“Compact” is a bit of a stretch. But the size of the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro (non-XL) is pretty nice. I currently have a 7 Pro and while the “screen real estate” is nice, it’s really on the upper end of what I’m willing to use. (Both in terms of size and weight) I bought my mom a Pixel 8 recently and I really liked the form factor when I set up the phone. It’s large enough to fit everything on the screen but small enough to use comfortably. Since I really want a telephoto lens the non-XL Pro version seems like it’s made for me. 😄

Wouldn’t it be better for our digital wellbeing to have an option that makes it unpleasant to use the phone in bed? 😬

I use it when I’m staying at hotels and want to use their WiFi, or any other public WiFi, to protect my private data. Google probably has it anyway but there’s no need to share it with another unknown entity.

This is a belated April Fool’s joke, right? This looks horrendous. Like the ugly child of iOS and Samsung icons.

I’m still not quite sold on the pill-shaped camera bar but I suppose this design helps with consistency across different types of device (normal phones, foldables, tablets), unlike the current camera visor.

I’m not using two-button navigation but there was one nice thing it did in Android 9: you could flip the pill to the right and hold it to scroll through open apps until you’ve reached the app you wanted to switch to (or move your finger left/right to scroll in that direction), and only then lift the finger.

Unfortunately that only worked in Android 9. In Android 10 you could only swipe to the very next app. Not sure why they butchered that carousel navigation; probably to bring it in line with full gesture navigation.

Which is a pity because the ideas of having “circles” was actually clever. Or at least I thought so back then. I wonder how modern social media would look like if they all implemented that.

Asus has always been big on letting you customize your smartphone, to the point that there are two modes for most changes: “Stock Android” or “Asus Optimized.” These two modes can be chosen from your settings, and when setting up your device, you can choose one or the other. It changes how your notifications look, your volume panel, and your power menu

Tim Schofield shows that in his video at 5:13, and from 7:03 onwards. The Asus Optimized looks more feature-rich but the design is clearly pre-Android-12 and clashes with some of the modern Android design elements. I guess it’s especially for those people who want the old notification drawer design back. 🤷‍♂️