Google Pixel 3 / 3 XL Review: BETTER than you think By Android Central

Google's new pixel phones are a symphony of delightful software, phenomenal cameras and intelligent assistant features, but more important than the hardware or how its put to work is the lack of any major flaws in this year's pixel phones- that's not to say, they're, perfect, we'll get to why they're not perfect later in this review, but the top-down view of the pixel 3 in pixel, 3 XL, is of two truly outstanding, handsets Google, created a pair of gadgets with excellent pocket, size cameras and a bevy of an odd bass. Goodies that just also happen to be perfect smartphones, there's still a big pixel on a small pixel on both a roughly the same physical size as last year's pixel 2 in pixel, 2 XL with a similar kind of design language, but take a closer look at the pixel 3 range, however, and you'll see they're very different beasts. This year's pixels have glass backs to allow for, while it's charging and consequently these phones have a very different feel compared to well pretty much anything else out. There Google has recreated its trademark two-tone design by laser etching a matte pattern into the single piece of Gorilla Glass 5 around the back, and it feels fantastic to hold. Most glass phones can attract finger, grease with use and feel slimy and slippery after a while, not so with the pixel 3 series, the black models I've been using, have a very soft matte, feel the white and not pink versions, feel a tiny bit more glossy, but broadly the same, you probably have some comments by now on how scratch, from this finish is gonna, be all I can say is that for me personally, after only a few days, both the mines still look fine. Ultimately, though, these are glass phones and inevitably, as time passes, you are gonna, see scratches, accumulate here and there the glossy part of the glass now blends into the metal frame, which now has its own glossy paint job.

So it feels just like a continuation of that back panel. The whole look and feel is simple, but distinctive, it's all very Google. So, let's talk displays. The pixel 2 Series was overshadowed by screen issues. The smaller pixel 2 had giant ugly bezels, the 2 XL had bad colors and poor viewing angles.

So Google has put a lot of work into making sure both pixel 3s have phenomenal OLED screens, and it shows colors a punchy, but not over saturated. Whites are pristine and shadow details aren't crushed at low brightness levels like they were on the 2 XL daylight. Visibility across the board is decent, though perhaps not as searingly bright, as the Galaxy Note 9s panel. Nevertheless, these are top-tier displays, and it's great to finally see that on a pixel on the six point, three inches, pixel 3xl you've of course got a big of notch up top, which needs to be there to make room for stereo front-facing speakers and the dual selfie cameras. The smaller one has no notch, but instead sticks all this stuff up top in a larger bezel I know some people hate the notch, but I mostly don't care.

At this point sure the pixel 3 excels notches is larger than average, but it's still blunt into the background easily enough when you're using it every day, the tool are screened for three XL can sometimes make it harder to reach the very top of the screen, especially since there's no one-handed software mode, but hey at least you do get the extremely useful option to swipe down on the fingerprint scan to see the notification shade seriously. This should just be in every large phone, so Google's not jumping onboard the face unlock bandwagon just yet, but pixel imprint is still here and fingerprint security on these phones is still very fast and reliable. As for the speaker's looking on that notch around the front, they're significantly louder than last year's pixels, but lacking some punch of LG's excellent boom box setup from the g7 and v40, the headphone jack still isn't coming back, though so it's USB, C or Bluetooth in terms of headphones Google does include a pair of pixel Brander USB-C headphones in the box. There, ok I, don't think they're anything special. They have this loop mechanism from the Pixel Buds, which I'm not a huge fan of, and also like the Pixel Buds.

You can use the Google Assistant with these headphones to hear your notifications. These phones aren't really about the specs, but let's splash them up there. Anyway. It's all fairly predictable flagship levels, stuff based around the snapdragon 845 platform based storage stays at 64 gigs, which is probably fine, especially as pixel long as you get unlimited full size. Photo storage through Google photos still only 4 gigabytes of RAM, which is a little harder to justify when the competition at this price is pushing six or eight most people won't notice a difference, but I have noticed apps redrawing a bit more often, particularly on the pixel 3xl, compared to the note 9 and 1 + 6, that's not the end of the world, but it is just a consequence of Google's hardware choices, but a pixel phone is much more about the software than the hardware and, of course you get the latest Android 9pi with Google's great pixel UI, and the promise of three years of fast platform updates right up to Android.

In 2021, good luck getting that kind of longevity out of anything released this year. That's not an iPhone. The nuts and bolts of Android Pi haven't really changed, since we saw it on pixel phones earlier in the summer check out our Android Pi review for more on that. Well, the pixel 3 Series adds his tighter Google integration, one or two new features, and some very nice new live wallpapers. One uniquely googly feature is the new core screen capability, which lets Google answer suspected spam.

Calls for you giving you a transcript of what the other person is saying in real time, as well as being technically impressive and perhaps just a little creepy. If you're someone that gets a lot of spam cause, it could be really useful. Pixel three arrows are also the first to get Gmail smart compose feature which uses machine learning, to figure out what you want to say in an email before you've actually typed it, and there are also plenty of googly touches throughout the system. UI all the fun little animations that we know from Android Paper here, along with some neat new animated backgrounds from Google. Each generation of pixel brings its own exclusive live wallpapers, but this year, Google's gone all out with a mix of 3d map views, rippling, coastlines, views of distant worlds or perhaps something closer to home.

My favorites, though, were the abstract live wallpapers that start off as shapes on the always on display and then bloom into viewers. The phone unlocks digital well-being is now out of beta, letting pixel three owners track their usage and set limits on how much they can use certain apps, whether you're actually addicted to Twitter. It's fascinating to get a look at this information and see which apps are actually using. Most of your time again, we've got a full video on digital well-being for a deeper dive on that topic. Finally, Google's completely reworked its haptic motors to provide sharp pleasing vibration nudges when tapping buttons and opening up menus.

This is one of those things that you can't really show very well on video, but it's as close to the iPhones tactic engine as I've seen in any Android phone seriously. These are some great haptics, and all of this adds up to an Android experience. That's just a joy to use the pixel threes are the first Google phones in years to support wireless charging and the fairly expensive pixels stand accessory, unlocked some extra functionality for the pixel phones. In one way, the pixel stand kind of turns your phone into a rudimentary smart display you can set to cycle through your favorite photos, see a summary of the weather or upcoming appointments through Google assistance, or even have it slowly light up the screen to gently wake you in the minutes before alarm, whether all this stuff is really worth the Fell steep asking price is between you and your wallet, of course, but the good news is the pixels also charge perfectly well on any QI compatible pad. Speaking of charging its worth going of a battery life in general, thanks to a reasonably sized 29 15 William hour battery, the smaller pixel 3 gets way better battery life in the pixel 2 last year, while the ever so slight downgrade to 34 30 mill amp hours in the three XL means that battery life on that model stays pretty much the same as it was on the 2 XL.

So what does that mean? Well for the way I use a phone I'm getting around 15 to 16 hours, between charges, with around 4 to 4 and a half hours of screen on time, maybe closer to 4 on the small pixel 3 closer to 4 and a half on the three XL? That's not as much as you'd get from a phone with a monster battery like the note 9, and certainly not enough for multiple days per charge. But thanks to the efficient internals and Google's adaptive battery features, my pixel 3 experience has been largely free from battery anxiety. So much of the pixel 3 launch events focused on the cameras and, if you used any of the earlier pixels you'll know why they've had some of the best cameras on a smartphone thanks to Google's, excellent, HDR plus processing on paper. The specs of the pixel 3 cameras aren't all that different from the pixel 2. But there are a lot of new tricks waiting to be discovered.

The redesigned camera app makes it easier to switch between modes, including Google Lens, and the newly unlocked pixel visual core, which is now used in all photos, means that photo processing is quicker than ever before. On a pixel plus. The new image sensor in the pixel 3 can capture wider dynamic range than the one used in last year's pixel 2 in case it needs to be said. This is a phenomenal camera. It's not a huge upgrade from the pixel 2 in most situations, but that's more a testament to how good last year's pixel camera still is.

A pixel can still pull out color detail. The other phones miss while posting legendarily great performance in very bright or very dark scenes, thanks to Google's, HDR plus there's still a certain magic to the pixel camera, that's lacking from other phones, but ok. The biggest thing you might have noticed about the pixel threes rear camera is how there's just one of them for 2018. That seems like a bit of a weird oversight, but Google has its own alternative for zoom shots and in a very googly way. It's all down to very clever software when you zoom with the new zoom controls, the pixel 3 users, the movement of the sensor and the IS module to resolve more detail than a straight-up digital zoom.

The best thing about this is that works, regardless of lighting conditions, which is fantastic when you consider that most phones with a dedicated telephoto camera switch down to a digital crop of the main sensor anyway, in lower light in daylight, though, well often in brighter conditions, you will get better results out of a phone with a dedicated telephoto lens compared to Google's super resume, and there are a few little other nits to pick here. In particular, super as gets a bit confused about what to do with clouds in some situations. Nevertheless, it is impressive just how much detail it's possible to get from a single camera with a fixed focal length, and this feature also helps in Google's excellent portrait mode, which remains among the best out there plus now, Google Photos will let you adjust the level of blur in these shots. After the fact, the new top shot capability works with the motion. Photos feature to record a bunch of frames both before and after you press the shutter once again using Google's machine learning.

If the pic camera identifies a better-looking frame, either side of when you actually press the shutter it'll tell you and then let you process the better looking frame in all its HDR+ glory. I didn't actually run across top shot all that often, but it's one of those features you'll, definitely appreciate when it crops up. So there might be only one camera around the back, but in fact both pixel three models boast twin, eight megapixel front cameras, one autofocus for tighter shots and a fixed, focused, wide-angle lens for capturing more friends or more scenery. The pixel two already had a great front camera, and so the extra versatility of the pixel threes twin selfie camera makes it even more competitive. It's yet another year when the pixel is among the very best smartphone cameras.

I do feel like Google over sold. The whole super resumes thing a little. These phones definitely could have benefited from a secondary, telephoto lens I think regardless. These are still awesome. Cameras, there's so much expectation around a new pixel phone that it's impossible to avoid whether it's the best Android phone at the time of launch and to answer that I'm going to have to hedge a little.

Yes, the pixel 3 XL is an incredible phone, but it doesn't exist in a bubble and the same stuff the competition does do better. Samsung has a brighter screen. Huawei gives you true, telephoto zoom, with up to three times and a significantly bigger battery. OnePlus has more storage and RAM, but what they can't match is the Google experience the pixel UI with assistance. The three years of first-class software supports the pixel.

Three XL might not be the very best Android phone overall, but it has the best user experience by a country mile. In the case of the smaller pixel 3, it's a much easier decision yep. This is the best small Android phone period and probably will be until the pixel for next year. Don't ride ahead and buy with confidence. If that's what you want, but whichever picks will you pick up you'll, be getting an outstanding flagship phone built around a magical camera experience, unmatched software quality and for the first time in a pixel, a top-tier display in both models.

That's going to wrap up our review of the pixel 3 and pixel 3 XL check out our written review on the site for more and be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss off future videos. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time you.

Source : Android Central