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Comment by synergy20 | Hacker News Reader

I used to have 4 android phones(all pixel) and 1 iphone in the house, over the years that old iphone still runs after like 7 years(replaced battery once), but on average the android phone was replaced twice for each user(dead phone, bad phone,etc), in the end it costs way more, plus on those sudden-death phones many pictures etc are permanently lost due to lack of backup.

now the house has 3 iphones, 2 pixel phones instead. the two pixel phone owners are using pixels for software-related reasons(job related to android to some extent, and pixel typically has the newest android updates earliest), otherwise it will be 5 iphones now.

in short, Pixel are not solid built per my experience.

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I've owned many of the nexus and pixel phones, never had a problem.

My kids own iPhones, they haven't had a problem with theirs either.

In short, I've got nothing really to report.

null hypothesis is underrated

Same, I've been through several several of all the phones you've mentioned over the last decade. 0 issues.

Modern technology works just fine in the general case, aside from anecdotes of failures. News at 11.

You say you've been through several over the last decade. How often do you replace your phone and what was your reason for doing so, if you didn't have any issues with them?

> I've owned many of the nexus and pixel phones, never had a problem.

That seems to be the exception.

>Every time a new Pixel phone comes out, we make a whole article summarizing all the problems people have with them. We don’t do this for any other manufacturer. Google has proven over the years that its phones simply have way more issues than others.

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-biggest-proble...

> I've owned many of the nexus and pixel phones, never had a problem.

I've had 2 Nexus 5x and a Pixel 3a before switching to an iPhone. I can't believe the amount of bullshit I coped up with because I didn't know better.

Both Nexus died because of a well known boot loop issue that was never truly acknowledged by Google (support ghosted me twice). The Pixel died because the socket kinda broke and I couldn't charge it anymore.

All 3 phones became awfully slow after roughly one year of use.

In comparison I switched to an iPhone 2 years ago and it really is good as new: it doesn't feel slower, every single hardware or software feature works great, it's still a first class citizen when it comes to OS updates. As it goes I easily plan to keep it at least 2 to 3 more years. I've never kept an Android phone more than 2 years.

To be fair though the Nexus and Pixel were low end devices. Maybe my experience would have been better with higher end Androids.

Had the same experience with 2 Nexus phones. My Nexus tablets were fine outside of... Every Google Nexus and Pixel device I've owned, going back longer than I can remember, had had sharp battery decline around 16-18 months with not-heavy but daily usage. I'm also looking at an iPhone as my next smartphone, and I've been on Android since the original G1. I've also had issues with Project Fi "support" in the last year or two despite the fact that I vastly prefer their pay as you go and international service.

I own a pixel 3axl that I'd like to continue using but google intentionally eol'd it by refusing to continue updating the os. [1] That's actual data, not anecdata. Which, to be fair, is their choice -- but Apple happily updates 3 year old devices.

[1] https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en#z...

I actually STILL have a Nexus 5x, running LineageOS. I use it as a white noise generator.

This week I finally turned it off. After leaving it plugged in constantly for several years, I noticed the battery was swollen and there was a notable bulge behind the screen.

That said, I had another Nexus 5x that did die prematurely due to some kind of storage related problem.

Since the Nexus line, my wife and I have only bought Pixel phones, and have never had a hardware defect in any of them.

Allow me to counter your experience with my experience. I don't know about the Pixel, but my Samsung phones last yeeeeeeeeeears. Wife and I use Android phones, kids use iPhone. The kids have been through way way way more iPhones. My Samsung Galaxy S7 was used from approximately 2016-2020 until I finally updated to the S10e which has been equally - if not more - reliable than the S7 before it. In fact I was honestly looking at this thread and wondering why people bother upgrading to these latest and greatest devices so soon when these older phones last so long.

BTW that Galaxy S7 still works. I only upgraded because all the updates to Google Maps, Gmail, and other newer versions of software were understandably too slow for the device.

I go through an android phone every 3 years. All my old models work fine (minus the battery life being less). Bottomline it depends on the usage.

Well, presumably you as an adult take better care of your devices than children do? So I’m not sure it is fair to take anything away from it.

As a more objective, non-anecdotal data point, second (and often third-, fourth-) hand market of apple devices is always blooming, not giving way to such a device churn as all the androids do (but again, it is not a fair comparison as most android is not high end out there)

Here's some more anecdata to offset yours...

I'm using an 11 year old Motorola Defy daily, using the original battery which still lasts for 3 days. It is used as a netcast player (using dSub which connects to the Airsonic server under the stairs), messaging client (mostly Telegram, Conversations (XMPP client) as backup) and phone. It is waterproof, shockproof and with its 3.7" screen small enough to fit in the breast pocket of most shirts.

I never had a Pixel so I can not comment on their reliability. We have never had to return any of our devices... except for the one iOS device we had in the house when my daughter got an iPad from school - it just died and needed to be replaced. Comparing that device to the host of Android devices (all running AOSP derived distributions) we use showed just how many restrictions iOS puts on the user so we did not miss it when she had to leave it back. The school obviously felt the same since they ditched the iPads for Chromebooks.

My daily phone is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 from 2019, running LineageOS. Next to that I use the mentioned Motorola Defy from 2011, a Samsung Galaxy Tab III (10.1") from 2013 and a Teclast x80 Pro from 2016. I used to use a Samsung Galaxy SIIIneo from 2014 but that one suffered a broken screen when it fell from the roof while installing solar panels. The thing still works but I actually prefer the Motorola Defy over it due to its more compact size. Notice the age of these devices, they're "ancient" by most measures but perfectly useable.

My father purchased a Galaxy S7... and within a year and a half, it was so slow, that we were just trying to eek it along until the 2 year mark. A software reset didn't do the trick either. Turns out the chip inside (Snapdragon 820) was pretty notorious...

We then purchased a Galaxy Note9. And same story - within a year and a half, super inexplicably slow, closing apps at random, eeking it along until we can get a new phone from Verizon. Then it started dropping phone calls after a botched software update. Plenty of complaints on the forums - no response from Samsung. Software resets had no effect on that issue if you were effected. At that point, replacing the phone was a business necessity. [And my dad isn't doing anything intense - 90% of his work is in Outlook and the web browser.]

This time, iPhone 13 Pro Max. We'll see how it goes. Been almost a year, performs like ever. Seems to be holding up...

On that note, we were also angry at Samsung because we bought a Samsung kitchen. The Stove broke after a year, the replacement also broke, switched brands. The Dishwasher lasted 6 months... and broke, switched out with Bosch. The Microwave hasn't broke... yet... but the electronics are in the door and the repairman warned us those only last a few years before the circuit board snaps from the impacts, so be delicate. At that point we swore off Samsung for everything.

EDIT: If you are wondering if this was due to battery problems... a battery replacement on the Note9 made no discernible difference.

Similar experience for me. I had iPhones from 2008-2018, they were rock solid - I upgraded when I felt like it, not when the phones broke.

I bought a Samsung S9 in 2018. After a year the case was kind of coming apart, but I’d come to like Android and so I replaced it with a Pixel 4 and hoped first-party hardware would be better. Nope. After like 6 months the NFC stopped working, which I tolerated. After a year the back case adhesive was failing and the case was, again, coming apart. I replaced the back case and adhesive. It held for almost another year, then failed again.

I bought an iPhone 13 mini and it’s been less than a year but so far it seems just as reliable as my previous iPhones and much sturdier than either Android I had. There were a lot of things I liked about Android, and I realize I’m a sample of one but after back-to-back poor hardware experiences I’m skeptical of Android phone quality even for flagships.

I’ll be sad if I can’t get a similar mini form factor when I do eventually need to upgrade, but Android phones weren’t getting any smaller either so that’s a whole separate thing.

I don't understand how anecdotal experience is considered noteworthy. It always comes across as subversive advertising. Even if everyone on this site had pixel/iphone/whatever issues it wouldn't mean anything significant compared to the millions of devices sold.

While I’ve had no issues with either my iPhones or Pixels there is one big difference, long term support.

I got a Pixel 2XL and an iPhone XS Max back in 2018. The Pixel no longer gets major Android updates and hasn’t for over a year. The iPhone just got iOS 16 and will almost certainly get iOS 17.

I know Google have said they will support devices longer and I hope that is true but who really knows with Google. They said two months ago Stadia wasn’t going anywhere too.

> I know Google have said they will support devices longer and I hope that is true but who really knows with Google. They said two months ago Stadia wasn’t going anywhere too.

As part of their sales documentation they have said they will support software for 5 years. That's not something they can renege on without serious legal consequences. It certainly doesn't mean they're guaranteed to provide support for all future Pixel phones for that long, but it does for the 7.

FWIW, that was not my experience. I had my Pixel 2 for years, loved it, and honestly felt very little reason to upgrade. The only reason I did eventually upgrade to a Pixel 6 is because it stopped getting OS updates, but Google has rectified that I believe (I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they now get 5 years of OS updates, they used to just get 3 IIRC).

I still use my Pixel 2 as a standalone device and it still works great.

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