Episode 149 - We review the Google Pixel lineup (and prepare for Dragon Con...)

This week on the Solid State podcast, we… talk about phones. I mean there’s no beating around it, right? It’s Late summer knocking on fall, which means we’re getting down to the end of what Samsung, now Google, and soon Apple have in store for us to round out the gadget year of 2026.  With Google’s recently completed Pixel announcement event, on the whole things were very, very status quo… Three main phones (in a few sizes) last year… three main phones (in the same sizes) this year. Remember the Pixel Watch 4? Watch out, now we’ve got the Pixel Watch 5? Oh and the Pixel Buds Pro 2? Actually… those are exactly the same, never mind.  Year for year, it was about as incremental as it gets. Processor generation bumps across the board… check. Just enough chassis shape and size changes to require buying fresh cases and accessories across the lineup? Ohhhh yeah. Yearly improvement in overall resources and “horsepower”? We, umm… might have some bad news on that front.  So what then, are we even doing here? As seems to be the case with just about every other gadget, announcement, and broader event this year (and likely the next few years to come) the real story lies just under the surface. How much RAM do we really need in a phone? I gather we’re about to find out. Is the new “passport” form factor of the Z Fold 8 and likely upcoming foldable iPhone fad or future? Also… remains to be seen.  And beyond the hardware, there remains an entire layer of the story that is far more inextricably linked to the software itself on these devices. Which features will be “gated” to only the latest and greatest, versus those that will filter down through past generations of hardware to put it in the hands of a broader market?  Gemini was everywhere, as you would expect, but at the same time is starting to feel more and more muted with every announcement. Is it possible the industry itself is finally coming to terms with the fact that AI makes a much better billboard at times than it does a meaningful feature in the hands of real world users? Prooooobably not… but there’s a change of sorts in the wind nonetheless.  As usual, we’ve plunked down our (mostly) hard-earned cash so you, at least at first, don’t have to to start answering the question… is playing in the “new phone market” worth it in the middle of RAM-a-geddon? The jury, as they say, is still out…