Galaxy S9+ vs Pixel 2 XL: Battle of the Beasts By Android Police

So, what we have right here are what I believe to be the two best Android smartphones out right now in the galaxy s, 9 plus and the pixel to excel with these two phones. We have the makings for an excellent comparison, as they stack up very nicely to one another, but which one is better is one actually better than the other and which one should you pick up? Well, let's take a look, kicking things off with the hardware. I, don't think, there's any question who wins this category sure the pixel is solid with its glass and textured aluminum build. It's got its own curvature on the front, but really the s9s glass in aluminum build feels more premium, it's flashier, with the curved edge to edge, display and thinner bezels. The s9 is also more comfortable in the hand thanks to its more narrow frame and even more curved edges. On the back now, I know there are a good amounts of people who aren't fans of the curved edge display they find that it gets in the way of the user experience, so they prefer the pixel, despite the thicker bezels, getting into those displays again, I, don't think, there's any question who wins this category either.

We all know what went down with the pixel to excels, display upon release and although fresher pixels appeared to have better panels, in addition to Google, releasing an update to give users more saturated, color profiles, it's still not on the s nines level, but even though it's not, that doesn't make it bad at all. It's still a good display and I, don't think general consumers would see many problems with it and for me well, it doesn't bother me at all now. As for the software category, you're, looking at two totally different experiences on one hand, you get the Samsung experience with features galore. We all know good and well that Samsung just loves to cram as many features into their phones as they possibly can. The list of features is quite long, but you of course, have your edge panel and all the things that you can do with that edge lighting, to add effects to notifications, face and iris scanning and there's even an option where you can use both of these.

At the same time, expandable storage of your micros card fast wireless charging, you get excellent power, saving modes and device maintenance, there's Bixby and as much as I know a lot of you aren't fans of Bixby. It's still a feature nonetheless, and it has its upsides. Then you've got all the customizations with the theme store the highly tweakable always on display. The list just goes on, and I guess, since its slowly getting phased out. The headphone jack is a feature as well props to Samsung for hanging on to that.

Now, if you're someone who's already moved on from the whole headphone jack thing, and you prefer as many Wireless options as possible, then you might want to check out the new force be2 from Optima, who were awesome enough to sponsor this video first off these sound, very good, but not only that they are built to last with polycarbonate and a cable. That's been reinforced with Kevlar they're perfect for everyday use and especially workouts as they are I px5 certified. So sweat will not be an issue. They boast up to 10 hours of continuous listening time, and they look very slick. The tips are magnetic.

They come with patented spin, fit twin blade, ear tips that provide optimal, fit and comfort, and overall, the ear buds produce a very solid, sound quality that is sure to give much more expensive ear buds a run for their money, and the best part is that there are only 50 bucks link in the description. Okay, so, on the pixels side of things you get Android at Google, suede with the clean unmasked basics. Now it's not like it lacks in features, though the phone's got a nice handful of tricks that some would say are more important than the ones you can get on. Other phones with a pixel. You get unlimited storage for Google photos without losing image quality, which is huge.

That of course, leads to the phone having the best smartphone cameras on the market. As of now with superior image, processing and machine learning. There's the now playing feature which is low-key, been a really nice feature to have, especially as time has gone on, there's active edge to quickly trigger Google Assistant and other things like an are stickers which are pretty fun to mess around with and Google Lens. Now, as we've seen in Google Lens has rolled out to other devices, the s9 included, but the pixel was the first to have it, which then leads to one of the biggest features with the pixel and that's always being first in line for updates, Samsung still struggles with getting updates, pushed out to its phones in a timely manner. So while it's clear that the s9 has more features, the pixel is no slouch and punches back with a collection of awesome features of its own.

It just boils down to which collection of features suits you one thing I did want to touch on was the speakers as of right now, both googles and Samsung's latest flagships have a stereo speaker, setup, the pixel sports, a dual front firing set of while the s9 goes to the route. HTC and Apple did, with one speaker, front firing and one bottom firing while I was super excited about the pixels dual front-facing speakers. Setup I was quite surprised to hear how much better the s9 setup is. Sound is fuller, you get more low-end, and it just makes the pixels speakers sound. Well tinny check this out.

This huge speaker, improvement shows off how Samson kind of just took the s8 and fixed, mostly everything that was wrong with it, and one of those things is the fingerprint reader location, it's totally usable now, while I do prefer the placement and the shape of the pixels fingerprint reader, I'd, say they're, both just about equally fast and accurate as one another, all right, so getting it to the cameras. A lot of you will say that the pixel is the runaway winner here, and it would be hard to argue with you. The s9 cameras have seen some nice upgrades from the previous generation, especially the s9, plus, with that extra lens on the back. The camera interface has a lot to offer compared to the pixel, with its smaller, yet powerful selection of shooting modes and preferences, including photosphere. They are stickers.

The amazing unmatched portrait mode, as well as its gimbals, like combination of oh, is Andy, is and video recordings. The s9 plus comes in swinging with things like hyperlapse, a full-on pro mode, which is very nice to have. There's live the focus for that both effect. Super slo-mo at 960 frames per second, and they are emoji, and you can go ahead and determine whether you think that's a feature or a scare tactic. You also get a larger number of preferences like more video resolutions and the ability to shoot at 4k 60 frames per second, and on top of all of that, there's the dual aperture of f15 and f2 point 4, which basically means low-light performance, should be very good on the s9 and for the most part it is.

There are definitely times when the s9 will beat out deep, pixel 2, but in general the pixel 2 cameras are the winners in my book overall you're, getting more detail, better dynamic range, better color accuracy and much, much better. Selfies I mean come on now. Don't get me wrong. The s9 cameras are nothing to sneeze at, but with the pixel. To being a thing- and you've heard me say this before: if I'm going somewhere, where I know, I will be taking a lot of pictures, 10 out of 10 times, I'm choosing the pixel getting into performance.

The quick and easy assumption would be that the pixel is way better because it runs pure Android again hard to argue with that. However, with the s9 plus you're, getting the newer snap drag 8:45, processor and six gigabytes of RAM, and because of that performance on the s9 is very, very good. It's the fastest smoothest, most consistent galaxy I've ever used daily tasks are an absolute breeze and RAM management is excellent, it's considerably better than on the pixel to excel. But having said that, the to Excel is still the king of fluidity and unhindered performance. Although the s9 plus has closed the gap quite a bit of battery life on these two phones is very good, as well, with the two XL edging out the s9 plus and while the s9 plus doesn't have bad battery life, it's just about average and the two excel is a good amount above average I guess you could kind of say that the s9 plus could balance things out with its handful of power saving options, but it's clear.

The pixel to Excel has the better battery life so closing things out with price. These phones actually sell for about the same price. So really as most comparisons do this one comes down to personal preference. It's really hard to find a clear winner here, because they're both so incredibly good. Each phone will appeal to different crowds of people and most of the people.

That I know are general consumers, and most of them would go for the s9 after seeing all of its features and since they're likely to be more familiar with something from Samsung. But what's funny is that when I show people the pictures that I can get with the pixel, they almost instantly jump on the pixel bandwagon and start asking questions about it. What's crazy is that these two phones seem to have what the other one lacks. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the wishes of people over on Twitter, saying that the pixel would be the perfect phone if it had a Samsung display or the s9 would be the perfect phone if it had the pixel cameras, while those two scenarios might be true, they're not reality and reality is whichever phone you go for. You really can't go wrong.

Now, as of this very moment, if I had to choose a phone, I'd probably go for the s9 plus, but the thing is I'm, not a general everyday consumer and my SIM card will probably find its way back into the pixel eventually because of those cameras. The best advice here is to evaluate your use cases and see how they match the selling points of these phones and go from there. The difficulty choosing between these two phones is really an awesome problem to have, and I guess you could say it means that Android phones are just getting better and better. So what do you guys think of the Galaxy S 9 vs D pixel 2 XL, which one do you guys think is better and which one would you rather pick up? Let us know by dropping your comments down below. As always, we love to hear your feedback, but anyway, that does it for this video I hope you guys enjoyed it.

If you did feel free to hit that, like button subscribe to the Android police channel, if you're new, that does it for me, I will talk to you guys later, and thank you so much for watching.

Source : Android Police