USB C headphone dongle on a Note 8, sounds like garbage.

[Oyeve]

So, I was bored a couple of days ago and ordered a Pixel 2 just for the hell of it. Figured it could be a good beat-up phone when I go to the beach and dont want to bring my Note 8. Anyway, I tried the usb headphone dongle that comes with the pixel 2 on my note 8 and it sound like garbage. Same headphones in the headphone jack sound great, connect to the dongle and it sounds sooooo bad! Why?

EDIT: I havent tried it on the Pixel 2 itself as its still doing the initial install and has arounf 150 apps installing ATM.

EDIT 2: figured it out. Had to turn off USB dac in poweramp beta. Sounds much better. Still wish Google stuck with regular jack.

So far I'm not a fan of this phone.

 

[MrSquished]

I have the Pixel 2 XL and the Google Dongle is just ok, the HTC dongle gives a more rich full sound. I'm waiting on the Razer dongle to test out and then order more of whichever is the best.

The Pixel 2 XL is the best ANdroid phone experience I've had. The phones do have some quirks like the blue shift but they seem to go away in real world usage. I couldn't exchange the pure Google experience for some Samsung phone at this point that's for sure.

 

[Oyeve]

I have the Pixel 2 XL and the Google Dongle is just ok, the HTC dongle gives a more rich full sound. I'm waiting on the Razer dongle to test out and then order more of whichever is the best.

The Pixel 2 XL is the best ANdroid phone experience I've had. The phones do have some quirks like the blue shift but they seem to go away in real world usage. I couldn't exchange the pure Google experience for some Samsung phone at this point that's for sure.

I feel the opposite. I find the pixel 2 rather boring. Nothing of note to write hone about. I may probably just sell it off. I'll give it a few more days. What pisses me off other than the jack thing is the fact that I can't switch the on screen buttons to have the back button on the left without some third party sw intervention.

 

[MrSquished]

I feel the opposite. I find the pixel 2 rather boring. Nothing of note to write hone about. I may probably just sell it off. I'll give it a few more days. What pisses me off other than the jack thing is the fact that I can't switch the on screen buttons to have the back button on the left without some third party sw intervention.

The back button is on the left already? Man I had one samsung flagship phone and swore them off after that. The pixel 2's camera isn't boring, it's the best phone camera out there. Having zero bloatware - priceless. Unskinned Oreo is buttery smooth and sweet. New little features are cool like when you open an app while navigating you get a cool lil navigation window. Adaptive Icons. Best battery life. Control over apps and notifications. The list goes on.

 

[Oyeve]

The back button is on the left already? Man I had one samsung flagship phone and swore them off after that. The pixel 2's camera isn't boring, it's the best phone camera out there. Having zero bloatware - priceless. Unskinned Oreo is buttery smooth and sweet. New little features are cool like when you open an app while navigating you get a cool lil navigation window. Adaptive Icons. Best battery life. Control over apps and notifications. The list goes on.

I meant on the right. The camera is good but not as good as it's made out to be. I'll do some more head to head comparisons with it and my note 8, but so far they are similar but the optical zoom on the note 8 is beyond compare. It's nice that I can pop in any sim and it just works. And yeah, less bloat but no file system app built in sucks. I hate having to use a third party app for something that should be built in.

 

[shortylickens]

As time moves on we're going to see fewer ports and plugs on smartphones. They'll rely more on bluetooth, NFC, and magnetic charging.
Am not surprised the headphone jack was the first to disappear.

 

[Ichinisan]

How can the little external DAC possibly work at all when you've disabled it?

 

[Oyeve]

How can the little external DAC possibly work at all when you've disabled it?

There is an OpenSL ES output setting in PowerAmp where you can choose either wired headset, speaker, BT, USB DAC and other. Turning off the USB dac setting in PA forced analog output thru USB and in turn the dongle. Regular poweramp doesnt have this feature but I am beta testing it and the beta has a plethora of settings.

 

[MrSquished]

I meant on the right. The camera is good but not as good as it's made out to be. I'll do some more head to head comparisons with it and my note 8, but so far they are similar but the optical zoom on the note 8 is beyond compare. It's nice that I can pop in any sim and it just works. And yeah, less bloat but no file system app built in sucks. I hate having to use a third party app for something that should be built in.

Wait you are mad cause you have to install a great file manager like ES or Astro or what not? Does not compute.

Optical zoom is nice, and I hope the Pixel 3 has it but the Pixel 2 camera beats the Note camera in all the comparison articles I've read, both in regular mode and portrait (bokeh) mode. Unless you use optical zoom in a large part of your shots it's a no brainer.

 

[Oyeve]

Wait you are mad cause you have to install a great file manager like ES or Astro or what not? Does not compute.

Optical zoom is nice, and I hope the Pixel 3 has it but the Pixel 2 camera beats the Note camera in all the comparison articles I've read, both in regular mode and portrait (bokeh) mode. Unless you use optical zoom in a large part of your shots it's a no brainer.

What doesn't compute to you? Surely you can comprehend text. Just because you love your Pixel 2 doesn't mean we all have to. And saying the camera is the best because thats what "you" read doesn't make it fact. I own every single flagship phone except the iphone x and I base my statements on my use, not from what I read. Sheesh.

 

[MrSquished]

What doesn't compute to you? Surely you can comprehend text. Just because you love your Pixel 2 doesn't mean we all have to. And saying the camera is the best because thats what "you" read doesn't make it fact. I own every single flagship phone except the iphone x and I base my statements on my use, not from what I read. Sheesh.

As far as having to install what are great options for file manager when a phone doesn't come with one built in, I don't get your aversion to that. That has nothing to do with the pixel 2 - I've had the V20, 6P, Nexus 5, Galaxy S4, HTC Rezound and installed a file manager on each and it really wasn't a bother. I just think it's a strange reason to dig on a phone when there are very good solutions out there for free or a minimal cost at best - and part of what makes Android so great is having these options. Whether anyone was buying a phone I had or another model, if their gripe was they had to install a 3rd party launcher I'd tell them that's silly, don't miss out on a good phone for that.

As far as the camera goes, I don't have multiple new flagship phones to test out, so I read about people who do. And they all say the same thing pretty much. Since we all can't have multiple $900 phones laying around, we rely on reviews to do the same thing we could do, depending upon the source of course. From my own personal use of the Pixel 2 camera, as a semi-pro photographer, it is quite excellent. The portrait mode is amazing for being software based as well. And if we can't trust any of the reviews, as per you, how the fuck do we trust you, some random anonymous guy on a forum vs some respected well-established review sites?