This is actually very very bad. Google's lack of focus/vision w.r.t Pixel all but guarantees that Samsung can eat up the whole high end android phone market. Samsung's desire to stuff so much garbage unto their phones that they are molasses-slow even with the fastest mobile SoCs available to them all but guarantees that for most users, android will remain a huge mess.
I dunno. I think Google's new focus on the mid range is where it is at. Got a Pixel 4a 5G and it's a great phone (after the major missteps of the 3 and 4 with their hopeless battery life).
To me, I don't see what I'm missing going up from the 4a to a high end Samsung at twice the cost. Maybe a 90Hz display and a slightly faster CPU/GPU, which seem very marginal.
I think if Google doubles down on its mid range strategy (again) it's on to a winner.
Fwiw I feel similar about the iPhone SE, especially if apple refresh it at some point without a home button and better res OLED screen. Feels we are reaching the end of the S curve on smartphones.
I had a Pixel 3. Great phone - no battery life issues until 2 years (which was very annoying).
Pixel 4a and 5 were very disappointing to me. I could accept the mid-range hardware, but the lack of a camera update and especially better zoom camera options made me abandon them.
I believe why Google choose mid SoC in 2020 is because of Snapdragon 865 doesn't have integrated modem but requires external 5G modem. It makes phone design difficult and bad for battery life.
Exactly this! I find it bewildering -- they're by far the best in every respect that matters to me, and yet most people I meet are surprised to hear that Sony even makes phones, even when they express interest in mine. SD card, excellent camera, waterproof, durable, excellent battery life, headphone jack, quick, mostly vanilla Android OS, and most of all, the smallest form factor that I can still find in a phone.
Their branding is terrible though. Their naming scheme is without any pattern, making it hard to tell which phones are their budget/flagship/new/old models, and so on. And they're hard to even get at all in Canada.
Like most thing Sony the Hardware is good but the Software (and its support) is very crappy though. It looks flashy on the comparison table but falls short in real usage and support, and probably why with more exposure than LG (afaik) they seem to not catch on.
I've only ever owned 2 smartphones in my life: Samsung Note2 and my current Sony Xperia XZ. Until now I've never experienced the touch screen go broke after an Software update, and that the temperature limit of the camera set so weird that 10min continuous usage leads to a warning popup (that can be removed without hardware damange, if you root the phone).
Their lack of customer support is also not doing it any favour for getting respect.
The story you linked is a bit more complex than the headline. It's kind of appropriate for the deeply confusing and paradoxical experience of shopping for a Sony phone.
And it confirms the GP's thesis that Sony is committed to keep making excellent phones while redoubling its efforts to ensure they're ignored.
What the article really says is that Sony is going to stop marketing and selling their phones in many regions, which means if you want one you might have to order it online from a reseller in Hong Kong or something. And then it may or may not be compatible with your local wireless spectrum. If it is, you'll have an excellent phone, and if it's not, you'll have an expensive pocket camera.
Probably what they've found is that outside of Japan, they can't compete against Apple's and Google-Pixel's mindshare (despite having far superior hardware than the latter, in my opinion).
> Xperia is by no means dead to the world and the company is actually redoubling its efforts with that brand in a bid to grow amid the spending cuts in regions where it will now be appointing its focus. The Sony Xperia 1 marked the start of that and is actually the result of those cost-cutting measures.
The Sony designs seem pretty interesting and divergent from the rest of the market. I don't know why they're not getting more attention, but I assume it has to do with carrier deals.
Yes, I think a Microsoft Android phone could do extremely well. The Surface hardware is good.
As someone else pointed out, the real problem with the Android ecosystem isn't so much the hardware imo it is the absolutely appalling software everyone but Google seems to ship (I definitely include Samsung in this). Microsoft could do a good job of this and has the $$$ to throw at marketing (plus could leverage the cloud streaming Xbox stuff).
Agreed. I think leveraging Xbox brand as a gaming service with some kind of gaming enhanced hardware could get them in the door. Partnering with other big US names might be required. Comcast TV over 5g live package is what I am thinking. I just don’t think MS or Google can sit back and watch Apple build out a full ecosystem that pretty much rocks in most measurable ways. Too much on the line for these guys in the US market
Isn't OnePlus starting to eat the share that LG, HTC & Motorola once served? They seem to be the only ones that reliably update their software, don't have horrendous hardware issues and consistently have good LineageOS support.
I am sure they will. I just mean over time MS and Google will cut deep into this as well. Portable gaming and TV over 5g will be a bit part of their hardware lineup. This is longer term 5+ years thinking though
Why are google brands[0] featured so prominently on Microsoft's phone. Is it a requirement for phone Android phone vendors to keep google on the homescreen?
The original quip was an application of Conway's law, in that if you have a rigid, hierarchical organization with lots of bureaucracy, you're probably not going to get great software out the other side.
At least for consumer devices. You might make exemplary software for other rigid, hierarchical enterprises.
It's nothing against Koreans. It's everything against how Korea has organized its corporate culture, even if it's making efforts to change that.
As an android user, this saddens me.