And I haven’t been super active here lately so I thought I’d ask my fellow cyborg heathens their opinions!
I’m in the market for a new phone. Tossing it up between a Pixel 4xl vs a Razer 2. I’m gonna turn my work phone Pixel 3a into a custom secure piece running a version of Graphene OS
I’m very conflicted on my choice. I will say due to some US/UK/Russian bills going up right now it’s time to shift my approach back to running 2 phones full time.
The “New” phone will be strictly family/work only. And as far as work I mean basic communication nothing else no data retention on the device no proprietary info exchange. More music , international news browsing, and checking family Emails/Amazon/Alibaba /Bank account/YouTube.
Pixel 3a strictly custom Rom security based usage. With Graphene OS my camera quality gets dropped because it doesn’t utilize Pixels Nerual Core cpu for image rendering on my 3a. That being said I take TONS of photos with both my phone and drone, I have yet to purchase my own DSLR and rely heavily on my equipment and good post processing edits. So camera quality is kinda of a must for me on the new phone.
Other than that both support wireless charging and have greats NFC comparability. Both have a 90hz refresh rate, the Pixel does have it’s new “sonar” chip which as an interesting concept, but practically is to be seen. So that is not a “BIG” buy for me as an extra. The matte finish on the Pixel is sexy and the phone is very “organic” simple economic, the Razer is sexy in it gamey box fashion.
Anyways super conflicted and I ask for your opinions
I love my Pixel 4xl. The camera is phenomenal and the screen is gorgeous. I haven’t noticed the need for more RAM, but am surprised they cut a corner there. Still, I’ve never felt it.
I love the face unlock far more than I expected to - security wise, I believe it’s handled locally, but I don’t know if you trust google with your biometrics.
@Lockless that’s why I’ll be running graphene os on my pixel 3a. I’ll use only our family account and very basic usage with google, looking to be able to take nice photos more or less and run some more intense editing apps.
Won’t be using facial recognition, not really trust worthy in Google. But here in Crimea a cop/soldier will just hold the phone up to my face lmao.
So specifically between those two choices and your circumstances I’d vote for the Razer phone. The Pixel 4 is just a much more powerful 3a, but the Razer is something new and exciting. Idk, more practically speaking unless you plan on gaming or doing Android development it isn’t worth getting the Razer phone.
On a separate note I wouldn’t get either because I’ve been a dual screen snob since the Axon M. My current daily driver is the LG G8, and it’s pretty great.
If your taking unsolicited extra input, I love my note 9. I can’t remember if the note 10 has a headphone jack, but seriously. Best phone I’ve ever had, and I’m super annoyed with the removal of features on newer ones, and am confused as to what I’ll get next!
I ran a Note9 for work last year and it was awesome. I loved Knox and I loved the phone layout. But I am buying this new phone not the company as I got a new company phone at xmas I just wanna update so I can free up my Pixel 3a for fun that being said the Note 9 unlocked is hard to find straight from the manufacturer as I will be buying warranty stuff so I’m trying to keep the price below 500 and pixel 4’s are on sale right now :).
If I understand you correctly, most of your phone usage will be on your Pixel 3a with GrapheneOS, leaving your new phone for family/work communication and photography. In that case my suggestion would be the Pixel 4 XL as it has a better camera than the Razer 2, and since this new secondary phone will be used much less than the secure one, the Razer 2 having more battery and more storage will not be particularly useful to you.
In addition to this, if Daniel ends up getting the support he needs to continue developing and expanding GrapheneOS (here’s hoping) then it’s likely that the series of devices to be supported would be the Pixel 4 series, leaving you with 2 GrapheneOS compatible phones and the possibility of another upgrade in the future to the same ends as this one.
Also despite GrapheneOS not supporting it by default, I believe that the Open Camera app supports the Pixel Neural Core feature that you mentioned. More info on that here.
