New Pixel 6 Phone

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FlyingPenguin
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New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Picked up a Pixel 6 Pro for myself, and a slightly smaller Pixel 6 for the wife. Nice phone. I'm ambivalent of the 'live edge' screen though. Seemed stupid on Samsung and seems pointless on this as well. Just makes it harder for a case to protect the edges. Just looks pretty.

However I am loving the phone. My old Pixel 2 was still doing the job, and still has decent battery life, but it's no longer getting updates. New phone is snappier, not that I felt the old one was slow.

I usually do a manual transfer of data, and tediously install my apps and configure settings, but decided to try the new cable transfer system, and I must say Android has greatly improved this. It's not quite a full clone, but very close. The old wireless transfer I last tried when I migrated the wife from to her old Pixel 3a a few years ago was an unmitigated disaster. This worked so much better.

It took about 20 minutes to clone the phone. I did make this easier by pruning my camera photos and uploading a backlog to the server, but I still had 50 GB of data on there.

Almost everything came over. The desktop layout, wallpaper, system settings, even a lot of the non Google app data. I use GNUcash, an open source local file only credit card register, to record credit card transactions, and I expected to have to import the database, but it came right over. Some apps even imported their logins, like Simplenote my note and list app.

Only thing it didn't copy was PDF, Word, and Zip files in my personal folder. I guess Android doesn't recognize those as valid files (I use FX File explorer to open those) so I had to copy that folder over manually. But all my settings for FX Explorer came over, including the credentials to access the shared folder on my server, so that saved a ton of time I usually spend having to setup all those shares so I can transfer files.

Most apps needed me to enter my login credentials, but I made that easier by using a keyboard and mouse. Done this before. Yes you can connect a USB mouse and keyboard to an Android device. It makes entering passwords so much easier. It even supports ctrl+c and ctrl+v copy paste commands (at least in Android 12). FYI: An external mouse and keyboard is very useful to get access to a phone with a broken touch screen. I've salvaged data off a few client's broken phones this way.

Overall a very smooth migration. Setting up a new phone usually takes me a whole day manually, following a long checklist. I had this done in a couple of hours.
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Executioner
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by Executioner »

So it must be Bluetooth in order to use a mouse and keyboard? I'm still on my Samsung S9, but was wondering about having stuff transferred to a new phone when I decide to get a new one which will be a Pixel. I'm pretty much done with Samsung even though they make really good phones. I still don't have a cover on my phone, and the glass does not even have any scratches from being in my pants pocket most of the time.
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Losbot
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by Losbot »

Glad you had smooth experience. I did as well when I bought our new Pixel 6 phones. They're definitely snappy and the new features are nice. The photo editing features are pretty impressive. You can try them on older pics, like the eraser feature which can remove people from the background or pretty much anything you highlight.
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

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"So it must be Bluetooth in order to use a mouse and keyboard?"

{shudder} I hate bluetooth. Would never have crossed my mind, but yeah supported BT devices would work. Never tried it.

No, I just use a USB-A to USB-C dongle. I then plug a wireless USB dongle for my bench keyboard/mouse combo into it. Hubs work too, though, if you need to connect multiple devices. Also, unlike like BT which would require the OS to be up and running in order to pair, using USB works as soon as you plug it in. Even if the phone is still in first time setup mode, before bringing up the GUI.
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Followup: Very happy with the phone, except for Verizon's poor excuse for 5G around here.

My new Pixel 6 supports 5G. The thing is, Verizon has very little 5G in this area (somewhat rural). There is, of course, a 5G node near the Verizon store, and you can pickup 5G down our main drag, US Hywy 441, but outside of that, like near my home, it flickers back and forth between a weak 5G signal, and a stronger LTE signal.

It was actually causing data dropout for me as I drove around listening to streamed podcasts. The phone was preferentially locking onto the weak 5G signal.

I discovered there is a setting in the phone that lets you set your preferred wireless network, and I changed it from 5G to LTE and now everything is fine.

Most 5G is mostly smoke and mirrors, especially in rural areas like mine. 5G has less range so you have smaller cells and you need more of them. That's fine in a metropolitan environment, but not here.

We have excellent LTE here, with good coverage, and high bandwidth. I have used my phone's hotspot to as a backup for house internet during the rare Comcast outage, and I can play multiplayer games on it no problem. It's rock solid.
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by Losbot »

Go into your settings and you can select your preferred network. I have mine set to LTE for now because it's got better coverage than the 5G.

Settings >> Network & Internet >> SIMs >> Preferred Network Type
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Yup, did same.
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Well I discovered an interesting feature. There is some kind of moisture sensor in the USB jack.

I was digging a trench today and it started raining so between sweating and the rain, my shorts got fairly soaked. When I tried to connect the charge cable to the phone in the car, it told me the USB port was temporarily disabled because moisture was detected. 15 minutes later it tells me the port has been reactivated as the moisture has dried.

Okay, these things are getting WAY too smart...
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Re: New Pixel 6 Phone

Post by Losbot »

That's interesting.
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