Mobile Phone Thread S2

[Brad]

I didn't know they had removable batteries. Nice.

I wasn't trivialising the battery issue. I'm saying you can have good battery life if you want it. If you want to sacrifice that for some other factor that's up to you. Same with anything really. I used to have an iPhone se2020. Liked the size, battery was unsatisfactory. My 53 year old eyes like the larger display of this Motorola but I don't like that it's quite big but battery life won out.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I didn't know they had removable batteries. Nice.

I wasn't trivialising the battery issue. I'm saying you can have good battery life if you want it. If you want to sacrifice that for some other factor that's up to you. Same with anything really. I used to have an iPhone se2020. Liked the size, battery was unsatisfactory. My 53 year old eyes like the larger display of this Motorola but I don't like that it's quite big but battery life won out.

That's fair enough. You raise a good point about the pros and cons. Balance seems skewed largely because smartphones are packing in more and more features IMO.

Also... you're 53??? Kinell!! I mean, I'm no spring chicken at 41!!

[Brad]

Yeah, Apple seem to set the pace and, as they often do, chose form over function. I think if phones were just generally a bit chunkier but had double the battery capacity then everyone would be fine and it's what we'd be used to but slim is the norm now and everyone just copies each other. 54 next month! I'm not even the oldest here I think!

[Nu-Eclipse]

Yeah, Apple seem to set the pace and, as they often do, chose form over function. I think if phones were just generally a bit chunkier but had double the battery capacity then everyone would be fine and it's what we'd be used to but slim is the norm now and everyone just copies each other. 54 next month! I'm not even the oldest here I think!

I do see what you're saying but it isn't simply that Apple choose form over function. Apple are really good at optimising iOS and making it way more efficient and less power-hungry than Android is, hence why iPhones normally have great battery life for the most part - it's only recently that the latest models have had battery issues and that may well be a software issue or just that we're at a point that there are too many power-hungry features in phones today.

There are plenty of Android phones that have crap battery life despite having large batteries. Android is way more resource-intensive than iOS.

[fishbowlhead]

I didn't know they had removable batteries. Nice.

I wasn't trivialising the battery issue. I'm saying you can have good battery life if you want it. If you want to sacrifice that for some other factor that's up to you. Same with anything really. I used to have an iPhone se2020. Liked the size, battery was unsatisfactory. My 53 year old eyes like the larger display of this Motorola but I don't like that it's quite big but battery life won out.

I mean you can out the box, on some rubbish android model that doesn’t get updated past its launch, but there are a few models out there with big battery’s.

Otherwise iPhone is restricted to battery packs for longer life.

[Brad]

Good points both. I concede we have some way to go. Replaceable batteries would be good, especially if the whole back of the phone was the battery as that would let people choose battery capacity over size if they wanted to. Right about iPhone too. They need less ram and battery than android for sure. I had to manually remove a meta.service from my phone..it was.on there despite having absolutely zero Facebook applications on there, not even WhatsApp and that is, frankly, ****ing disgusting and something should be done about it.

[MartyG]

Pixel 8 Pro being able to drop to a 1Hz refresh rate should see some battery efficiency improvements, that's only on the Pro model though.

Cameras look very good, and as usual with the Pixel, it's the software side that differentiates it - at a price bump to £999, I'm not going to be jumping straight in with an upgrade this time, especially as I won't get a Pixel Watch 2 with it (I've been very impressed by Pixel watch 1, other than the single day battery life), that would have swung me into a purchase.

[wakka]

Pixel 8 Pro being able to drop to a 1Hz refresh rate should see some battery efficiency improvements, that's only on the Pro model though.

Cameras look very good, and as usual with the Pixel, it's the software side that differentiates it - at a price bump to £999, I'm not going to be jumping straight in with an upgrade this time, especially as I won't get a Pixel Watch 2 with it (I've been very impressed by Pixel watch 1, other than the single day battery life), that would have swung me into a purchase.

I have been looking at mobile phone deals recently, and I happened to spot that the Pixel 8 Pro is being bundled with the Watch 2 here:

https://www.mobiles.co.uk/google-pixel-8-pro

No idea if those deals are any good (I'm not considering a Pixel, I want an iPhone), but I just thought I would mention in case it is useful to you

[MartyG]

I'm not interested in signing up for a contract, I tend to buy my phones outright - but thanks for the link.

[Nu-Eclipse]

[MENTION=42]MartyG[/MENTION] [MENTION=5490]wakka[/MENTION] A contract isn't needed. The pre-order bonus for buying a Pixel 8 series device outright is:

Free Pixel Buds Pro or £200 off Pixel Watch 2 for pre-ordering Pixel 8

OR

Free Pixel Watch 2 for pre-ordering Pixel 8 Pro.

This promo is currently running and runs until end of next week. Google Store and the majority of outlets are doing it.

[MartyG]

Ah, I saw the £200 pound off, thought that was for Pro as well. Hmm, more tempted now.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Ah, I saw the £200 pound off, thought that was for Pro as well. Hmm, more tempted now.

It's basically what they did last year for the Pixel 7.

I don't want a large phone so the 8 Pro is ruled out. I was hoping that the standard Pixel 8 would come with a free Pixel Watch 2 on pre-order. That's why I've hesitated. That said, the Pixel Buds Pro are very good by all accounts so I'm currently flip-flopping on it!

[MartyG]

I've ended up ordering a Pro model - I don't 100% feel the need to upgrade the Pixel 7 Pro, but the new camera modules and software look excellent and the upgraded Pixel Watch 2 looks worthwhile (I did consider just ordering the watch). Maybe I'll even measure how hot my coffee is on Thursday.

7 years OS features and security patches seem like a big improvement over previous promises as well.

[Brad]

Wow, what was it previously? 7 is very impressive.

[MartyG]

On the 7 it's three years of major OS upgrades and "at least" five years of security updates.