Hey guys, I’m Roland the Techusiast – Today we are going to find out if the Google Pixel
2 XL is still worth buying in 2019, stay tuned!
The Google Pixel 2 XL has been my favourite device of all time, but there are a few let
downs that make me re-consider picking up another Pixel device in the future.
The main reason behind all of that is the way Google manages quality control and deals
with issues.
I will talk more about this later in the video, so first let’s take a look at the design.
The Pixel 2 XL has a design that in my opinion has aged fairly quickly.
The front top and bottom bezels look gigantic in 2019, but to me, that’s something I actually
like about this device.
The now called thick bezels allow me to comfortably use the phone in a horizontal or vertical
orientation without any accidental touches on the sides.
The back in my opinion is still beautiful, the metallic frame, rear panel and the glass
on the top still looks very stylish and very elegant – kind of wish the Pixel 3 would
have stick with the panda colour combo, but I guess a skin can easily fix that.
Overall, the Pixel 2 XL looks great in 2019, although many will dislike it’s big bezels.
I believe that the excellent build quality and stylish design will hold up fairly well
in 2019 and in the coming years.
Both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB
of RAM and either 64 or 128GB of storage.
Here I have the 128GB storage variant, but the 64GB version shouldn’t differ by any
bit.
Both devices have Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB-C on the bottom and a fingerprint scanner on
the rear.
As you might already be aware, the 3.5mm headphone jack is long gone, but at least an adapter
is provided in the box.
One thing I have to mention about these dongles is that they break very easily and I can’t
count how many times I’ve read people saying that it broke for them.
Perhaps consider buying a few extra ones from eBay to be safe, or upgrade to wireless earphones.
Speaking of wireless earphones, I have reviewed a few cheap and high quality ones, in case
you’re interested, you can find them in the description down below.
Overall, it’s a feature packed device and the only thing missing from it is wireless
charging option.
I have always wanted a phone that would support it, but I would never go for that feature
alone, and it’s the same this time around – I don’t miss it, but for those who are
used to it, this could be a big drawback.
For that very specific feature, you may want to take a look at the Pixel 3 or the Pixel
3 XL.
The Pixel 2 XL is also IP67 certified, meaning that you shouldn’t worry about spilling
some water and dust on it by accident – though I would advise against having any contact
with water in the future – to avoid any issues whatsoever.
Overall, it’s still a very good hardware and I think it will hold up fairly well even
in 2019.
In terms of specs, this is still a very capable device.
The Pixel 2 XL has a massive 6” P. OLED display at QHD resolution and an 18:9 aspect
ratio – sounds familiar so far.
The display is HDR 10 certified, meaning that it supports a wider range of colour gamut,
therefore it can show you more and brighter colours on the screen – making the content
overall more enjoyable.
If you’re wondering, I rarely noticed the blue shift issue on the display, and it would
never bother me as I have always held the device directly in front of me.
The sunlight visibility is excellent, and it allowed me to see the contents on the screen
in all lighting conditions.
I am one of those who have left the colour calibration on “natural” and I personally
have no complaints about the display, other than the blue shift.
As for others, many people still hate the display as it’s not as colourful enough–
even in saturated mode – as for example a Samsung OLED display.
I’ve downloaded and used Nova launcher on day one – and it worked seamlessly.
I have never come across a small sluggish animation or any performance issues – and
even when I did, a quick restart has fixed all of my problems.
After using the device for nearly a year, it still performs as if I would have just
taken it out of its box – I absolutely love how fast it is.
The Pixel 2 XL might have an outdated high-end chipset, but believe me when I say it runs
and performs just as fast as a late 2018 high-end flagship.
For those on the budget, I would still strongly recommend the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL series
in 2019, that is, if you want to save money and still have a phone that performs like
it should.
You can play games without any issues, multitask and even have multiple apps open in the background
without any slowdowns whatsoever – when I first put it under my usual tests, I was
amazed how optimised the stock operating system was – and I am still trying to find other
devices that can come close to this in terms of performance.
From my experience, I have only had similar experiences on a stock like OnePlus 6T and
the not so stock like Xiaomi Mi 8.
Samsung, LG and Sony had occasional slow downs and become a little sluggish after some time.
One issue that I still come across is RAM management.
Having 4GB of RAM might not be ideal for power users as applications are increasingly becoming
larger and more demanding.
I occasionally switch back and forth between a few applications which usually have to reload
– this is especially annoying if you are using apps like Facebook or Twitter, and the
whole feed will simply jump back to the top.
The battery is 3520mAh and it has power delivery that allows you to charge at 10.5W. This is
certainly not the fastest, but I still find it more than enough on a daily basis.
Running Android 9 Pie, the battery has become slightly worse than on Android 8.0, but it
still allows me to have 4 to 5 hours of Screen On Time by using apps like Twitter, Reddit,
Chrome, Spotify and perhaps a little gaming here and there.
So, in terms of performance, the Pixel 2 XL still performs extremely well and in fact,
much better than other devices after having used them for a year, at least from my experience.
The issues are the things where this gets a little more interesting.
I have made a video previously describing my 2 main issues – way before I started
using the device more and more on a daily basis.
First, The Wi-Fi is terribly bad on the Pixel 2 XL.
I started having issues around February 2018 and it doesn’t seem like Google has done
much to improve this – although the issue seems to be gone for most, I still suffer
on a daily basis.
The issue is, whenever I cover the top glass on the back with my palm, the Wi-Fi will drop
connection really fast making me wait far too long to buffer videos, play games and
just in general, browse the web.
Games will usually disconnect and change to mobile data and the same can be said with
watching videos, using up my limited amount of 4G data.
The way the WiFi can be covered up so easily is just a terrible execution, even though
the router is only a few meters away from my device.
Second, From January, up until October I had issues with the charging port.
Whenever I attempted to use the USB-C cable that was provided with my device, it just
wouldn’t charge.
It would always connect and disconnect and result in not charging.
When I would flip the USB-C cable over, it would simply just not work at all.
I have pointed out this issue to Google and they were happy to provide another cable for
free of charge.
Later, the same thing happened and I decided to send my phone back and replace it with
a new one.
Later on, once I did a more in-depth research into this sort of issue and reading a few
other people who were facing the same issues, and not getting it solved by getting a replacement,
I decided to cancel mine and buy another third party cable – which surprisingly had no
issues charging my Pixel.
I have first contacted Google in May and I have been forever waiting for Google to either
send me another pair of USB-C cable, or fix the issue.
Back in October, I have contacted them again and I was politely told to wait – even though
at this stage I was waiting for over 5 months.
Now, truth to be told, Google did actually silently manage to fix this issue by November.
There were no announcements, I have never received either an email reminding me that
the issue has been fixed, nor I have ever received my USB cable.
I understand that Google gets a ton of similar issues on a daily basis, but I am truly disappointed
in the way this was handled.
An average user who isn’t as tech savvy as I am could have spent a lot of additional
money on getting other charging cables, and even from Google itself (which obviously would
have had the same issue) and other third parties – I am very disappointed and really concerned
about how Google deals with issues both internally and publicly.
The software on the Pixel 2 XL is great.
It has never let me down and to this day, it works just as good as the moment I’ve
taken it out of its box, one year ago.
There are no slow downs or fps drops in games, and in general the performance has been butter
smooth at all times.
There is a single 12MP camera on the back with f/1.8 aperture and OIS, Dual Pixel Autofocus,
phase detection and laser autofocus.
There’s also a Dual-LED to provide more realistic colours when shooting with the flash
turned on.
The camera user interface is clean, simple and very basic.
While I’m a fan of a clean user interface, I would have love to see manual modes inside
the camera application – but that will not happen any time soon.
However, the beauty of the simple and basic user interface is that – it just works – extremely
well.
I probably said that word way too often in this review, but it’s true.
You simply press the shoot button and you get some amazing photos.
The sharpness and the saturation with the HDR settings enabled are pretty much always
on-point, providing a consistent and a balanced look nearly all the time, in most lighting
scenarios.
In pitch black, you shouldn’t expect to get any great photos out of this, but even
then, it can take some pretty decent photos that might be worth sharing with friends – with
a lot of noise of course.
The new night mode is truly amazing and works as advertised.
When I first seen this during the Pixel 3 announcement, I truly believed that the examples
were photosoped and faked.
Well, it’s clearly true and it’s amazing.
This is not a DSLR, but it’s a point-and-shoot camera that can handle all lighting scenarios,
no matter if you shoot in well-lit conditions, or in low-light.
As a conclusion, I believe I can say that the Pixel 2 XL will still be an excellent
device this year.
For those who want an Android device that “just works” and still allows you to capture
amazing photos, has excellent battery life and performance that provides butter smooth
experience, I don’t think that you can go wrong with the Pixel 2 XL in 2019.
Of course, there are a few caveats and issues to keep in mind, such as the blue shift, questionable
Wi-Fi performance, the lack of Wireless charging and the ability to fast charge at higher Watts.
However, I think these can be overlooked when you can often find this device at the price
range of 300-500 US dollars and British pounds.
For that money, you will get excellent battery life, top of the line camera quality and timely
upgrades, which matter for a lot of people, and its something that for example Samsung,
LG and other companies cannot provide in a timely manner.
So, having all that said.
I hope you enjoyed this review of the Google Pixel 2 XL.
If you have, be sure to leave a like on this video and Subscribe to my channel.
If you have a Pixel 2 or 2 XL, be sure to share your experiences in the comments down
below.
All that said, thank you for watching, I’ll see you next time.