{"id":65617,"date":"2016-10-20T14:11:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T13:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=65617"},"modified":"2016-10-20T14:11:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T13:11:08","slug":"hands-on-with-the-google-pixel-xl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/10\/hands-on-with-the-google-pixel-xl\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands on with the Google Pixel XL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pixel_xl\"<\/p>\n

The first Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have started to arrive across the UK for pre-order customers today; exciting times! Mobile Fun has more than its fair share of gadget fans, so we were interested to see how the new phone measures up to its high price tag — and high praise from reviewers! Here’s our hands-on impressions, based on a few hours of playing around with the XL model.<\/p>\n

Design<\/h3>\n

There’s no two ways to say this — the Pixel XL is many things, but a pretty phone isn’t one of them. It doesn’t have the stylish curves of the Galaxy S7 Edge, nor the clean industrial design of the iPhone 7. It doesn’t look\u00a0bad<\/em>, but it just doesn’t do much to deviate from your mental image of the average smartphone. It’s a black rounded rectangle, with a big screen on the front.<\/p>\n

Look closer, and there are a few quirks that become apparent. The buttons are all on the right side, with the lock button very high up the frame. That’s because you’re meant to unlock the phone with your fingerprint, with a sensor mounted in the back. That’s a convenient position… unless your phone is laying face-up on a desk. It’s a good thing you won’t be using the buttons much as they feel a little cheap, with minimal\u00a0tactile feedback behind a press.<\/p>\n

\"20161020_120603\"<\/p>\n

The back of the phone looks a little unusual too, thanks to the square of glass that fits into the upper half of the back panel. It’s noticeably different from the metal elsewhere, and isn’t a super harmonious look. However, there are some positives here too. There’s no camera bump on the back of the phone, so it’ll lie perfectly flat on a desk. The phone is comfortable in the hand too, thanks to its gently curved edges.<\/p>\n

The screen is the star of the show, as it is should be. The 1440p display is crisp, with well-calibrated colours and perfect viewing angles. The bezels around the screen are a little unfortunate, but you won’t notice them much once you actually start using the phone.<\/p>\n

Performance<\/h3>\n

The Pixel is perhaps the fastest and most fluid smartphone I’ve ever used. The phone responds instantly to touch inputs and launches programs quickly. The Snapdragon 821 processor inside is no doubt partly responsible for this, but Google’s control of the hardware and software could also be a major contributing factor. The powerful CPU is backed with 4GB of RAM and 32 or 128GB of internal storage.<\/p>\n

This smartphone should be one of the fastest on the market until Snapdragon 830 processors launch next year, and even then it could be close — Google’s tweaks have really made the most of Android, which has historically struggled for speed and responsiveness when compared to Apple’s iPhones.<\/p>\n

Software<\/h3>\n

The Pixel runs 7.1 Nougat, the latest version of Android. It also has its own little additions, including a shiny new Pixel launcher (which you can now sideload onto other Android devices) and the Google Assistant.<\/p>\n

The latter is Google’s AI assistant, which initially debuted in its Allo messaging app. If you’ve used Allo then you’ll be familiar with most of the AI’s abilities, but you can now also ask it about content on the page you’re looking at. We tried to stump the Assistant and managed a few times, but Google’s offering is certainly every bit the equal of Siri or Cortana.<\/p>\n

Camera<\/h3>\n

\"sample\"<\/p>\n

Google call the Pixel’s camera the best that has ever graced a smartphone, and the on-trend camera experts at DxOMark agree — they gave it their highest ever score. The app launches quickly with a double tap of the home button (which also worked great on the Galaxy S7), focuses fast and takes pictures rapidly too.<\/p>\n

The phone actually takes a burst of underexposed photos in its default mode, HDR+, then uses some clever algorithms to fill in detail without much of the noise that plagues smartphone photos (particularly low-light ones).<\/p>\n

This approach seems to be a winner, putting the Pixel’s camera in the same wheelhouse as the best smartphones from Samsung and Apple. (If you’re interested in reading more about how this works, check out this excellent interview from\u00a0The Verge<\/em>).<\/a><\/p>\n

Wrapping up<\/h3>\n

Google have a hard task in convincing consumers to plump for a smartphone that’s every bit as expensive as an iPhone, but doesn’t have the same accessory ecosystem, wide critical acclaim and years of effective marketing.<\/p>\n

Honestly, Google’s first effort is better than I expected. The design is a little tame, but there’s little else to really find fault with here. The phone works incredibly well, and it’s the first phone from Google that really nails the camera side of the equation — Nexus phones have always struggled here against the best from Samsung and particularly Apple, but the Pixel goes toe-to-toe and comes out no worse for wear.<\/p>\n

Whether or not that’s enough to convince consumers, I have no idea. But if you want a new smartphone, then right now the Pixel feels as good or better than any other on the market.<\/p>\n

Shop Pixel cases ><\/a> Shop Pixel accessories ><\/a><\/p>\n

Shop Pixel XL cases ><\/a> Shop Pixel XL accessories ><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have started to arrive across the UK for pre-order customers today; exciting times! Mobile Fun has more than its fair share of gadget fans, so we were interested to see how the new phone measures up to its high price tag — and high praise from reviewers! Here’s our hands-on impressions, based on a few hours of playing around with the XL model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":65621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[311,216],"tags":[310,3429,8914,8808,8902,202],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65623,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65617\/revisions\/65623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}