The Google Pixel 2 is Already Obsolete in 2021 By Alex Vassios

This is perhaps one of my favorite phones of all time the Google Pixel 2, and it's basically the iPhone equivalent of the android world. What I mean by that is that Google makes both the software android and the hardware, so both experiences come together seamlessly to create this awesome phone, and we're going to talk about how it's held up here in 2021, the Google Pixel 2 was released back in 2017 alongside the iPhone 10, and it retailed for 650 dollars for the base, 64 gigabyte versions and, as a matter of fact, I actually owned one of these phones, I traded in my iPhone 10 for pixel 2 XL, which is the bigger brother of the phone that you're seeing on screen right now. So I ended up using this phone for about a year straight and in the end I actually did switch back to iPhone. But that's not what this video is about. I'll do more of a head-to-head comparison in a different video we'll do that another day, but this video is just meant to show how the phone is aged, since it's going on almost 4 years old. By now this particular blue pixel 2 is actually my mother-in-law's phone.

I got a chance to snag it for some b-roll during a visit a couple of months back. Okay, so I want to preface this video by saying you should not go out and buy this phone to be your main device. I'll say that again for the people in the back, if you're considering buying this phone, please don't. I cannot recommend using this phone as your daily driver here in 2021, and I'll give you some reasons for that later on in the video, but for now, let's dive into how the phone has held up over the past four years, starting with the hardware, I actually really like the design with the two-tone look and the glass and the fingerprint reader on the back ergonomically. It's actually a very nice and comfortable phone to be able to use and hold everything just fits nicely in your hand, and it's actually a great looking phone.

It looks a little unique. I love the colored button on the side. I think it's a bit of an artistic flair and I just think it's an awesome. Looking phone, I know, there's a lot of controversy surrounding the design of this phone, but I actually prefer it I like it. I think it's simple.

It's unique it's elegant, and it's not over the top weird and as a bonus, it even matches the pixel book, which you can go check out. The video I did on the pixel book in the card up in the corner- and you know, Google just makes it fit right into their ecosystem of products, which I think looks pretty neat, but no phone is perfect and as with this one, it does have some flaws, at least in my opinion that the things I didn't like, starting with the fact that the back side is all plastic to me, unless you can remove the back and take the battery out. Why add? Why have plastic on the back of your phone? I think when you're paying almost a thousand dollars for a device like this, you should have glass to make it feel a little more premium. In addition, when you have glass, you also get the benefit of wireless charging, and that goes without saying that, since it doesn't have glass, it's plastic, this phone does not have wireless charging. So to me, even though I don't really use it, it's still kind of a downside that it feels cheaper for what you pay for it.

Also, those bezels are something out of 2005. I mean seriously google, I get it. You need to fit the speakers in there and get them. You know the larger bezels around the screen, but you managed to do it pretty well with the pixel 2 XL. So are they really needed here in this case, for the two I mean come on, they're just uncomfortably large for the era that was 2017 where phone screens are becoming larger and taking over the entire front of the device.

These just feel like something straight out: 2005. , it's kind of ridiculous. So, aside from those couple things I didn't care for, I actually think that the hardware was and is still a good design. I think at the time it was like I say, a bit of an artistic flair that in a world full of glass, slabs and every phone looks cookie cutter. The same google did something a little different and I think it paid off.

I think it looks neat they still kind of make their phones to look that way now, and I think it's just a cool way to add a little of art to your phone and still keep it functional. So I think it's neat moving on to software. This thing runs stock, android, which I prefer, above all other versions of android and fun. Fact, if you use a Samsung device or lg or basically any kind of device, that's not google, but runs android you're running a modified version of android. So what that means is companies like Samsung and lg buy the rights to use android within their phones from Google, because Google makes android, and then they change it up.

They kind of go in and change the code. They change it. The way they want to look the icons, look different. They add their own software into it. That's why a Samsung phone looks closer to an iPhone than a lg does, or then a pixel does, even though, under the surface they're all kind of running the same operating system, they just add their own flavor into it, and that really changes the code and the way the device runs and there's a couple problems with the companies that do this number one is, since there are so many companies that put their own spin on it, and essentially it's the same operating system on a different platform.

The phones will age differently. So for me, I used to have a Samsung Galaxy s7 that ran Samsung's touch wiz operating system, and it was awful. It was terrible. The phone- maybe I had it for like four months. It was like four months old, and it had slowed down to like a crawl like I would tap an app, and it would just not open for seconds and I would just be waiting.

It was just so slow and laggy for almost practically a brand-new phone, and you probably likely already had this experience if you've owned Samsung devices different android devices in the past. This happens, and it's just a result of these companies putting their own stuff and their own crud in with the android operating system, and it just becomes too much for the phone to handle. So that's the first problem. These devices will age differently depending on the company and the software they put in there, and the second problem is the fact that there are so many android devices out in the wild that updates become delayed. So google actually has to work internally to write code and write software and to be able to serve a new version, a new update of android to these companies that have bought licenses for their products.

Essentially, so google has to work harder and create code and compile code for a vast number of light devices that are all out there in the wild. Therefore, it takes longer for them to roll out updates. Now, when those updates come to those companies say, like Samsung gets the next google update, then Samsung has to work on updating it so that their software fits with the android system. So you could theoretically be six months to a year behind the actual google updates on your device if you're running something like a Samsung and lg all that to say this is why I prefer the stock android experience, because you cut out the middleman through those other companies. Yes, Samsung does great, and their marketing appeal is awesome, and you know they're like an iPhone, but not an iPhone stock.

Android is just the better way to go with this. In my opinion, you just get such and to be easier and a better experience through all of it. So in summary, pixel runs stock, android and stock. Android is good. We're good on that.

Moving on, so the speed on this device is actually pretty darn good for being four years old. It's usable you can swipe around. You can open apps, you can do whatever you need to, and there isn't much lag. I mean it's a little slow here and there, depending on what you're doing as you would expect with a four-year-old device, but it's not bad. I've definitely used younger devices newer devices with a lot worse of an experience.

The one gripe I do have, though- and this really just comes down to the android engineers and the software within it- is that google is trying to emulate the iPhone since the iPhone went to pretty much an all gesture, the swiping. You know you swipe up to go home. You swipe over to access your apps there's no home button anymore, so you have to swipe around the screen to be able to navigate the device. Android is trying to do the same thing traditionally. In the past, they had soft keys on the screen, where you would tap the buttons on the bottom to be able to navigate, and that was fine.

It worked fine as a little archaic for a while, but with the advent of the swipe gesture system, everybody's now trying to copy apple- and I think that here in this instance with the android and software, it just does it terribly compared to the iPhone as someone that was using an iPhone and came from an iPhone to this device. I just found it absolutely awful, and I could not get it to work smoothly and consistently. So I just went back to using the soft keys at the bottom of the screen that I knew would work each and every time moving on to the apps you'll find that most apps are actually still running just fine and most of them still get updates, and they're compatible, and you really don't have any issues where an app is going to be too old to be able to run effectively and smoothly on the device. So that's a good thing and finally, that camera the camera is honestly one of the best I've ever used on a smartphone even to this day. Four years later, I've still yet to find a smartphone that can closely enough rival this.

I think google just nailed it with their AI software within the camera and with the camera itself. You know, Google is a software company, and they do amazing things with the camera software, and you know what they can do with one lens on their phone is just nothing short of amazing. I think it beats out the iPhone cameras, and it just looks really, really good even today. So that's really if it's pretty straightforward. It's still a great device.

It's still running very smoothly. It's its nice! Furthermore, it's elegant! You could theoretically use this as your everyday device. Now you're, probably wondering why I recommended you don't buy this phone if it's still running great and aged fine and here's the kicker I'm going to tie in everything. We've talked about up to this point since android runs on so many phones worldwide. There are so many brands that use it.

So many manufacturers that buy the license to be able to use android to use on their phone like there are gazillions of android phones out there in the wild google has to account for this when they're writing code and compiling and creating updates and pushing updates out to those phones. So because of that, the life cycle of the updates is much shorter than you would expect for say like something like an iPhone. So google's policy to keep this manageable for their engineers is to only provide three years of updates for their phones, which is absolutely abysmal when you're spending five hundred to a thousand dollars on a phone that it's only going to last you three years now granted it's still on and running, but just because a phone turns on and runs your apps, and you're able to communicate on. It does not necessarily mean that it's still usable this phone being released in 2017. Here we are in 2021.

Four years later, it was obsolete the fall of 2020 so about six months ago, from the time of recording this, that's really unfortunate when you pay so much to have a phone like this and what that means basically is googled has stopped delivering updates. So not only will you miss out on all the fancy new features of android when it comes out, you know you won't get all these new fancy updates that the newer phones will get. More importantly, you won't get security updates, and this is the most important thing is that security updates really help to keep your information secure and safe from any potential hackers from people trying to get through your email through your phone and even people on your same Wi-Fi network, if they're savvy enough can hack through your phone or if they're, close enough within range, can hack your phone through Bluetooth, what the security updates do? Are they patch these vulnerabilities and make sure that it's safe and make sure that it's kind of tough and beefed up against these attacks? But since it's out of this three-year range, google kind of just goes hands off, and they say like that's our policy, you bought our device. You know if you want to stay protected, buy a new device and effort as unfortunate as that is that's just the nature of it. That's the way it works with Google because of the nature of how many android operating systems there are out in the wild.

When you contrast this to apple Apple's devices, stay updated for up to seven years and that's a very long time when you're spending almost the same amount on a phone, you can get three to four times as much longevity out of it same thing applies when it stops receiving updates, it becomes obsolete. You want to move on, but at that point people are kind of accustomed to. You know this phone's seven years old. I should probably update it, but you'd never think that you know having a Google phone, a pixel phone, something you know android running that after three years you would have to ditch it and get something new, but unfortunately, like I say it's just the way it is most people actually update their devices. They'll buy a new phone between one and three years anyway, so google really has no incentive to fix this or to make it longer, they know most people 80 to 90 percent of people are going to be done with that device and moving on in a few years.

So, if you're somebody like that chances, are you don't even use this device anymore? I mean I have a Google Pixel one sitting right behind me and that's just a fun device to hang around for the nostalgia, and you know poke around at, and it's fun to watch. Videos on or you know, just go through and look at the old features on it and that's fine. You know if you want to give your kids or whatever to play with just don't put any personal information on it same thing with the pixel 2. It would fall into that category as well, but if you're, somebody that wants to buy a phone and hang on to it for as long as they possibly can, you know five plus years. This is definitely not the phone for you, as they're, only designed to last three years before they become much more vulnerable to outside attacks, and then they try to get you to buy a new phone after that, and it's just the way it is.

This is ultimately why I switch back to an iPhone into a mac over an android phone or Windows PC, because windows actually uses a similar philosophy as android, except that you get much longer update cycles. You know that's why you always constantly get Windows updates because of this issue because of the vulnerabilities and because of the sheer number of devices that are out there in the wild so put that into perspective. That would be like with this phone say: you bought a Windows PC and after three years, they're like nope, you can't, you can't get updates anymore. You can't download antivirus software, you kind of be like I. I need antivirus software on my computer.

You know I'm going to get hacked. How am I gonna, you know be able to function. If I get hacked, or you know, use the internet, if I'm just afraid of likes all these things that are going to come in at me, and attack me and pop-ups, and they say the only way to fix is to buy a new one. It's pretty much the same thing as what they're doing here on the android. It just looks a little different, that's all so, like I say, unfortunately, this is just the way.

Furthermore, it is its the way the industry operates, and it's just the way that makes sense from a business perspective which I'm indifferent about, because I actually do really like these phones. I think they're awesome, I think there's so many cool features to them, and they're just they're fun. That's great! That's why I actually have one but to go out and buy one and use it, as my main device is just not economically smart, in my opinion, when you're going to have to replace it in a couple of years anyway, when for the same price, you can just get something like an iPhone, and it's going to last you two to three times as long so like I said I still have one you know just for the fun factor, just a used, one that I can still play around with, but otherwise for my main device. I just go with the longer you know stretch my bang for my buck sort of thing. So that's it that's how this device is held up surprisingly, really.

Well, but from a usability standpoint, it's not real usable, but I mean the design is still tried and true, and it's still holding up pretty good. I mean all their new devices are coming out with this similar design as well, and I think it's great it's just the nature that it doesn't last that long out in the wild. So that's the video. This is the pixel 2 here in 2021. Thank you so much for watching be sure to subscribe.

If you enjoyed it, if you learned something, and I'll see in the next one, you.

Source : Alex Vassios