The Google Pixel 3.
I was so excited about this phone,
as you'll see in my review that I finished a few days ago.
But, since I film that review,
I have had a few difficulties
with the phone. It's been overheating,
and shutting down as a result of that.
And, in addition,
the fingerprint reader on the back has stopped working.
Now, there were also some glitches in the operating system's design,
which can be fixed very easily,
and is very normal for a new phone
on a new operating system.
Now, we spoke to Google about this,
and they said that they haven't heard anything like this about the Pixel
3. It could be a defective device.
So, it's just that Google is looking into the issue,
but I just had to mention that.
So here's the original review.
Google's newest lineup of Pixel phones has some of the best
cameras on the market.
And an AI that can answer calls you don't
want to answer yourself.
Your smartphone might be smart,
but Google has taken it upon themselves to raise
that bar with the Pixel 3
and Pixel 3 XL.
So what's under the hood, and is this phone right for you?
We were given this phone for review purposes by Google.
So, it's the same one you find in stores.
Since the first Pixel, Google has taken a different
approach to photography.
One that relies a bit more on software
and AI then hardware.
And it's done incredibly well for them.
It features a single rear camera
with two front-facing cameras,
allowing for what's called 'Group Selfies'.
It uses a wide angle lens in front which Google
says captures a hundred
and eighty four per cent more image than
the iPhone XS.
For the rear-facing camera,
Google added some nifty AI tricks to boost
your photos. While other phones adopted to rear
lenses, a standard lens
and a telephoto lens,
Google introduced Super Res Zoom.
It uses your hand's natural shakiness to capture more
detail when you zoom in on a photo.
It's a genius concept that I won't even pretend to understand,
but it works. Now, it's not as effective as having
a physical telephoto lens,
but it's impressive. Google also brought us a bit of time travel
by introducing their Top Shot feature.
The phone takes a series of photos before
and after you hit the shutter button.
So if you blink, or you miss the action,
you can reverse time of it.
Both Samsung and Apple have their versions of a similar
feature, but when it comes to capturing the moment,
I think that Google just gets it right more often.
The Pixel's Fused Vision Stabilization is
also really awesome.
Google says you can even jog while filming,
and your video will turn out great.
And Google delivers on that promise.
Watch me run like a madman through the park for this
video. Now check it out
with the iPhone XS Max.
There's a noticeable difference in the Pixel's stabilization.
Google's also supposed to be releasing their low light
Night Sight mode in the coming weeks,
and they've also got some gimmicky features that every
company brags about at their keynote,
but then no one uses.
Now, for the Pixel 3,
that's their Photo Booth mode
and Playground, which is the updated AR
Stickers.
They're fun, but not something I'll get much use out of.
Anyway, great camera.
Google Lens is their sort of live look-up feature
through their camera,
and it gets an upgrade with Pixel 3,
as well. Now you can click
and search similar clothes
and accessories using the Google Lens mode on
your camera. It will pull up suggestions for similar
clothes and accessories you can buy online.
I've never been taken by such a strong urge to
buy something that someone else was wearing that I had to go
out and buy it immediately.
But that's just me.
When I do find useful is Lens' ability to
pull text out of thin air,
and making it useful to you immediately.
If you scan a business card,
you can email or call that person
or that business right away.
You can also translate text.
You can scan QR codes,
or identify landmarks,
or my favorite,
recognized plants you're looking at.
It might not be the most productive tool,
but I've used it more than once.
Google Lens is certainly useful,
and it's sort futuristic,
but it's another example of advances in software,
not so much hardware.
Speaking of hardware,
the Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL both have
some good hardware in them.
There's nothing incredibly groundbreaking,
and some of it's really just playing catch up
with other flagship phones,
but they're nothing to shake a stick at.
It is a much improved OLED screen than the Pixel 2,
which received a lot of criticism for being too dull
and too desaturated.
The Pixel 3 fixes all of that.
It comes with 3 color settings on the screen,
the default of which is called Adaptive Color,
which kicks up the saturation,
but in a smart way.
Skin tone and the like will stay true to life,
while other things enjoy a subtle boost.
But this Notch.
Is not just huge.
Everyone's talking about it,
and for good reason.
Apple got flak for their not when they first announced the iPhone
X, but this pushes the issue even further.
Now I'm not against a notch.
This is just a really, really big one.
And it's just there, pretty much to house the two front
facing cameras,
which to me doesn't quite justify the size.
Google offers ways to hide the notch,
which actually makes the phone more symmetrical,
but you sacrifice a bit of the screen for it.
Now the Pixel 3 not XL
doesn't have the notch.
But, I'm a big-phone person.
I could probably get used to the notch,
but should I have to.
In any case, it's the software that makes this a truly
unique phone. Features like Call Screen set this phone
apart from the rest. Call Screen use AI to answer
your phone for you,
if you don't know who's calling,
or if you just want to see what someone is calling about.
Is that the most polite thing in the world?
No. Using Call Screen is basically telling the other person
you have no interest in talking to them.
So I wouldn't use it with people I care about.
But it's useful for those people who you really don't
want to talk to on the phone.
It's things like this that make me think Google put a lot
of time and money into developing a phone that could
best show off their software.
Some of the software updates will be coming to the original Pixel
and Pixel XL,
as well as the Pixel 2
and Pixel 2 XL.
Things like Calls Screen,
Night Sight, Digital Wellbeing,
and the all too useful Playground.
But Google says that there are certain features like Top Shot,
Super Res Zoom,
Motion Autofocus,
and Lens Suggestions that rely on the hardware inside
of the phone to work properly.
So they're only on the Pixel 3
and Pixel 3 XL.
Does this warrant an upgrade?
Does this superior AI
and software held within a compilation of
pretty modest hardware create a need for
a new phone.
My answer is twofold.
This is a smart phone,
really. It makes use of lean hardware,
and it's actually useful.
So many companies are filling their devices
with fluff. And Google has some fluff in there.
But the vast majority is intelligent,
creative, powerful,
and useful.
It's what people have come to expect from Google,
and it's for these reasons that I want this phone.
But my Pixel 2 still works perfectly fine,
and some of the features I'm most excited about are going
to trickle down to the Pixel 2.
So for me, it's not worth dropping $900 right
now. But if you're looking to upgrade,
and you get excited about taking really awesome photos,
and running through random parks to take really awesomely
stabilized videos subPixel 3 might be worth the