Google Pixel XL

amazon Google Pixel XL reviews

Design

If with the Nexus line before, Google handed the task of design to the hands of manufacturers that made Nexus gadgets always carry the DNA of the manufacturer: Galaxy Nexus is a Samsung phone while the Nexus 4 Exactly like LG. Google Pixel XL was manufactured by HTC, but Google designed this product from A-Z. And ironically, the first phone that Google designed itself was identical to the iPhone. At first glance, you can clearly see where Google Pixel XL is coming from. The monolithic aluminum back with plastic stripes on both ends reminds of the design of the Apple iPhone 6 / Apple iPhone 6s.

Even the feel of the Google Pixel XL is similar to the Apple iPhone 6 Plus though a little neat. If 3 or 4 years ago maybe I will celebrate crying when I see Pixel XL because the dream of an iPhone running Android is always burning in me from the beginning of Android. However, to date, Samsung has a pretty complete design: beautiful with comfortable feel, Google’s choice to follow Apple in Pixel XL does not make much sense. The feel of the Google Pixel XL is not very comfortable, flat back and the body is horizontal to make the machine feel quite cumbersome, perhaps “form” iPhone only suitable for products screen size under 5inch And maybe the Google Pixel 5 inch screen will be more suitable. The decision to put the glass on the back of the Pixel XL is probably one way to try to get the machine out of the shadow of the iPhone because it does not actually serve a specific design purpose (the antenna is still in place. Plastic strips like the iPhone).

In general I personally do not really like the design of the Pixel XL. To be fair, this is not a bad design, but I expect a breakthrough to open up Google’s own path instead of just picking up old-fashioned, boring designs from a 3-year-old product like IPhone 6 / 6s.

Offset for a design not impressed, Pixel XL is meticulously finalized, just like the other smartphones from the HTC. The aluminum-plastic-glass contiguous regions are handled very well, with no overlapping and a very pleasant feel on the hands. And one of the small but important features is the ability to resist water and dust is not Google put on Pixel XL. If the 1.2 years ago may not be considered weak, but to the present time when all the heavyweights of the Pixel XL as Samsung galaxy S7, Samsung galaxy S7 Edge, Apple iPhone 7 / Apple iPhone 7 Plus are available water resistant, dust. The lack of this feature actually caused a worry.

Maybe hold Google Pixel on hand, you will hardly make the road to look like when holding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 or Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge but for those who are using Apple iPhone 6s Plus and want to change to Google Pixel XL will make sense familiar from the first sight. This is probably part of Google’s intention when designing the Pixel XL.

Screen

Using the AMOLED screen with 2K resolution, Google Pixel XL gives excellent display quality. With a 5.5-inch, high brightness, bright colors and excellent AMOLED contrast, Pixel XL is arguably the best high-end product in 2016. Pixel XL to watch movies instead of Note 7 or S7 Edge because honestly speaking, curved screen overflows the two edges look nice, but to see the movie is very uncomfortable due to the two cropped.

The Adaptive lightning feature of the Pixel XL also works very well. I especially like being able to set the brightness with the slider, then the screen automatically adjusts to the darkness in the ambient environment instead of just two modes: automatic and adjustable with … rice as in the Another smartphone. Nightlight mode allows the screen to change to golden tone so it does not cause sleeplessness when watching the evening phone is also a new but extremely valuable addition. A little feature but bring a huge difference.

Pixel XL’s screen when out in the sun is guaranteed high brightness, less glare.

Performance

Over the years, lag disease is one of the chronic diseases inherent in Android smartphones. The next generation of Android devices try to “drown” the lag, late on the Android smartphone by adding more RAM, processing power. But one of the root causes of lag on Android smartphones is the lack of synchronization between hardware and software. Google can offer reference designs, but the vast Android world stretches across thousands of configurations, dozens of manufacturers, so optimizing software for a particular piece of hardware is unbelievable. The “war” between Google and the hardware manufacturers is the reason for the “hesitant” of the Android phone after pressing the home button or “jerky” when scrolling menus even in a high-end model.

Apple can solve the problem by building a dedicated operating system for its hardware. And now Google does the same thing but vice versa: Building hardware on the platform of the software available.

And to say that this is also my first time holding a smartphone running Android is really smooth, no lag like the iPhone. Although the difference is not large compared to the current top Android smartphone but after spending a while using the Pixel XL back to the Galaxy S7 I feel very clearly the changes in latency and feeling claw Slide.

The tight fit between hardware and software also gives the Pixel XL great battery life. Although the battery capacity is not large (3450 mAh but 5.5 inch screen 2k) but the battery life of the Pixel XL is clearly better than the Note 7 I used before. Even with a 70% charge when I leave the house at 7am and the intensity of day-to-day use I still get a full day of use with about 5% of the battery remaining at 6am, during the 5-day Pixel trial. XL I have not once squeezed the battery of the machine after a day of use, which has never been on other smartphones, including Note 7.

where can you get a Google Pixel XL online

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Google Pixel XL Phone 32GB – 5.5 inch display ( Factory Unlocked US Version ) (Very Silver): Buy it now

Google Pixel XL Phone 128GB – 5.5 inch display ( Factory Unlocked US Version ) (Quite Black): Buy it now

PIXEL XL Phone by Google – 128GB – 5.5″ inch – Android Nougat – Factory Unlocked 4G/LTE Smartphone (Quite Black) – International Version with No Warranty: Buy it now

Google Pixel XL Phone 32GB – 5.5 inch display ( Factory Unlocked US Version ) (Really Blue): Buy it now

Software

Perhaps the bright spot of Google Pixel lies in the software. Android 7.1 with the assertion that will always receive the latest Android update just released is a great advantage of Pixel XL without a competing Android manufacturer. When this article came out, after just 3 days of use, I received an update 7.1.1 via airpush. Overall, the interface of Android 7.1 is the most intuitive, clean and user-friendly interface in the world of mobile operating systems, as per my personal judgment.

Pixel XL’s icon, app drawer and menus, text boxes are all mature, modern and elegant. It’s nice to say Android 7.1 from the inside out, and hopefully other manufacturers will follow Google to throw away their traditional skins to provide a more homogeneous Android experience.

Not only beautiful, Pixel XL also has many convenient and intuitive shortcuts, keep in touch with supported apps such as Gmail, Calender will pop up a popup that allows you to quickly perform tasks without going in. Apps, almost like the Force Touch of the iPhone without the need for additional hardware.

Double click on the power button to turn on the camera no matter what screen you are on, a trick from Pixel XL “borrow” from Samsung, in fact the power button is a bit small and hard to make the operation of the camera in this way is limited.

Google Assistant is an extension of Google Now. In fact, I find that the Assistant does not outperform the feature than Google Now just has a few more natural conversations than the Google Now question and answer form. Pixel XL’s “Ok Google” startup command is also good, my opinion is better than Samsung’s smartphones: even this head says Ok Google that the machine to the other side of the room also jump Google Assistant. I often use Google Now to make calls, text messages, and directions while driving, so Google Assistant speech recognition is better, faster than a great addition.

Pixel XL software takes advantage of many Google services and technologies to bring the convenience of small but extremely valuable. For example, the ability to identify a caller’s phone number through the Google Business List: Many stores, individuals calling me without saving a Pixel XL phone number display the caller’s name, The right number of telemarketer phone calls or insurance sales with referrals project so that I can actively refuse to lose time.

Camera

One of the first things I wanted to do when I was on the Google Pixel was testing its camera system. This year, Pixel showed a more serious attitude from Google, when it officially joined the hardware design process. This means that the company has full control over the interoperability between hardware and software – something Google previously could not do with the Nexus, as hardware was entrusted to partners such as Huawei or LG. , Not Google.

Camera is a component that clearly demonstrates this interaction. I have seen many smartphones with very good hardware systems, possessing high resolution sensors, large aperture lenses, laser focus technology … but still give out the bad image because of the algorithmic treatment. The reason is too bad. Meanwhile, some Nexus models like the Nexus 6, Nexus 5 have good software, but are limited by hardware. Will this year, when Pixel has taken care of both sides, the results will be?

First let’s review the camera’s parameters. Pixel and Pixel XL have the same camera system, all using the Sony IMX378 12-megapixel sensor, f / 2.0 aperture lens, support for phase and laser focus. A major shortcoming of Pixel is that it does not support Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS), a feature that most modern flagships already have.

The default Google Camera imaging application has a fairly simple interface, which includes some of the main features of regular photography, Panorama, Photo Sphere (360 photos), Lens Blur, and Slow-motion video. . Users can switch back and forth between shooting and recording. Unfortunately, Google does not integrate professional-grade Pixel capabilities.

5 days is a little time to finally come to a conclusion, but Pixel’s camera has left a very good impression on me. The images that give it high detail, the color seems to be saturation but still retain the nature, not too much momentum as some other brands. Especially, when shooting dark images, Pixel’s image is rarely blurred due to algorithms of image processing that do not abuse the noise reduction.

However, it is meaningless to just give photos like this. To assess the true quality of Pixel’s camera, compare it with the Galaxy S7 edge – the smartphone is considered to have the best camera today.

It can be seen that although Pixel owns a lossy camera index compared to the S7 edge (f / 2.0 less f / 1.7, does not support OIS), Pixel’s image is perfectly equal to the S7 edge, even Releases in some cases are even better. In my opinion, the main advantage of Pixel is primarily in software – Google’s image-processing algorithms retain very good detail, not as bloated as Samsung. In addition, although not supporting OIS, Pixel’s image stabilization is also very good.

We talked a lot about the main camera, but we can not overlook the camera selfie on the other side of the camera. Pixel’s self-resolution camera has an 8MP resolution, f / 2.4 aperture. Whereas with the Galaxy S7 edge, these two numbers are 5MP and f / 1.7, respectively. If you compare it in a correlative way, many people think that the S7 edge selfie camera is definitely better – as the large aperture helps to produce self-portraits that are more “virtual” in low light conditions.

However, I rate Pixel’s selfie camera superior to the S7 edge. And the reason, again, comes from the software. Galaxy S7 edge owns the toolkit beauty (smooth skin, big eyes, squeeze face …), but the over-processing has caused the image lost nature naturally inherent. While with Pixel, selfie images are also processed in the direction of retaining as much detail as possible. This is, in my opinion, very beneficial, especially for women who use selfie applications such as Camera360 / Snow …, which have built-in tools to “re-slap” the face and Better than what Samsung built into the camera application of the S7 edge.

Although only the first 24 hours have passed, I have been able to claim that Pixel will definitely be in the top three best smartphones in 2016, next to Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge. . What impresses me at Pixel is not hardware, but software – when Google seems to have found the perfect formula to get the most out of hardware. This is also the result that the company has achieved from the close link between hardware and software – something that I would like more from the Android manufacturers.

Conclude

If you need an Android phone with a strong battery, beautiful screen, delicious orange, softwares that do not want to embarrass the fire extinguisher or worry about the fire at home, the Pixel XL is a good choice. . But choosing Google Pixel means you will have to accept the “stumble” of Google as a toddler step into the hardware industry. It’s easy to understand that Samsung took six years to produce a defective product. Google is quite knowledgeable users, things that need to be invested to bring a good user experience such as battery, cam, screen, configuration are all concerned about Google. With the first “white mouse” that Pixel XL has enough to match all the big men from the oldest manufacturers in the market is a very good signal and gives us the right to expect a Google Pixel XL 2 with better design, more, breakthrough.