Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL By PCMag

Hello and welcome to one cool thing piece of Max daily show where we show you one cool thing which we are testing out here in the PC Mag labs. Today we have a first look at the new Google Pixel 3 and the pixel 3 XL. We will be taking your questions I'm. Sorry to see again. This is Ajay Kumar. We have just gotten our hands on these new pixels, so we do not have final reviews.

Yet we are working on them, but we are working through them. We are checking them out. We are, we are taking a good look at them, and we can. Furthermore, we can answer your questions based on our initial impressions and based on what happened at the press event where the pixels were announced, so just to start off. That is the pixel 3 XL right.

This is XL, as you can tell from the notch which everyone has strong opinions about. Ok, so the XL has a notch and the regular one doesn't. It does not have a not so this one's five-and-a-half inches and this one is like 6.5, if I'm not mistaken, okay, so um. So this one does have a notch. They both have the same three I think six, three okay.

They both have almost identical specs, which is something we don't normally see when you have a smaller phone and a larger phone like normally there's a compromise there between you know, hand, comfort or a performance, and in this case you the only differences, are the with the screen. So this is 1080. This is quad HD they're, both OLED, though okay. So let's talk about the identical specs. What are the basic specs that we are getting in these new pixels? So you're so all processor is a snapdragon 845.

They both have four gigs of ram 64 gigs of storage, there's also a 128 gig version available. There is doubtless more ok, there's also 128 version on the pixel 3 starts at 799, and this one's $100 more at 899, and then the other version will push you up. Another $100, both 12 megapixel cameras on the back exact same software, Android, 9 and yeah. You get all of googles apps. We got dual 8 megapixel cameras on the front.

You know yes, dual 8 megapixel cameras on the front dual front-facing speakers as well, and it is waterproof and supports wireless charging, and you can see we have Google's pixel stand here. Okay, so now it is. These phones are missing too. These phones are missing, as well as the case on it. Yeah, they're missing two things that a lot of Android fans like, though right, headphone jack, there is none.

So yes, you have only USB see Google does include a USB-C version of I. Don't know these are called Pixel Buds, but they come in the box, and they plug it. They plug right in there marginally nicer than your standard USB say they are marginally nicer, but yeah you do not have Oh. Google Assistant interacts with the set since today, so I'll set that up later but uh. So there are like various audio features.

That Google is also trying to showcase here, but yeah. There is no headphone jack and no expandable storage, okay and now carrier wise. This is being sold by Verizon, it's being sold by Google by its being sold unlocked and the speculate on Google's website is really messed up. So I had to email back and forth with Google late last night. It is compatible with all four of the US carriers.

It has T-Mobile's band 71, it is Gigabit LTE cat 16, not cat 18. Furthermore, it has la a. Has dual-band: AC Wi-Fi of course, so it NFC all everything that you'd expect on a top-tier phone yeah it'll run on whatever your carrier is, but if you want to buy it from a carrier, you can only buy it from Verizon mm-hmm. So what are some other? Actually, it looks like we have a question already price-wise. How does it stack up? Okay? How does it? How does it stack up? So you said $7.99 for the small one right. So $7.99 is basically in the range of the galaxy s.9 is about 720 mm-hmm and the iPhone 10 R is I, believe 749, okay, yeah, okay, so a little so $7.99 fits in there. Your 899 is a little below the 999 iPhone 10s, and the nine like 49 is, Galaxy, Note, 9, right, yeah and LG exists within that space also write the 920 and 9gv 922 980, almost so yeah yeah, so so the small one is a little more expensive, but only a little than other smaller phone smaller flagships.

The Lord was a little less expensive than other larger flagships mm-hmm. So let's talk about the camera features here, because Google's pixels have really developed a reputation for camera as you've been starting to take casual shots with it around the labs figuring things out. What have you seen here? So I've only taken a few shots, but I want to point out. Firstly, the labs are miserable in terms of lighting, so if the lighting conditions here are terrible, which is why I do a lot of low light shots here, but this is a portrait shot that I just took, and it is possibly one of the crispest shots I've taken in here on any phones that I've tested recently. It actually blew me away with how good it was, so it has taken probably some of the most the fastest most responsive, low-light shots, and the processing is also perfect.

I'm, noticing it's fast, and then it'll fix like what a like in the viewfinder you'll see. There's like there might be noise, but it's gone by the time it's processed and at the launch event. Another really cool thing I saw was that so your two front facing cameras- one of them is super wide angle and when you take a picture with it initially the picture looks severely fish-eyed. And then, when you look in your gallery, the fish eye has been fixed in post-processing. There's a lot of crazy good post-processing, going on with these cameras, yeah like um there, it's impressively good and the 12 megapixel sensor.

I know everyone is trying to stick as many sensors as possible. Lg has three Samsung has two, but this single US sensor has been fine as far as the shots I've taken in here, I'm going to be taking it outside and doing a full shoot out later on against the note and v40, but um so far, I'm pretty happy with that. Have you been able to find the super resume function, yet that is a function that they announced where apparently they take a bunch of shots and stitch them together and then create a sort of enhanced digital zoom? Um I haven't really poked around that much, but I do see a few settings that I'll play with later um I'm. Is that a feature that they might be rolling out later, because I, don't see it right away? No, it seems like this well as I said well. Well, we'll look into it further.

Let's take another question: how would you compare the pixel 3 XL and the latest Galaxy Note, so the pixel 3 XL and the Galaxy Note 9? Well, let's kick the easy part out of the way. First, the Galaxy Note 9 has a pen right. So if you're going to use a pen, you get a Galaxy Note 9, that's life la-dee-da, the Galaxy Note 9 also has the 2 X optical zoom camera on the back, and while the pixel 3 XL is going to have super res Pro, digital zoom, and I'm having a lot of trouble, believing that will be as good as a 2, X optical zoom, right I mean that's a physical camera, I think Google's doing it with software right, yeah yeah. So now that said, we've been experiencing really, really fast. Smooth performance on this pixel yeah, definitely, and I suspect that the pixel 3 XL is going to have faster, smoother, more stable performance for longer.

Given the history of Samsung phones than the Galaxy Note 9, that's definitely from what I've seen so far, just using it opening apps launching apps scrolling webpages even um. This has probably the best touch responsiveness of a phone I've used lately, because I've been using the g7 which, as we know, has a heavy UI layer on it and just the difference between this and that display Tom. So this has four gigs of RAM, which I think that g7 has that too, but on I was using the v40 which has six, and this still feels faster battery life. We have not completed once again. First-Look haven't completed the test, however, the pixel 3 XL has at least smaller battery.

Then the note 9 does and the note 9 had terrific battery life in our test 12 plus hours. So the note 9 probably will come out ahead on battery single camera. Quality I suspect that the pixel will nudge ahead from just some of these shots. I've been seeing, especially with the front-facing camera I, uh I think low-light is really gonna, be. Where will how to decide which one's better, but so far, I've been extremely impressed with the low-light yeah.

Yes, so to summarize, while we have once again have not completed our testing of the pixel 3xl, you know I suspect that if you were focused on smooth UI performance and basic auto shots with a single camera, that's where the pixel 3xl is going to excel, so to speak, mm-hmm any more questions out there. When can we expect a review for this? When is this coming out next week? So it's on pre-order? Now they will be delivered on October 18th. We will. The full review will be up next week, so Oh, another question, someone who I think isn't as familiar with Android is asking. If you can do video calls, what's the equivalent for FaceTime Google do so there's its already.

It's already built in I, wouldn't say that no I wouldn't say that, because the deal with Android is that Apple is very much about default services. Apple is very much about you. Use iMessage use FaceTime they're built in my experience with Android is about a wide selection of over-the-top services. So Google makes a thing called Google Duo, which is preloaded on this phone that nobody uses, so I, don't actually think that's a competitor to FaceTime because nobody uses it. People are making their video calls through.

WhatsApp people are making their video calls through. Skype people are making their video calls through a range of other over the top options. Whatever messenger they use. You messenger Facebook Messenger exactly, exactly. That's the Android philosophy, it's not about you know.

Similarly, like everybody, everybody on Apple is doing their group cats through iMessage, but on Android somebody. You know some people. Do the group chats to hang out some of them. Do it through WhatsApp, some of them doing through signals, some of them do them through Viber like it's, it's an it's a much more diverse landscape on Android than Apple, which is very about using the defaults. Let's take another question interesting question: do either of you plan to get this as your next phone I was strongly considering it yesterday, but I'm actually leaning towards a smaller pixel, just because? Well, there's no notch, which is not that bad on this, but it's a little distracting but um.

It's the same specs pretty much aside from the battery in the screen, and it's extremely comfortable to use it with like one hand. So this is a little bigger, but um. If you want the screen real estate, then Excel is pretty good too, but uh yeah I am considering it, so I also really like the smaller pixel I, really like the smaller picks. A form factor as people knows I, like smaller phones. The one thing to point out is that: well, this is a 5.5 inch phone and the pixel 2 was 5 inches. This phone is actually not bigger, it's just that the screen is taller and there are fewer bezels.

So it's an it's a different aspect ratio. The bezels are smaller, so it's not bigger than last year's pixel. I am definitely considering it. I want to see the OnePlus sixty-first, it's coming out in about three weeks: I think they announced October 30th for that launch. Right, I, really like a lot of the stuff.

OnePlus does, so I'm using one plus six right now, and it has really won me over. So I want to see the 60 before making that decision. Hey have you turned on. This is another thing: I saw at the launch event: the are stickers yet taken on. Okay, let's see if you can fire that up- and this is an example of one of the things that Google was pointing out about these phones- are Google- wants to direct the conversation around AI.

For instance, one of the flagship features of these phones that is not ready yet on our review models, is something called duplex. Duplex is a robot that will pretend to be a human virtual assistant that makes calls to reserve restaurants for you and there's another thing called Google call screening which will take robocalls and display them as text on your phone it'll pick them up on your phone and display them as text, so you can decide whether to pick them up as a human there's, a that's floating burger now I have a floating burger, a pair of a floating burger on the jib Iron Man is Iron Man in there. Let's see if Iron Man's in here, so an are stickers. Iron Man is here, an are stickers, are another form of AI in that these stickers in these photos are going to respond to you and to be the the surrounding situation is. Is he in the frame with me, he's standing on the table in front of okay watt, yet so I guess I'm going to smile? He just waved see he's reacting to my facial expressions.

Watch that Simon I'm gonna I'm going to try to look sad. He did something he liked his head in consumed. He tried to fire. Furthermore, he tried to fire off his trustees, okay, okay, so yeah. So these stickers are it's not just about putting the 3d object into the space.

It's about putting the 3d object that reacts to the space into the surrounding things. Let's take another question: okay, when do phone carrier stories usually get them to demo? Do they only get them on the release? Date? Yeah, I mean actually no sometimes again I'm on the pre-order date. That's the thing. Sometimes they will have a display out there. It depends on your device until have a display out there that allows you to pre-order, so I haven't been into a Verizon store, but I would check at a Verizon store and see if they have a display.

Yeah. Let's take another question: did you mention water resistance? Yeah, it's IP 68, so it is water resistant. It was uncle, it is Duncanville both of them will fall into the toilet, but I wouldn't do it in this fabric case. No. This is actually very nice case.

It's extremely drippy uh, but I feel like this might get ruined and in water or whatever else you drop it in another thing they were talking about at the launch event is Google, makes custom cases for you. Oh yeah, yeah yeah, it's almost like motor maker. If you remember motor maker, you can put any picture you want on the case and they'll send it to you. Yeah, any picture. Any design and the reason I mention motor maker is that the guy running the- and this is this- is some old, deep cut Less in the cell phone industry, the guy running, Google's, hardware, program, who's, leading the development of the pixels.

Is this guy Rick Austral? Oh, and he was at Motorola before Google bought it, and he developed the original Moto X, which in my mind the 2013 Moto X is one of the top five smartphones of the past decade mm-hmm and the 2013 Moto X. One of its signature features was the fact that you could customize the backplate any way you liked, and so these customizable cases feel like a little of that philosophy brought forward into the Google era. Let's take another question: all right: are these compatible with daydream beer? They should be yesed, there is like VR Settings built-in, and you can really like there's a motion control in the settings menu, so it should work with baby yeah. We haven't slapped them into a daydream set yet, but Google has not updated. The daydream sets and is selling the existing daydream sets.

So, yes, I do believe these are compatible with daydream and that said, Google seems to have really stepped back from daydream. Recently, I have not been hearing a lot about new daydream. Software I've not been hearing a lot about new daydream. Applications I feel like that is Google has a tendency to orphan certain products. You know hangouts infamously yeah hangouts, which is kind of circling the bowl or Google+.

We hardly knew you, but daydream feels like it's on its way to being orphaned. I'm curious about that. Now, when we popped it into the stand, has it popped into stand mode yet yeah yeah? So, okay, there's, actually a pixel stand app that will it'll prompt you to download it and uh I've been it's and needs to be plugged in yeah. The stands not plugged in right now, oh yeah, but when the phone is the screen is off. You get this, but you also get on different notifications.

You get your calendar. Sometimes you can interact with it in Google Assistant. Well, it starts functioning essentially as a Google. Smart, that's right, yeah, and it's its kind of like it reminds me of Amazon's. Echo, show doc mm-hmm which kicks your Amazon tablet into show mode, any more questions out there.

No we're good! Okay! So we've been through the specs we've been through the questions we've been through, our first look with the Google Pixel 3 and the Google Pixel 3 XL. We will be continuing to shoot photos with this bench market test. It runs various kinds of things on it, and we will get you a terrific review next week. Thank you all for watching. This has been one cool thing with PC Mag com.

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Source : PCMag