from Hacker News

Why Am I Paying a Premium Price for a Google Pixel Phone Filled with Ads?

by de6u99er on 12/11/24, 4:35 AM with 13 comments

• by davydm on 12/11/24, 5:14 AM

  You're paying for good hardware without all the vendor bloatware that the rest of us get. My pixel 5 died the other day and I replaced it with a Redmi note 13, and I miss the pixel. The Redmi, like other phones I've experienced, took a few days to stop sucking at performance, I guess that's how long the crapware took to settle down - my pixel was fast from the get-go.

  Your primary mistake, though, is thinking that buying a phone from Google entitles you to premiums services on that phone. This is an invalid supposition.

  If you want no YouTube ads, buy premium (and enjoy YT music as part of it). Or use a client like newpipe.

• by solardev on 12/11/24, 3:48 PM

  Pixels don't give you ad-free access to other Google services. Not sure where that belief came from.

  It DOES give you:

  - A phone without crapware and bloat from other manufacturers

  - Pretty darned good voice and text spam blocking (the robot answers for you and screens calls)

  - Regular updates

  - Decent cameras

  - (On any Android) Adguard removes a lot of ads, though not in YouTube unless you "share" each video to its special player app.

  If you don't care about those, don't get a Pixel. For me it's simply the lack of bloat and the spam blocking that keeps me on Pixel. I tried an iPhone for a month and the spam was so bad I had to switch back.

• by walterbell on 12/11/24, 5:18 AM

  More secure hardware, when combined with GrapheneOS, which has more support for network filtering (e.g. NetGuard) and ad blocking.

• by cyberhunter on 12/11/24, 3:54 PM

  In my opinion, Pixel phones don't have system-wide ads. You should compare them to iOS or other Android systems. iOS also doesn't have system ads, but if you use Xiaomi or Huawei in China, you'll find plenty of ads in built-in apps like the browser or weather app. They might even add ads to apps that were originally ad-free, and that's what I'd call system ads.

  As for YouTube, it's not a built-in part of the operating system. It's like using Spotify: if you want an ad-free experience, you need a premium subscription or a modified version.

• by jotux on 12/11/24, 5:53 PM

  >The same or even better hardware is available at a much lower price, without these interruptions.

  What phone is better and cheaper without ads in apps?

• by nextos on 12/11/24, 4:02 PM

  A Pixel is great to use GrapheneOS, i.e. Android sans Google.

  For stock or nearly stock Android, other options are more cost-effective.

• by coldtrait on 12/11/24, 12:59 PM

  The only reason I am still using an Android is that I can bypass a lot of ads using somewhat questionable loopholes.

• by talldayo on 12/11/24, 4:28 PM

  > The constant ads, especially in apps like YouTube

  Install NewPipe or you're a square

• by reify on 12/11/24, 9:12 AM

  I am no tech bro, I am just an old retired bloke who enjoys using tech exactly how I want it to be.

  I HAVE NO ADS ON MY PHONE.

  How is this, that an old non techy can manage this seemingly difficult task.

  First, I change. the DNS settings on my Pixel 4A and my families and friends phones.

  Mullvad provides this as a free service for anyone not using their VPN.

  I use the family filter on our phones: There are others.

  family.dns.mullvad.net

  https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls

  secondly I install, either a Lineage or E/OS rom on our phones. Some of my family still use google apps so they prefer the E/OS roms which has microG.

  easy peasy, no ads

• by 01jonny01 on 12/11/24, 5:39 PM

  use skipvids.com instead of youtube