Google Pixel and Pixel XL 2

If you want a Google phone, you preorder today. You'll get it within 3-4 weeks. After that...you won't see them FS again for 6 months.

You might at a Verizon store or Best Buy. They had models available off the shelf when the Pixel 1 launched. The exception being the XL/128. I'm not convinced those even existed at launch.
 
Nothing really new here. Still no option to buy through the carrier.. The Pixel Buds are not really wireless.. Ships after Oct 17.. Probably a nice phone, but its an easy pass for me...
 
Nothing really new here. Still no option to buy through the carrier.. The Pixel Buds are not really wireless.. Ships after Oct 17.. Probably a nice phone, but its an easy pass for me...

You can buy through Verizon if you're on Verizon. As far was wireless, it depends on your definition of wireless. If you mean, you're not tethered to another device via a cord or wire, then they are wireless. If you mean no wire whatsoever then no, they're not. Ships after Oct 17th? And? Not sure what your point is with that.

If you've used or owned a pixel then you know what makes this phone attractive. The pixel line is arguable the best and smoothest user experience on any Android phone. Also, if DXO mark is to believed (and there's no reason not to. They called it the best 2016 camera phone and in my experience it was) it's also currently the best camera on a smart phone. Those are the major reasons to buy one. If those don't appeal to you, then yeah, it's a pass.
 
Too expensive! I see no real difference except better camera from my Nexus 6. The regular Pixel 2 is too small at 5", so I'm comparing the XL. If you don't play games I very much doubt anyone will notice any performance difference in any phone in the last 3 years. It doesn't have wireless charging. And it may have better battery life but thats only because Android is such an unoptimized mess on Nexus, which is the last thing you expect.
 
Really like the panda white color option, but it's 7 weeks out. Think I'll wait before preordering now, maybe someone else will have in stock sooner ?

I like that smart looking panda white too and the power button's coloration adds an unexpected flair.
 
You can buy through Verizon if you're on Verizon. As far was wireless, it depends on your definition of wireless. If you mean, you're not tethered to another device via a cord or wire, then they are wireless. If you mean no wire whatsoever then no, they're not. Ships after Oct 17th? And? Not sure what your point is with that.

If you've used or owned a pixel then you know what makes this phone attractive. The pixel line is arguable the best and smoothest user experience on any Android phone. Also, if DXO mark is to believed (and there's no reason not to. They called it the best 2016 camera phone and in my experience it was) it's also currently the best camera on a smart phone. Those are the major reasons to buy one. If those don't appeal to you, then yeah, it's a pass.

I am not on Verizon.

The Buds are wireless, but not cordless.

The Android experience is not limited to a Pixel device.

Maybe I am wrong, but once again the Pixel is a niche product.
 
I really like the white color, very fresh and unique color combo, it's like the old school classic Nexus phones that had that look, ala Nexus 5, and Nexus 6, and Nexus 6P.

If I am going to spend this much money outright on a phone, I'll wait for it to come back in stock, right now the white 64GB is out of stock. Unless I buy it from Best Buy, but those are Verizon phones I believe? Which means locked bootloader, and defeats the whole purpose of a Nexus / Pixel, as those are meant to be rooted the minute the plastic comes off the phones :)

Looking forward to you guys getting them, and posting impressions.
 
I pre-ordered an XL2 black and white 128GB. Personally I really like this color scheme. Also, very glad to be getting back screen bezels this time around.

Stereo front facing speakers excite me because I always accidentally cover bottom mounted speakers.

The always on screen is something I liked on my Note 7, I am happy to get that back. Having the always on music use identification excites me. I live music discovery and this will make that ridiculously easy.

The camera improvements are always welcome. I'm hoping they have addressed the nasty halo issues that my XL has in bright sun outdoors. There is no way we can go wrong adding OIS to the amazing EIS system that was so great on the first gen.

I'm disappointed about losing the headphone jack but I'm pursuing Bluetooth options already.

My phone is scheduled for delivery November 16-23rd.
 
The Android experience is not limited to a Pixel device.

Umm, I never said it was. I said the Pixel delivers arguably the smoothest and fastest user experience on any Android device.

And its not just a subjective thing either. Check out this article by XDA. It measures real world performance in the form of dropped frames between last years Pixel and this years Oneplus 5 and Note 8. Now even though the Pixel is running last years hardware, it still destroys the 2 much more modern phones. It's not even close. I've had my XL for almost exactly a year now and it's every bit as snappy and responsive as it was the day it came out. Maybe even more so since the last update. I've never been able to say that about a phone before.

https://www.xda-developers.com/note-8-real-world-performance-analysis/
 
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If it's anything like the Galaxy S7/S8 always-on display there's a setting to turn it completely off, though I imagine the amount of battery use from the always-on display to be very minimal.
Thanks for that expectation.
Actually I am more concerned how the always-on Music Identification component affects battery consumption than does the Weather component. The Pixel's Song Identification presumably works by having a Google Service (Pixel Ambient Services?) access a locally stored database on your device rather than making calls to a Google server, which is why it will be working without the need for an internet connection and even works while in Airplane mode.
Will await to see how it's battery usage checks out.
 
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I pre-ordered an XL2 black and white 128GB. Personally I really like this color scheme. Also, very glad to be getting back screen bezels this time around.

Stereo front facing speakers excite me because I always accidentally cover bottom mounted speakers.

The always on screen is something I liked on my Note 7, I am happy to get that back. Having the always on music use identification excites me. I live music discovery and this will make that ridiculously easy.

The camera improvements are always welcome. I'm hoping they have addressed the nasty halo issues that my XL has in bright sun outdoors. There is no way we can go wrong adding OIS to the amazing EIS system that was so great on the first gen.

I'm disappointed about losing the headphone jack but I'm pursuing Bluetooth options already.

My phone is scheduled for delivery November 16-23rd.

I'll be coming off of a Moto X Pure and love it's front firing stereo speakers, so you can imagine my enthusiasm when I learned the Pixel will have front facing stereo speakers.

Regarding the Pixel lens flare and halo issues, I noticed that DxO reported their presence on the Pixel 2. You may wish to view what they and others have reported if you haven't yet done so.

Enjoy your Pixel 2, I'll be looking for your report when you get your new phone!
 
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So I've used a couple of phones over the last few years (5X, mi5, S7, S7 Edge) and just got the Pixel XL yesterday for about $50 more than my S7 Edge. I gotta say that the clean and fluid build of android is awesome.
I think the Pixel really does offer the best Android user experience (And I've been rooting, flashing etc for the last maybe 6 or 7 years).

That said, I can't help but be a little underwhelmed by the design of these two phones. I'm sure the camera and audio will be great (Speaker on the gen 1 XL is kinda crappy).
Since I just got the first Pixel I think I'll keep it for a while until I can get a 2XL for cheaper.
 
Same old blogger nonsense about LG's UI not as good as Google's - pure garbage. I hate the new launcher with the stupid google bar at bottom. And there's nothing the V30 won't have compared to stock Android, except it'll have a ton more features without losing any performance. And I can add storage with an sd card without stupid premiums - are there still people who pretend sd cards are bad? This copying Apple and not offering choice nonsense has to stop. And I'd rather have best ever DAC + headphone jack vs same old speakers as every other phone. My Nexus 6 has dual front speaker which I hardly use.
 
This reviewer's Pixel 2 display has downward moving banding. He first talks about it at the 4:00 mark, but start the video and you can see the anomaly from the beginning to the end of the video.

 
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"A ton more features without losing any performance" on shitty OEM skins seems like a pipe dream, based on most of Android's history. The other complaints I can agree with.
 
so would an unlocked pixel 2 XL work on verizon then? trying to decide if i want verizon or unlocked atm, thanks for the help.
 
Cripes, the 128 GB Pixel 2 XL is expensive. $950? And yet the Unbox Therapy guy isn't going all "DON'T Buy The Pixel 2" despite that price tag.

You might as well get the extra storage, too, because in typical Google fashion, you don't get a microSD slot. Prepare for the kludge of dealing with USB drives every now and then - which, by the way, you can forget about using in conjunction with headphones now that they've dropped the 3.5mm TRRS jack too, maybe unless you really want a USB-C hub dangling like spaghetti from your phone.

Also, what nobody asks about regarding that squeeze feature is whether you can use it for things other than Google Assistant. Otherwise, it's just another form of the much-maligned Bixby button. HTC at least had the sense to let their squeeze feature do a variety of things depending on what the user wants it to do.

Other than all that... well, I do find it odd that Google also announced a hideously expensive Pixelbook to succeed the old Chromebook Pixel, complete with what seems to be a Wacom AES pen, but not implement support for that on the Pixel 2 XL. I don't mind if I have to carry the pen separately instead of having it siloed in the phone because I did that all the time with my UP-911E/Axiotron Studio Pen, but just adding that one feature could've made the Pixel 2 XL a potential contender for me, even with the aforementioned gripes.
 
This reviewer's Pixel 2 display has downward moving banding. He first talks about it at the 4:00 mark, but start the video and you can see the anomaly from the beginning to the end of the video.



Seems like a non-issue. The V30 has banding as well, both at low brightness he said. He also said he hardly noticed it on the V30. So it seems like an attribute of LG's POLED displays.

so would an unlocked pixel 2 XL work on verizon then? trying to decide if i want verizon or unlocked atm, thanks for the help.

Yes, any Pixel will work on Verizon (and all other US carriers) whether it's sold by Verizon or not.

Personally I would only consider the unlocked Pixel just so I can always control what software goes on my phone. But I'm a root/ROM user that keeps phones until they're about EOL'd as well and ROMing is a nice benefit to have once your phone no longer receives official updates.
 
Congrats to everyone who ordered. I thought I might be tempted but the screen-to-body of the "regular" 2 turned me off an the XL 2 looks great but at $849 I just can't justify it.

The black and white one looks super cool too.
 
Seems like a non-issue. The V30 has banding as well, both at low brightness he said. He also said he hardly noticed it on the V30. So it seems like an attribute of LG's POLED displays.
Android Police unfortunately had the bad luck of having to review a particular Pixel 2 that was released with a flawed display. Other hands on reviewers in that room with the same lighting have videotaped a Pixel 2 XL for YouTube and their phones did not exhibit banding. Examples being this one, and this one.

He stated that he viewed a V30 that had banding he deemed as hardly noticeable, however the particular Pixel 2 that he was reviewing is exhibiting significantly noticeable banding. When you view the video you can't avoid seeing it and it is doing so in other than low lighting.
 
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I'm starting to wonder if these actually have more bloat now than the new Nokias.
 
I'm starting to wonder if these actually have more bloat now than the new Nokias.
The Pixel 2 will do things when you squeeze it. Is it possible that if you squeeze the sides hard enough and long enough you could expel said bloat? ;)
 
lol i just watched the apple.. err google event on this, looks like they are introducing apple products and features to android. hell even the event looks like it was planned and scripted by apple but with bad speakers

 
My Pixel 1 128gb non-XL is surprisingly still functioning after the unveiling on the Pixel 2 phones. Camera still works, still allows for full use of apps, streaming video, and just as fast as it was yesterday.

All kidding aside, although tempted, I cannot seeing this being a "revolutionary upgrade" over what I already have. I'd be really curious about how much of an improvement, or technological leap the 2 is over the 1. At least I still have my headphone jack! :D
 
Android Police unfortunately had the bad luck of having to review a particular Pixel 2 that was released with a flawed display. Other hands on reviewers in that room with the same lighting have videotaped a Pixel 2 XL for YouTube and their phones did not exhibit banding. Examples being this one, and this one.

He stated that he viewed a V30 that had banding he deemed as hardly noticeable, however the particular Pixel 2 that he was reviewing is exhibiting significantly noticeable banding. When you view the video you can't avoid seeing it and it is doing so in other than low lighting.

What's with the pwm flickering? It gets super aggressive when he lowers the brightness at the 4 minute mark. Haven't seen other amoled smartphones on video do that. Hopefully it's not something to worry about.
 
For anyone that has the HTC phone you can squeeze - can you disable that? I jog with my phone in my hand and I have no desire to have the assistant activate every 10 seconds.
 
On the fence on moving to the Pixel 2. I am probably going to keep the HTC 10. I am waiting for more reviews.
 
Colors are completely subjective but those calling it hideous? Exaggerate much? It's black and white? It's not like the phone is two toned puke green and shit purple. That would be hideous.

Then again this is Hardforum. We all bang 10s here so accordingly we hold our phone esthetics to similarly high standards. Lol.
 
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For anyone that has the HTC phone you can squeeze - can you disable that? I jog with my phone in my hand and I have no desire to have the assistant activate every 10 seconds.

Marques Brownlee did a quick hands on and it is indeed something you can disable.
 
I am interested in upgrading my Nexus 6 to a Pixel 2 XL (black and white)...which is now bloody sold out. Good show. Lets hope they at least start taking preorders again soon. However, I'm pretty disappointed by at least 2 things...

1. If they're going to copy Apple's monthly installments plan, why the fuck did they not copy the best parts of it - the integrated upgraded device warranty / AppleCare and most importantly THE ABILITY TO TRADE UP TO NEXT YEARS DEVICE WITHOUT PAYING THE OLD ONE OFF! And no, I don't think the "trade in your old phone" option is necessarily equal, because they can change the value of your trade in (it may not be exactly equal to half the payments on last year's model) and they may not let you trade in a phone with installments left on it, only one paid off. Apple and samsung are offering the "Forever" model where you can continually lease and upgrade, starting the contract over. I can't believe Google missed this and frankly it is one thing that stops me from buying in my tracks. Google should be innovating and leading the pack here by one-upping the other guys.

2. They seem to be partnered exclusively with Verizon again as far as carriers are concerned. Unless Best Buy et al are "full" T-mobile stores and could allow me to buy through their "JUMP on demand, change your phone up to 3x per year" service... but even at that, it seems cumbersome to have been so limited in terms of which mobile providers it was offered through.

If either of these things isn't accurate, then please let me know but... at least in a cursory sweep of the checkout and fine print, it seems so disappointingly.
 
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