Friends+Design
- Attractive looking (and unique) design, and an excellent, premium, aluminium build
- The black and white Pixel 2 XL looks especially gorgeous!
- Great hand feel
- Fully water-resistant body
- The fingerprint sensor is both fast and accurate
Display
- Good display - bright and sharp (though not quite as rich as a best-in-class screens on Samsung's flagships, and it also has some discernible blue-shift when you tilt the display)
- Has a bigger, sharper 6-inch display versus a 5-inch AMOLED display on the Pixel 2 - making it a better device for immersive video and web browsing more - plus, that higher resolution is especially advantageous when using a VR headset
- The larger screen size than the Google Pixel 2 means its not quite as comfortable to use and handle as its smaller cousin
Software
- This is Google's Android software, as it is meant to be - simple, clean, easy to understand - with a few handy add-ons like the Pixel Launcher, automatic offline music detection, and Always On lock screen
- Google also borrows from the HTC U11's pressure-sensitive sides - you can squeeze the phone to open Google Assistant and tell it what to do
Performance
- Top-end performance backed by the best-in-class Snapdragon 835 - the phone is consistently fast no matter what you throw at it - and matches other top-end flagships in benchmark tests
Camera
- Another interesting and useful add-on is the Google Lens, built into the camera's photo app, which calls up a trove of information on objects like a landmark or a piece of art
- More than anything else, the Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL is about its absolutely brilliant camera - which is arguably the best overall camera on any smartphone right now - even beating the likes of the iPhone 8 Plus, and Galaxy Note 8 (although not by a lot)
- The best way to put it is that camera simply works, no matter what the conditions
- It can handle all sorts of tricky environments like low light, shadows and brightly lit backgrounds - Google's HDR+ continues to beat the pants off of everyone else
- And the addition of OIS helps take the camera up another notch from last year's Pixels
- Even bokeh shots are managed rather well, and without any fuss (even without using a dual camera setup like other phones - purely using Google's excellent software algorithms)
- All in all, this is a truly impressive camera, and a milestone in how far we have come with mobile photography
- The front camera is pretty great too - and can also take bokeh-style shots like the rear camera - something thats only offered by a handful of phones right now
- The presence of OIS takes up video quality a notch higher too - you will be impressed by how smooth and natural-looking the stabilization is
- Other features like Motion Photos (similar to the iPhone's Live Photos) add to the fun too
- The camera is also optimized and calibrated to support AR and comes with AR stickers - they work like regular photo stickers you add to your photos and video, but they're 3D elements and characters that move around and interact in real-life environments
Audio
- Good audio quality via headphones
- Good set of dual front-facing speakers
- No standard headphone jack - Google goes the way of the iPhone here - and that is kind of a drag for people who have a pair of great wired headphones or earbuds they'd rather keep using without an adaptor dongle (which comes included in the box)
Battery
- The battery life is solid - will comfortably last the day with moderate use - overall its similar to what you would get from the iPhone 8, or the Google Pixel 2
- Pretty good charging speed too - you will get about 7 hours of battery life with a 15 minute charge
- The battery life while good, is certainly not class leading among the flagships - it is significantly behind for instance the Galaxy Note 8 and the OnePlus 5 - both of them comfortably give battery life of over a day
- No support for wireless charging, that's now present on the likes on iPhone 8
More
- Of course, the Pixel 2/ Pixel 2 XL gets better the more you buy Google products - it’s a great universal controller for your Chromecast, works in tandem with a Google Home, and will work seamlessly with Pixel Buds too
- On the whole, if you want the Android phone that does the most stuff, you might choose the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 - it remains the "All The Things" phone to beat - but if you want a phone you don’t have to learn to use or fuss with just to make work properly, you will want the Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL - for the ordinary user, this is the best Android phone out there, as on date
