
| The technology is still in an awkward phase but I think slab
| phones will be obsolete in 5 years
| xnyanta wrote:
| Totally agree, especially for the restaurant menu use case
| even if it's niche. I can have a regular phone walking around
| folded and just unfold whem I sit down and am ready to
| consume any kind of media.
| manojlds wrote:
| I want folding phone too. Question is, at what price.
| CameronNemo wrote:
| I don't want to have to lug a tablet everywhere, like some
| fulltime scribe.
| xnyanta wrote:
| I'm posting this from my Galaxy Z Fold 3. I'm not particularly
| wealthy or a frequent traveler. I bought this phone used for
| 750 bucks in Canada and my main use case for the screen real-
| estate is reading manga on it, which it excels at. It also then
| serves as a phone and a media in bed machine. It is fragile and
| I take good care of it but it is absolutely the most innovative
| and exciting phone I've had the pleasure of using so far. I'm
| excited for the future of foldables and hope the next
| generation of the pixel fold will bring more serious
| competition to Samsung's lineup!
| manojlds wrote:
| So you don't want it at $1800 right.
| xnyanta wrote:
| It's absolutely overpriced considering I think Samsung has
| better offerings at that price point (which I think are
| equally ovepriced). I think fierce competition will bring
| the price of this emerging form factor down in the long
| term. That said, I am loving the device and will not
| hesitate to pay some more to trade it in for a next gen
| device when they come out. I'm not interested in returning
| to a slab phone at the moment after habing gotten a taste
| of the Fold.
| r00fus wrote:
| I think you hit on something here - if you can get it for 750
| (in any currency) it becomes interesting.
|
| If it's nearly 2k, it's a plaything for the rich that's both
| fragile and may have issues that are likely to be poorly
| supported by the vendor.
| emacs28 wrote:
| Personally I love my overpriced Samsung z fold, I don't use a
| laptop anymore (just a desktop), I can easily read double-
| column research articles wherever I am, it's great for drawing
| diagrams, and all of that without having to remember both your
| phone and a tablet everywhere you go.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| I want one, but not while they're this expensive. I'll wait for
| the price to come down at least two thirds before I even
| consider buying one of these.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > the $1799 price point
|
| The folding bit has no value to me, but even if it did, that
| price point is unacceptable. A phone is something I carry every
| day and don't treat like a delicate flower. If it costs so much
| that losing or breaking it would bring financial pain in
| addition to the pain of the loss of the phone, it's not
| suitable for my needs.
|
| That said, I'm being overly cautious because I've never
| actually lost or broken a phone.
| gibspaulding wrote:
| I can't ever see buying one, but it would be nice for reading
| PDF's without constantly having to zoom and scroll around.
| carlton_gauss wrote:
| Anyone who wants the functionality of tablets, but doesn't want
| to carry an extra thing everywhere. I'd pay easily $3000 for a
| foldable with a good pencil and a good CAD app. Right now, the
| only such device is the ipad with shapr3d.
| atourgates wrote:
| It's more than the price of a nice smartphone, and a nice
| tablet.
|
| An iPhone 14 and iPad Pro are gonna' run you $1,600, and be
| more useful in most cases.
|
| I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket,
| but do you really need to? And when it's out, it's more
| productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one
| device that's trying to do it all.
|
| Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical achievement,
| this is impressive. But in terms of price and practicality? I
| don't really see the appeal or value.
| Jarwain wrote:
| I've gotten a lot of value out of my fold 4, especially in
| spontaneous situations where I don't have a tablet or my
| notebook at hand. Pull out my phone, snap a picture, then
| annotate. Or just pull it out and draw to try and get a
| concept across. Reading or watching videos, sharing an image,
| or whatever. And I Always have it with me, because I always
| have my phone with me. I don't carry around my laptop
| everywhere, and I've never purchased a tablet.
|
| It's just remarkably convenient
| xanathar wrote:
| I, on the other hand, can't see a single reason why somebody
| would want a tablet. We've had some, and they all ended up
| forgotten in a drawer. Either I'm in a place where I have
| whatever limited portability I can (so I use the phone) or I
| have a laptop with proper keyboard, applications and OS.
|
| On the other hand, I always have my phone with me and I'd
| definitely benefit for a larger screen when reading emails,
| websites, documents, planning trips or whatever.
|
| That said, I would never pay that kind of price, neither for
| a foldable, nor for an iPhone so I guess I'm out of that
| market niche anyway.
| xnyanta wrote:
| I have an iPad for note-taking at school and literally
| don't use it for anything else. In fact it's out of battery
| most of the time I pick it up. My Samsung fold is just so
| much more versatile and I hse it for media consumption most
| people without a foldable hse a tablet for.
| danwee wrote:
| > Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical
| achievement, this is impressive. But in terms of price and
| practicality? I don't really see the appeal or value.
|
| I thought that was the consensus... It surprises me that
| Google is investing money on such a device. Weird.
| manojlds wrote:
| > Google is investing money
|
| Unlike other prudent decisions from Google in the last
| decade?
| gtop3 wrote:
| If you use your phone an average of 5 hours a day for two years
| and then throw it in a junk drawer the hardware would cost less
| than 50cents per hour of use. I use my $800 iPhone about 30
| minutes a day, keep it for 4 years, and spend about $1 per hour
| of use.
|
| I'd say the market is heavy cellphone users that use apps that
| benefit from the larger screen.
| sidfthec wrote:
| > If you use your phone an average of 5 hours a day for two
| years and then throw it in a junk drawer the hardware would
| cost less than 50cents per hour of use.
|
| I don't understand this type of justification.
|
| My fridge would cost around $65k for a 15 year lifetime at
| $0.50/hour.
|
| It just seems like a completely meaningless way to judge the
| value of something.
| deltree7 wrote:
| You'd pay double the price for double the fridge capacity
| (if doubling your capacity serves useful purpose for you)
|
| You'd pay double the price for double the screen size (if
| more screen size serves a useful purpose to you)
|
| It's really not that hard of a concept to grasp.
| manojlds wrote:
| "At the price of one coffee cup" is another thing that gets
| me.
|
| I brew at home and it's 10p for me, is that what you mean?
| deltree7 wrote:
| Irrelevant analogy. Let me know when you can build your
| own Tablet.
| lo_zamoyski wrote:
| Technical sophistication is not equal to practical value.
| _zoltan_ wrote:
| 10p? based on p I think you're in the UK? what kinda
| coffee is that?here a 3rd wave coffee costs around 42-50
| CHF for a kilo and you need 18g for an espresso, so
| 0.756-0.9 CHF per espresso if I calculate 0 for
| amortization of equipment.
| jamincan wrote:
| Who wants to watch a movie on a square screen though? I guess
| it would be better for browsing in most cases.
| solveit wrote:
| For me it was something that I could read papers on while still
| (just) fitting in my pocket. Probably not the median use-case,
| but still.
| _boffin_ wrote:
| I lug my iPad Pro 11 everywhere with me just so I can read,
| write and do notes when I have any down time.
|
| And yea, what you stated is why I want a foldable phone
| mikece wrote:
| $1800??? I'll pass... or spend that on a laptop or high-end iPad.
| CameronNemo wrote:
| My laptop budget is closer to $1400. And it is deferred until
| next year ha.
| danwee wrote:
| From 1899 euros in Europe. Certainly, I don't really know who
| feels comfortable using a 2K euros device while walking down the
| street every single day. I would be so worried about it being
| lost, getting scratch or what not. Besides, it looks huge.
| leptons wrote:
| I doubt they will offer the same kind of discount Samsung did
| with the Fold 4. There's no way I would have bought the Fold 4
| for its MSRP, but they gave me $1000 discount with a trade-in
| of my old Galaxy S9+, so I got the Fold4 for essentially about
| $800.
| manojlds wrote:
| That's how I already feel about $/PS/EUR 1000 phones.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Anyone remember the amount of memes the first over $1k iPhone
| generated? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
|
| After that Samsung, and now Google, have released multiple
| almost $2k devices to complete silence.
| nerdix wrote:
| They're foldables. It's a completely different product
| category.
|
| And it's pretty niche right now.
| JLCarveth wrote:
| > or $74.96/month with 24-month financing
|
| I couldn't imagine financing a phone
| thinkling wrote:
| All the deals where the device is free/cheap with a wireless
| subscription of at least 12 or 24 months are effectively all
| financing arrangements.
| nicoburns wrote:
| While I can imagine purchasing one of those in the sense
| that I know they exist, I'm pretty much with the GP in that
| I can't imagine myself actually choosing to do so. I think
| this is partly because new phones are just crazy expensive
| these days, so I pretty much always buy a year-old model
| second hand. But also because I don't like being locked
| into such a contract (although to be fair, that last part
| is somewhat of a privilege in that I am able to afford to
| buy the phone up front)
| sota4077 wrote:
| I finance all my phones. But I refuse to have the cost of my
| phone be more than the monthly plan itself. That is just
| absurd. I have no problem paying $25-35/month for my phone
| for 24 months. That seems more or less like a standard phone
| plan at this point. But $75!? Good lord.
| noncoml wrote:
| If it's interest free, I'd be happy to finance even my
| morning coffee. Who doesn't like ~10% discount?
| gibspaulding wrote:
| Generally I'd agree, but in this case I will point out that
| 74.96*24 is 1799.04. At least (assuming you pay it of on
| schedule), it's 0% interest.
| Clamchop wrote:
| At zero percent interest, it in effect reduces the price of
| the phone, so perhaps you should reconsider it.
| anonporridge wrote:
| You'd be dumb not to take 0% financing.
|
| Put the money you would have spent buying outright in a
| savings account yielding 4%.
| blep_ wrote:
| Where did you find a savings account yielding 4%?
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| https://www.investopedia.com/best-high-yield-savings-
| account...
|
| https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-
| get/
| anonporridge wrote:
| This comment right here is part of why the banking crisis
| has just barely started.
|
| Tons and tons of people have their cash sitting in a
| shitty Chase savings account yielding 0.1%, while there
| are _many_ FDIC insured banks offering at least 3% and up
| to 5%. As a critical mass of these people realize the
| options available, they 'll rapidly move their money with
| online transfers causing more banks to collapse. The
| extremely rapid outflows are what killed SVB, Signature,
| and Republic who were screwed because they had too many
| low yielding treasuries because the Fed hiked rates so
| fast.
|
| I've been yielding over 3% in a Capital One savings
| account since last year.
| was_a_dev wrote:
| Some accounts in the UK have been offering 6+%
| halestock wrote:
| That has been a thing pretty much as long as cell phones have
| been around?
| imranq wrote:
| I can definitely see this being useful for work and school, but
| not sure if I would use a foldable for everyday tasks.
|
| Casing these phones seems like a challenge
| gundmc wrote:
| I love my Z Fold 3 form factor a lot more than I thought I would.
| The one thing I've missed is the pure Google/Android software
| experience without the Samsung bloat from my old Pixel phone.
|
| This is very tempting, but given it's their first attempt and the
| steep price, I'll probably wait for the Fold 2 to improve on any
| growing pains.
| grumpyprole wrote:
| > without the Samsung bloat
|
| That's one way of spinning it. Personally I'd rather have all
| the Pixel users beta test Android, so I can get the bug fixed
| version from Samsung.
|
| https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-6-bug-tracker/
| kernal wrote:
| So you prefer beta testing Samsung bugs?
| grumpyprole wrote:
| Pixel users get the new android releases and the
| corresponding bugs first. I've never owned a Samsung phone
| with such serious bugs as those described in the linked
| article above, such as not being able to use a DAC.
| skyyler wrote:
| Prediction:
|
| This is the prevailing opinion among people that would purchase
| it. It will have disappointing sales numbers and there will be
| no Fold 2.
| TangerineDream wrote:
| Further details at: https://blog.google/products/pixel/google-
| pixel-fold/
| Already__Taken wrote:
| if my phone is already 5.8 inches, who cares if it folds out.
| make it 3.5 and fold out for recipes and diagrams/notes. if I
| need a 7" display I'll have a 10" in a bag with the added battery
| pack and speakers it'll require anyway
| spprashant wrote:
| That's an ambitious price point. Who are they targeting with
| this?
| ushakov wrote:
| Same people who would pay for Superhuman
| rtkwe wrote:
| It's price matched with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 that's a
| direct form factor competitor. There are some more mid market
| competitors but they're not on their own out there at 1800 USD.
| soared wrote:
| The most expensive iPhone is $1699, which is a 14 pro max with
| a whopping 1 TB of storage. With 128gb it's only $1099.
|
| I agree, seems pretty aggressive.
| csdvrx wrote:
| I'm not a huge fan of Google, but if Graphene can be installed
| (and the bootloader unlocked), I would be interested!
|
| Foldable devices like the Lenovo X1 fold are very nice to work
| with "on the go": take a Bluetooth keyboard and your office is
| everywhere!
| dhruvmittal wrote:
| Really looking forward to future generations of foldables when
| the price is closer to $1000 than $2000. I've had my Flip 3 for
| almost 2 years now and it's been a blast; I'm genuinely
| interested in the larger foldable size, but the price is still
| too steep for me.
| CameronNemo wrote:
| Meanwhile, I paid $250 for a used Pixel 6a and plan to use it
| for another 2-4 years.
| jclardy wrote:
| Yeah - I understand the technology is complex, but if you think
| about it you can buy a iPhone 14 Pro and an iPad Pro 11" for
| the same price as a single foldable. Maybe it is too soon for
| foldables, but usually "all in one" devices trend towards being
| cheaper than buying the devices seperately they are supposed to
| replace, since they are usually lesser versions of each device
| (IE a super thick normal phone, and a small, squarish tablet
| with a crease down the middle.)
| wiseowise wrote:
| Again fingerprint scanner in power button, way to be hostile to
| left-handed people. Hard pass.
| yuters wrote:
| I'm left-handed but never had a pixel or a recent android
| phone. What is the problem exactly? Something about the index
| finger print vs the thumb?
| wiseowise wrote:
| It's impossible to comfortably unlock phone without using
| right hand.
| avidiax wrote:
| You can scan your index fingerprint right?
| wiseowise wrote:
| That's uncomfortable compared to using thumb.
| retskrad wrote:
| Why is Google still making Pixel devices? They have made them
| since 2016 and spent billions of R&D and ads and it has only
| reached like 1-2% market share in the US.
| SXX wrote:
| Obviously Google want some reference Android devices that are
| not full of Samsung or chinese crapware. Regardless of
| marketshare they still release some decent devices.
|
| For those of us outside of Apple ecosystem Pixel 6a for $350
| (with some recent discounts) is one of the best modern devices
| all around. Yeah you can certainly find something even cheaper,
| but again it will be loaded with tons of non-Google spyware.
| neilv wrote:
| GrapheneOS users aren't complaining. :)
|
| https://grapheneos.org/releases
| solveit wrote:
| Why did Microsoft keep Bing around for so long? It's
| strategically important even if it doesn't do great.
| guyzero wrote:
| But it's growing really well!
|
| https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/google-pixel-sees-hu...
|
| In mid-2022: "...Canalys had Google up 380 percent year over
| year, and this quarter, the company is up 230 percent."
| robertlagrant wrote:
| Up to 3%[0].
|
| [0] https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-market-
| share-3... (I love how neutral this article is)
| r00fus wrote:
| You know what I'd want? A foldable tablet. I'd love a mini or
| standard size tablet that can fold out like a newspaper into
| something with good screen size. Hell, it'd be great for e-ink
| also.
|
| But a phone? I mostly use it to call / send texts and want it
| pocket sized and durable.
| dirtyid wrote:
| What happened to outward folding form factor without the extra
| screen? Foldable screens still not durable enough? Three screen
| foldable seems like such a dumb design to settle on. Ditto with
| aspect ratio with massive black bars when watching media.
| avidiax wrote:
| No one makes it but I would love a dual screen phone with e-ink
| on one screen.
|
| The aspect ratio might allow for always on playback controls
| and a dedicated area for subtitles which could be nice.
| sva_ wrote:
| So what about the 8 Pro
| thinkling wrote:
| You can't look at the Google Store without signing in to a Google
| account? _sigh_
|
| EDIT: in Private Browsing mode I can access it, but in a normal
| browser tab it requires me to give my password.
| TobyTheDog123 wrote:
| Yeah that price point makes it an instant pass - In all honesty,
| phones, at least for me, have been reaching a point of
| diminishing returns.
|
| I upgraded from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 14 recently, and the
| difference was practically nothing. I didn't think it was
| possible to experience buyer's remorse after waiting three whole
| generations, but here we are.
|
| I wouldn't be surprised if it's five years before a phone has
| some jaw-dropping feature that I just have to buy, and if these
| are the kinds of innovations Google is investing in, I might even
| say closer to a decade.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| The biggest upgrade I had a while ago was buying a OnePlus
| phone a few years ago and seeing how fast it charged. I stopped
| thinking about my phone battery. That's the last real
| innovation for me.
| DiabloD3 wrote:
| Yikes.
|
| Google hasn't magically figured out how to fix the problem with
| the screens failing after a few hundred bends; neither has
| Samsung, which is most likely their display supplier.
|
| On top of that, there is no viable market for a phone over $1200
| (and, arguably, no market for over $1000, ask Apple how their
| sales have been going down since the peak in 2015); what were
| they even thinking? This is ridiculous even for a halo product.
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