Luke loves his Pixel XL
But the issue with the original Pixel for me
Was that while I did end up using it for a couple of months
It was a bit of a one-trick pony an expensive one at that and a good camera or even a great camera is
not enough for me
I need a phone that knows what I want, a phone that shares my interests
A phone that I can't wait to greet at the end of the day with a great big hug or
failing that a little squeeze
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Phone: These are the top results
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
(Intro music plays)
In some ways Google launched two different sizes of the same phone
Both the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL feature basically the same internal specs with the main difference
being the amped up battery on the larger model to power the larger screen and I was both surprised and
Pleased to find out during the October 4th event that both phones even get the same optical and electronic image stabilization
And portrait mode camera features, a move that is much appreciated by those of us with both small hands and
precious moments to capture but
Pretty much any flagship Android phone these days has the same internal specs
Including the Galaxy S8 that launched six months ago, so we have to look a little closer
To see that while they are clearly related
They're also as different as I am from my siblings. They both still sport a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor
Satisfyingly clicky lock buttons, a 12.2 megapixel
Single rear camera and the partial glass backed design that debuted on the original Pixel
But is somehow much more refined looking this time around, but then when we flip them over
They're like nothing alike
It's almost like they were made by completely different contract manufacturers with different capabilities
So the Pixel 2 is
Lightweight with squared off edges making it easy to handle
but a little chunky looking with larger top and bottom bezels to make room for stereo speakers, and I guess the rest of the
Basically, no compromises internals. The XL by contrast is the far more
2017 looking of the two devices
little changes like the seamless transition from the body to the sexier curved glass and
Wider gamut not to mention much higher resolution display
Wouldn't really bother me as a Pixel to buyer
But the taller aspect ratio of the display makes handling of the devices very different in day-to-day use
The Pixel puts less strain on your thumbs to reach the spacebar while you're typing
While the XL uses its extra screen height to compensate for the space lost to the on-screen buttons
By comparison it also fits a lot more content on the screen at a time
though it should be noted that both of them lose out to the Galaxy S8 and the Note 8 in this regard and
This affects media playback in a big way, too. If you're a movie watcher, buy the XL 2
period
surprisingly, they both managed to pack similar and
impressive sounding stereo front-facing speakers
like seriously
HTC boomsound lovers y'all got something to upgrade to
Finally, but while six inch versus five inch doesn't sound like that big of a deal, the Pixel
Wastes far more of its screen real estate in ultra wide content
So think about how much bigger a 50-inch TV looks compared to a 40 inch TV. that is the difference
On to day-to-day usability once I added a
Specificallyc ompatible well thankfully
inexpensive type-C to 3.5 millimeter adapter to my headphone pouch, the Pixel 2 and the 2 XL
Are-that they're just a pleasure to use gone is the stress about incidental water splashes from last gen and
I gotta say
While I had no pressing desire for a squeezable phone. Phone: how tall is Linus Sebastian?
I really like it as a
Super natural way to bring up the Google Assistant to the point where I even found myself just
Using the Google Assistant a lot more than I have in the past
Now you'll hit it by accident a fair bit at first
Just trying to pick your phone up off the table or put it into your pocket
But the sensitivity has a wide adjustment range so if you're not the kind of person who's voice saying
OK Google, would take about
3 minutes to capture and steal ok Google ok Google ok Google (R.I.P Pixel users)
And you're comfortable with the reduced security of a voice recognition unlock
Man, there are a lot of fast ways to get things done
"OK GOOGLE " assuming of course that what you want to get done isn't that complicated
The thing for me is that the more that these digital assistants can do the more obvious it becomes what they
Cannot do, so I can open Google Docs
handy, but I can't then open a specific document or start dictating without touching my phone
I can search for Drive Badminton Center and I can navigate there
But then I can't add a stop at an A&W
On my way without touching my phone while I'm in the car
And it's stuff like this that makes the whole exercise feel a little pointless
I mean no not pointless. That's not fair, but but definitely
Incomplete. I mean I can see how folks who just want to perform discrete singular tasks like turn off the light or play that
Song that I like would be really happy with the current state of things
But for some reason a lot of what I end up wanting to do is going to result in me
Entering it manually at some point anyway
And if that's the case it's usually faster to just do it myself correctly the first time
rather than relying on what is much better, but still imperfect voice recognition a
Perfect example is that it recorded this as
In perfect instead of imperfect and the screen turned off while I was finishing the recording because I've been talking for a minute
sigh and of course I meant
Sigh
Not that PSY, the good news is that even if you don't give a crap about Google Assistant
Android Oreo has
Plenty to love in no particular order here are a few things that made my life better versus the iPhone 8 and the Galaxy S8
upcoming events at the top of the home screen
super nice to have
Holding task switcher to run multiple apps on screen
to work with Netflix, BOO
But with supported apps, it's faster smoother and more intuitive for multitaskers than ever before
being able to snooze notifications is a
Godsend for busy people like me so finally. There is a middle ground between
dismissing them and forgetting about them and
Having the just pile up
Better management of background app power usage makes the Pixel to behave very nicely for a phone with only a
2700 mAh battery
I have gripes still though Google allows bootloader unlocking
but I shouldn't need to load a custom ROM to do something as simple as swapping the on screen nav buttons and
This suggestion that I found on reddit was even more annoying than reaching all the way over for back
and while we're at it
I capture markup and send out a lot of screenshots and stock Android screenshot management sucks
compared to iOS 11 and third-party variants of Android
Bringing us to the camera
even though it lacks a few shooting modes compared to its competitors like 60 FPS 4k or
ultra high frame rate slo-mo, it's
great, but
Don't take my word for it
Here's our resident camera guru Brandon to tell you guys how the front-facing camera is okay if you turn off the Sh*t facial
Processing and the back shooter is great and you're gonna love it
Brandon: The front-facing camera is okay if you turn off the Sh*t face retouching and the rear camera is great
That's it
I mean could you do a follow-up video next week maybe comparing the Pixel 2 to the iPhone 8 and the Note 8 or something? Brandon: Yes
Okay well great then
so bottom line
Should you buy?
It's actually kind of hard to evaluate
especially the Pixel 2 XL in the absence of its true competitor the iPhone X, but
Squeeze changed the game a lot more for me than I thought even if almost everything else about it especially
The absence of wireless charging it still feels like the Nexus to Pixel price hike was a bit of a kick in the balls
So I like the design much better than the super boring iPhone 8
But iOS 11 and Tweedy touch are great
So is face ID better than squeeze and Google Assistant
How about the camera on the X?
These are all questions that need answers unless
Of course you're a die-hard Android user and you were never going to consider the dark side anyway so for you guys
The Pixel 2 XL gets a strong recommendation with the two just behind it due to its
fat bezel and last gen 16:9 screen, so
Yeah, you probably already knew this but these are the Android phones to have right now
Assuming of course that you're a great big baller
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so use their configurator see what your products gonna look like you could go with the panda or the reverse panda for your pixel -
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