It seems like the whole internet hates everything right now. In other words, just another day, right?
Whether you're mad at Google about the Pixel 2 XL display, or Apple and (insert T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint or Verizon here) because ordering an iPhone X was a shitshow, or any other dumbass stunt from a tech company you need to realize being mad is partially your fault.
Every tech company screws up. Even Google.
Now we will see who reads the whole article and who sees the first couple of sentences and rushes to the comments. It's not your fault that Google's Pixel 2 XL doesn't have a great display. It's not your fault it took so long for a web page to load sk your iPhone X isn't coming until the end of November. It's not your fault Microsoft seems to have thrown in the towel for good with Windows phones and is all about Android. Blame for all of these snafus lies squarely on the shoulders of the respective companies involved and the people in charge of them. But it seems that people are mostly upset because they did a bit of assuming. That assuming will get you every time.
Yes, Apple should have expected everyone to stay up all night and rush to order a phone as soon as they could, and Microsoft should expect their customers to be a little pissed that development seems to be focused on another platform. But I'm going to use Google as an example here, mostly because we're all Android fans and are more familiar with the whole thing.
If you're mad at Google for its response to the 2 XL's display, well, that's all you. And it's all about your expectations.
You should expect Google to spare no expense and have the best display money can buy on a phone that starts at $849.99.
I do. Maybe Google doesn't have its own factories spewing smoke into the Chinese skies, but they've been putting their names on phones and tablets and a bunch of other stuff for a while. They know what's up. And hey, this is the same Google that gave us three generations of Chromebook Pixels, and they all have a display like you won't believe. The Pixelbook has a display to die for. Even the original Pixel phones have pretty good screens.
But this is also the same Google who gave us the Nexus 9 and over-the-air updates that ruin things and Orkut and Dodgeball and then took away things like Reader or replaced Google Wave with Google+. Google Wave could have totally been Slack, and I'm bitter about it. Probably always will be. It could have been so good.
I think there is a pit filled with Nexus 9s somewhere close to all those ET Atari cartridges.
Anyway, what I'm saying is that we've seen Google fail, or at least fail in our own eyes. They are just a tech company and like all tech companies can make the wrong decision just as easily as they can make the right one. We knew this. We just don't like to think about it. In fact, when someone does think about it and gets all up in the comments somewhere being negative and reminding us a lot of people seem to take it personally and go for the cyber-jugular. When Google shows off a new service and someone inevitably says, "it will probably suck, remember Google Currents lol" there's a very good chance that person will be right. Google seemingly will try anything, and that means a lot of things aren't great.
We should also expect Google to fail sometimes.
Back to the Pixel 2 XL. Google (and Apple) invested a lot of cash into LG Display. They didn't come right out and say why, but it's not hard to guess; having one company (Samsung) be the only supplier of high-quality phone-sized displays is not a good thing. When LG can crank out 50 million 5.5-inch OLED panels that are sexy and beautiful it will be easier to use them in the products you design. And the display in the Pixel 2 XL was deemed to be good enough to use right now. It's Google's phone. It gets to decide what parts to use. And we are allowed to not like it.
And that's where a reasonable expectation ends. Some of the things I've seen on the internet about global recalls or the end of the Pixel line is stupid. If you wrote those words in public where other people could read them, you should feel bad. The same goes for anyone expecting Google to magically fix the display or to revise the product and generation 2 would come with a different panel. Dumb. Stop it.
Hate the Pixel 2 XL if you want, don't buy it, and make sure you comment on every article on every blog about it. But stop thinking there is any better way to address it than what we got from Google's VP of Engineering.
More: Diving Deeper on the Pixel 2 XL Display
Seang Chau led the teams that brought us things like the original Motorola Droid and Skype on mobile. He's been in an executive position at a huge tech company since 1999. The guy knows his stuff, and he also knows the business. His response is absolutely perfect, even if we don't like it. Wanting him to walk out on a stage and say how sorry Google is and that everyone should send back their Pixel 2 XL in exchange for an all-new one is not a reasonable expectation. If you're mad because he didn't, that's your fault.
I bought a small Pixel 2, figuring I'd pick up the bigger one later if I needed to. But I've spent the past couple of days with a loaner here and really looked at the display. I did all the things I see in all the YouTube videos and yeah, I saw a lot of things that aren't great. Things that would make Samsung reject the panel before it ever got put on a $900 phone. I will say that this display is bad and shouldn't have shipped the way it did. But I could use this phone (if it weren't so damn skinny and had a bezel to hold on to) because the screen is good enough when I'm doing my regular phone things.
Just being "good enough" sucks. I wish it was better and might question the price, but I can't stand on an internet street corner and yell at people for buying the Pixel 2 XL.
If you have a Pixel 2 XL and don't mind the display, awesome. Use the hell out of it and ignore people preaching the gospel of Note 8. If you can't stand the display, send it back and buy a different phone. If you haven't ordered one but want to, go for it. You'll have time to check it out and decide for yourself if the display is so bad it kills puppies. Just don't expect anything to be different because you want it to be different and you won't be disappointed.
