Google Pixel 3

Price: £739 from fave.co/2RDX8sL

Possibly one of the most leaked smartphones of all time is here, so it might not come as a surprise but Google’s latest flagship handset is official. We attended the Pixel 3’s London launch and have spent solid time with it. Read on for our thoughts.

Design

There’s not a huge design change when it comes to this year’s Pixel phone as on the whole, Google is sticking to the same style and look. The Pixel 3 has a distinctive style at the back with its two-tone effect, which not everyone will like. The iconic glossy

section at the top houses the camera with the lower part containing the fingerprint scanner.

This time around, it’s a fully glass design, with the lower section offering a matte finish, which both looks and feels luxurious. It’s not quite as grippy compared to a typical glass back, but feels nicer and won’t show fingerprint marks as much. Importantly, this change also enables wireless charging for the first time on a Pixel. We’ll talk about this in more detail more later.

It’s the front that looks even more different this year due to a change in display aspect ratio – an industry-wide trend. Smaller bezels not only look better but mean you get a larger screen in a body that’s essentially the same. Whatever side of the fence you’re on, the regular Pixel 3 is the model without a notch. The Pixel 3 XL, for the first time on a Google phone, has the divisive feature. Both have a camera bump on the rear, but it’s small and not a big deal.

Much of the elements we’re used to are the same, so you get a USB-C port, no headphone jack, and waterproofing – the latter is now IP68 instead of IP67. Our main worry is dirt collecting in the speakers on the front as they are slightly recessed.

Colour options are once again Clearly White, Just Black and the new Not Pink (which has a peach tone in real life) – each with a difference accent colour on the side button apart from the black model.

Display

The most obvious change is the display, which as we mentioned is now using an on-trend tall aspect ratio. It’s 18:9 to be precise and sticks with a Full HD+ resolution