*** DONE Moving from OnePlus5 to Pixel 4a Smartphone :blog:mobile:phones:software:hardware: CLOSED: [2020-11-15 Sun 17:41] SCHEDULED: <2020-11-15 Sun> :PROPERTIES: :CREATED: [2020-11-12 Thu 11:02] :ID: 2020-11-12-pixel4a-migration :END: :LOGBOOK: - State "DONE" from "DONE" [2021-05-19 Wed 18:39] - State "DONE" from "DONE" [2020-12-27 Sun 19:19] - State "DONE" from "DONE" [2020-11-23 Mon 20:20] - State "DONE" from "DONE" [2020-11-21 Sat 18:24] - State "DONE" from "DONE" [2020-11-17 Tue 19:04] - State "DONE" from "NEXT" [2020-11-15 Sun 17:41] :END: - Updates - 2020-11-17: Section "Speaker Sound" - 2020-11-21: Filename character test in "FAT File Name Restriction" - 2020-11-23: Section "Camera: No Downward Horizontal Panorama" - 2020-12-27: - Section "Camera: Pick a Better Shot" - Correction within the section "Camera: No Downward Horizontal Panorama" - 2021-05-19: Comments on the missing LED I got myself a new [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_4a][Google Pixel 4a]] smartphone (running Android 11) which will replace my three year old [[id:2017-09-14-OnePlus5][OnePlus 5]] which is still running Android 9 ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OxygenOS][OxygenOS]] 9.0.11) although [[https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/05/27/oxygenos-10-update-brings-android-10-to-oneplus-5-and-5t/][the OTA upgrade to Android 10 should have been rolled out]] by now. The OnePlus 5 is still working. Battery life has declined but more than enough for one day, camera is still great, I could easily live with the internal storage space, no scratches or reasons to replace it. However, I chose to replace it because of the issues reported in the "Disadvantages" section of [[id:2019-09-17-OnePlus5-review][my review article on the OnePlus 5]] which also explains why OnePlus is not an option for me as a brand any more. The same article also mentions my thoughts on mobile phone requirements. You can even read more about [[id:2018-11-19-ideal-mobile][my thoughts on an ideal smartphone]]. This is a personal blog article which does not try to compete with the many review articles about this phone out there. Here are some things that came up during the decision and setup phase of the Pixel 4a I've got for a week now: device choice, cost perspective, notable features and a few issues worth mentioning that I have found so far. **** Device Choice The mentioned [[id:2018-11-19-ideal-mobile][article about my ideal smartphone]] aged well so far. And if you follow the smartphone market, you will notice that there are hardly viable options for me to choose from. So the new Pixel 4a with its limited physical dimensions, a very good camera system, and its pure Android experience was almost a full hit. [[https://www.aosmark.com/][Pixel phones are known to have the best update support of all Android phones]]. The only things I miss here are the hardware switch for setting the device to vibrate only or mute it and the missing Dual-SIM option. **** Cost :PROPERTIES: :END: With [[id:2019-10-24-smartphone-price-stats][this article]], I summarized some statistical data to the cost of my smartphones as of 2019-10. [[id:2020-11-12-smartphone-price-stats][I published an updated version]] on the occasion of the new phone. **** Setup :PROPERTIES: :END: There is a proposed transition process by Google which requires you to connect your old and the new phone via a USB cable. Furthermore, there might also be a Google-cloud-based method to transfer apps, settings and data between phones. I don't want to use the cable method because I want a clean, fresh system. My fear would be that too much OnePlus-specific stuff could be moved, old data I want to get rid of will be transferred and so forth. Frequent readers of my blog will know that I value [[id:tags-privacy][privacy]] over convenience. Therefore, I don't want to use any cloud-based sync mechanism. Another reason against both methods is my fear that I miss any activated sync mechanism which results in my address book or other data to be [[id:2016-11-12-cloud][stolen by Google]]. Well, this decision comes with a price and I paid with approximately twenty hours of manual setup effort time for the basic setup. Of course, any setting by Google that has the ability to transfer my private data to Google is activated by default or I'm asked to activate it. Going through the whole system preferences and disabling all those data leaks is a must, before you start with your setup process. The web-interface of the Google Play Store offers the ability to install apps on any registered device. Since I'm still using the Play Store, I was installing most apps with this method. Setting up the apps was more tedious. I'm very thankful for every app provider who implements data export and import methods. In order to get rid of the Google search bar, I had to switch to an alternative launcher app. I settled with Nova launcher which turned out very capable. However, I only use a fraction of its features. Disabling the labels of the desktop icons is a cool feature I don't want to lose. Some apps aren't available any more. So I have to find alternatives. **** Notable Features :PROPERTIES: :END: You can find reviews and technical specifications for the Pixel 4a all over the web. However, there are a few things I'd like to mention in no particular order. ***** Photos :PROPERTIES: :END: The camera of my OnePlus 5 is still a great one. During bright daylight conditions, I can not tell any big difference in quality compared to the Pixel 4a. I noticed that the OnePlus 5 photographs are slightly bigger in resolution. A very big difference can be seen when "Night Sight" takes pictures during low light or even dark night environments. This results in a level of details that definitively exceeds the ability of a human eye and amazes anybody who experiences this feature. Here are some example images. #+CAPTION: Without night-sight mode: more or less how it looked to myself. #+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 630 :linked-image-width original [[tsfile:2020-11-11T19.26.56 Without nightsight - more or less how it looked to myself -- publicvoit.jpg][2020-11-11T19.26.56 Without nightsight - more or less how it looked to myself -- publicvoit.jpg]] #+CAPTION: Same perspective with night-sight: much more details I could not even see. #+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 630 :linked-image-width original [[tsfile:2020-11-11T19.27.13 With nightsight the whole story is different -- nightsight publicvoit.jpg][2020-11-11T19.27.13 With nightsight the whole story is different -- nightsight publicvoit.jpg]] #+CAPTION: Without night-sight, the camera was not even able to focus here. #+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 630 :linked-image-width original [[tsfile:2020-11-11T19.18.10 Without night-sight the camera was not even able to focus -- publicvoit.jpg][2020-11-11T19.18.10 Without night-sight the camera was not even able to focus -- publicvoit.jpg]] #+CAPTION: With night-sight, the scene looks very different. #+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 630 :linked-image-width original [[tsfile:2020-11-11T19.18.19 With nightsight the camera sees more than my eye -- nightsight publicvoit.jpg][2020-11-11T19.18.19 With nightsight the camera sees more than my eye -- nightsight publicvoit.jpg]] #+CAPTION: For comparison, the same scene by daylight - although not that impressive. #+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 630 :linked-image-width original [[tsfile:2020-11-12T13.33.57 Selbes Motiv bei Tag -- publicvoit.jpg][2020-11-12T13.33.57 Selbes Motiv bei Tag -- publicvoit.jpg]] I can't complain about the camera. "Photo Sphere" is awesome. However, I can't tell the practical use of it. You require a special tool to pan around this large image. Time lapse videos, slow-motion videos and other advanced features I still have to test myself. Panorama works as good as on the OnePlus 5 from the first impressions. ***** Fabric Case :PROPERTIES: :END: My OnePlus 5 was the first mobile I was using with a thin, wooden case. The main reason was that the backside of the device is that slippery that I was worried to drop it way too often. A nice-to-have property was that the wooden case looks quite good. Google offers [[https://store.google.com/?srp=/product/pixel_4a_fabric_case][a set of fabric cases]] for the Pixel 4a. I ordered one because I love the haptic experience of this material. An investment I don't regret. Furthermore, it specifically protects the glass of the camera and the whole phone when dropped in general. ***** Audio-Jack :PROPERTIES: :END: Unfortunately, I do have to mention that the Pixel 4a still has an audio jack. Many mobiles aren't providing this interface any more. Although [[id:2019-09-01-PaMu-slide][I moved to Bluetooth headphones]] a while ago, I still like to quickly plug in the audio cable in the car. This way, I don't have to fiddle with activating Bluetooth, connecting to the correct Bluetooth car device which may be "stolen" by my wife's Bluetooth and so forth. There is still a beauty in a simple cable. ***** Guesture Navigation :PROPERTIES: :END: Android 10 introduced [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_10#Navigation][guesture navigation]] to get rid of the classic three button navigation: back, home, menu/multitask. Since the Pixel 4a is my first Android 10+ device, I wasn't used to this method. I've made several transitions here. My first Android phones had physical buttons that worked perfectly well. Then I had to move to sensor buttons which worked as good to my astonishment. I do have bad experience with (maybe cheap?) sensor buttons in everyday's products. With OnePlus 5, I had to move to on-screen buttons. And now, there are even no on-screen buttons any more. To my surprise, I accustomed to this new method within an hour or so. During the setup process I was using the same navigation on my OnePlus 5, resulting in irritation and low level of frustration on my side. So I guess this is a huge plus. Unfortunately, it also came with a drawback: I really do miss the double-tap on the menu/multitask button in order to switch to the previous app which relates to the classic =Alt-TAB=-shortcut on any desktop OS. Maybe there is a trick out there that brings back this feature I was using all the time without enabling the button navigation I don't want to use any more. **** Issues :PROPERTIES: :END: After praising the phone, I would like to add some minor issues I faced during the setup phase and afterward. Again, in no particular order. ***** App Migration Issues :PROPERTIES: :END: This might be obvious to some people but it still is worth noting that app migration to a different phone is not simplified when the app does require a login. Most apps are using the server-based login for storing general data but not for app settings. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software)][Mastodon]] is an example of a service that syncs some preferences between server and app. I'd love to see more apps following this approach. For most apps, I had to manually re-configure everything which is tedious, error-prone and annoying. As a heavy user of [[https://tasker.joaoapps.com/][Tasker]] which has excellent export/import functionality, I still had to adjust minor things. For example, the time-stamp format is different. It changed from YYYY-MM-DD to DD-MM-YYYY. Therefore, I had to use [[https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/3f6gc5/change_format_for_date/][this trick]] to deal with this issue once and for all. Migrating some apps is really a pain in the ass. For my banking app, I had to fill out a PDF form, send it in via (unencrypted) email and wait for an activation key a few days after. There is no security gain here since I am able to hand in such a request for anybody else. For [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_One-time_Password_algorithm][TOTP]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication][2FA]] authentication, I was using [[https://freeotp.github.io/][FreeOTP]]. It's a nice app, does not need network, is open source but does not have export/import for security reasons. There are alternatives that do provide export/import functionality. Since I had to backup the secret keys and the QR codes anyway, I continued to use FreeOTP. With Pixel 4a working with my [[https://solokeys.com/][SoloKey]] NFC [[https://fidoalliance.org/fido2/][FIDO2]] (OnePlus 5 had severe issues powering those devices), I may migrate more and more 2FA services from TOTP to FIDO2. The version of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-9_Mail][K-9 Mail]] from the Play Store is very old (2018!). While setting up the app after importing my backup, it kept crashing right away. So I manually downloaded the up to date package from GitHub. While I faced crashes again, I could manage to make it work by not providing the account passwords after data import and enabling them one by one later-on. So far it works. The new UI is something I still do have to get used to. Instant email notifications does not seem to work. ***** No Built-In Method to Disable Network Access :PROPERTIES: :END: For a privacy-aware person, it is inevitable to force many apps not to use the network connection. For example, a calculator app, a keyboard, a voice recorder, and so forth do not need network access. The OnePlus 5 had the possibility to disable WiFi and/or mobile data usage within the app settings. With pure Android, there is no such option. Google has a strong bias that any app is able to communicate with the cloud. Therefore, you get permissions to prevent apps reading your contacts, using the location service and so forth but you don't get the ability to deny network to any app. Fortunately, there is [[https://netguard.me/][NetGuard]] which provides this feature even without the necessity of [[https://www.androidcentral.com/root][rooting your device]] which I don't plan to do for security reasons. However, I would expect from Google to deliver three different network permissions out-of-the-box: LAN-only LAN/WAN and WAN-only. Andriod is far from that because Google doesn't really care about your privacy at all. ***** Built-In Dark Mode :PROPERTIES: :END: With Android 10 and 11, a dark mode is a general option for the OS. Furthermore, apps may follow the OS setting of having either light mode, dark mode or a dynamic setting that changes from light to dark mode according to the surrounding light conditions (or sundown time, I don't know for sure). Currently, I prefer the dark mode setting and I was positively surprised that many apps are re-using the theme setting from the Android preferences. ***** Google Keyboard :PROPERTIES: :END: I was using [[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/swiftkey][SwiftKey]] keyboard for many years - far longer as they belong to Microsoft. It's a very decent keyboard. However, with losing the ability to export/import my personal dictionary, I might as well use the Google keyboard and see how it works out. So far, I do miss a few things here. For example, SwiftKey provided a "delete the previous word"-feature by simply swiping to the left over the keyboard keys. Google do seem to offer such a feature by swiping to the left from the delete key. For this, I need to hit the delete key which is not as straight-forward as a general left-swipe anywhere. Keyboard layout is different with the Google keyboard. For example, SwiftKey has different positions for =*-+$":;/?= for long-pressing the main keys. This requires much adaptation for my brain, slowing down my typing speed for now. One very big plus is the ability to search for emoticons by keyboards also in my two main languages: German and English. In general, the keyboard can be configured so that I might type English and German without having to switch language manually, just as SwiftKey does. ***** No Fast Mute Maybe this can be fixed with an easy trick. However, I was not able to find out how to mute the whole device. OnePlus is providing extremely handy physical sliders to switch between normal sound, vibration only and silent mode. In silent mode, I can not even playback video sound which is a requirement to me. No sound, no vibration, but still receiving (silent) notifications. With the Pixel 4a, I found the DND mode (which I rarely use). I also don't need the Power + Volume up combination either. I need not silenced notifications but also disabled playback sound. The only possibility to really mute my phone completely seems to go to the advanced sound level dialog and move all four sliders (media, call, ring/notification, alarm) to the far left in order to silence my phone. This is not an option to me for usability purposes. Maybe you can help me here? A nice feature is the ability to put the phone on the table face down in order to get the silent notification mode. Now I just need to find out how to get to this mode with its display being in use or not facing downwards. ***** Camera: Image/Video File Names :PROPERTIES: :END: As good the camera seems to be, I do have to criticize some decisions here. [[https://support.google.com/photos/thread/71880747?hl=en][Google does use UTC time-stamps for the file names]] produced by the camera. So if you would like to follow [[id:2014-05-09-managing-digital-photographs][my file name convention properly]], you do have to postprocess the image and video files with a tool like [[https://exiftool.org/][exiftool]] which corrects their time according to their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif][exif]] meta-data. And yes, video files may have exif data as well, as I learned. : vk@sting ~2d/test % ls -la : -rw-r--r-- 1 vk vk 3549463 Nov 8 17:46 PXL_20201108_144523923.jpg : : vk@sting ~2d/test % exiftool '-FileName