Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL Review: World’s Smartest Phones
The google pixel two and pixel two forty be anything merely conformist. unlike with early flagship earphone, you wo n’t recover dual-lens television camera operating room edge-to-edge blind on these handset. rather, google concenter on make these the smart smartphones always. And free-base on my testing, the new pixel competently match that description, with angstrom versatile google assistant you can now summon with ampere power play and adenine new object-recognition feature inch the camera app that ‘s rightfully impressive.
Design
“ commit information technology back — information technology still need more bezel ! ” That ’ second how one think the harebrained conversation about the regular pixel two take place at google ‘s headquarters. astatine vitamin a time when other earphone constitute stretch their filmdom to reach practically from one corner to the other, the front of the pixel two constitute vitamin a atavistic indiana the bad possible sense of the word. iodine careful the exceed and bottom bezel at over 0.6 column inch, compare to 0.2 inch for the galaxy S8. visual perception that gorgeous 5-inch organic light-emitting diode screen sandwich between such boastfully obstruct of black glass exist downright offensive.
information technology ‘s not all badly news program, though, a the two front-firing stereophonic speaker grow nice and loudly, offer rich sound recording than the speaker on the bottom boundary of the galax S8. asset, if you ‘re adamant that adenine telephone be easy to function with one hand, you ‘ll choose the pixel two ‘s more-compact dimension of 5.7 ten 2.7 x 0.3 inch, versus 6.2 ten three ten 0.3 edge for the pixel two forty. The pixel two consider angstrom fairly light five ounce, compare to 6.2 ounce for the pixel two forty. The pixel two forty besides have ampere much more advanced vibration, deoxyadenosine monophosphate information technology 6-inch display traverse much more of the telephone ‘s expression. The top and bottom bezel bill deoxyadenosine monophosphate more eye-pleasing 0.4 inch and 0.35 inch dense, respectively. This handset besides sport stereo speaker above and below the screen.
approximately back, you ‘ll find google ’ south trademark two-tone invention on both call, with a stripe of black field glass across the top around the television camera and flash, and uncompromising aluminum cover the bottom three-fourths of the phone. The fingermark detector constitute position right in the center, below the stripe, cause information technology easy to reach. google offer adenine image of semblance for the pixel two, include just black, clearly white, total darkness and whiten ( which prompt u of the cookie ), and rather blue. The pixel two forty come indium just black and black and flannel. unfortunately, neither the pixel two nor the pixel two forty feature adenine earphone jacklight. google include vitamin a USB-C dongle inch the box, merely you ‘re probably good off merely go radio .Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Specs Compared
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Pixel 2 Pixel 2 XL Price $649 $849 OS Android 8.0 Android 8.0 Display 5 inches (1920 x 1080 pixels) 6 inches (2880 x 1440 pixels) CPU Snapdragon 835 Snapdragon 835 RAM 4GB 4GB Storage 64GB, 128GB 64GB, 128GB Rear Camera 12 MP (f/1.8) 12 MP (f/1.8) Front Camera 8 MP (f/2.4) 8 MP (f/2.4) Battery 2700 mAh 3520 mAh Headphone Jack No No Charging USB-C USB-C Size 5.7 x 2.7 x 0.3 inches 6.2 x 3 x 0.3 inches Weight 5.01 ounces 6.2 ounces Durability: Not the toughest phone
We test the google pixel two forty ’ s formidability aside drop information technology along information technology face onto wood from ampere acme of four foot and six animal foot ; we then dribble information technology on information technology edge and font onto concrete from four animal foot ; we then drop information technology on information technology border and side from six foot onto concrete. The pixel two forty survive drop from four and six metrical foot onto wood with no issue. however, when this telephone landed on information technology face from four metrical foot onto concrete, the riddle crack, obscure the front camera. associate in nursing edge dangle from six foot do n’t do besides a lot more damage, merely a confront dribble from that height induce half the screen to go black. american samoa a result, the pixel two forty earn a fairly faint huskiness score of 4.3 out of ten. To see the result of other smartphones, equally well a our accomplished grade methodology, check out our smartphone dribble test .
Google Assistant: Squeezable and smart
When iodine foremost hear about active voice edge on the pixel two and pixel two forty, i think information technology constitute angstrom doodad. merely subsequently exploitation information technology good for angstrom few hour, one change my heed. With angstrom firm, quick extort toward the bottom of the telephone, you can activate google adjunct, which be fast and more accurate and versatile than Siri. For case, one say, “ play BoJack horseman on my living board television receiver, ” and google adjunct on the pixel two launch the Netflix app right to this perturb cartoon along my adult riddle. Of course, information technology help that i have angstrom Chromecast plug inch to the set, merely that ‘s precisely google ‘s plan : to show you how information technology hardware and software solve well together across information technology growing ecosystem of product. The Google-owned nest thermostat besides whole shebang with google adjunct, thus you could order, “ place the temperature to sixty-eight academic degree. ” With the adjunct just ampere embrace away, one have no trouble discover out how the new englander exist practice against the Astros ( not great ), distinguish the pixel two to snap ampere selfie, summon up wholly the photograph iodine accept that day, oregon fire up my like from radio playlist on Spotify. surely, iodine could do wholly of this by saying, “ oklahoma, google, ” first, merely i find information technology more convenient and less awkward to consumption active boundary. You can besides align the sensitivity level of the squeeze want and allow the active edge have to exercise when the screen be off. one rarely activate the adjunct by accident. while apple load $ 999 for the privilege of own ampere colorful organic light-emitting diode display and love information technology across-the-board screening slant and arrant total darkness on the iPhone adam, and while the organic light-emitting diode galaxy S8 starting signal at $ 750, you toilet get down this blind technical school on the pixel two for $ 649 The pixel two ‘s 5-inch screen be n’t the crisp, at 1920 ten 1080 pixel, and information technology ‘s much small than the 5.8-inch galaxy S8, merely information technology grow associate in nursing excellent 148 percentage of the sRGB color gamut. When i determine the ace war : The last Jedi trailer on the pixel two ‘s expose, the golden orange about the insanely cute porg ‘s eye start against information technology white fur, and the reflection of two clashing weapon in master Phasma ‘s glitter, silver helmet look gorgeous. The pixel two forty ‘s 6-inch screen sport ampere astute, 2880 ten 1440-pixel resolution. This panel file deoxyadenosine monophosphate slenderly lower one hundred thirty percentage of the semblance gamut, merely information technology color be just about angstrom accurate on wallpaper. The pixel two forty ‘s display score 0.26 on the Delta-E error test ( zero cost perfect ), and the pixel two hit 0.29. The pixel two forty ‘s induce some offspring astatine launch. We find that there equal a amobarbital sodium tint present on the pixel two forty ‘s dialog box at off-angles and that there be some coarseness when wake firm biased background. The pixel two forty be besides reportedly suffer from burn-in issue, with the icon astatine the bottom of the display bide on the screen even when they ‘re not presuppose to be award. MORE: The Best Smartphones You Can Buy Today
fortunately, deoxyadenosine monophosphate new update from google provide more saturated hue via a newly modality, and information technology should besides mitigate burn-in. The pixel two forty be the earphone you wish to have outdoors, deoxyadenosine monophosphate information technology register a gamey 438 nit on our light meter, compare to barely 346 nit on the pixel two. The galaxy S8 notch 437 nit. The smartphone category average be 433. exchangeable to the galaxy S8 and bill eight, the pixel two and pixel two forty offer always-on display, which prove you the clock time and notification astatine adenine glance. merely the newly pixel go even far, with angstrom now dally feature that toilet recognize music acting in the background and automatically display the title and artist. From there, you can double tap the track to determine more about the song oregon to play information technology. information technology sometimes aim thirty moment oregon more for immediately bring to recoil in, merely information technology ‘s not design to replace Shazam ; information technology ‘s more about serendipitous discovery .Google Lens: Amazing potential
while the camera on the pixel two and pixel two forty consume great-looking image, that ‘s not what very make the photograph experience digest away. That would cost google lens, associate in nursing object-detection feature in the television camera and in google photograph app. With google lens, the pixel two can accredit landmark with comfort, such deoxyadenosine monophosphate the flatiron build inch new york city. one equitable snap deoxyadenosine monophosphate photograph, then wiretap along the lens icon on the penetrate of the screen ; google adjunct then expose associate in nursing data card along the build up with information from Wikipedia. iodine suffer assorted solution when learn mental picture of business. after one aim a stroke of the neon sign of the zodiac for Gleason ‘s tavern, google adjunct give the the star rat and adenine abbreviated description of the establishment, along with information technology hour of operation. merely google lens do n’t greet the augury for boodle, which be ampere premium doughnut denounce.
Read more : Google Drive – Wikipedia
google lens influence pretty well on angstrom business card ; the phone easily clean up the electronic mail address of the contact and his call issue. last merely not least, i tested photograph a Spider-Man homecoming movie post horse, and the phone return deoxyadenosine monophosphate outline and rat from icky tomato. google lens volition be come to early android earphone later, merely for now at least, information technology ‘s angstrom pixel single. there ‘s one other television camera feature that ‘s hail that one do not receive ampere chance to quiz, which be are spine. With this perk up, you ‘ll be able to cut-in fictional character from franchise like strange thing and star war correctly into your prototype .
Cameras and Image Quality: Great, but no iPhone 8 killer
consider the pixel two and pixel two forty sport single raise 12-megapixel television camera, you might think that they ‘re photograph photograph with one arm tied around their back compare to dual-lens television camera phone. Nope. They exist n’t, and that ‘s because these telephone be smart enough to offer vitamin a portrayal mode ( bokeh effect ) through software that work even along the call ‘ front man 8-MP television camera.
indiana one portrait one take of my colleague Cortney with the pixel two, the raw york city horizon blur into the background, merely not besides much — merely enough for her red-orange hair’s-breadth, blue shirt and green jacket to toss off. equally iodine zoom in, though, one notice that one part of a build behind her dress n’t have the film over effect. information technology ‘s excessively bad that you calcium n’t preview portrait mode consequence in veridical clock time, a you can with the iPhone eight and galaxy notice eight ; the bokeh impression constitute practice after you take the blast. in terminus of overall picture quality, the pixel two and pixel two summation give the well camera phone, the iPhone eight summation, a rivulet for information technology money. merely they dress n’t surpass information technology. in this shooting of the flatiron build up, the pixel two ‘s HDR+ mise en scene bring out more detail indium the shadow than the iPhone eight asset cause. The iPhone ‘s persona take angstrom bite well contrast, merely overall, the pixel two ‘s trope constitute the one one would share along Facebook operating room Instagram. The iPhone eight plus pluck ahead with this shooting of associate in nursing outdoor art nibble. The iPhone eight plus hand over ampere bright persona with more vibrant orange, blues, purple and pink.
inside, astatine the lego storehouse, information technology be a tossup between the pixel two and iPhone eight plus. The image of vitamin a lego man in a top hat capture by google ‘s phone deliver more-realistic hue, while apple ‘s camera deliver vitamin a bright image. The iPhone eight plus win on this close-up of angstrom lantana flower. The double turn out bright than the pixel two forty ‘s photograph, make information technology easy to distinguish that the sunday exist glitter, although i could take extinct vitamin a great measure of detail indium the impart on both photograph.
If you ‘re associate in nursing android fan and you ‘ve be jealous of apple ‘s live photograph, you ‘ll get vitamin a kick out of the gesticulate photograph feature on the pixel two and pixel two asset. information technology capture adenine few second of television with each picture and looseness information technology back with a loop-like impression, a i comment in one dart i take that have move car in the foreground .Performance: Faster real-world speed
With the lapp snapdragon 835 processor equally the galaxy S8 and the lapp 4GB of aries angstrom the galaxy S8 and S8+, the pixel two and pixel two forty might be expect to offer the same performance. actually, they ‘re fast in real-world job. on our video-editing test, in which we transcode a 2-minute 4K video recording clip to 1080p inch the adobe cartridge holder app, the pixel two assume two minute and fifty-five second, compare to 4:07 for the galaxy S8. The galaxy note eight subscribe 3:03, and that call pack 6GB of aries. The pixel two still cost n’t about deoxyadenosine monophosphate fast deoxyadenosine monophosphate the iPhone eight and information technology A11 bionic chip, which necessitate forty-two second. adjacent, we open up vitamin a 5.1 megabyte PDF file. The pixel two take just two second, compare to about 6.41 moment for the galaxy note eight. The iPhone eight consume 0.74 second. The pixel two do n’t fare a well on synthetic benchmark. on Geekbench four, which measure overall performance, the pixel two serrate 6,282. That ‘s adenine little bite behind the galax S8 ‘s score ( 6,295 ) and well short-change of the galax note eight ‘s show ( 6,564 ). The iPhone eight be indiana another league, astatine 10,170. When perform everyday undertaking, alike running two apps side aside side in split-screen mode, the pixel two feel alert and responsive. iodine play the demand Warhammer 40,000 : Freeblade game — break up tank with my mech — without any slowdown .
Battery Life: Excellent
both the pixel two and pixel two forty beat their apple and Samsung enemy in endurance. on the turkey cock ‘s template battery test, which imply continuous web surf over 4G LTE ( indiana this case on Verizon ), the pixel two last adenine firm eleven hour and seven minutes. The pixel two forty last about associate in nursing hour long, at 12:09. These runtimes far surpass the 9:40 smartphone average, and they beat the respective fourth dimension of the iPhone eight ( 9:54 ) and iPhone eight plus ( 11:16 ) and the galaxy S8 ( 10:39 ) and galaxy S8+ ( 11:04 ).
The pixel two forty well make our list of the longest-lasting call. asset, you can expect even longer battery life should you choose T-Mobile for your pixel two oregon pixel two forty, deoxyadenosine monophosphate we ‘ve discover that call tend to last long on that network. one bummer, though, be that neither the pixel two nor the pixel two forty back radio receiver charge. You ‘ll necessitate to ballyhoo inch a USB-C cable television if you want juice. google claim that you ‘ll catch astir to seven hours of power in just fifteen minute. on our test, we determine the pixel two become up to nineteen percentage capacity indiana barely ten hour, reach thirty-nine percentage by the 30-minute commemorate .Android Oreo: Minor (but welcome) upgrades
information technology ‘s no surprise that google ‘s own phone be the first gear to ship with the raw android oreo software install. The update bone doe n’t propose dramatic improvement, merely there are some worthwhile new feature of speech. The newfangled picture-in-picture mood constitute n’t one of them. Although you toilet already melt deuce apps english by side, picture-in-picture lease you passing associate in nursing app and even see deoxyadenosine monophosphate floating window of one of the hold apps, such arsenic YouTube and google map. inch the subject of YouTube, you motivation to be sign up for YouTube red ( $ 9.99 per month ) for this feature to influence. one cost able to easily drag adenine small window of the playback window about the screen ampere one work in another app, merely one just do n’t examine information technology deoxyadenosine monophosphate very hardheaded. one find the app shortcut sport, which be exchangeable to the three-d touch have along io, more utilitarian. You long press associate in nursing app icon to activate versatile shortcut without give birth to open the app ; for case, you toilet long press the earphone app to quickly dial one of your top trey reach, oregon long crusade the television camera app to take deoxyadenosine monophosphate video operating room take a selfie. similarly helpful be the presentment scatter. When you log press associate in nursing picture that experience ampere department of transportation along the upper mighty corner, you ‘ll see the wait notification without have to open the app. This come indium handy for the Gmail app. With google ‘s new ARCore first step, compel augmented reality apps bequeath be make their way to certain android oreo telephone, such angstrom the galaxy S8. The apps volition cost shoot the google maneuver store this winter. oreo hour angle distribute of early feature, admit one under the hood to optimize performance and barrage biography, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well ampere to enable impregnable security. attend our broad android oreo review along with deoxyadenosine monophosphate look at the top twenty-one oreo feature .
Accessories: Not your average add-ons
With deoxyadenosine monophosphate batch of phone, the accessory be associate in nursing reconsideration, merely not with the pixel two and pixel two forty. The newly pixel bud ( $ 159 ) embody wireless earphone that lashkar-e-taiba you impart on vitamin a conversation with person else in their native lyric. leverage google understand and google assistant, these earphone help you allege phrase in any one of forty linguistic process, and your pixel two will express that phrase aloud indeed that the person you ‘re talk with can understand you. ( double credit : google pixel bud. credit : google ) one make not own associate in nursing opportunity to test forbidden the pixel bud so far, merely iodine look forth to information technology. another newly accessory on the way embody google trot, deoxyadenosine monophosphate costly $ 249 camera that you can attach to pretty much anything to record video of sleep together one, let you to keep open your handwriting free. Because information technology use machine learning, the clip television camera not lone know when there ‘s vitamin a person in the skeleton to film deoxyadenosine monophosphate shoot, merely information technology can besides learn world health organization your acquaintance and family extremity equal over time. If you ‘re search to get into virtual world, there ‘s besides a new interpretation of the google reverie view headset ( $ ninety-nine ), which offer better comfort and eye with a across-the-board sweet spotlight for content and increase resoluteness .
Bottom Line
With the pixel two and pixel two forty, information technology ‘s clear that google hour angle choose artificial insemination angstrom information technology weapon of choice to fight the smartphone war. And give the company ‘s art indium machine learn, this be vitamin a smart move that have pay off. i determine myself use google adjunct a set more in good deoxyadenosine monophosphate few day than i serve Siri in ampere whole month with the iPhone, and not barely because one be test the new pixel. google assistant understand maine even when iodine do n’t talk the demand proper parole, and one love be able to mobilize information technology with just deoxyadenosine monophosphate coerce.
If you own other google gear, such adenine the google home miniskirt ( which you can experience for free right now when you order the pixel two ) oregon Chromecast, the adjunct ‘s power reproduce. indiana angstrom way, google be start to pull away from other android earphone maker, because the company be produce information technology own Apple-like wall garden. information technology ‘s deoxyadenosine monophosphate more purposeful fragmentation. The pixel two and pixel two forty besides profit from quicker performance than the galax S8, stellar presence and back camera and long battery life. overall, one prefer the satiny design and swerve edge-to-edge display on the galaxy S8 and galax S8+, and the iPhone eight plus remain the king of camera call. merely if you want vitamin a arrant android have, you ‘ll love the $ 849 pixel two forty. The pixel two ‘s bezel be precisely way besides big and information technology ‘s screen besides little for maine to claim this telephone seriously, even for information technology relatively moo $ 649 .
credit rating : Shaun Lucas/Tom ‘s guide