Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Review: The Android iPhone By Android Authority

What's up guys long hear from Andrew authority and the pixel 3 and pixel 3 XL are probably two of the most highly anticipated smartphones of 2018 and a lot of that probably had to do with the heavy abundance of leaks, which sort of created a lot of hype for these two phones and in this particular video I'm, going to primarily be focusing on the pixel three XL because that's been my daily driver for the past week, but a lot of the stuff that I say for the pixel 3 XL will still apply for the pixel 3 because they are both pretty similar and whatever differences there are between these two phones. I will point those out as we go along, but I just want to start off with just the raw numbers and raw specs and get those out of the way. So we can get to the more interesting stuff about the pixel 3. So inside there's a snapdragon, 845, processor and 4 gigabytes of RAM. You also have either 64 or 828 gigabytes of internal storage. There is still no headphone jack.

There wasn't one last year and there wasn't one this year, so no real surprises there and as far as general performance goes, these phones are very fast and fluid. Nothing short of what I would have expected from a pixel phone. That's also running stock, Android and I feel like the touch response on the pixel. Phones are pretty much on par with the touch response of an iPhone. It definitely feels way better to me than any other flagship Android phone on the market.

Everything just feels instantaneous when you're opening up an app or just simply scrolling through a webpage. It's just a buttery smooth experience, and it's great. The big question mark here is the four gigabytes of RAM and with so many smartphones out there. Nowadays, shipping with six and eight gigabytes of RAM Ford just doesn't really sound like a lot anymore, but as of right now, it holds up just fine as how it's gonna hold up six months a year two years down the road after multiple software updates remains to be seen, but I trust, Google, I, trust, Google's software updates and the pixel to Excel has held up just fine after a bunch of software updates. So I kind of assume the same thing is going to with the pixel 3xl, but we'll just have to wait and see.

As for the battery life on the pixel 3xl, it's been ok the most amount of screen on time. I've gotten so far is around four and a half, but it typically hovers around the three to three-and-a-half hour mark and if I'm, using this phone, pretty normally I'm, just checking emails, checking social media texting. Maybe a couple YouTube videos here and there I can get through a full day perfectly fine. But if I'm, really hammering down on this phone I'm watching a lot of YouTube doing a lot of gaming, taking a lot of photos with the camera, I can barely eat out a full day. So I really wish the battery life was better, but unfortunately it's not on the front of the pixel 3 and pixel 3 XL.

You still have an OLED display. Just like last year's model, the pixel 3 has a 5.5 inch 1080p display and the pixel 3 XL has a six point. Three inch 1440p display and the OLED displays on this year's pixel threes are leaps and bounds better than last year's pixel twos. You don't get any sort of weird color shift and these screens are vibrant and colorful right out of the box. They look fantastic I.

Do, however, wish that they were a little brighter. They seem a little dim to me, and they don't really get that bright until you're around 75% or higher, but if you're hovering around the 50% mark, it seems really dim. So that's my only complaint with the screen, but overall it's a really good-looking OLED panel. Now, obviously, we can't talk about the pixel 3 excels display without talking about that notch. Yes, it is a very big notch.

It's a notch that only a mother could love. If there was a beauty contest for notches, the pixel 3 XL would not win, but just like any other smartphones that has a notch you get used to it and I got used to it pretty quickly. It only took me basically the first day to get used to this notch, and it doesn't really bother me anymore, but if you are completely anti, not you hate notches at all costs, that's what the pixel 3 is for. The pixel 3 delivers a close to bezel a screen experience without having a notch, but at least the notch on the pixel 3xl serves a purpose for how big it is. It is housing, two front facing cameras, and it also houses one of the front facing speakers.

The other one is on the bottom chin and for having dual front-facing speakers. These speakers are not as impressive as they seem on paper. They feel a little quiet to me, especially in comparison to other phones that I've listened to that have front facing speakers, and they also lack a lot of low-end punch. The sound delivery is really flat, so it is pretty nice to have that stereo sound, but I wish the audio was a little better. One of my favorite things about the pixel 3 XL is the way that it looks and feels, even though it doesn't really look all that different from last year's model.

Google's made some pretty subtle changes that makes this phone feel a little nicer to hold. So the sides are rounded and tapered now, so it feels thinner in the hand, even though it's actually not it's exactly the same dimensions as lasher's model, and the other big change here is. The entire back panel is completely made of glass, but it still has that familiar two-tone pixel look, so the bottom 3/4 is coated in this satin, like finish, which accomplishes a couple of things, one. It gives the phone a lot more grip and two. It does a much better job of hiding fingerprints, and I'm.

Honestly amazed that nobody has thought of this or done this before, but it's definitely something that more manufacturers should do, especially if they're going with a glass back the other benefit to having an all glass back. Is this enables wireless charging? So you can use any wireless charger of your choice, but if you use Google's own wireless charger, the pixel stand, this will actually turn your phone into a Google home. So you can talk to Google assistant. Obviously, and you can also do other really cool things like have it show you a slideshow of photos that you've taken, which I think is pretty neat, there's no real surprises with the software on the pixel 3 and pixel 3 XL, it's running Android, 9 Pi, which we're all pretty familiar with at this point. But if you want to learn more about Android Pi, we actually did a very in-depth video on it.

So check that out up here in a card, or it'll be linked down below in the description, but as Google likes to do, they always add in pixel specific features, and one of those features is the digital well-being which can show you different statistics like how often you unlock your phone, how many notifications you receive, and also the amount of time that you're spending within the apps that you use? You can also set app timers, which is in allotted amount of time that you're allowed to spend within a specific app. So, for example, if you set an app timer for 15 minutes for a Snapchat, you're only allowed to spend 15 minutes on Snapchat per day, and once you spend those 15 minutes, the app becomes paused for the entirety of the day, and this is basically designed to give you better control over the apps that you use in your life. The other big feature is the screen call feature which you can use to screen phone calls, and it responds to these calls using an AI voice, and I've used. This feature a couple of times. It works really well.

As a deterrent for random numbers or calls from scam likely, which I get calls from all the time, because scam likely likes to call me, so screen call is amazing for stuff like that, but I think it actually works a little too well, because every time that I've used it the person, that's on the other end, doesn't actually listen or respond. They just hang up immediately, so I guess that's kind of what you're looking for, but I think sometimes people actually want to know who is on the other end and so far nobody has actually responded to the AI voice, but hey it's a cool feature. It works, and I think it's a feature that a lot of people are really going to appreciate. Okay, so it's the moment you've all been waiting for the camera. One of the main reasons why I use the pixel two so much as my daily driver last year was because of how good the camera was and the Google Pixel threes camera is just even better from top to bottom.

This camera is amazing. The camera UI has been completely revamped. It's now a lot easier to navigate by just swiping back and forth between the different MOE and some people might say it's a little iOS like I, say it's simple, it's intuitive, and it works, so I love it. The image quality is just as fantastic as ever: Google's HDR+ image, processing and their color reproduction is just completely unrivaled by anyone nobody's doing what Google is doing right now. The dynamic range is amazing, there's so much detail in the highlights and the shadows and this camera just performs well in pretty much any lighting situation, whether it's daylight, nighttime, low-light or really high contrast situation with a lot of Suns.

This camera can just perform really well and pull out a perfect image and that just speaks volumes about Google's image processing and their camera software. So I'm really impressed with this camera and, of course, you also have all the different new modes that they've added I covered that in a separate video. So if you guys want to check that out, that'll again be linked up in a card or down below in the description and portrait mode is still just as good as ever on, both the front and the rear cameras and on the front you now have that wide of the lens, which makes taking group photos a lot easier, and you also just get more scenery into your shots. So your front-facing photos look a lot better and the same way that the pixel 2 was basically the best camera for the entire year. I could see the pixel 3 doing the same thing again this year, so I want to wrap up this review a little differently.

I want to lay out a list of pros and cons and then also answer a couple of questions. Furthermore, I want to answer the question of: should you upgrade if you're coming from a pixel, 2 or pixel to excel, and should you buy this phone in general, if you're, just looking for a phone to upgrade to, let's start with a list of pros and cons and pros is the build? Quality is perfect. The screen is good as well: it has great performance, a fantastic camera, its ip68 dust and water resistant, and it has wireless charging. As for the cons, I, don't think there's quite that many cons. The speakers definitely could be better, especially for front-facing speakers, at least on the pixel 3xl.

The headphone jack doesn't have one, so that could be a pro or a con depending on. If you care about the headphone jack and battery life could definitely be better as well now, should you upgrade to this phone if you're, coming from a pixel to or pixel to excel, I will have to say no because I think a lot of the features on the pixel, 3 and 3 XL are potentially going to be ported to the pixel 2 through a software update, so I would sort of hang around for that first, and if that doesn't happen, then I would maybe consider upgrading, but otherwise I would just wait for software updates and see if a lot of the camera stuff and a lot of the Android 9 stuff that is on the pixel here, come to the pixel 2, which I think there's a pretty good chance of that happening. Now. What about, if you're, just looking for a phone to upgrade to, should you buy this phone and I would say yes, I think it's totally worth the price. Some people might consider the pixel 3 and pixel 3 XL to be $8,000, smartphone I! Personally, don't consider it that, because this phone caps out at $1,000 it doesn't start at $1000 and then goes upwards from there.

This is not the Galaxy Note 9 or the iPhone 10s, the pixel 3 starts at $7.99 and the pixel 3xl starts at 899, which I think is pretty fair pricing and overall generally pretty competitive to other smartphones on the market. But that's just me and overall I think as a whole package, the camera, the performance, the display, the design, everything this phone is completely worth. What it is that you're paying, but that's it for this review. I hope you guys enjoyed it if you did give it a thumbs up subscribe down below. If you haven't already thanks for watching, and I will talk to you guys in the next video.

Source : Android Authority