What’s the point of a stupid looking square camera bulge with only one camera lens?
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What’s the point of a stupid looking square camera bulge with only one camera lens?
You get a discount on products if you sign up for a certain their of Google one. I think it makes out at 10%.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tik-Tok
It doesn't really matter how many cameras it has, it allows the rest of the phone to be thinner which is typically why they do it. Every phone and tablet on the market could get rid of their stupid looking bulge if they just made them 2-3mm thicker (I actually think a lot of people would prefer that as it would mean huge batteries), but none of the big smartphone manufacturers are really doing that. Also for such a cheap phone, they probably tried to save every penny of R&D they could and the square camera zone is part of the Pixel 4 design language (it also houses the flash).Quote:
Originally Posted by killramos
The lens protrudes 1-2mm like virtually every other phone on the market these days, and their design language just happens to have a box around it. A single protruding camera is not unusual on budget phones, the more expensive iPhone SE has one as do other comparable budget Android phones. I've never liked camera bulges on any phone, but they are pretty much unavoidable these days. At least with the larger bulges you can use the phone on a solid surface without a case without having it roll around, but I would think most people use cases anyway and never even see the camera bulge on whatever phone they use.
I assume aesthetics reasons to make it look like 4.Quote:
Originally Posted by killramos
Or, they got sideswiped by iPhone SE announcement and took a wide camera out to hit it $50USD lower than iPhone SE.
The Pixel 4 doesn't have a UWA and leaks never showed the 4a having a UWA. I think it was always going to be a one-camera phone since it's closest competition only has one camera and they wanted to keep cost down as much as possible. Google's software also lends itself to one camera better than most with their image stacking zoom, etc. but it's not a replacement for a second camera. Building inexpensive, high value phones is Google's wheelhouse, looks like they pretty much nailed it with the 4a - it's also a lot cheaper than most people predicted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xtrema
Curious to see what they do with the Pixel 5. There have been virtually zero leaks, unlike the Pixel 4 where there were no secrets left at this point in time last year haha - I think that was the most leaked phone of all time.
I rock a Pixel 2 and the camera software makes the camera better than some/most of the newer iPhones. I can see most never using the second camera in most applications.
Camera on my wife's pixel 3aXL is fantastic. Beats my potato.
Zooming is much more important than an UWA because in (most) cases you can just take a pano if you need wider. It's not a perfect solution for every photo of course, but it's a good workaround.Quote:
Originally Posted by mr2mike
Google's image stacking zoom is very good for what it is, but not quite as good as a dedicated lens. For Facebook or whatever though, I think you would be hard pressed to tell a difference, which is what will matter to most people.
The Pixel 4a is getting very good press, it doesn't really seem to have much competition in the entry level segment. Nice to see Google going back to its roots a bit.
Note 20 is comical for $1400, 1080p 60hz, plastic back, half the storage of the note 10.
It's because they changed their Note and Galaxy lines to have "Ultra" variants, meaning the "regular" variants are now lower end/budget versions of the same phone. As a result, Samsung pricing is approaching Apple levels of ridiculousness. Definitely not the greatest value and not a phone I would buy. It will probably have crazy battery life though haha. Samsung pricing tends to drop relatively quickly though, and have massive carrier subsidies.Quote:
Originally Posted by schocker
Anyone getting the S21 Ultra? Looks pretty impressive at first glance:
6.8" 1440P 10-120Hz variable refresh rate, 1,500(!) nits brightness
SD888
12GB base RAM (16GB available) LPDDR5
128GB base storage (512 max) UFS 3.1
108MP F1.8 Wide, OIS, PDAF, multiple resolution choices (HM3 sensor, new from last year)
12MP F2.2 Ultra wide, OIS, PDAF
10MP F2.4 3X optical zoom, OIS, PDAF
10MP F4.9 10X optical zoom, OIS, PDAF
40MP F2.2 front camera
4K60P with all cameras & 12Bit RAW
5000mAh battery with 60W fast charging
S-pen support (but no storage, have to store in a case)
WiFi 6E, dual bluetooth
Rest of the S21 lineup looks pretty good too, especially if you want a flat screen.
Preorders get free Galaxy Buds Pro and SmartTag but the window is pretty small.
Still waiting for review. But looks like 888 is an improvement but not in ways that matters or ground breaking.
S21 pre-order is on and looks like you can throw them a 90s flip phone to get $200 off. Making it closer to S20 FE price.
Also S21 is plastic, S21+ is glass. S21 Ultra has all the goodies. So it feels like bait and switch like Note 20 line. None of them SD card.
Been so spoiled with a 512GB S10 and never delete anything. Once update stops later this year, I'm pretty sure I'm jumping on the iPhone train.
S21 has Gimped display, no microsd and plastic back, but that is a decent drop in price on the S21. Copying apple pricing though, great move to charge that extra canadian tax :rofl:
The thing with samsung is you need to get the giant screen to get the flagship features, that is why I like my iphone 12 pro.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xtrema
I'm hoping the review embargos lift before the promos are over on the 28th - I think they will be. Just to make sure there are no glaring issues.
The big thing with the 888 is the triple image processors so you can record from multiple cameras simultaneously at 4K/60P including the front camera, and switch cameras on the fly without stopping your recording. Aside from that, phone CPUs have been so much faster than what 99% of people need anyway I doubt you'll notice much. 2 year old phones can still play all the popular games on max settings, and that's about as taxing as it gets for the average user.
Yeah you can use literally any phone to get $200 off it seems - I'm trying to find one but I think I recycled them all when we moved last year haha. I'm wondering if you even need to send them the phone because it looks like the discount is applied in the cart at the time of purchase, and I can't imagine Samsung want's to collect everyone's old phones haha.
I'd actually prefer the Ultra was plastic because it will be in a case it's entire life anyway, but they obviously took steps to put more space between the regular S21 models and the Ultra this year, unlike last year. Prices are also significantly lower which addresses some criticism from the previous generation. The S21 Ultra makes the iPhone 12 Pro Max look like a toy in terms of design and features, so hopefully it delivers. Ideally reviews come out before the 28th because $200 off + free $250 Galaxy buds Pro + Free Smart Tag is actually a pretty good deal for what you get.
The "$200/$300 + trade in value" promo runs until March 3 if you wait. Lose out on the buds but still decent for someone with an old ass phone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitsu3000gt
if anyone wants an old phone, I'll sell mine for $50. Have three available.
I gave them my old Nexus4 for the discount and got $20 check for it when I got my 512GB S10 for $599.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitsu3000gt
I have 0 use of Galaxy Bud. XM4 is my goto and XM2 is my backup ANC headphones.
I am waiting to be surprised on the video front. But 1st 888 phone by Xaomi has been meh.
I think you're putting too much weight on the processor - they haven't really mattered in most phones for a few years now. Most decent phones are instant-fast for 99% of tasks and battery life is an easy 1-2 days aside from the heaviest of users.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xtrema
The Galaxy Bud Pros are ~$250, you can probably sell for $150-$200. Another $200 off just for putting in an IMEI from a 15 year old flip phone. Ends up being pretty cheap assuming it's actually a phone you want. Sell your old phone on Kijiji, Samsung's trade-in values suck.
I'm not sure what you're looking for in smartphone video but every phone takes pretty terrible video compared to even a cheap camera with a 1" sensor or similar. The 8K is actually pretty useful for reframing to 4K and pulling 32MP stills, other than that it's going to be about the same as every other smartphone.
I used to upgrade my phone every year because I saw real benefits to doing so. I skipped the Pixel 5 because I couldn't work out how it would improve things over the 4XL I have. Now I'm in the same boat with the S21 Ultra. What does it do that my 4XL doesnt?
In the case of the Pixel 5, they re-positioned the phone mid-market rather than a flagship like the 4XL was, so if you had a 4XL you weren't really gaining anything in the Pixel 5 except for 5G which doesn't really matter yet in Canada, and you were losing a few significant features like face unlock, Soli, and an 8 series CPU/GPU. There was no reason to buy a Pixel 5 as an 'upgrade' if you had a 4XL as you lose more than you gain. I skipped it too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster
Compared to the Pixel 4XL the S21 Ultra improves every area except Soli and Face Unlock (Google's implementation was the best/fastest by far but sadly now it's no longer available). Bigger/better/brighter screen, 10-120Hz dynamic refresh rate, enormous battery, under-display fingerprint reader (nice now that we all wear masks), easily the best camera setup on any mainstream flagship for both stills & video (see earlier post for details), Gorilla Glass Victus front & back, faster charging (both wired & wireless), reverse wireless charging, 2-generations faster CPU/GPU, double the RAM (6gb vs 12gb, 16gb available on 512GB model), faster RAM (GDDR4X vs 5), much faster internal storage (UFS 2.1 vs 3.1, ~2.5x faster read, ~5x faster write), arguably better design/build, WiFi 6/E, bluetooth 5.2, etc.
Whether any of that is important to you will obviously determine if it does anything your 4XL doesn't for your personal usage, but it's objectively a better phone than pretty much anything else out there right now. Early reviews are very positive but the full embargo will lift later this week.
If you are looking at the S21 Ultra, until the 28th you get Free Galaxy Buds Pro ($265), a free bluetooth tracker thingy, 500 airmiles, and $200 off the base price. They are also only charging $70 to double the storage to 256GB this year which is unusually cheap.
Also, now Google Messages is the default texting app and Google News Feed is built-in for the far left screen instead of Samsung's version, so with a few more default app changes you can essentially turn it into a Pixel phone with very little effort.