Google Pixel and Pixel XL 2

Commander Shepard said:
My P2XL was delivered this morning. After setting it up, I noticed the blue shift was still there at an angle, but it didn't seem as strong as on my first one. I switched the Color setting to Saturated and the screen came alive. It looks great. I'm still trying to get used to the rear sensor, but I'm feeling good about the phone, this time. (y)
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watch out for the high temperature and short battery bug that's hitting to the xl phones
 
Commander Shepard said:
I just ordered the Bodyguardz screen shield. Will let you know my thoughts when it arrives in a few days.
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I just ordered this amFilm protector. A few people on XDA said it was good other than a slight rainbow effect under certain lighting like florescent lighting, which we just switched over to LED at work and mostly at home. It has good recent reviews on Amazon as well; it seems it originally shipped with an adhesive defect that caused it to come loose too easily and it has since been fixed, hence all the poor older reviews. They seem to have decent customer service too with a lifetime warranty. I'll post back after I get it on to let others know it it worked out.
 
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Ringke finally released the Slim case for the Pixel 2 XL BTW. There's a special 3 pack for $16 right now.

I haven't received mine yet but if it's anything like their previous cases it should have a slight lip to protect the screen from falls.

And on a side note I don't recommend the Whitestone protector at all. The installation itself is straight forward but the finished product will leave cured loca glue all around the edges. And because it doesn't have a black border the loca glue will collect all the lint from your pocket and you'll have a little halo made out of lint surrounding your screen.

Also while they give you 2 little bottles of loca glue the installation is pretty much a 1 time thing. There's a plastic film under the glass to help the loca adhere to the screen but if you mess up and need to retry the loca is extremely difficult to remove. The worst part is that you're guaranteed to scratch the plastic film while removing the loca.
 
Got my phone in. Maybe I won the display lottery, but the blue shift isn't any worse than I have on my 6P already, which is to say that it's there, but not really distracting at all or nearly enough to make me consider returning it. It got a tad warm during setup while it was downloading/syncing everything, but it was at 40% battery out of the box and even after setup, updating once, and playing around with it for a couple hours, it's still only at 25%.

I get my Caseology case (seen a few others in here get it too) and screen protector tomorrow. I really don't like using this phone naked, as I'm scared I'm going to shatter it at any moment, hah.
 
I have to say (write) that I'm feeling almost Zorachus level enthusiasm for this phone. :p

The battery life seems as good as on my OP 5. No overheating issues, so far, and the performance is very smooth, very quick. I can't find any true fault with it. I suppose the rear sensor still irks me, but not nearly enough to diminish my satisfaction. If the next Pixel has an on-screen fingerprint sensor I might fall in love. Hard to imagine another vendor (Samsung, LG, etc.) winning me away from a Google phone running pure Android. I certainly am not going back to an iPhone anytime soon.
 
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Bout to crash, but pretty good for its first day.

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Not as good as my wife's Z Play, but nothing else really is either and that's definitely good enough for me. I hammered it more than I normally would today too since it's new and I wanted to see what it could do. This was mostly on WiFi too, but I was away for 2 hours on cellular while I was at the gym today.

I'm impressed overall with pretty much everything, even the display for all the flak it got. From what I'm seeing too, it seems Google may be tweaking the display on newer builds of the phone, as some people are claiming to have exchanged their phones and the newer ones are noticably better in terms of blue shift and other anomalies. I definitely like the saturated mode best though and am glad we're not stuck with the natural/sRGB mode that it mostly got slammed for at launch.

The only nitpicks I have so far is that the F fingerprint sensor feels pretty coarse and makes me feel like my skin is super dry, much unlike the 6P's that is completely smooth. Also, I'd definitely prefer a 16:9 display still, but this aspect ratio isn't annoying my quite as much as I thought it would. It just makes one of the games I play a bit more awkward and i don't like wasting screen space on videos with side borders or cropping the video by zooming in.
 
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I just had to post here about how much I love my P2XL. Screen reviews had me so worried, but my copy at least is just fine. Sure, some blue shift, but honestly barely worse than my 6P had before it. Performance is nuts, the camera is incredible, and battery life is phenomenal.
 
Got my screen protector installed. Seems good so far. You can only see the dot matrix under certain lighting and on dark screens. I didn't notice the rainbow effect in the middle until I went to take a picture of it either. It was pretty easy to install since the adhesive is only on the sides. But I was afraid that would mean it wouldn't stick very easily, which doesn't seem to be the case so far. Fits great with my case as well. Just registered or for a lifetime warranty (2 replacements only, which is reasonable to me).

IMG_20180101_235039.jpg IMG_20180101_235334.jpg

Definitely good enough for the $13 it costs. 8/10 all things considered.
 
Anyone know of a quick flashlight solution without root? One of the most useful features of the ROM I was running on my 6P was I could hold the power button with the screen off for the flashlight. Now on stock Android I have to turn on the phone, swipe down on the notification shade, then tap the flashlight toggle. This is something I use daily, so I'd like a better shortcut without rooting somehow. I'm trying to give stock/unrooted for as long as I can.
 
Aren't there apps like Power Button Flashlight/Torch or Torchie (volume button) that do exactly what you want?
 
Agenesis said:
And on a side note I don't recommend the Whitestone protector at all. The installation itself is straight forward but the finished product will leave cured loca glue all around the edges. And because it doesn't have a black border the loca glue will collect all the lint from your pocket and you'll have a little halo made out of lint surrounding your screen.
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This has not been my experience at all. As long as you thoroughly clean the edges after install you won't have that issue. The protector has been worth every penny. No rainbow, no dot matrix, perfectly smooth and tough as nails.
 
Got my Bodyguardz screen protector today. Fits perfectly with a case. At $40 bucks (with 20% repeat customer discount), it ain't cheap, but looks like it'll do a good job. I've always been pleased with Bodyguardz products. Lifetime free replacements help ease the pain of the price. Definitely gets my recommendation. (y)

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How many here running the Android P Alpha ? Is it even daily driver enough to use, or only meant to play around with and not for full time use ?
 
Or at least is anyone running just the new Android P Launcher ? How's that run on stock 8.1 ?
 
Still on Oreo 8.1 (March 5 update) with mine. One little annoyance I've seen lately is that Smart Lock stopped working a few days ago. It's one of my favorite features of Android, so I hope it gets fixed soon.
 
Commander Shepard said:
Still on Oreo 8.1 (March 5 update) with mine. One little annoyance I've seen lately is that Smart Lock stopped working a few days ago. It's one of my favorite features of Android, so I hope it gets fixed soon.
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Smart lock is using Face to unlock ? How do you set that up ?
 
Zorachus said:
Smart lock is using Face to unlock ? How do you set that up ?
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Oh, I'm not using Face Unlock. I meant he Smart Lock feature that keeps the phone unlocked while in your home or other specific location, connected to bluetooth devices, or while carrying it. All that stopped working on my phone after the latest update.
 
Zorachus said:
How many here running the Android P Alpha ? Is it even daily driver enough to use, or only meant to play around with and not for full time use ?
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You'd be a bit crazy to run that on your primary phone. It's not even an opt-in beta. It's the first developer preview, so basically an alpha build and you have to wipe your phone to install it and then again to update to an OTA build later on.

Having said that, I see plenty of things I wouldn't like about running the current DP1, hopefully things they change back in the final P build, so no way I want to run it now even if it was somewhat stable. I might consider opting into the beta once it starts if I don't see much being reported broken on it.

Commander Shepard said:
Still on Oreo 8.1 (March 5 update) with mine. One little annoyance I've seen lately is that Smart Lock stopped working a few days ago. It's one of my favorite features of Android, so I hope it gets fixed soon.
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Smart lock still working fine on my phone after the 5 March patch, at least the trusted BT devices and trusted face that I use to unlock. Did you try turning off and back on again? :p
 
T4rd said:
Smart lock still working fine on my phone after the 5 March patch, at least the trusted BT devices and trusted face that I use to unlock. Did you try turning off and back on again? :p
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Well, I just restarted my phone after removing a few apps and Smart Lock is working again. :)
 
I had a weird issue on my P2XL where the google lens button didn't show up in my photos. My wife's P2 worked fine. Finally, now that google started rolling it out to other phones, it just showed up for me one day, woo!
 
One minor issue I've had is the very light vibration for the Pixel 2. If my phone is sitting on my desk (which it is most of the day), I can't hear it vibrate half the time. Never had that issue with any previous phones. I don't always feel in my pockets, either. Anyone know of an easy (and unintrusive) way to make the vibration stronger or at least a little longer?
 
Just spent with taxes approx. $250 on a screen replacement, my daughter accidentally dropped the phone cracking the screen a few weeks ago.

Went to UbreakiFixiT, dropped off phone picked up couple hours later, phone feels brand new again :)

Still say this is the best smartphone available as of March 2018. No other phone I'd rather have, except the Pixel 3 :)
 
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Curious do you all use tempered glass screen protectors? Or any type of screen protector? Or do you have nothing over your screen?
 
Tempered glass and a case always are my first purchases for any new phone. A clean, flawless screen is a great advantage whenever it's time to sell a phone.
 
Used to always go tempered glass but have skipped it the past two phones or so and enjoyed not having the ridge on the edges as the rolled screen edges makes TGSP a pain to use. One scratch on my X up top but outside of the viewable area. I do have AC+ so I could just drop it and get the screen replaced for $29 if it bothered me which it doesn't.

I am coming around to the theory of enjoying the phone how it was designed and use it as such and less about how future resale value is impacted.

I went through the same epiphany with high end golf clubs a few years back where I didn't want to hit certain clubs in certain situations because of the potential for marks/damage that could hurt resale of the club.

I now use any club in any situation as if I can't or will not, then I don't carry it.

Phones have nearly gotten to that point for me as well. Worry less about the future and enjoy what I have in the present. Turning 50 might have something to do with my change in attitude.
 
Zorachus said:
Crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!

My daughter dropped my Pixel 2 XL in the shopping cart. Huge spiderweb cracks in top corner, with big gouge by earpiece. Screen is pretty much wrecked. I am so upset. I know it was an accidental drop by my daughter, but still sucks.

Ugh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love this phone. Luckily I have an old backup phone.

Is there anyway to have this repaired easily ? Or even locally ?
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T4rd said:
No case..?
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Zorachus said:
Just spent with taxes approx. $250 on a screen replacement, my daughter accidentally dropped the phone cracking the screen a few weeks ago.
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See previous question.

Zorachus said:
Curious do you all use tempered glass screen protectors? Or any type of screen protector? Or do you have nothing over your screen?
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If you scroll up a bit, you'll see the ones Commander Shepard and I are using. After 2 days, I dropped my phone changing at the gym and it popped the protector off my phone. I figured maybe I didn't press down around the sides where the adhesive is on that protector when I installed it, so it wasn't applied very well. Sent a message to the seller and they sent another one out free with no hassle. I did a couple test drops and it seems to be on good this time. The only issue I have with it is that there doesn't seem to be any oleophobic coating on it because it smudges a lot easier than the previous protector I used on my 6P. Otherwise I don't notice the dot matrix pattern on it or rainbow effect it has at all unless the screen is black/off and in the right lighting.
 
I got the non-XL Pixel 2 last week. Wanted the smaller 5" screen size to fit in my pocket better. Seems like a great phone so far.

munkle said:
3rd one is fine but certain colors just disappear when you lower the brightness on the screen. I was browsing hard forum and noticed it looked really odd. I turned the brightness up and noticed a bunch of the colors came back.
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So many various video display devices have gotten that wrong. =/ When lowering brightness, often there should be a slight gamma change applied also. Without it, you often get crushing blacks. I think if I were buying a 6" phone I'd opt for the new S9+.
 
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Zorachus said:
Just spent with taxes approx. $250 on a screen replacement, my daughter accidentally dropped the phone cracking the screen a few weeks ago.

Went to UbreakiFixiT, dropped off phone picked up couple hours later, phone feels brand new again :)...
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Good to know, one of these just opened near me. Thought the name sounded too ridiculous to consider :)
 
Domingo said:
Nothing on my screen, but my case (http://www.speckproducts.com/google...oogle-pixel-2-cases/GPX2-PR-GRIP.html#start=2) has a raised lip to keep the screen from being damaged by flat surfaces. I've dropped it 2-3 times with no issues and that's the same sort of case I've had on all of my phones going back 6-7 years.
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I have this same cases and I highly recommend it. Normally I'm not a fan of speck cases (normally too thick and plasticky feeling) but this case feels great, good grip, not too thick and best of all, fantastic drop protection. It's got a very nice lip around the edges, better than most, which gives me peace of mind. I'm not using a screen protector and I've dropped this phone several times with no issues.
 
The Spigen case I'm using has a nice lip on it. Easily one of the better cases I've used.


On a side note, at some point, Smart Lock stopped working. WTF. Of all the features that's easily one of the top 3 I really like.
 
Been thinking about trying to Pixel XL 2. The Google Store is offering a $200 credit through their financing which would make the phone essentially $650. I would get the 64GB version, seems like an incredible deal. I'm using a iPhone 8 Plus right now but one of my family members phone recently broke and I may do a thing where I give them my 8 Plus and take the Pixel. I always had a hard time switching to Android but I think with iOS 11 and the way iPhones are now I'm really considering it. Is the Pixel 2 XL well made? Do all these display issues still exist? How's the build quality, good construction, no loose buttons or anything? I'm a little OCD when it comes to that.
 
Xan433 said:
Been thinking about trying to Pixel XL 2. The Google Store is offering a $200 credit through their financing which would make the phone essentially $650. I would get the 64GB version, seems like an incredible deal. I'm using a iPhone 8 Plus right now but one of my family members phone recently broke and I may do a thing where I give them my 8 Plus and take the Pixel. I always had a hard time switching to Android but I think with iOS 11 and the way iPhones are now I'm really considering it. Is the Pixel 2 XL well made? Do all these display issues still exist? How's the build quality, good construction, no loose buttons or anything? I'm a little OCD when it comes to that.
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I think both Pixel models are fantastically made. I'd say they're comparable to the iPhone. At least the iPhone 1-5 models as those were the last ones I owned. They even look super close to them. The only dead give aways are the smooth area around the camera and the front speakers. A lot of flagship Android phones still have a cheap'ish construction to them, but the Pixels definitely don't. They both remind me of the pre-Lenovo Motorola phones.

Someone else will be able to better answer your question about the screens, though. I had a day 1 XL2 that definitely did have screen issues, but I dunno if software or subequent revisions have fixed those things.
 
Xan433 said:
Been thinking about trying to Pixel XL 2. The Google Store is offering a $200 credit through their financing which would make the phone essentially $650. I would get the 64GB version, seems like an incredible deal. I'm using a iPhone 8 Plus right now but one of my family members phone recently broke and I may do a thing where I give them my 8 Plus and take the Pixel. I always had a hard time switching to Android but I think with iOS 11 and the way iPhones are now I'm really considering it. Is the Pixel 2 XL well made? Do all these display issues still exist? How's the build quality, good construction, no loose buttons or anything? I'm a little OCD when it comes to that.
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I got the Pixel 2 XL a couple of months ago, after some of these issues were dealt with. I have had zero issues and the screen is one of the best I have seen, super clear and no blue, but brightness is a little less than other phones, IMO you have to be picky as hell to see this as an issue. It is a solid well built phone. Hopefully it lasts.
 
Xan433 said:
Been thinking about trying to Pixel XL 2. The Google Store is offering a $200 credit through their financing which would make the phone essentially $650. I would get the 64GB version, seems like an incredible deal. I'm using a iPhone 8 Plus right now but one of my family members phone recently broke and I may do a thing where I give them my 8 Plus and take the Pixel. I always had a hard time switching to Android but I think with iOS 11 and the way iPhones are now I'm really considering it. Is the Pixel 2 XL well made? Do all these display issues still exist? How's the build quality, good construction, no loose buttons or anything? I'm a little OCD when it comes to that.
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If you're OCD, buy one from some place with a generous return policy so if you have issues you can get all your money back.

Mine went back to Google after 1 day. Ended up settling on an S8. The screen is significantly better but I would rather the stock android.
 
I'm so tempted right now with the BB promotion for the pixel 2 xl 128GB for around $22.91/month for 24 months (~$550). To trade in the s8+ or not. Decision, decision....
 
I went from a Nexus 6P to a Pixel 2 XL. To me there is little difference. To be honest I am not really all that impressed. I imagine it's because I went from essentially the same phone to the same phone +2 years of updates.

Truthfully, considering the difference in release dates, the Pixel camera is actually WORSE than my nearly three year old 6P.
 
auntjemima said:
I went from a Nexus 6P to a Pixel 2 XL. To me there is little difference. To be honest I am not really all that impressed. I imagine it's because I went from essentially the same phone to the same phone +2 years of updates.

Truthfully, considering the difference in release dates, the Pixel camera is actually WORSE than my nearly three year old 6P.
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That is some mighty fine peyote you're smoking if you think the 6P takes better photos then the pixel XL 2
 
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