- Hey guys, this is Austin.
Is the new Google Pixel worth it?
Wow!
On top of the standard white and black colors,
there's also very blue
and you know what, they're not kidding.
That is very, very blue.
So my first impression is that
this kind of looks like an iPod Touch.
So you've got the white front.
You've got the fairly large sort
of iPhone, iPod like bezel from the front
and then around back you get
that stupidly bright blue color.
You know, I kind of dig it.
So we get a SIM tool and some paperwork.
You know what, I was about to throw all this paperwork away,
but you actually get three free months
of Google Play Music with YouTube Red,
so if you guys haven't tried YouTube Red yet,
give it a try, three months.
Now that's actually a nice little touch
that they've got the power brick
matching the very blue phone.
That's cool.
I appreciate that.
Next, we have the Google Pixel XL.
So you can think of this as the bigger brother
to the normal Pixel.
So it's pretty much the same way that
there's the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
It's essentially the same phone,
but you're gonna get a couple small upgrades,
like a bigger screen
and you're also getting a bigger battery.
However, if you pull it out of the box,
you see that it looks basically the same.
Not exactly a bad thing, though.
This is a very interesting design.
At first glance it looks super,
I don't want to say generic,
but very forgettable, I guess.
However, when you look around back,
you get this giant window.
So it's kind of color coded so you can see this one's white.
This one's sort of a lighter blue.
But what they're doing here
is something kind of interesting.
There's actually a taper.
So at the bottom of the phone,
it's much thinner than it is at the top
and I think they do that
to keep you from having camera hump.
I will say the white front isn't
super flattering to the Pixel.
So this is a phone with large bezels.
Now it's not crazy.
It's about the same size as what you
would get on the iPhone,
however there at least you're getting an actual home button.
Here, this is literally just wasted space.
I feel they could have put a speaker or something
or just gotten rid of it altogether.
I kind of like the idea of having
the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone.
I feel like while it makes sense to be on the home button,
it's kind of a little more convenient.
I mean, if it's sitting on the table,
it's a little bit difficult to kind of unlock the phone,
but most of the time, it's sitting in your hand.
Your finger's already there, so I'm a big fan.
There's some nice touches with the hardware here.
The power button actually has a satisfying click
and it's textured, so even if it's in your pocket,
you can pull it out and quickly
know which button you're pressing.
And the whole phone feels very sturdy.
It might not be the most unique piece
of hardware I've ever seen,
but this definitely feels like a premium device.
The issue is there are $400 phones that feel just as premium
and this is a whole lot more.
So the Pixels are expensive
and that's an interesting strategy because I feel
like one of the most popular Nexus's of all-time,
the Nexus 5, really was so huge
because it was a great phone at a budget price.
These are not budget at all.
So you're talking about over $600 for the Pixel
and over $700 for the Pixel XL
and that's with 32GB of storage.
You can bump these things up to 128 for another $100.
They had better be good for that price.
So after playing with the Pixel phones for a while,
the first thing that jumps out to me is the performance.
These things are fast.
So inside you're getting the standard
high-end Android stuff.
You've got a Snapdragon 821, 4GB of RAM.
It's a speedy phone on paper
and if you look at the benchmarks,
it might not quite match up to the iPhone 7,
however, it's definitely up there.
The thing that jumps out to me though,
is that it actually feels fast.
So if you look at something like the Galaxy S7,
which on paper is very similar,
there's a little bit of lag.
It's not quite as responsive as something like the Pixel,
which really seems like Google spent the time
to optimize it and make it really as fast as possible.
Something else that's been impressive is the battery life.
So I spent most of my time with the regular Pixel
and even though it has a smaller battery than the XL,
it's actually held up really well.
I've been able to make it through a full day, no problem.
The software experience is nice and clean, though.
So if you get the Verizon model,
you will find a couple extra apps,
however, they're all totally uninstallable.
Bottom line, if you get a Pixel,
you should expect a very, very clean build of Android.
These guys are also rocking great screens.
So the regular Pixel has a five inch AMOLED display
with a 1080p resolution.
With the XL bumps that up
to 5.5 inches and 1440p.
They're both great displays.
The biggest difference really is that resolution for VR.
So if you get into Google Daydream,
which is the big, new Google VR intitiative,
you're gonna see that while 1080p looks fine
as a normal phone, the 1440p's going to look a lot better
when you strap a VR headset on.
However, unless you're really into VR,
you're really not gonna tell a major difference.
Both phones are nice and sharp.
I generally do like the hardware of the Pixel,
however, my biggest issue is the lack of waterproofing,
which is something you'll find on the iPhone and S7.
However, my buddy Jon actually did a full water test
and it actually didn't do too badly.
However, between the lack of water resistance
and all the glass all over the place,
it might be a little fragile
and that's where my friends at RhinoShield come in.
So when they reached out and wanted to sponsor a video,
I was totally down.
I usually don't like to do drop tests,
however this thing is a little special.
It might not look like much, however, this simple bumper
is going to give us some serious protection.
So not only does it have a lip
to cover both the front and rear,
but it also has a custom material
and a honeycomb built inside
which means that in theory,
this should survive an 11 foot drop test.
So to put the Pixel to the test,
it's time for drop test.
So this is about 10 feet or so I'd say, onto solid concrete.
So in three,
two,
one.
(thud)
Ohhhh!
(thud)
Alright.
Oh, it's still even recording.
I mean, it's a little dirty from the floor,
but honestly, I think it's fine.
Screen still works.
Yeah.
Totally good.
So this thing is no joke.
Now on top of it being available for the Pixel XL,
you can also get the RhinoShield
for something like an iPhone, Galaxy S7, OnePlus 3.
It's pretty legit.
Alright, so I'm curious about the cameras on the Pixel,
so I have my good buddy Lamarr here
and he was lucky enough to bring his car,
so we're gonna use that as the first camera sample.
- Because I can clearly fit in it.
- That's a thing right there.
Glad you're rolling in style today.
So from what I've heard, what they're doing is
it's constantly taking pictures, like non-stop RAW,
and when you hit the shutter button,
it just takes that frame and then goes and grabs a couple,
merges it in HDR,
so you pretty much always are taking shots.
- So it's processing in the background as
you're taking the shots? - Exactly.
- So when you hit the shutter button,
all it's saying is hey look,
this is the point where I actually want to save.
So that's why it's like immediately taking stuff.
So something interesting about the Pixels,
is that they shoot 4K with supposedly
some really good stabilization.
Okay, we are now recording on the Pixel.
Ken looking like a mild cyborg.
- Hi!
- That's a little too crispy.
- Yeah, that's too crispy.
- Actually, this looks really nice.
- You're gonna see all the parts I missed for shaving.
This is not good.
- It's okay.
Well we'll come up here.
Dude, this actually looks really nice.
There's like some actual depth of field.
Like those trees behind you look really nice.
So one thing with the Pixel phones is that unlike the iPhone
where you actually get a pretty major difference
between the Plus and normal 7,
these cameras are completely identical.
The camera app is a lot better here.
I never really liked the normal Google camera apps.
Hi Mom.
- Your mom watches this.
- She watches you.
- Does she really?
- Yeah, she does.
- I am--
- It's hard not to watch you. - Famous.
- Subscribe to youtube.com/wilsontech1.
- That's not the,
I swear to God.
- The most important thing though,
how does it selfie?
- [Lamarr] Oh that looks good.
- No, this is actually really nice.
And you can see the HDR, it's like pulling some
of the highlight detail from the trees.
So is the Google Pixel worth it?
Sort of.
Sure, it would be nice if it had a little bit more
of a distinctive design with less bezel
and waterproofing would be nice,
however, honestly there's really
not a lot to complain about.
I think it's easy to say that
this is the best Android phone out there
and honestly, it can really hang right with the iPhone.
So if you're looking for a super awesome,
dope, legit, ridiculously solid,
incredibly impressive, magical,
phenomenal, terrific phone
(laughing)
(people shouting in background)
So what do you guys think about the Google Pixel?
Definitely be sure to let me know in the comments below
and if you want to see more videos like this,
definitely be sure to subscribe to the channel.
Anyway guys, thank you so much for watching
and I will catch you in the next one.