What The Reviews Have To Say About The Google Pixel
(IT'S REALLY, REALLY GOOD)
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For those seeking a pure Android experience, Google's Nexus line (RIP) used to be the way. But Nexus' days are over, and Google has jumped directly into the phone design game, releasing the Pixel and Pixel XL. 

While the Nexus phones were mid-range devices, made to mid-range specs and sold for mid-range prices, the Pixel and Pixel XL were designed to be flagship phones through and through — from the specs to (sadly) the price. So, how do they stack up to the rest of the Android universe — and to the iPhone 7? 

The Best Android Phone Ever? Yes, The Best Android Phone Ever

"The best Android phone money can buy." [VentureBeat]

"The Pixel is easily the best Android phone I've ever tested." [Recode]

"Google hit a home run." [The Verge

"[The Pixel is] the best pint-sized Android phone we've used all year." [Digital Trends]

"The best Android phone." [Ars Technica]


The Design Leaves Something (Or A Lot) To Be Desired

Assessments of the Pixel's design range from "unexciting" to "ugly":

It's increasingly difficult to put a screen on the front of a 5- to 6-inch metal slab in a way that actually turns heads and opens wallets… The fruit of Google's labor is a phone that's pleasing to both the eyes and the hand, yet at the same time feels relatively safe and non-risky in design terms.

[Android Central

The Pixel is an ugly phone. The design is a little wider and taller than last year's Nexus 6P, and the bezel on the bottom lip of the phone is much bigger. Yuck. There's also a big slab of plastic at the top of the phone's back that feels sticky and a little uncomfortable to hold. The design is nowhere near as sleek, clean, and easy to use as the iPhone 7. These are all weirdly regressive design choices, but the most regressive is that the phone isn't water resistant.

[Gizmodo] 

And Battery Life Is Still Up In The Air

Battery life is notoriously hard to gauge, and Pixel reviewers came back with different reports. The good:

Both phones proved to be serious contenders in day-to-day use as well. After a full day of work, the XL would typically hover around 46 percent, and then, when my schedule quieted down, it just sipped on its remaining power. All told, I could reliably squeeze a day and a half of use out of it on a single charge, or closer to two workdays, even, when I took things slow. The smaller Pixel fared well too, sticking around for a full day and clinging to life the next morning.

[Engadget] 

The not-so-good:

[I]n my short few days of testing, using the smaller Pixel, I never approached the 13 hours or so Google claimed for most activities. On a day when I was focused on battery life, streaming a 90-minute movie and playing music for hours, I got only a few minutes over nine hours — not even enough to get most people through a full work day, including commutes.

[Recode

But The Camera Is On Par With The iPhone 7 Plus

If Apple's consistently great camera offerings have kept you in the iPhone camp, the Pixel could give you a reason to consider Android:

The "best ever" label may be up for debate, but the Pixel camera consistently produces great shots for a smartphone camera. Smartphone cameras are all so good now that there isn't much separation to see in well-lit shots, but in low light the Pixel captures stands out when producing bright colors and preserving detail. It's easily on par with the iPhone 7 Plus camera — despite that one having two lenses.

[Ars Technica


CNET took the Pixel and the iPhone 7 Plus out for a test run. You can check out the photos here — and here's their conclusion:

If you tend to shoot portraits and that's what matters to you most, the iPhone 7 Plus is an obvious choice. Portrait mode is dSLR-esque in beta and we only expect it to improve by the time it gets a public release. But if brighter colors, sharper detail throughout the backgrounds of photos and capable low-light photography is more important, it's the Pixel. I have to admit, I initially thought Google over-promised on its new flagship — especially after those disappointing Nexus — but I was wrong. It's a new chapter for Google phones and this one earned its name.

[CNET] 


It's Plenty Fast

Performance is superb on the Pixel XL, which is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip and 4GB of RAM. When you do something, it responds without delay. Swipe up from the bottom? Up the icons come. Swipe down? Down they go, just as fast as they appeared. Swipe down from the top? Here come the notifications. Down again? There are the quick settings. Up? Notifications. Up again? Back to the home screen. Apps open immediately. In short, the user interface always responds instantly to your input. This is freeing. But the best part is that unlike some phones, the Pixel XL doesn't slow down when you're low on battery life.

[VentureBeat


And It's Finally Simple And Intuitive — Like An iPhone

The iPhone is the Default Phone, the one you buy when you want a phone, not a project. The Google Pixel changes that. It offers the look and competence of an iPhone, with a truly great camera and loads of innovative software and services. It changes my answer to the question I hear most often: What phone should you get? You should get a Pixel.

[WIRED] 

Google Assistant Is The Best AI Assistant… But That Still Doesn't Mean Much

To be very clear: the Google Assistant is absolutely the smartest of the assistant bunch, but it's not yet in a class of its own. Google knows so much more about me than, say, Apple, and it's assistant should reflect that. Because Google itself is placing so much emphasis on the Assistant, it should be held to a higher standard than all the rest — and there's clearly still some work to do.

[The Verge]


In its current state, attempting to accomplish complex tasks with Assistant on Pixel will waste more time than it saves.

[New York Times]


TL;DR — Yeah, It's Good

The Pixel isn't a slam dunk that suddenly makes all other premium Android phones obsolete. But if you want a high-end phone, it deserves to be on your short list. And if you're sick of bloatware, heavily customized interfaces, and delayed OS updates, there's really no other choice.

[PC World]

<p>Dan Fallon is Digg's Editor in Chief.&nbsp;</p>

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