The best Pixel 3 updates are coming to Pixel 2. When will we see the real next big thing?

The new Google Pixel 3 as seen during a Google product release event on October 9, 2018 in New York City.

Image: Drew Angerer / Getty ImageS

By Brittany Levine Beckman2018-10-10 10:00:00 UTC

A year after Google convinced me to ditch my iPhone 6S for a Pixel 2, it had the chance to win me over again with the Pixel 3. It didn't close the deal.

The Pixel 2 is so good, and the upgrades the Pixel 3 provides that I most want are coming soon to Pixel 2 — everything else seems incremental. After watching Google's Tuesday event, I know there’s no need for me to get a new phone. 

My next phone's features have to make a meaningful difference, and once I’m ready for the jump, I’m not swayed by brand loyalty. And the Pixel 3 simply didn't cut it.

I may be an outlier when it comes to comfortably hopping from brand to brand or operating system to operating system, but I’m one of the pack when it comes to keeping my phone for longer. 

“I think a lot of people feel the same way," Tuong Nguyen, a senior principal analyst who focuses on smartphones at Gartner, a research and advisory firm, told me. "That’s why [smartphone makers] are struggling with convincing consumers to get a new one."

Last year, worldwide smartphone sales posted their first-ever decline, driven by people increasing the amount of time between buying a new device.

As far as the Pixel 3 offerings go, wireless charging is nice, but I can wait for that. The Pixel 2 camera is one of the best out there, still. I was excited by Night Sight, which makes low-light photos taken without a flash look better, but that's coming to the whole Pixel line next month. Playground, Google's updated AR stickers, are also coming to their other phones. I get so many scam calls that Call Screen peaked my interest, but again, that's coming to Pixel 2. My Pixel 2 already has the Lens feature that can call a phone number on an object seen through the camera — albeit in a more roundabout way. To top if off, the Pixel 3 starts at $799, while my Pixel 2 was $650. (I'm not a phablet fan, so I'm not diving into the XL offerings here.)

I may not be ready for another phone until the Pixel 5 rolls around. (Gasp!)  And who knows, by then, Apple may win me back or some Chinese phone maker could get a new customer. 

“We’ve gotten to the point with technology and smartphones where it’s better than most people need or notice.”

Incremental updates will continue until the next big thing in smartphones, Nguyen said. And that next big thing isn’t going to be slightly faster speeds or slightly better cameras. It’s going to be better AI for smarter personal assistants and computer vision (a fancy way of saying that a device can see something like humans do), he explained. These may sound like software updates, but we’ll need better hardware to run the taxing features. And we’ll want these new phones because they’ll be more intuitive and make our lives easier. As of now, I don't need better hardware to run my favorite new Pixel features.

When we’ll get all that is the million-dollar question. It’s around the corner, but still years away, Nguyen said, refraining from giving a timeframe. 

“We’ve gotten to the point with technology and smartphones where it’s better than most people need or notice,” he said. Right, I’ll buy a new phone when mine breaks or I think an upgrade will make my life better. For example, the Pixel 2 being waterproof moved the needle for me. 

But phone makers will keep trotting out incremental updates because it’s all part of the process to get to that next big thing, Nguyen noted. Indeed, I saw glimpses of those building blocks during Google's event.

When I was ready for a new phone after my 6S, Apple couldn’t keep me because I found a suitable alternative elsewhere, for less. 

When I was ready for a new phone after my 6S, Apple couldn’t keep me because I found a suitable alternative elsewhere, for less. As the iPhone X was announced, I had no desire to unlock my phone with my face, and I didn’t care about Memoji. I was sad to lose the headphone jack when I got rid of the 6S, but the new iPhones didn’t have one either. And I wasn’t about to go to Samsung, where headphone jack diehards have supposedly claimed refuge. I didn’t want to get stuck with Bixby and a bunch of bloatware. I got over the dongle depression. 

The 6S was my first iPhone. Thinking back on why I bought it, jealousy comes to mind. Nearly everyone I knew had an iPhone, and that iPhone took pretty pictures and came in something other than black. I finally fell for the iPhone FOMO.

When I upgraded, I was over the moon. The battery life! The live photos! The speed! The gold! Fast forward a little over a year, and things changed. I dropped my phone too many times for another AppleCare fix, and after I got a new car, I learned that Apple CarPlay at the time restricted me from using Waze and Google Maps, and I hated Apple Maps. (Apple didn’t welcome third-party apps to the CarPlay universe until iOS 12, which launched last month.)

Apple sucks, I thought, so I went for the Pixel 2. Again, I was loving my new phone. The perfect size! The camera! Google Assistant is so much smarter than Siri! 

One thing did worry me when I switched back to Android: I had a few accidents with the 6S during our time together. The iPhone store’s physicality was a comfort. What would happen if I broke my Pixel 2?

And then, a month into owning my Pixel 2, I was in an airport and my phone bricked itself. The airport had no pay phones. It was a nightmare.

As soon as I got home after 10 p.m., I called Google — using Google Hangouts on my laptop. Within a few minutes the customer service agent said they’d be sending me a new phone (I had bought Google’s equivalent of AppleCare when I got the phone). It arrived about a day later. Not too bad! I’ve had to wait all day to get a Genius Bar appointment in the past. 

For all its glowing reviews, Google’s Pixel line is in no way competing with Apple.

And yet, for all its glowing reviews, Google’s Pixel line is in no way competing with Apple. Last year, Google only shipped 3.9 million Pixel phones — both 1 and 2. In comparison, Apple sold 216.7 million iPhones during the same period. 

Nguyen doesn’t think Google cares, though. 

“I think [the Pixel line is] more about a way to say ‘Look we make this platform, Android, and here’s how we think Android should be applied to hardware, listen up other [manufacturers],” Nguyen put forth, that and it’s a way to test Android as the smartypants at Google tinker with update ideas.

But Google did sprinkle subtle Apple digs throughout its keynote, and if all the Pixel 3 leaks before the event were intentional, as some have opined, one would think Google is trying to grab some buzz. Too bad those leaks didn't reveal anything that awe-inspiring. 

I hope there's that next big thing coming down the pipe as Nguyen suggested — no matter the manufacturer. And I hope it's arrived by the time I'm ready for an upgrade. 

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https://mashable.com/article/pixel-3-pixel-2-iphone-6s-upgrade/

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