Hi guys, it's MTG here, and it seems like with all of the new phones coming out people
are already forgetting about the Google Pixel 2 XL.
This is Google's flagship phone right now, and it's been on the market for a little over
a month now.
You probably heard about all of the problems people were experiencing with the phone, so
I wanted to wait to do a comprehensive review until I had both ample time to use it and
got a chance to use it with the update.
Considering all of the terrific phones out right now, hopefully this video will help
you figure out if the Google Pixel 2 XL is the right phone for you.
This is my Google Pixel 2 XL review, after the hype.
Phones made by Google have always been focused on software.
The Pixel 2 XL is similar in that the phone is still mainly software focused, but different
in that, at least with the XL, it has a design that competes with the other flagships of
2017.
The construction feels very solid.
It has a mostly aluminum back with a glass portion at the top.
The front of the phone is Corning's Gorilla Glass 5.
It may not be the prettiest phone out right now, but personally, I think the design is
very clean, and I also applaud Google for putting dual front-firing speakers on their
latest flagship.
Powering the phone is an octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor.
On its back, it has a single 12.2 Megapixel camera that can take depth-effect pictures
utilizing AI and machine learning.
It can record 4K video at up to 30 fps.
It has both optical and electronic image stabilization.
The 2 XL's front camera is 8 Megapixels with an aperture of f/2.4.
It can also take depth-effect pictures using software, and can shoot 1080p video at up
to 30 fps.
Its screen is a 6 inch P-OLED panel with a QHD+ resolution of 1440 by 2880.
I never experienced the burn-in issues that people were having, and I also really don't
mind the blue tint because it is only blatantly obvious when the screen is all white.
But what really stuck out to me was that the screen just seemed very low quality, especially
at the price point of a top-tier flagship.
When I first turned on the Pixel 2 XL, I was shocked by how dull the screen was.
I understand that Google was trying to make the colors look more natural, but they were
looking ver bad.
With many users expressing their frustration, Google quickly responded by pushing out a
software update that now has a saturated mode, and let me tell you it made a drastic difference.
Colors actually pop the way they're supposed to on an OLED display.
Just looking at the difference in how the home screen looks, shows how big of a difference
the update made.
Scrolling through Instagram pictures, and watching YouTube videos is now as pleasant
as it should be on a device at this price-point.
Also, the screen still looks pretty good even outside in the sunlight.
This software update, in my opinion, greatly reduced the enormous gap between the Pixel
2 XL's screen and other high quality OLED screens on flagships such as on the Note 8
and iPhone X.
I'm not saying that the display is better than the ones on the other two phones, but
in my mind, the screen shouldn't be the issue that sways you from purchasing a Pixel 2 XL
any longer.
In terms of battery, the Pixel 2 XL houses a 3520 mAh battery.
It’s a great battery capacity for a phone this slim and light.
And in my testing, the battery performed excellently.
A lot of the times, I'd still be around 20% by the time I head for bed.
On other days of more heavy usage, the battery gets low enough to the point where I feel
inclined to charge it, but Google includes a fast-charging usb-c wall adapter that will
give you hours of usage in just 15-30 minutes of charge.
Another thing to note is just last night, I forgot to plug it in, and it dropped by
only a couple of percent to 20% when I woke up.
So battery is another thing that you don't have to worry about with this phone.
Now shifting away from just the specifications of the phone, I want to talk about some things
that I really love about this phone.
With the trend in 2017 of reducing the bezels on the front of the phone, some phone manufacturers
seem to be sacrificing the actual audio that comes out of their devices.
Smartphones have become more media consumption devices, and the Pixel 2 XL's front-firing
speakers make watching YouTube videos, movies, and listening to music a great experience.
The speakers allow you to naturally hold your phone without muffling the audio.
Portrait Mode is unbelievable on this phone.
Yes the camera specs, on paper, look the same as most flagships out there, and some would
even look down upon the single lens.
But this camera is phenomenal.
Yeah there may be shots where the Pixel 2 XL would make its image appear too cool and
would sacrifice color accuracy for insane levels of detail, but I've never been more
inclined to take pictures using my phone than with the Pixel 2 XL.
The portrait modes on both the front and back cameras are so good that you could leave your
professional camera at home, and take terrific casual pictures with your phone.
It's performance is great in good lighting and even not-so-good lighting.
I go into more detail about the camera in my in-depth camera comparison videos, so check
those out, but I can confidently say that the Pixel 2 XL captures people better than
any smartphone camera I have ever seen.
As phones and their processors continually improve, our threshold for what we consider
lag is continually dropping.
I admit that the 4 GB of RAM make the Pixel 2 XL not the best when it comes to multitasking.
Sometimes apps have to be reopened, even when I know that I had just used it.
But when it comes to opening apps from scratch, and loading the content within apps, I was
honestly shocked to see how fast an Android device could be.
Before testing the 2 XL, the Note 8 was my daily driver and honestly did not see it as
a slow phone whatsoever.
I thought it was, and still think that it is a very snappy phone.
But when I'm using the Pixel 2 XL, the phone is so fast that I forget that there are certain
things that usually take significantly more time to load.
I'm scrolling through Instagram, for example, and I see that on one single scroll, the phone
could load and zip through 20 or so pictures until it has to load more.
And in the split second it takes to load more images, I could scroll through another 20
to 30 pictures just like that.
Every app I use shows these characteristics.
It is able to load so much content in such little time, that I doubt you'll even experience
it load if you were actually scrolling at a readable pace in whatever app you are in.
This leads me into the Pixel 2 XL's stock Android 8 Oreo experience.
And if there was one word that I would use to describe it, it would be clean.
Google has added subtle features to this phone that I really appreciate.
When your background is dark, the notification shade changes from white to black to match.
When you're listening to music or watching YouTube, the notification tile will change
colors to match the color of the album artwork or thumbnail.
On your Always On Display, you could even have it automatically locally detect and display
the information of a song playing around you.
I even surprisingly like the cards that live to the left of your home screen.
Everyday, I find really interesting articles that I wouldn't have been able to read otherwise.
The well placed fingerprint sensor, and a handy gesture, also makes pulling down the
notification shade very simple.
And I haven't had any issues or too many accidental squeezes when using the squeeze for Google
Assistant functionality.
If you want to see everything you could do with the Pixel 2 XL in more detail, check
out my Pixel 2 XL Tips and Tricks video.
Long-story short, with the Pixel 2 XL, you experience Android the way Google intended
for you to.
You will always have the latest, most-optimized software available.
And with the reduction in bloat-ware and extra features, the Pixel 2 XL is able to be navigated
with little to no lag.
I'd like to share some things that I consider to be drawbacks when choosing the Pixel 2
XL.
For most of which, Google has responded with somewhat of a solution.
The Pixel 2 XL has no headphone jack.
I explained in my Note 8 review that there is still a certain level of ease and reliability
that come with wired headphones.
Google does include a very large dongle in the box so that you may use wired headphones,
but the reality is you won't always have the dongle with you.
On the other hand, it seems like everyone is switching over to Bluetooth.
The Pixel 2 XL has no wireless charging.
This was a feature that I understand isn't used too often, but for a flagship price,
and because even iPhones have adopted it, I looked down on Google for leaving out wireless
charging.
The Pixel 2 XL has no expandable storage.
Google gave somewhat of a solution by providing unlimited storage of photos and videos for
at least two years, but still it isn't the same as having the extra storage local on
your device and always available.
Lastly, for $850, I honestly expected a little more in terms of extra features that have
become standard in other Android devices for years.
Generally, I'm a person who loves all of the latest and greatest features on a smartphone.
The reality is that the Pixel 2 XL does not have all of the features that you could want
in a smartphone.
But Google has done an incredible job at making the experience of the phone feel so fluid.
Also, the screen appears to be so much more vibrant after the update to the point where
the screen is no longer blatantly bad.
And the front-firing speakers have led me to pick up the phone first when watching or
listening to any sort of media.
These reasons, on top of the fact that the Pixel 2 XL's cameras produce such high quality
photos, have led me to really love this phone.
There are many people who will look elsewhere because of the phones drawbacks, and I completely
understand why, but for the people that always want to have the latest untouched Android
experience, the Pixel 2 XL is the phone for you.
You have to use it to really get a taste of how fluid the phone actually is.
For me, the fluidity, the updated screen, the front-firing speakers, and the camera
drew me in so much that the Pixel 2 XL has actually just become my new Android daily
driver.
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