Google Pixel 2 & Pixel XL 2
GOOGLE’S NEW HANDSETS ARE HERE TO PROVE THAT TWO REAR CAMERAS AREN’T ALWAYS BETTER THAN ONE.
THE LATEST FLAGSHIPS from Google offer plenty of impressive specs, but where they particularly shine is in photography — and for anyone whose smartphone is primarily a glorified pocket camera, they represent a new high-water mark in intelligent smartphone photography.
READY TO TAKE ON YOUR DSLR?
So let’s get straight to those cameras. While the underlying camera hardware is very competitive, it’s really Google’s superior software that pushes this Android 8.1 phone to snap the best-looking pictures we’ve seen, topping the cameras on last year’s alreadyimpressive Pixel and Pixel XL debuts, and managing to remain the keystone feature of the company’s flagship.
Pictures are consistently in focus and true to life while still looking vibrant. Photos taken in low-light conditions looked as if we had turned on the lights when using the Pixel 2, while, by comparison, everything seemed a lot darker when using the iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 — devices which you’d expect to be the smartphone camera leaders.
The photo quality is, in short, best-in-class — even without a second telephoto camera. The video quality is likewise steady, with well-performing electronic image stabilisation. If there’s a flaw in this area, it’s in navigating the Camera app: some of the more advanced photo-taking features aren’t as immediately accessible as on Samsung or LG’s snappers, and this is down to some unfortunate menu-diving in the software.
UNCONVENTIONALLY STYLISH
Apart from the serious camera tech, this year’s upgrades pack faster internals, water resistance (seemingly at the expense of a 3.5mm headphone jack) and a new way to call up the Google Assistant: simply squeeze the phone’s sides to launch your new AI buddy. It sounds like a gimmick, but it’s easier than accidentally hitting another (Bixby) button.
Naturally, you can also use Google’s Assistant via the now-traditional voice command, and the stock Android platform integrates seamlessly with these requests, even speaking ‘Australian’, which means you can ask where the best place for ‘brekkie’ is!
Google has doubled down on the aluminium-and-glass combo design for the handsets’ rears, and while the fingerprint scanner has been relocated to the aluminium section since the first Pixels, this two-toned design is likely to be just as divisive as it was a year ago.
The Pixel 2, with its 5-inch screen and prominent bezels, doesn’t look like the traditional future of smartphones and, moreover, doesn’t immediately wow you as much as the edge-to-edge, curved-corner 6-inch display of the Pixel 2 XL. However,
the smaller Pixel does make for a comfortably palmable handset, which is helped by its grippy aluminium surface that’s textured to the point of feeling almost plasticky.
While both phones use OLED displays (AMOLED on the Pixel 2 and P-OLED on the 2 XL), when comparing the two devices side by side, it’s clear that the standard model has more vibrant colours than its larger counterpart, and no signs (as yet) of the screen burn-in problems that have been reportedly occurring on the XL. In fact, the Full HD display on the smaller of the two is surprisingly nice. Depending on how the XL screen performs in the long run, the Pixel 2 may be a case of better small than sorry. Although the Pixel 2s aren’t debuting a new Snapdragon processor like last year’s models, they do still boast the very capable 835, a chip that’s found in the Samsung Galaxy S8 in many countries (although not Australia or Korea). It’s an adequate part that is perhaps getting a bit older than we’d like, but it doesn’t really show: the eight-month-old 835 combined with 4GB of RAM mean both the new Pixels run smoothly and can match the benchmark results of the current Android flagship competition.
The smaller Pixel 2’s battery lasts all day with moderate use, which you may not expect given it’s a rather small 2,700mAh cell. The handset saves power in a number of important ways, such as with its 1080p screen and Android 8.0 battery-saving options. Music on this phone sounds great through headphones (which you’ll need to connect via the included 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter or Bluetooth), and we even liked listening through the dual front-facing stereo speakers. Yes, there’s an odd ticking noise coming from some Pixel 2 speakers, but Google promises a software fix for this issue.
GOING LARGE
The Google Pixel 2 XL is the company’s most expensive phone yet, costing an extra $319 above the regular model — but despite that premium price, in some ways, this is the more problematic of the two new devices. Forking out $1,399 will get you the aforementioned ‘edge-to-edge’ 18:9 display, packed with 2,880 x 1,440 pixels and boasting an extra inch of size for 6-inches total. The screen is smartly tapered at the edges, making for a much more pleasant grip given its size, not to mention a more stylish aesthetic. Despite that new aspect ratio, physically it’s about the same size as the original XL — it’s considerably wider than the 5.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S8, and the top and bottom bezels are a fair bit larger than we’d like. As before, it’s a bit of a hand-stretcher.
Moreover, despite the boosted screen specs, colours on the XL seem to be distinctly less vibrant than on the Pixel 2, and there have been reports of screen burn-in issues when a static image remains on the P-OLED display for too long, and at the time of our review, Google had yet to address these issues, although it was promising a software fix for them.
Beyond the display, the XL also offers a significantly bigger battery — 3,520mAh vs the smaller handset’s 2,700mAh — but given that the XL has to power a much larger display with a higher pixel density, we found the battery life was fairly similar to the smaller model.
THE BEST ‘PURE ANDROID’ DEVICES YET?
The Pixel 2 is a great choice for anyone who wants to upgrade their always-on-them camera to the best of what smartphones can offer. It doesn’t have a fancy dual-camera system or telephoto capabilities, but it does have portrait mode on both the main and selfie camera and colour accuracy we just haven’t found on any other devices.
In terms of hardware and software, the Pixel 2 XL looks and feels like Google’s most cohesive, fully-realised attempt at a flagship phone yet — and if it weren’t for those niggling display problems, it’d be the clear winner of the two. As it is, we’d wait to see if the screen issues get the promised fixes before making a commitment.
Building off last year’s learnings, what’s undeniable is that Google has crafted two of the smartest smartphones ever. Both handsets offer a whole lot of promise today and, perhaps more importantly, will continue to improve in the years to come right alongside Google’s ever-intelligent services and Android OS upgrades.
THE PHOTO QUALITY IS, IN SHORT, BEST-IN-CLASS — EVEN WITHOUT A SECOND TELEPHOTO CAMERA. THE VIDEO QUALITY IS LIKEWISE STEADY, WITH WELL-PERFORMING ELECTRONIC IMAGE STABILISATION.