DanielEran

sog35 said:

Hard to believe that the lowly Pixel beats the iPhone camera again.

Come on Tim.  You have billions. YOu should EASILY beat every camera on the market.

Yet DXO has the Pixel2 a higher rating than the 8 Plus.

DXOmark does not provide some clear benchmark for mobile photography, as many people from Jon Gruber to Android Central have pointed out. Google "DXOmark worthless" and you'll get lots of detailed reasons why.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-DXOMark-rating

The fact that Google has now twice hid Pixel behind a DXOMark score rather than putting its work out there for examination tells you all you need to know. 

Google has done great things with imaging, and has even shipped useful photo features for iOS. Using one (very flawed) score to decide that Pixel 2 (a phone that will ship in inconsequential volumes, just like every Nexus and Pixel product ever introduced) is somehow better overall than iPhone 8 or X (which will be the world's top selling phone models, again, at prices well above any other maker) should cause you to pause and think a little bit. 

jeromec said:

I quite disagree with Daniel this time, regarding the Pixel 2's camera. If it works well for bokeh, then it is a smart implementation. It would be nice to have portrait mode on non-plus iPhone 7 and 8. But we'll have to wait to see if it works well. Google's track record for new features is far from perfect and it seems they really wanted to do this, so they probably would have implemented it even with so-so quality. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE FORMATTING THAT REMOVES ALL MY PARAGRAPH BREAKS.

The article doesn't say the Pixel 2 isn't "smart," it points out that even if single camera Portrait mode works well for photos, it may not work for depth video, does not attempt to do (as demonstrated) effects like Portrait Lighting, and obviously can't do optical zoom or other real lens effects.

There are already apps that can create a fake bokeh effect on photos, but when you fake optical zoom (digitally), image quality goes down rapidly. Google addressed one feature of the dual camera 7 Plus without taking about the other advantages. Sure, compared to the standard 7 the Pixel 2 has a unique feature. But it's also nearly the same price, slower, looks cheap, and won't get similar app support because Pixel is a tiny figment of phone market share. Developers will target generic Android, and will ship adware not high quality paid apps.

iMessage for Business seems like a more likely use of consumer service tools.

crosslad said:

"Google  - aimed at hitting an average selling price of less than $300—Android One phones have an aggressive price target of $100." 

Not entirely true nowadays; the Pixel phones were priced the same as the iPhones and the new MotoX4, running Android One is around $400. This has got to be good for Apple. I would not pay the same price for an android phone as an iPhone. Now that Apple has phones at every price point  I can only see Apple sales increasing.

Average selling price of Androids, including Pixel, is actually below $200. Even Samsung’s ASP, which includes its premium-priced Galaxy phones that sell in the 10s of millions, is now at $227. 

http://www.androidauthority.com/price-gap-samsung-apple-smartphones-769772/

This isn’t a new development. iPhone ASP has been pretty constant at or above $650 while Androids have have been below $300 since 2013. 

Having a vanity model that sells in tiny quantities has little impact on an average, whether Pixel or Virtu. 

HTC was rapidly failing as a company, despite building Google's Pixel phones. Look what Google did with Nest, let alone Motorola. How is Samsung--already on edge with Google--going to want Google in control of Android? How is Google going to be better at hardware now that its original Andy Rubin Android team left for Essential? Motorola's patents didn't do anything for Google, regardless of what BGR claims was "not so bad". For less than $13 billion Google should have been able to build a hardware line from scratch, along with a silicon empire, a retail empire, an AR platform and a fashion headphones business. Apple did!