- [Alex] How do you follow up
on two of the best Android phones ever made?
That's the question for Google to answer
with its new Pixel phones,
which understandably have an awful lot to live up to.
Aside from anything else,
these are the flagship devices from the people
who make Android.
Expectations are high,
especially with the super expensive price tags
these phones will carry.
So the question is,
are these the best Android phones of 2017?
And the answer is yes and no.
I'm Alex from Android Central and this our review
of the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.
(upbeat electronica)
In case you're coming in fresh,
let's get the basics out of the way first.
Once again, there are two Pixel phones this year,
a five-inch Pixel 2 and a six-inch Pixel 2 XL
but this time around it isn't just a case
of the XL being the blown-up version
of its smaller counterpart.
The larger second-gen Pixel has tall 18 by nine screen
like LG's V30 and a few other phones
along with rounded corners and curved glass
on the display.
For the smaller Pixel it's business as usual
around the front with a 16 by nine panel
and big chunky bezels top and bottom.
That means from the front,
theses two phones look very different.
To be blunt, the Pixel 2 XL looks like
a phone from the future, whereas the Pixel 2's front face
is a relic from the distant bezelly past.
Around the back, the look and feel of these two phones
is more uniform.
The big glass segment up top is back,
only a little shorter this time
with a slightly grittier finish
than the slippery metal of the old Pixels.
They're also a little flatter than before,
and Chamfer fans will appreciate the sharp edge
around the front of the smaller Pixel's display.
Build quality is solid on both devices
with aluminium shells making the XL in particular
feel nice and substantial.
Besides that, these are just metal-bodied smartphones,
and we all know what that looks and feels like by now.
The extra space around the front accommodates
dual-stereo speakers.
The XL has a slight edge in volume and bass,
but even the smaller Pixel puts in a good showing here,
outperforming just about all bottom-facing cams.
So screens, and strap in because here's where things get
a bit controversial.
The Pixel 2 has a 1080p AMOLED panel,
which is fine considering its size.
Daylight visibility is impressive,
and while it's not Galaxy Note8 good,
it's a high-quality panel that's nice to look at
and one that I have absolutely no complaints with.
As for Pixel 2 XL, well, honestly,
the P-OLED panel is not great,
and I couldn't really argue with you if you called it
a downgrade from the old Pixel XL's display.
The Pixel 2 XL's screen is bright and clear,
and with a quad HD plus resolution,
there's plenty of pixels to go around.
Everything's fine in that respect,
but there are a bunch of what I'll generously call quirks
that no reasonable person should expect
in such an expensive handset.
First of all, the colours are generally dull
and washed-out looking compared to AMOLED
or even high-end LCD.
It's particularly noticeable in app icons
when you have both phones side by side.
Second, there's a visible, distracting,
bad-looking colour shift into bluish hues
with even the slightest lateral movement,
and the shadow-crushing problem that we saw
in the LG V30's P-OLED panel at low brightness levels,
yep, that makes an unwelcome return as well.
Now, I don't hate this screen, but the problem is
these three main issues are just unacceptable
in a phone that sells today at 850 to $950.
So there you go.
That's the biggest weakness of the Pixel 2 XL.
It might seem like a small thing but remember the screen
is the one component you're interacting with
every single time you use the phone.
Oh, and while I'm at it, neither phone has a headphone jack,
so yeah, don't go live from here on out.
Google includes an adaptor in the box
but it still means you can't use wired headphones
while charging and you need to have the stupid thing
waggling on the end of your headphone cable.
Sure, Google isn't alone in dropping the 3.5 millimetre jack
but that still doesn't make it anything
other than a negative for me.
Okay, I promise we're mostly done with the hate
at this point.
Everything else about these phones is pretty much awesome.
They're both packing high-end specs,
Snapdragon 835, four gigs of RAM,
and 64 or 128 gigs of storage.
I've been using the 64 gig versions of both,
and you're looking at 54-ish free after initial setup,
more than enough for my needs.
Meanwhile, four gigs of RAM still does the job.
The only times I've noticed apps being aggressively
bumped out of memory is while using the camera.
HDR Plus is still a bit of a memory hog.
And overall performance has been fantastic,
with lightning-quick touch responses
and buttery-smooth animations.
Both phones are finally water-resistant too
with an IP 67 rating.
That means you probably won't to try skimming your Pixel 2
across a lake, but it will survive a heavy rainstorm
or a dunk in the sink without any ill effect.
The software has long been a defining characteristic
for Google-branded phones, and there's a decent amount
of new stuff to found on the Pixel 2.
The new Pixel UI is built on Android 8.0 Oreo,
with all the trimmings you'd expect from the latest version
of the OS.
In particular, setting up the Pixel 2 for the first time,
it was really great to be able to use Auto-fill with Google
to put in my password for things like Twitter and Instagram
from details that were already saved in Chrome.
You can find out more about what's new in Oreo
in our Android 8.0 review.
The Pixel launcher has been spruced up a bit
with the Google search bar down below
where it's easier to reach, and a new At-A-Glance section
up top showing weather, traffic, or calendar events,
or if you don't have any plans because you've blocked out
a weekend to review a couple of new phones,
it'll just show you the date.
Meanwhile, there are some beautiful Google Earth
live wallpapers that build on what we saw
in the first Pixel phones, 3D views of natural beauty spots
from above add a touch of class to your home screen,
punctuated by gentle waves, the occasional car,
or birds flying overhead.
Seriously, it's great that both Samsung and Google
have started taking live wallpapers seriously
over the past year.
Google Assistant is back and now accessible
by squeezing the sides of the phone,
similar to HTC's Edge Sense.
The new Active Edge works exactly as you'd expect,
but the extra grip of the metal uni-body
makes the squeeze gesture easier to pull off on the Pixel
than it was the HTC U11.
Was I crying out for yet another way
to activate Google Assistant?
Probably not, but it's a nice option to have all the same.
Google Lens is the big new exciting thing
on the Pixel 2 phones, even though it's technically
just a preview for Pixel owners right now.
You'll find it in Google Photos,
and it usually does a decent job of telling you
about the thing that you've just taken a picture of.
It works best with landmarks, movie posters,
and artworks, until it suddenly doesn't.
If this sounds familiar, it's because you ran
into basically the same issue
with Samsung's Bixby Vision earlier in the year.
Now Lens isn't anywhere near as useless as Bixby
but it still feels very much like a beta,
the main problem being its inability to come up
with non-obvious information.
There's also the fact that you need to take a photo
of whatever you can look up, which just adds another step
between you and the information that you want.
Google Lens is promising, and for the record,
so is Bixby, but neither is a reason
to sway your purchasing decision one way or the other
right now.
Other software goodies include Smart Storage
which technically isn't new but can be really useful,
automatically helping you clear out photos and videos
that have already been backed up,
and the new Pixels can also identify songs in the background
entirely on the device without sending any information
to Google.
The Pixels have music recognition information
for popular and current music, meaning they can proactively
show you what's playing on your locked screen
or in the notification shade without you having to ask.
The Pixel 2's software is sure to get better
over the coming months and years.
Google promises three years of platform updates,
which means you'll be supported all the way through
to Android R in 2020.
That's a promise that no other Android manufacturer is
even coming close to right now, and a big advantage
of buying a phone that's made by Google.
The first-generation Pixels blew us away
with their photographic capabilities,
with always-on HDR Plus that was able to suck in
more colour detail than rival phones,
resulting in best-in-class low light performance
and amazing dynamic range.
A year on, Google has taken everything
we loved about the first Pixel's cameras,
dialled it up a notch or two, and added some new features
for good measure, but first the hardware.
Both Pixels have 12-megapixel rear cameras
with optical image stabilisation behind f/1.8 lenses.
Around the front, there's a fixed-focus 8-megapixel sensor
with f/2.4 lens.
Between the addition of OIS and the brighter lens
and the more powerful processor,
the Pixel 2 takes even better photos
in really challenging situations
where you need a great phone camera,
shooting directly into a winter sunset
or a night by street light.
Just as other cameras were starting to catch up
with the first Pixel phones in these kind of shots,
Google has raised the stakes even further.
The Pixel cameras continue to focus on colour detail
more than just sharpness,
so it's possible you get sharper-looking shots
from some rival cameras like the LG V30,
but from what I've seen, there's no question.
The Pixel 2 is the winner in low-light
and high-contrast shots.
I don't put a whole lot of stock
in synthetic camera benchmarks like DxOMark,
but it's hard to argue with the Pixel 2's new status
as the best smartphone camera.
The only thing you'll miss out on is telephoto
or wide-angle effects,
given that there is only one rear camera.
And what's more.
The Pixel's crazy-good electronic image stabilisation fuses
with OIS to once again bring us eerily-smooth 4K video.
Seriously, whether you're on a plane, in a car, or just
on foot, the Pixel camera beats just about everything
when it comes to smoothing out the bumps.
So what else is new?
Google finally boards the portrait mode bandwagon
with the Pixel 2 and manages to do so
with only computational photography magic.
No second lens here.
And considering there is only one lens,
it's remarkable that the Pixel's portrait mode works as well
as it does.
We've come away with some really impressive portraits
with simulated background blur, and that applies
whether you're using the rear or front cameras
to take your portraits.
The same depth-sensing technology can spring into action
using the selfie camera as well.
Finally, motion photos come to the Pixel 2,
recording a short video as you take each photo.
It's pretty much a carbon copy of the same feature
from the iPhone or HTC One (M7)
if you want to go even further back.
It's kind of neat, but I didn't find it captures anything
earth-shattering and after a couple of days,
I switched it off to save space.
So the bottom line for the Pixel 2 cameras?
Really, really good.
Probably the best single-camera smartphone setup I've seen,
but yeah, the cost of that is you miss out on telephoto
and wide-angle because there is just one rear camera.
With all of this photography, image recognition,
song identification, and high-performance hardware going on,
you might expect battery life to take a hit,
especially considering the mere 2,700 milliamp power battery
inside the smaller Pixel, but in reality,
I've been seriously impressed with the longevity
that both phones have been able to deliver.
These are still one-day phones.
The smaller Pixel 2's been getting me around 50 in hours
of use with between four and five hours of screen-on time,
perhaps less if I really pushed the camera.
For the larger Pixel 2 XL,
with its 3,520 milliamp power battery,
you'll maybe be able to squeeze out a couple of extra hours
on top of that, but not much more.
Regardless, based on my usage patterns,
both phones represent small but meaningful upgrades
over their predecessors in terms of battery life,
and while there's unfortunately no wireless charging
built in, a metal-backed phone still makes that really hard,
you do get USB power delivery for fast-charging,
and there's a speedy 18-watt plug included in the box.
Let's start to wrap things up here.
The Pixel 2, that is the smaller model, is by far
the best small Android phone you can buy right now.
I would have loved to see the Pixel 2 XL design
complete with 3D glass in this smaller form factor.
I'm almost certain that's what we'll get next year,
but even with its big bezels, which I'll admit
do make it look dated, this is a fantastic little phone.
Particular praise should go to the truly phenomenal camera
and what Google's been able to bring
to the Pixel's software experience this time around.
That same praise applies to the Pixel 2 XL as well
but with one great big ugly asterisk.
It's a real shame this phone ships with such a disappointing
and frankly flawed P-OLED panel.
Again, it's not horrible.
It's just not what you should expect from a phone
in this price bracket.
When you go north of six or seven hundred dollars,
you need to nail the fundamentals
and the screen is about as fundamental as you can get,
and there are issues with the XL's screen
that I don't see Google being able to fix in software.
So it comes down to this.
If you're considering the miniature Pixel 2,
then go right ahead.
Buy with confidence knowing that you're getting
the best small Android phone money can buy.
For the Pixel 2 XL, it's a bit more complicated.
Go into a store, check out the screen for yourself,
see if you can live its quirks and imperfections.
If you can, this phone has a lot to offer.
Everything that's great about the Pixel 2's camera
and software experience, a more futuristic design,
more screen real estate, and a bigger battery.
But if it's a high-quality best-in-class screen
that's your priority, then you'll find the competition
has some better alternatives.
That's it for now.
Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss
future Android reviews and opinions as they land
and head to androidcentral.com to read our written review
of the Pixel 2 phones.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.