guys that quest to find my next Android smartphone is finally over Google has
bestowed upon us two of their flagship smartphones for 2017 and let me tell you
the competition is getting tougher which is a good thing and I can't wait to give
you guys my full review on these two new devices so what are we looking at well
say hello to the pixel 2 and the pixel 2 XL these are successors to the very
popular pixel and pixel xl smartphones and interestingly enough
Google is taking a completely different approach with these smartphones
unlike the competition by combining AI software and hardware and we'll talk
about that in a bit I was fortunate enough to get my hands on these two new
devices so here's my initial take on them but first a quick message from our
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and macros for a premium user alright as always let's talk about the design and I
want to kick things off with the pixel 2 xl because I feel like a lot of
people might end up leaning towards this guy over the pixel 2 and I'll elaborate
on that a bit later the excel is crafted in an all aluminum body but on top of
that they've added a premium hybrid coating material that kind of resembles
the texture on my IKEA desk I'm not joking it seriously does feel similar I
can't technically describe the exact material being used here but it really
does feel similar which isn't a bad thing to be honest though in fact both
the pixel 2 and the pixel 2 xl feature the exact same material they're
built really well and I preferred this design over clasp backs found on other
flagships offered by Samsung and LG the downside to an all aluminum body is the
lack of wireless charging and unfortunately both pixel phones don't
support that the display on the pixel 2 xl spans at 6 inches and it features
an 18 by 9 P OLED display with a resolution of 28 80 by 1440 so it's
similar to the resolution found on the LG G 6
meanwhile the pixel 2 features a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display now to be honest
I'm really not liking the design on the new pixel 2 smartphone because it just
doesn't fit in with the rest of the smartphone flagships of 2017 the thick
bezels Stane doubt mean it stands out in a
weird sort of way because if you'd compare it to the competition like the
Samsung Galaxy s8 the LG g6 it just doesn't fit in I mean if the
smartphone was released like two years ago I wouldn't mind the design at all
because it would then fit in within the standards pack of the day but now that
we're so much into admiring the design from Samsung and LG it just stands out
in a weird way now the pixel 2 xl is a completely
different story I absolutely love the screen to body ratio on that phone
compared to the pixel 2 it does come with an 18 by 9 aspect ratio and it did
manage to squeeze a 6-inch display so that's pretty awesome I really can't
wait to get my hands on that phone compared to the pixel 2 so Mike spike in
my excitement level is a lot more higher on the pixel 2 xl versus the pixel 2
that's just my opinion now one of the major advantages to this design is the
implementation of front-facing speakers and Google did manage to fit two of them
on the pixel 2 but interestingly enough it's also available on the pixel 2 xl despite the almost bezel-less design and that to me is pretty amazing
now when you compare the excel to something like the Galaxy Note 8 you're
obviously going to notice the difference in bezels it's hardly noticeable on the
note 8 but I think watching content on the pixel xl 2 is gonna be a lot more
appealing since you won't get those weird distortions at the edges wrapping
up the rest of specs both the pixel 2 and the pixel 2 xl feature the
snapdragon 835 cpu 4 gigabytes of frame ip67 water-resistant rating 12 megapixel
rear-facing cameras which we'll talk about shortly
both variants come in 64 and 128 K by variants but unfortunately they're not
expandable really Google you you really have to do that take away the most
important feature that we all cherish I mean if you look at the competition the
galaxy s safe and don't aid the LG G 6 the V 13 they all come with storage
expansions why not this phone I don't know but hey they're at least giving us
unlimited storage for photos and videos in original quality for three years and
high-quality storage unlimited after that coming to think of it it's actually
a much better deal than paying for iCloud storage for iPhone users so Apple
if you're taking notes then this is a great thing to add a nail
okay so let's talk about the camera it's a 12 megapixel shooter with an F 1.8
aperture and it comes with optical image stabilization as well as electronic
image stabilization so this should complement low-light photography as well
as video recording which by the way can shoot up to 4k at 30 frames per second
1080p up to 120 frames per second and 720p up to 240 frames per second there's
also a portrait mode that blurs the background to make the subject stand out
and here's the most interesting part unlike other smartphones that utilize
two separate cameras to emulate that portrait effect Google is heavily
banking on AI and it's machine learning capabilities so what's happening here is
that Google is using their dual pixel technology to create this depth map that
distinguishes both left and right pixels and then it across check Sid with their
image database that contains facial analysis and the ability to identify
objects once that process is complete it then refines the edges of that subject
that you've shot and it blurs out the background now after playing around with
it I was pretty impressed it does seem to do a pretty good job isolating the
subject from the background without portraying any weird artifacts again
this all depends on your lighting situation the composition and how
complicated the shot is this also applies to the front-facing camera so
I'll definitely be testing this out in depth in my full review so stay tuned
for that now supposedly given the great camera hardware and the combination of
AI Google was also able to implement google lens which is a feature that's
baked into Google assistant so essentially what happens is you can use
this to point at subjects using the camera and it'll pull up appropriate
results so in my case I was able to point it at a camera and it was able to
identify what type of camera it was and you know where I can purchase that
camera with all the appropriate links within Google's search engine and I
guess that's what I'm looping back into my first point that I mentioned in the
beginning of this video where Google is taking a completely different approach
unlike some other smartphone brands where they're combining AI software and
hardware to create this seamless experience to make your life easier
again this has to be validated so like I mentioned the beginning like just can't
wait to get my hands on the pixel 2 xl smartphone and test out some of
the AI features that's built in Google has also implemented a squeeze
functionality on the pixel 2 and the pixel
2 xl essentially when you squeeze a smartphone it activates Google assistant
regardless if you're on the lockscreen or if you're just using the phone in
general I don't think I'm probably gonna use this feature
I do wish that I was able to remap this command to something to open up a
certain application or some sort but I'm so glad that there is no dedicated
button to activate Google assistant because that would be such a
disappointment I'm just so glad it's a squeeze functionality it can be turned
off so that is something that I'm so grateful I should also mention that this
is a Google device meaning it's gonna run stock Android you know how much I
love stock Android you don't have to worry about custom skins or whatnot it's
just pure Android it's gonna help a lot with performance because you don't have
to worry about bloatware applications and most
importantly it's gonna receive updates force online when compared to other
flagship smartphones from Samsung and LG also if you were wondering Google did
decide to eliminate the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the pixel 2 and the
pixel 2 xl it's a sad day for everyone I did not expect this at all
but it's something that we have to accept as a reality and at least you
know they've included a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack adapter within the box so
there's that and I want to wrap things up with pricing for these two new
smartphones so the pixel 2 starts at six hundred $49 for the 64 gigabyte variant
and it comes in three color options there is just black kind of blue and
clearly white yeah those are the color options it really the pixel2 xl can
be picked up for $849 and this is for the 64 gigabyte variant and there are
two color options so there is just black and black and white so let me know your
thoughts on google's announcement on the pixel 2 and the pixel 2 xl what do
you guys think of the design the specs and just the whole Google ecosystem and
more specifically I'd like to hear your thoughts on the camera do you think it's
gonna hold up that well with Samsung's live focused feature the iPhones
portrait mode and even the oneplus 5's portrait effect I'd like to hear your
thoughts leave them in the comments down below I'm Eber with Hardware Canucks thank you
so much watching make sure to subscribe for more similar content and we'll see
you in the next one