**** The Official Google Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL Thread ****

[andy_mk3]

I wonder if you have a view on VR? I am very excited about its potential. I expect to see many more apps and phones developed to support it.

More than 10 million phones are expected to be launched this year supporting Google Daydream, including Samsung's Galaxy 8 family and LG's flagship phones. There are already more than 150 apps supporting Daydream. And more than 10,000 360 degree videos posted on YouTube. Clearly as the original Pixel supports Daydream, the next Pixels will too. I will wish to keep up with this trend and a newer Pixel with better display (OLED wrap around?) and better Chrome OS support should help.

Add to the mix Google's recently announced Visual Positioning Service, and integrating it with GPS, should open a huge market for VR and AR applications. One immediate application was showcased at I/O where holding up your Tango-ready phone in a large store like Homebase or PCWorld Currys and instead of getting lost your phone guides you to the correct aisle and shelf where you want to find a particular item (indoor mapping made simple). Asus' Tango-ready Zen Phone AR, to be launched later this year, should attract attention too. This is just one of many possible applications.

For those who are visually impaired, audio interfaces paired with VPS could help them find their way around a lot better.

Smartphones "hitting a brick wall"? I think not.

I agree VR is a big thing and has huge potential, however it's not something I am excited about and therefore not something I look for in a phone. I just feel my 6p does everything I could want it to do, and spending £100's on an upgrade is only going to give me things I'm not really going to use.

The brick wall is just a personal thing really, the main aspects of the phone have reached somewhat of a peak and haven't improved such as the screen, camera, performance and battery life. While they make incremental upgrades to them, it's not a night and day difference like it was a few hears back going from a VGA res screen to HD, cameras going from 1.2mp to 5mp etc.

I just feel where I used to upgrade every year, and feel a massive improvement from it, I can now easily wait 2 years before upgrading because there's nothing that particularly excites me from it any more.

 

[AndyCr15]

but supermarkets don't want you find your product straightaway, it's why they rotate their stock.

Definitely not true. It's not that complicated. Certain things should be next to other certain things or in a certain area of the shop. If there's a shop doing this (moving things round), more likely they just don't know how their shop should be laid out. (Obviously things in promotional areas will change, but they remain in their usual location too)

Do people really think "I wish I could take my phone out and mess with the app for shop X

Already happening. You can (and people do) scan your own shopping with your phone now. If there was another button for finding a product in the store, definitely people would use it.

Whether or not this is significant advancement in mobile technology, not really. It's more about software I would have said.

 

[Dangerous]

The 3rd Pixel might be the Pixel 7 it has been reported.

I'm holding on to my 6P until I see the device. OnePlus 5/Pixel XL or XXL is on the cards this year until we actually see them

 

[mid_gen]

Definitely not true. It's not that complicated. Certain things should be next to other certain things or in a certain area of the shop. If there's a shop doing this (moving things round), more likely they just don't know how their shop should be laid out. (Obviously things in promotional areas will change, but they remain in their usual location too)

If you think stores are laid out to help people find what they want you're in for a surprise. There's a whole science around manipulating customer flow to maximise sales....and it's not about helping customer get in, get what they want, and get out as easily as possible!

Already happening. You can (and people do) scan your own shopping with your phone now. If there was another button for finding a product in the store, definitely people would use it.

How many years have phones been capable of scanning products in stores, and how many stores offer this option? The evidence would suggest that this isn't something that people actually want.

 

[AndyCr15]

If you think stores are laid out to help people find what they want you're in for a surprise. There's a whole science around manipulating customer flow to maximise sales....and it's not about helping customer get in, get what they want, and get out as easily as possible!

Thanks, that's kind of my point. There is a 'correct' layout. If stores are moving things round all the time, it's because they don't know what they're doing...

How many years have phones been capable of scanning products in stores, and how many stores offer this option? The evidence would suggest that this isn't something that people actually want.

I see daily evidence to oppose this. Just because stores are behind in what can be done with tech, doesn't mean it's not wanted by shoppers.

 

[mid_gen]

We had Scan and Go or whatever Sainsburys called it when I lived in the UK nearly a decade ago, and unless there's an alternate reality UK I visited last time, it hasn't taken the retail world by storm since then. Scanning things yourself is objectively a worse experience than just shovelling everything onto a conveyor belt and having them scan it for you.

The future of retail is human interaction, not faffing with smartphones. If I want to buy something with my smartphone I'll stay on the sofa and wait a few minutes for the Amazon drone to deliver it to the balcony

 

[Matteysan]

Definitely not true. It's not that complicated. Certain things should be next to other certain things or in a certain area of the shop. If there's a shop doing this (moving things round), more likely they just don't know how their shop should be laid out. (Obviously things in promotional areas will change, but they remain in their usual location too)

Supermarkets do this all the time. Are you saying they don't know how their shop should be laid out?

If those rumours for the pixel 2 are correct then it is a no go for me. Won't be touching any phone that doesn't have a headphone jack.

"Wrap-around display" - don't want.
"No headphone jack" is not a feature.
"USB-C port to attract gamers". What?

It won't be a budget phone by any stretch of the imagination, though I suspect one of the releases maybe more budget friendly than the others.

And who the heck are Value Walk?

Am I interested? If any the highlighted points above are true then nope.

Agree with you.

 

[AndyCr15]

Supermarkets do this all the time. Are you saying they don't know how their shop should be laid out?

Certainly sounds like it. I've not known any to do this though. it's a MASSIVE job, I can't understand any shop thinking it a good idea. In the 15 years I've worked in Supermarkets, we've never done it in one of the shops I've been in, aside one refit, but even then, not much moved.

 

[Christmas themed thank]

Certainly sounds like it. I've not known any to do this though. it's a MASSIVE job, I can't understand any shop thinking it a good idea. In the 15 years I've worked in Supermarkets, we've never done it in one of the shops I've been in, aside one refit, but even then, not much moved.

Supermarkets near me move their stuff rather often.

Phone shops keep things fairly consistent. Vodafone does anyway.

 

[jjgreenwood]

Certainly sounds like it. I've not known any to do this though. it's a MASSIVE job, I can't understand any shop thinking it a good idea. In the 15 years I've worked in Supermarkets, we've never done it in one of the shops I've been in, aside one refit, but even then, not much moved.

used to work at coop years ago the they changed every 6 weeks as this was the optimal time to get people to keep looking around for what they want.

What you say is true though there is an optimal layout. Bread at the back so the smell of it baking hits the stores air vents and travels through making people hungry. "Expandables" at the end of aisles - that being products like alcohol, crisps, chocolate that you can sell people without risking them cutting back on next weeks shop. Staple foods spread out around the shop to force the customer to look at everything else you sell. After all you don't want bread, milk, potatoes, eggs, fresh meat/fish and veg all next to each other because how will a customer see all the other stuff you want to sell them? While the departments stay static and the positioning of premium brands is obviously at a fixed level sold to said brand all the rest can be moved around so the customer doesn't get into the habit of going in and picking up their minimum weekly shop from their habit locations.

 

[sesevans]

"I'm questioning the need for navigation aids in a shop. It's a classic example of a solution to a problem that doesn't exist."

I see great value for navigation aids in a shop. Also I do not agree with some comments that shops want a potential customer to simply wander around going "ooh" or "aah". Why? Because most people I know do not shop that way. Wandering around a shop aimlessly is the last thing I want to do. I have a specific shopping list (Google Home sets it up by simply a voice command that embeds it into my Pixel) and have no interest in shopping beyond this list. It is a waste of time. This is why people increasingly shop online.

But let's admit that we agree to differ on what a shop wants and what a shopper wants. There is still another huge problem that a navigation aid helps many people in shops. Here is a fact from the World Heath Organisation:

"285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision. About 90% of the world's visually impaired live in low-income settings. 82% of people living with blindness are aged 50 and above."

Just imagine what Visual Positioning Service could do to help visually impaired people! VPS, a critical component of Google Lens, is an audio-based interface that could help visually impaired people in so many situations, esp in large DIY shops and supermarkets.

I think this "problem" certainly exists.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm currently looking for a new Tablet and would prefer Android. I'm now wondering if I should upgrade my Pixel to a Pixel 2 XL and see if I can merge both gadgets into one?

I'd like to see some additional features, but to be honest if the"wrap" screen is implemented on Pixel 2 XL then that may be enough to sway me.

Regardless, I'm glad the Pixel has been a success because I can't see me moving to Apple or Samsung for my next phone.

Will keep an eye on this thread.

 

[Nexus18]

My only wants for the next pixel are:

- small bezels, no bigger display than 5.2"
- water proofing
- better battery life
- better speaker(s), preferably stereo front facing
- no more than £500 (for 32/64GB)

Everything else about the current pixel, I'm happy with.

I need to upgrade my 5x this year and would love the hardware/design of the likes of the gs 8 but no stock android/support from google = no go!

 

[AndyCr15]

You understand you're not going to get all of the above though, right?

it's a little like saying I want my next car to do 0-60 in 4 seconds, 4 wheel drive convertable, self driving and cost £12,000.

 

[Nexus18]

You understand you're not going to get all of the above though, right?

it's a little like saying I want my next car to do 0-60 in 4 seconds, 4 wheel drive convertable, self driving and cost £12,000.

You do understand what a "wishlist" is, right?

With brexit + google thinking thinking they can do samsung + apple's pricing and all, yup £500 is very unlikely but all the above that I've asked isn't exactly a new thing for today and it "has" been done plenty of times before, most recent from the top of my head being the nexus 6p (not water resistant though)

- small bezels, no bigger display than 5.2"

GS 8 bezels would be nice but anything is better than the pixel's humongous bezels.....

- water proofing

This has been around since the sony z3? It seems to be a pretty standard thing to add in this day and age now

- better battery life

Pixel phones are already good at this but as per usual, this generally improves with each new generation

- better speaker(s), preferably stereo front facing

Been around since the htc one m7, the nexus 6 and 6p had them and the pixel single speaker sucks compared to most other phones speakers

- no more than £500 (for 32/64GB)

For the 32GB model (which is considered to be the lowest for internal storage now i.e. taking over from 16GB) with only the above improvements, it would be possible for google to price the phone at £500 or cheaper but as we know, it probably won't happen because samsung/apple can get away with atrocious prices therefore google can too

EDIT:

Oh and to add to my "wishlist"..... wireless charging, again hardly asking for some revolutionary future tech.

 

[AndyCr15]

Yes, I know what a wishlist is and yes, I know what everything is that you asked, I'm just checking you know it wont actually happen at that price. For one, smaller bezels with dual stereo front facing speakers is almost impossible I would imagine.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

With brexit + google thinking thinking they can do samsung + apple's pricing and all, yup £500 is very unlikely

Don't be too sure, my Pixel cost £520 on a black Friday from CPW.

 

[AndyCr15]

Yes, that's not exactly the launch price. You could probably buy one second hand for less than £500, but we're talking about Google's launch price aren't we?

 

[Nexus18]

Yes no doubt there will be some nice deals but for launch/standard price, it will most likely be above £500.

I suspect the likes of CPW, amazon etc. will be a bit cheaper than buying from google but probably not by much.

Yes, I know what a wishlist is and yes, I know what everything is that you asked, I'm just checking you know it wont actually happen at that price. For one, smaller bezels with dual stereo front facing speakers is almost impossible I would imagine.

Nexus 6:

Obviously GS 8 bezels and front facing stereo speakers won't be possible yet but like I said anything is better than the current pixel's bezels....

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Yes, that's not exactly the launch price. You could probably buy one second hand for less than £500, but we're talking about Google's launch price aren't we?

They wasn't second hand, it was brand new and four weeks after launch. And yes, Google wanted almost £200 more.