New Pixel 2...after 2 hours, system update, dead

[Sky-Knight]

Having 1x cell phone "DOA" right after purchase, after 25 years of cell phones...I can't complain. And I get more than 18 months out of 'em for sure...I don't like switching phones, especially with all these two factor setups..pain in the butt to go setup again (esp all the O365 stuff 2FA cuz all my apps need auth passwords again)

I hear you, in my case this blasted desert just eats things. I see people wandering around with $700+ phones that whine about $400 on a desktop. I mean if you've go the income for it, knock yourself out. Me? I'm too busy buying insulin to blow that much cash on a phone that'll split itself in half in the heat in less than a year.

 

[Sky-Knight]

except you can fit this computer in your front pocket. it has value.

Does it? The last time I checked Android's capabilities were nowhere near Windows. What I need in my pocket is just enough for my RMM remote, email, calendar, and above all else... a bloody phone. There is nothing the Pixel 2 offers that provides me any additional capacity over my Moto X Pure, other than twice the price.

Again if it works for you, great... but I'm never spending $700 on a phone.

 

[fencepost]

I'm with @Sky-Knight on this - I decided a long time ago that phones and to a lesser extent laptops were prone to developing legs and walking away, or to being dropped and that if I was going to not stress about losing things on them I'd best treat them as semi-disposable. I'm willing to run with a midrange phone, particularly when I can get a heck of a deal like my current one for $240 + a "welcome kit" with an extra charger, USB-C cable, micro to C adapter and a selfie stick (woo hoo!), plus a set of headphones. That my phone was at the time being compared to the OnePlus 3T and coming out worse ("[It's a good phone, but it's not up to the OnePlus 3T at the same price point]") as a $400 phone just made it sweeter.

I also don't want a phone with a giant screen - 5.2" is good, maybe 5.4-5.5" at the high end. I don't really want anything larger than that.

Midrange FTW!

Edit: By the way, I'm rocking a Huawei Honor 8. After having it for a year, the only real complaints I've had with it are that the curved edges of the screen mean that I had to use a plastic screen protector instead of tempered glass and that its internal gyroscope is odd and some apps don't care for something about it. Rumor has it that it's going to get an Oreo update, that's apparently in testing in the Chinese models as of a week or two ago. I unboxed it with 6, updated to 7 the first day I had it, and now it's looking like 8 will come along (and be the last major update no doubt). Hard to complain about that.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I use project fi service and nexus 6p phones, nexus 6p suffered from battery issues but if you learn to swap out the battery (not that difficult) you can get a really nice phone for under 200 bucks on ebay.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Went back to the Verizon store yesterday, got my replacement Pixel 2, on day 2 of it. Loving the phone itself, bare naked Android, no bloatware/fluffware, no stupid carrier apps...not a single Verizon <something> on it. Just pure Google Android.

Phone is wicked fast, and even though I'm getting old and vision is fading...that "relatively" small phone has a very crisp/sharp image, and the quality of the virtual screen keyboard...very precise. I can type better (less typos) on it much better than I could with the previous/larger screened Moto Z.

Camera image quality is insanely good.
Lot of new features in Android to learn.

 

[TAPtech]

https://amzn.to/2rF8NLF

This is the case I use for mine, I like it quite a bit.

Entirely useless, but check out the VR Stickers on the camera app. It's pretty funny.

 

[marley1]

My Pixel 2 XL says hi

 

[brandonkick]

No, not really. All you have to do to replace an iPhone battery is undo 2 screws and use a suction cup to lift the screen. It takes 5 minutes. Of course, I preferred the way the Samsung Galaxy S5 and previous phones used to be where you could just pop off the back and take out the battery with your fingers...no tools required. But those days are long gone.

I've never been stupid enough to drop my phone and damage the screen, but if I damage the screen on the iPhone, it's a simple 5 minute fix as well. This combined with the 100% clean OS experience is why I use an iPhone, despite hating Apple and Mac OS.

You can't buy a real apple battery, and ALL of the "third party" from over the pond batteries I bought were actually WORSE than the one they were replacing.

My last iphone was a 4S and while I loved it, the battery went to UTTER GARBAGE after it got to be about two years old. Pretty happy about that, struggled on another 6 months of needing charged 2 or 3 times a day despite really low use and decided to replace battery. Remove two pentalobe screws and it's pretty easy... BUT you can't buy a battery that isn't garbage! I went through 4, all from different places, all with supposedly good reviews, and while some where a little better... maybe making it most of a whole day with very light usage... they were just all terrible. Who knows, maybe the phone itself was causing the bad battery issue. Would have been interesting to have access to an OEM replacement for the sake of testing that theory.

Only other phone since was my current Galaxy 6S which I've been about as pleased with. Only grip is now, a little more than 2 years in... said battery is crap. It is a lot harder to replace the battery in this unit, as compared to my old iPhone 4S... but I'm waiting it out until next spring when my tax refund hits. Don't know if I'm going with a Galaxy S8 or a Pixel 2. For what little I really do with my phone, I've been considering a Moto G Plus 5th gen but the new 6th gen is looking to hit soon.

I just want a decent quality phone with great battery life, support for new anroid OS, and good call quality / signal strength.

I don't care about bleeding edge performance, 128+GB of storage space, stellar camera, or super high res screens.
I primarily use my phone for calls / txts, and use gmail and messenger apps mostly for work. Every once in a while I'll google something, and might use GPS navigation. Other than that, I don't really need it or use it on the phone.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I just realized something while thinking about bad batteries as I was reading your post. I sit by phone right next to my cpap intake vent to charge as thats the only open space on my night stand right now. I wonder what would have happened to me if the battery caught fire one day and all that smoke went right into my lungs. It has a cheap filter but I don't think thats enough, I am definitely going to re-arrange my nightstand when I get home xD.