Friends+Design
- Beautiful design, and top-notch build quality - for the first time, Pixel phones feel like a thousand bucks — this year, the rear panel is glass, but, more importantly, the overall fit and finish the phones is much, much better - it’s a combination of a lot of little things that make these phones feel premium, but they add up - the seams between the glass and the aluminum rail are tight, and the corners of the screens are curved, as are both sides of the glass blending into the sides - the glass back has been etched with a matte finish, leaving the top portion glossy to maintain that classic Pixel look - you will love the way the glass feels
- Very comfortable to handle in the hand
- Water resistant
- The rear glass finish is fairly easily scratched - so you might want to use a case if you like your phone in a pristine condition
- Fingerprint sensor is the only form of bio-authentication on the phone - there is no face unlock
Display
- The single biggest improvement this year on both sizes is the quality of the screens - in short, the screens are great - they are vibrant and bright with colors that pop at any viewing angle
- Google is defaulting to a new color mode called “adaptive, ” which significantly increases the vibrancy of most colors without making human skin tones look surreal
- Overall, the Pixel 3/XL screens are finally worthy of the high prices that Pixel phones command - and Google has covered its bases on the most important 'flaw' of last year's Pixels - the screens still don’t quite match the brightness and color gamut of the iPhone XS or Galaxy S9 - but they get close
- The top and bottom bezels are still on the large-ish side compared to other flagship phones
Software
- Camera aside, Google’s predictive and helpful Assistant is what really steals the show on the Pixel 3/XL - it’s fast, it’s responsive, and it always seems to know what information you want, and when you want it - on the Pixel 3/XL, it exposes more information on the phone’s lock screen, like what’s next on your calendar, or notifications about news and TV shows it knows you like
- The Pixel 3/XL is also the first phone to ship with Google’s Digital Wellbeing features built-in - tracking your app use can be helpful - the wind-down feature turns on the phone’s grayscale and sets Do Not Disturb - it’s a very prominent reminder to turn the thing off and go to bed - there’s also a quick settings toggle to turn on grayscale from anywhere - you might use it more than you expect to
- Google has also added some custom software features for the Pixel Stand wireless charger (available separately) - putting your phone on the charger opens an interface powered by Google Assistant that gives you quick buttons to do Google Assistant things - it also serves as a little photo frame for albums from Google Photos - it all works and the Pixel Stand can also do faster charging with the Pixel than standard Qi wireless charging stands
- By far though, the coolest software feature on the Pixel 3/XL (which is also coming to the Pixel 2) is Call Screening - when a phone call comes in, you can tap a button to screen it - when you do, a semi-robotic voice will speak to your caller and ask them why they’re calling - you watch this happen via text in real time on your screen, and the caller’s response is similarly transcribed for you as they speak - when the call is active, you can tap a few pre-canned buttons to ask follow-up questions - it’s seriously useful and a seriously impressive tool for screening spam calls
- Of course, the best part of Pixel experience is that you are guaranteed immediate Android updates in the future too, and a clean, stock Android experience just like Google intended
Performance
- As far as hardware specs go, the Pixel 3 is pretty standard for a top-end flagship - it has a Snapdragon 845 processor, which is fast as you can get in the Snapdragon series - and Google has tuned the Pixel 3 and 3 XL to a remarkable degree - the phones will sail through everything without batting an eyelid
- The 4GB of RAM can be a bit of a bottleneck for heavy multi-taskers (given that this is 2018, and that this is a top-end flagship phone) - the phone usually tends to keep only 4-5 apps in the background at once
Camera
- As has been the case with the Pixel series, what really steals the show is the brilliant cameras, combined with some really smart software - the Pixel 2, released last year, was arguably the best camera you could get on a smartphone right on till the iPhone XS was released - and now the Pixel series again takes back the trophy for the best camera with the Pixel 3
- The most significant changes to the Pixel 3’s camera results come from the software, which Google keeps evolving into something better and better - there are plenty of new features too like “Top Shot” which will suggest a better photo from an automatically captured burst (it can be a life saver), and "Super Res Zoom" where Google uses the extra data it can gather from your hand shaking to create a zoomed image that’s better than merely cropping in digitally
- Thanks to all the Smart AI features, you can just focus on the shooting, while the phone makes sure the results are stellar
- Portrait mode too works well and marginally better than last year - Google continues to impress with the bokeh shots it creates using just software magic - there's also a depth effect adjuster
- The selfie camera experience is improved too with an additional wide angle lens this time to help you take wider "group" selfies
- Overall, choosing between the 3 best smartphone cameras - the iPhone XS, the Galaxy S9/Note 9, and the Pixel 3 is still a close call, but probably, everything considered the Pixel 3/XL are a shade ahead, especially when you take into account that they will likely keep getting improved even further with Google's AI prowess in the months to come
Audio
- Although there is still no 3.5mm headphone jack on the Pixel 3/XL, the trade-off is made a little easier now because Google is finally including USB-C headphones in the box - and they’re pretty darn good for included earbuds - plus the integration of Google Assistant features is nice too
- There is also a headphone dongle if you want to use your existing earphones
- Loud, clear front-facing speakers - one of the best on any flagship device - and much improved from last year's Pixels
Battery
- Decent (though not exceptional) battery life - the Pixel 3 will last all day with moderate use
- Fast charging support
- Wireless charging support - and you can also turn your phone into a nifty, mini smart display if you pair it with Google’s Pixel Stand charger
More
- Overall, there are no 2 ways about it - the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are the best Android phones you can get today, if money is no concern - these are pure Google phones - they swim in a sea of Google data and promise to use Google’s machine learning to make everything better: photos, annoying spam calls, even your “digital wellbeing.” - they also effectively address nearly all of the complaints people had about last year’s Pixels - if you want the best Android experience and the best camera you can get on a phone today, the Pixel 3/XL is it
- The Pixel 3/XL phones, more than any other Google-designed phone before them, are also a showcase of what sophisticated software can do - and the best part about such software centric devices is that they will change and get even better over time, even as the glass-slab-and-guts part of it stays the same
- Having said that, the Pixel 3/XL will also face heavy competition from value-for-money premium Android devices like the (soon-to-be-released) OnePlus 6T on the one end (probably lesser AI smarts, but similar hardware, near stock Android, a smaller notch with face unlock, and in-display fingerprint reader), and iPhone XR on the other (superior A12 Bionic chip, comparable cameras) - but again if you simply want the best Android phones, the Pixel 3/XL will the be the ones to get
