[Smartphone review] | Google Pixel and Pixel XL

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The best of Google

Google's Nexus phones were always meant to set a standard in the world of Android smartphones. They were the phones to which everyone else looked up to, for reference. Even though the awesome name 'Nexus' is no more, Google still hasn't failed to impress me with It's latest phone(s). Google has nailed it again with It's two new flagship devices and this, is my review of the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.

Design: Well, Google phones weren't meant to be liked everyone else, up until now. The iconic look of the Nexus 6p is gone with it's name, as we see a more silent and rather plain looking design language used here. The pixel phones haven't astonishingly brought anything eye catching, at least not on the front. The rear side of the phone has an interesting blend of glass and metal. Instead of a uniform visor like the one on the 6p, here we see the top 3rd of the phone is covered in glass. Apparently this helps in boosting cellular reception and there haven't been any reported issues with signals as of now.
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My favorite two colors


There are prominent chamfers all around the phones and it makes holding them, a little bit easier. The pixel is the smaller one with and XL obviously is the larger variant, both weighing 143 gm and 163 gm respectively. There both 8.6 mm thick, so nothing to be too impressed about. Still the phones are very well made and leave a substantial feel on the hand. No matter how you're going them, this design ensures you're always touching premium materials. On the right of the phone there's the culling tickets and a textured power button. It's the same as the HTC 10, since HTC made these phones this time.

On the left there's a sim tray which accepts a nano sim. No expandability yet so you're stuck with what you get. On the tip there's still the headphone jack and on the bottom there's a USB type C port along with speaker grills. Even though the phones looks boring, it's still extremely well made and feels absolutely premium😍✌.

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Could've been brighter

Display: The smaller Pixel phone has a 5' 1080p AMOLED display whereas the larger Pixel XL has a 5.5' 1440p panel. The displays however, are excellent. They're very vivid, being AMOLED panels, offer excellent color reproduction and great viewing angles. They're a treat for any kind of user and won't disappoint you in any way, except maybe in peak brightness output. Even the Oneplus 5 outshines the pixel in maximum nits luminescence. But its manageable nevertheless.
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A flagship, through and through

Performance: This doesn't surprise anyone, I'm sure. Both the pixel phones run on the Snapdragon 821 with four cores, clocked at 2.15 GHz along with 4 gigs of DDR4 RAM and standard Adreno 530 GPU. All this power combined with the beautiful stock android 7.1 Nougat, offer mercurial smoothness all across the phone's interface😎👍. Animations are buttery smooth and there's absolutely ZERO lag! It's even smoother than a NEW nexus 6P which was known for fluidity in it's days. Once you pick this one up, you will not put it down, guaranteed!!🤓

Android 7.1 in these phones have several new features, prominently the Google assistant. The voice recognition software based on Artificial intelligence. It's much more human like now. You can talk to it like a person and it's able to understand you perfectly. Even the jokes you throw at it😄. It's way better and faster than any other voice assistant, especially Siri. Google has undoubtedly done the right things with the software and it's gonna make a whole lot of people extremely happy with them. Well done, as always.

But there's a downside now! Google has reportedly said it'll only launch software updates for the next two years, on to these pixel phones.​ That's kinda sad, considering these phones were famous for speedy updates and longest duration of software support.There are two storage variants, 32 GB and 128 GB.

The rear mounted fingerprint sensor is one of the fastest I've seen. It's faster than its competitors and equal to that of the iPhone 7 and the (surprisingly fast) Oneplus 3. It brings around the gestures from Huawei devices, such as swiping down on it brings down the notification panel.
Overall, this phone is a beast and will never let you down, no matter what way you plan on using it!

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Still the BEST camera around (w.r.t HDR)
Camera: Google have made a big deal out of these camera sensors during the launch, going on about how it scored the highest on DXOmark ( a camera benchmark) than any other phone. And looking at It's camera capabilities, I would say the hype was real! This phone has a 12 mp sensor on the rear with that huge 1.55 um pixel size, dual LED flash and a laser autofocus system. The camera app can still be launched by double pressing the power key.

The autofocus is amazingly fast and the shutter is super quick too! The images taken are superb, with lots of details and exposure, all well brought out. It does a great job of handling bright instances, like the sky, along with dark ones like shadows. Thanks to that always on HDR+ feature, the photos come out to be masterpieces pretty much every time🤓👍.

There is no OIS on board, but the software stabilization here is a killer! It's really very smooth and uses those frame stabilizing algorithms pretty aggressively. There is absolutely no shake or jitter while recording in 1080p. Even on 4K, the smoothness is very much acceptable, though it isn't as good as the Galaxy S7 or the iPhone 7 at that video resolution.

The front camera is an 8 mp sensor with f/2.0 aperture. It's great for selfies and groupies thanks to that wide angle sensor. You'll get great quality pictures from the selfie camera, no concerns here.

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Quick charge capable

Battery: The pixel has a 2770 mAh battery unit and the pixel XL had a larger 3450 mAh battery. Battery life has generally been great. The pixel gives you about 4 hrs of screen-on time and the XL gives you around 5.5 hrs. There's quick charge support which can provide you 7 hrs of standby on a 15 min charge, which is amazing. You can expect great standby time too, with that clean software onboard.

Price: You can get the pixel at $650 and the pixel XL at $760. Hefty price tag, I know. There might be better options for you. But you're getting an amazing smartphone with excellent camera, great display and unmatched, crazy smooth performance🙄. It's goal was to bring Android to everyone and not just google fans.

Well, I'm happy to recommend the pixel XL or even the smaller pixel to anyone who is interested. I can unflinchingly say that this phone, is the BEST phone that Android has to offer right now🤓!

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