Android Thread: the JFC will stand

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Android Thread: the JFC will stand

Ragaduffin: Nov 28, 2007; Far out dude

UncleGuito posted:

I've been lucky enough to test the Pixel 8 Pro for the past few months - here are some impressions!

- It's certainly the most premium feeling Pixel device to date. It almost kinda feels like an iPhone with the sturdiness of the build quality. There's no hollowness here and the weight combined with the materials definitely feel like an upgrade vs the 7 Pro.
- The haptics are significantly better. They are more pronounced and are easily noticeable in your pocket, etc.
- The screen is also an upgrade (not to mention the flat display improved usability for me). The pixels seem closer to the glass and the brightness can crank up pretty far in direct sunlight.
- The cameras, as expected, are fantastic. The biggest improvements for me were in macro, wide angle, and night sight photos. Macro especially can achieve some insane results, and both wide angle and night shots produce less noise and lens flare.
- The new Magic Editor tools are nuts. The feature to cut an object and move it to a different part of the photo has worked flawlessly in my tests and I have no clue how it works so well. Audio Magic Eraser also works really well and I can see it being super helpful.
- Performance wise, it's a bit snappier than the 7 Pro but I don't really do gaming or intensive stuff with my phone so this wasn't a huge area of interest to me. I've only ever had to reboot the phone for software updates and I haven't had to force close anything or mess with non-default settings.
- Battery life seems a bit better than the 7 Pro and idle battery life drain is improved - although not sure if this is more related to Android 14 optimizations than the actual hardware.
- It can still get warm at times under heavy load. It's not as frequent or noticeable as the 7 Pro but still present when using Android Auto, setting up the phone, or intensive AI stuff. It hasn't gotten warm during normal use (browsing, videos, etc).

Let me know if there's anything else you're curious about!

This is great to know, thanks for sharing! Is there any improvement in slow motion video? For my 6 pro I get grainy videos, that skip frames and I don't think it can actually focus. Haven't heard anything about performance of this on the 8 pro...

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 17:40

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# ¿ May 24, 2025 20:28

Ragaduffin: Nov 28, 2007; Far out dude

UncleGuito posted:

Unfortunately no.

Going to make a case that has a tiny IR illuminator array on the top, that draws from the battery and lights up your face invisibly whenever you are handling the phone in the dark. Just kidding, but someone should/could?

Edit: from camera probably has IR filter, shucks.

But I'm kind of surprised the blinding light of the fingerprint reader doesn't double as a face illuminator!

Ragaduffin fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Oct 11, 2023

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 20:44

Ragaduffin: Nov 28, 2007; Far out dude

sourdough posted:

My pixel 8 wifi woes appear to have been completely solved by forgetting and reconnecting to my home wifi lol, very happy about it though

Going to have to try this - because right now its absolute garbage. Pixel 6 Pro pulls down 300 Mb/s or more and gets there fast. Pixel 8 Pro hangs out in the kb/s range for a while before finally making it to 1mb/s. Nothing loads, everything is slow. 5G is solid, its just something going on with wi-fi. Reddit complains, seems like mesh may be worse and that is what I am working with here (older deco units).

# ¿ Oct 20, 2023 20:03

Ragaduffin: Nov 28, 2007; Far out dude

Just want to complain about wifi speed on 8pro, no change with latest update. Might need complain to Google. I'm getting a couple mb down on wifi, when 6pro got, oh, let's say 300mb easy. Deco mesh network. It seems like if I disconnect and reconnect it will improve for a very short time (1 minute max) but then back to being garbage, videos buffering, etc.

Really frustrating, I'm lucky enough to get 1gig fiber but phone is not taking advantage of it

# ¿ Nov 10, 2023 00:34

Ragaduffin: Nov 28, 2007; Far out dude

KICK BAMA KICK posted:

I've got the (standard Google) Japanese keyboard installed, rarely type on it much but occasionally see Android UX text show up in Japanese for no apparent reason. Never persistent like that, it's usually like a transient message that pops up and goes away but yeah, it does just happen.

Similar situation, except that 1) I've had my notification shade remain in Japanese for weeks before automatically resolving 2) the bitwarden keyboard auto complete thing (just above keyboard when in password field) has remained in japanese 3) Google play store was off and on in japanese for a period of several weeks and 4)my calendar widget was showing dates and times in japanese.

Now, what is really crazy is that none of this was simultaneous - one thing would happen shortly after another resolved. I could never fix it, even if I switched entire phone to Japanese and back again.

Right now, it is only Bitwarden keyboard assist, but who knows what is next.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2025 09:47

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