Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google Pixel 1 Redux: Clear signs of progression”.
The pixel formula has barely changed since its inception back in October of 2016, and the way it goes is pretty simple. An average smartphone from the outside, with some near flagship specs on the inside and class-leading software, designed to show off all the best bits with Google’s Android operating system over four generations of pixel. The smartphone industry has evolved to make better use of hardware by developing and refining the software that it runs, and this has been all but led by Google. Ever since the launch of this, the original pixel, I want to talk about the first in Google’s flagship lineup to really evaluate its place in the market versus now with the pixel for and what Google was really doing at that time and what it’s doing now, the Pixels design has aged pretty badly it’s too simple, too unrefined and even back in 2016.
It wasn’t on the same level as the Galaxy s6, which was leading the design game at the time and whilst the pixel 4 has definitely improved on that and moved with the times, it’s still pretty boring and rudimentary I mean it’s good enough, but it’s not exceptional And that carries through to the rest of the hardware of the pixel 4. It’S got a snapdragon 855 instead of the at the time up in current 855 plus has 6 gigabytes of RAM instead of the 8 or even 12 that we see in other smartphones. From that time and sub 4000 of the Empire batteries, when the rest of the industry was pushing that figure, if not exceeding it but compare that to the og pixel and it’s not the same story back in 2016.
Specs and features were everything the latest Snapdragon. 820. 1, instead of the 8 24 gigabytes of RAM, when only really one plus would push that a little bit higher full HD Q, HD AMOLED displays the fastest charging in the game and the original pixel spec sheet was, I mean stout, to say the least in 2020. This phone really surprised me it doesn’t perform like you’d, expect a three-year-old phone to perform.
It performs really well in games. It was perfectly fine on this quad HD display. It ran like a dream. The only time it really hiccups was when running multiple applications at once. Since it so it’s age with only four gigabytes of RAM versus, you know, eight 12 or even 16 – that we see in flagships in 2020 but as far as day-to-day usage goes and browsing social media, apps, sharing things to Facebook, Twitter Instagram.
This really does hold up very well, and that’s no coincidence, this phone, a 2016 release, has Android ten. How many phones do you know from that time that have Android 10? I mean some newer phones with 855 chipsets still haven’t, got Android 10 and this thing’s had it for a while. Now, there’s definitely been a recent change in direction to purely focus on software, AI and computational photography versus a time where Google were really trying to balance both, perhaps really to see which would work before picking a lane.
This is even more evident in last year’s pixel. 3A, that phone was aimed at the mid-range sector with mid-range specs and mid-range pricing, but flagship software, pixel experience took and otherwise very boring phone to a level where some were comparing it to the iPhone 10 are far more expensive device. One even more proof look at all the photos that come from any pixel device. These folks do not have flagship camera hardware that their camera systems are constantly being rated as some of the best in the entire industry. The pixel one has been updated to keep a smaller gap between it and the latest and greatest as humanly possible for a three and a half year old phone. This is a seriously impressive set of cameras when it comes to overall image quality.
However, at the time it was fairly normal to see one camera on the back of the smartphone, that’s very different to the pixel 4, which uses two cameras. Yes, that is a definite improvement, but that’s still less than the average that you see on smartphones at around the time the pixel 4 was launched and that really all but confirms Google’s focus on software, not really caring. All too much about hardware in 2020 going forward, and that leaves us on to the pixel 5 launch going later this year now, based on the fact that Google’s Hardware has been less than fantastic. As of recent and based on the sheer amount of praise the pixel 3 a got, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pixel fire was rockin less than flagship specs and before that we’d hopefully see the pixel for a which is definitely going to be at least a Mid-Range smartphone and a real change in direction from what this was.
It would be interesting to put the two heads had to really see the differences between something that’s more brawn versus something that’s more brains in the pixel for a bringing it back to the original pixel. I think it was more of an experiment to see what Google could do and which way Google really wanted to go in terms of hardware at versus software. As for this phone in 2020, I think it’s really cool. I think it’s still very useable by a lot of people and it just shows how good a phone can be if you keep it updated and you keep it maintained, that’s been it for this episode of redux.
I’Ve really enjoyed making this video. So if you could, please do go and like this video comment, letting us know your thoughts on what you think of the original pixel, what you want to see from the pixel for ray from the pixel 5, how they compare that kind of thing. I would like to hear some proper analysis down in the comments and while she’s down that might as well hit subscribe to never miss video from us at Android authority. I’Ve been right on us and I’ll see you later.
Peace .