Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served […] — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains.
Last year, I bought a Pixel 8. At the time, I felt that Google was a company with the best software and the worst hardware technology.
But now, I can no longer even think that.
Hardware #
The performance of Pixel’s Tensor chips is overwhelmingly inferior to Apple’s chips of the same generation. Since the Tensor chips prior to the Pixel 9 series were manufactured at Samsung’s semiconductor plants, there were rumors that performance would drastically improve if they were manufactured by TSMC, which possesses cutting-edge technology. However, that wasn’t the case. Although the Pixel 10 series chips were manufactured by TSMC, they haven’t reached the expected level of performance.
This is a design issue with the chip itself.
And it’s not just the chips; there are a mountain of problems with their other products too.
For example, the back cover of the Pixel Watch I bought peeled off in less than a year.
The clicking sound when pressing the phone’s buttons is also much louder than an iPhone’s.
Furthermore, when I shake the phone, it makes a rattling sound. I looked it up and it seems to be the sound of the OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) module, but iPhones don’t have this problem.
If the price is roughly the same as an iPhone (nowadays it’s actually even more expensive than an iPhone), it’s only natural to expect an experience on par with an iPhone.
Development of the new Pixel Tablet has also been canceled. Personally, I need a device for reading e-books and sheet music.
I can understand that it can’t catch up to the iPad in terms of performance, and I never expected it to in the first place, but I never imagined they would cancel tablet development entirely.
If I end up buying an iPad or a Samsung tablet, is there any reason to choose a Pixel for my phone? The overall experience, including ecosystem integration, would be much better with an iPhone or a Galaxy.
Software #
In a word, Google’s software feels like an experimental project rather than a finished product.
It’s true that Google’s technical capabilities are high. Their recent AI products are especially generating a lot of buzz.
However, looking at the big picture, I have to say the user experience is bad.
On the overseas forum Reddit, there are even stories of people having their accounts banned after returning products bought on the Google Store.
Previously, the font on my Google account went completely weird. Switching to a different account returned things to normal, but this phenomenon was only happening on my main account.
When I looked it up online, it turned out to be a randomly conducted A/B test. Isn’t it wrong to involve users in a test without their consent? To begin with, the new font was extremely hard to read and caused a major disruption to my daily life. Even after reporting it to Google, it wasn’t fixed for weeks, and I finally lost my patience and switched to an iPhone.
Furthermore, Google neglects the Japanese market. Do Google developers even use the Pixels they develop in the first place? There are stories on Reddit saying that the developers themselves use iPhones.
For example, there is a line break issue with the text “アンインストール” (Uninstall) on the app settings screen. This happens with the default font size, but it would fit perfectly with just a little adjustment. The English word “Uninstall” is short, but it takes up more width in Japanese.
Unlike Apple, Google doesn’t operate proper physical retail stores (offline stores) in Japan. I feel like they want to sell overseas, but they don’t want to spend the money to do so. They probably just translated the English text.
In fact, some Pixel features are still English-only. For example, when I was using it a year ago, the automatic SMS authentication code recognition only worked for English messages.
There were also bugs where Google Play Store point notifications wouldn’t disappear, and notification badge glitches occurred occasionally. As a user experience, it’s the worst.
Recently, the Android system itself has become increasingly closed off. Google Play Store’s new policies have made it nearly impossible for solo developers to release apps. APK installations have also become subject to various conditions and are now extremely strict.
Without a doubt, Google wants to be like Apple. Anyone can see that just by looking at their overconfident pricing (although they do hand out coupons).
For ordinary users who aren’t tech experts, the most important thing is a reliable service they can use with peace of mind. No matter how much cutting-edge technology they boast about, the moment they forget the principle of “Don’t be evil,” that value is lost.