GOOGLE PIXEL 5 In-Depth Review: The Costly Compromise & Fatal Flaw By This is Tech Today

Hey friend Brandon here- and this is the Google Pixel 5. - there are two things I want to emphasize in this review. What in the world is googled doing, because it seems pretty confusing for some and a fatal flaw in the Google Pixel 5. Let's talk about because this is tech today, this video is sponsored by private internet access, a VPN that helps you unblock region based content, hide you rip address and protect you against hacking, find out more about private internet access later in the video or clicking the link in the description now I need to preface this review and let you know that this is my initial review of the Google Pixel 5. , like the rest of the reviews. You'll initially see, we've only had this device for maybe 96 hours at best, so we can only provide so much depth in our reviews.

However, I do plan an in-depth technical review on things like the camera speakers display performance and so much more. So let me know specific things that you want me to cover and make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon to be notified. When I post those videos, the Google Pixel 5, is probably the most mature and confident smartphone design in Google's history. Rather than doing the same thing, everyone else is doing with a loud industrial, cold, feeling, metal and glass design. Google is doing their own thing and owning it.

If you haven't noticed by now, Google is pushing into minimalistic designs for all of its products where they disappear into your environment, while adding to your life rather than becoming your life. Because of that, the pixel 5 looks and feels like a smooth stone that would be found in a designer, creek or high-end modern home, but remains light, which is nice if you have a lot of stuff in a bag, a purse or a fanny pack. In my opinion, I don't think the pixel 5 feels cheap. It's just doing something that is different from what everyone else is doing. This version of premium is risky for them, but I like it because it feels soft calming and warm with its aluminum frame covered in bioresin that allows the body to curve over into the screen without any seams.

The earthy feel the device is emphasized by the amazing click volume button that feels like it's made out of ceramic, but below that the squeeze to assistant has been removed from the pixel 5 a bummer, but this is also google pushing into a minimalistic design by removing features and options that go beyond what is absolutely necessary. This is a theme to pay attention to in this video haptics continue to be pixel level, quality that surpasses any other android device out there and is second to the Apple iPhone and the fingerprint reader rests in the familiar spot. On the back, dare I say that I, like the look of the pixel 5 over the new iPhones along the front, you'll find the cleanest front display design and the highest screen and body ratio of any Google Pixel phone. So far, this ESO space allows it to squeeze in a 6-inch screen without making the phone big you'll find that the six-inch screen is between the size of a pixel, 4 and 4 XL, satisfying the need for pixel 5 XL and function rather than branding, and as far as I can remember, it is the only android phone with symmetrical bezels all around. This is likely the result of them having a foldable OLED display to help them get.

Those even bezels like what you'd see on an iPhone with that said gone is the notch that you'd see on the iPhone and gone. Is the border from the pixel 4 that housed that solely sensor and face unlock? That's another feature that google removed, but a neat thing in a note, there's an interesting spot in the display that you can see that illuminates when you're on a call or when your phone is locked, it seems to be a proximity sensor based upon when it makes its appearance and how it reacts to proximity. The 1080p screen looks good, and I'm not overwhelmingly longing for a higher resolution screen. I can kind of notice less smoothness in the text and icons when I compare it with the Pixel 4 XL, but I honestly have to look really, really hard to notice a difference. It's honestly not an issue in my book, and I love that the display is flat and not a curved display and the screen brightness is noticeably brighter than the pixel 4xl, which I would have a hard time using in direct sunlight.

I think that's a more practical thing to have in a phone than higher resolution and then there's a 90 hertz, refresh rate screen that gives a feeling of the phone being more responsive and makes a text and other things less blurry when you scroll. This is a bit in between of the 60hz displays that we've been using for over a decade and 120 hertz to screens that we see in iPad pros and Samsung Galaxy devices this year. Now, if you really can't see a difference in high refresh rates, then this probably won't matter to you, but there are some minor dips in the refresh right now and then, if you're really paying attention, I don't personally find it super noticeable or distracting. But if you use a 240hz gaming monitor, you'll probably notice it, but I also wonder if you'd even be interested in a phone like this to begin with, while so many phones are navigating how to have 5g and high refresh rate screens without a massive impact on battery life. I can confidently say that the Google Pixel 5 has found the right balance.

Last year the Google Pixel 4 XL, and especially the pixel 4, was played by a reputation of subpar battery life, even that had a Google hardware. Rick Steslow shared his disappointment with the Google Pixel team about the pixel 4 battery, but that seems to be addressed big time on the Google Pixel 5. For some the compromises google made to find the right balance may be egregious, but I think they're perfectly chosen. You see. Google went with a 1080p display rather than a higher resolution.

HD plus display a Qualcomm snapdragon 765 g, which is less of a battery hog than the 865, a 90 hertz refresh rate over 120 hertz, refresh rate on the screen and an aluminum body and bio-resin coating instead of a glass back that allows them to fit in a 4, 000 William battery now for contacts that is a huge increase in the pixel force, 2800 William battery and the pixel 5 is just barely thicker. So what do all those decisions? So the removal of all those things we're told that we need in a premium device result in. In my experience with the pixel 5, it lasted me nearly 36 hours on one charge. I was trying to kill off this battery towards the end, so I could write this review, and I was able to get at least six and a half hours a screen on time, and some of my other peers are getting seven hours or more, of course, screen on time is hardly scientific and consistent amongst users, but I can confidently say that the practical experience makes me not even think about charging this phone. This is insane, and this puts any phone I've been using lately to shame whether it's an iPhone Samsung Galaxy, one plus and beyond.

That is incredible. Needless to say, I don't feel so bad about charging the Google Pixel buds with a reverse wireless charging feature google managed to have wireless QI charging by having a cutout for the coil in the aluminum frame. This is super clever, and I can't wait to see, and I fix it or Jerry rig everything tear down of the pixel 5. Now let me point out something even crazier: keep in mind that the battery life is already good, and it's before any reviewer has had enough time to use it long enough to experience the benefits of the adaptive battery feature that uses machine learning and needs about a week to finally start kicking in even more mind-blowing. So the compromises that Google chose were largely in service of the battery and I think it provides the experience and things so many people want and need battery life.

The Google Pixel 5 finally brings an ultra-wide camera that so many of us wanted- and it's not bad. Of course, like any other phone out there, any additional lenses are not as good as the main lens, and that's no exception here. When you zoom in on the ultra-wide angle, shots you can see that it's a bit smudgier than the main lens. So what about telephoto shots? Google removed the telephoto lens on the pixel 5 and instead leaned on their super res zoom feature that uses artificial intelligence to make digitally zoom shots look more decent, even though I'm a software can't beat hardware for camera lenses kind of guy. I do have to admit that google has done a really great job with this.

Even if I still hold my original view, you can actually see the photo processing of this change in real time, and the difference is staggering. For the majority of people, this setup is fantastic and perfectly fine, because it covers all the bases that people need without the cost of adding a third lens. Now I know that there are many of you that want to know if there's a difference between previous models- and I have all the previous pixel models. So I'll definitely answer that question. In my technical reviews there are some new additions to the camera that are really quite neat.

Portrait mode is available in night sight and works quite well, and portrait mode continues to work really well on both the front and back cameras for people and objects. Unfortunately, you cannot use an ultrawide camera for portrait photos. One thing that is absolutely astounding is portrait lighting. You see, I have about a thousand dollars worth of equip right here, just to light one side of my face. Then you add, in these other lights, good lighting can require a bit of work and money, so portrait lighting is nuts.

You can see the way lighting moves around the various spots of my face around my chin and shoulders and my shirt. The fact that the lighting interacts with my pores is mind-blowing. It does work on portrait shots that you've taken in the past, with your Google Pixel and definitely benefits from the depth data captured in those portrait mode shots, but I have found that even works on regular photos. Let me show you hereare an image of Gal Gadot that I just found on Google that I think, is perfect. That's because the lighting is flat and relatively uninteresting.

I can go to my photos' app. I click the settings, and then I go over here to adjust, and then you'll see portrait lighting, and you can turn it up all the way to see what's going on, and I can move it around this image on her. You can see it light up her shoulder the area around her eyes, her chin, her nose all these different things, and you can make it look a little more like this. So there's some sort of insanely, fast, artificial intelligence thing going on here and that blows my mind, because what the heck nightlight continues to be insanely, impressive and works with the ultrawide camera, which is tons of fun now for contacts here is the same space in video. There's a computer monitor lighting up everything and, interestingly enough, when you zoom out go ultrawide, it looks pretty bad um.

I imagine this has something to do with an aperture. I'm not totally sure, though, but it looks awful, and then you zoom back in its fine. You can even do uh 2x and uh it's using the same main sensor. So that's why it doesn't change the exposure but something's definitely going on here. Speaking of video, we should talk about that.

Traditionally, video has been an incredibly weak spot for the Google Pixel phones. The same camera sensor has been used in at least the past three, if not four models because of the improvements in the sensors really haven't been anything of note on the photo side, since Google is doing so much with machine learning and artificial intelligence, it's wise to stick to one sensor and not start over. Unfortunately, the processing power to bring the same quality from photos over to video is just not possible without getting into all the technical reasons. Why maybe a practical example? We can see the phone processing one photo for a few seconds. Each time we take one photo and a video is at least 24 or 30 frames per.

Second, it's just not going to happen. So sticking with the same sensor may be the reason why video is lagging on the pixel devices and I don't see a notable improvement. The only thing they've added to help with this is the ultra-wide lens which, to be honest, looks awful in video, but you do have some options on what you can do with video. You have the normal mode, slow motion and a time-lapse. Option and Google did make a big deal on some stabilization methods for videos saying that they based it on lessons from filmmakers and YouTubers.

So for me, I guess a YouTuber. I want to test out how well the automatic options stand up to someone doing it manually so stay tuned. For that video. I have a special thing. I'm working out with a moment.

They make cases and lenses for your phone, so we'll hopefully have something really cool. That's exclusive to the is tech. Today, community anyways the stabilization options. These modes are the standard stabilization, the locked-in stabilization, which helps when you're filming something far away active, which is similar to what you'd see on maybe a GoPro and cinematic pen that can help you get a bit of that peter MacKinnon, slow-motion b-roll. Interestingly enough, there is no pixel, visual or neural core in the pixel 5.

Another thing that googles got rid of in previous models. This ship helped with the processing powers and had improved things on social media, but the snapdragon 765g is apparently enough to replace the need for that chip. But I was curious. Android isn't known for having great support from social media apps compared to iOS, so I had to test it out. I made a sneaky Instagram story: promoting the pixel 5 unboxing, where I compared the phone against the physical dimensions of a bunch of other phones, and you can see that the pixel 5 actually looks better than the Pixel 4 XL.

Despite it not having that extra chip and as expected, the iPhone looks significantly better than both some good news and a sad reminder of how things still are not great. On android for social media apps, the Google Pixel 4 time brought the much-loved dual front-facing speakers that, so many loved in HTC phones back in the day with the Google Pixel 2 XL and pixels 3. Unfortunately, google left that behind with the pixel 4 when they moved to a bottom firing speaker, but I was largely okay with it because it managed to make it sound better than any of the previous models, but unfortunately that changes with the Google Pixel 5. The speakers are a step back and a big step back. There are two things: first, the bottom firing speaker isn't even as good as the pixel 3 XL speakers, it's honky and muddy sounding with no high-end clarity to it.

Second, and probably the most frustrating thing, is the fact that the top speaker is under the display, that's the equivalent of putting a speaker behind a window at a party here. Listen to this hear what it sounds like when I cover up the bottom speaker now. This isn't the fatal fall of the pixel 5. I'll talk about that later, but it's still not good. On top of everything, it's a bottom firing speaker, and you're more likely to accidentally cover it when you're watching a video or playing a game, and when I compare the decibel levels between both the speakers, I get a difference of about 10 decibels between the two in both a white and pink noise test.10 decibels quieter for the top speaker is quite significant in regular landscape use. The stereo audio is completely imbalanced in terms of the entire lineup of Google Pixel phones.

It is maybe a little better than the pixel 2 XL. If you were to hold it at a normal listening position, but that could be debatable and in certain areas the pixel 2 XL would sound better outside it being a noticeable stereo experience. So that probably brings up a glaring question for you: how does it sound for phone calls? Fortunately, you put your ear up to a phone when you take a phone call, so some issues go away, but you do still lose a bit of that airy clarity that you might have if you're on a HD phone call. Otherwise, it sounds like what you would expect a phone call to sound like, but with some added holiness. So why in the world, would google do this? It's because so many people asked for it.

Probably some of you. Yes, the hardcore community asked for it. The pixel community has largely complained about notches forehead, bezels and uneven bezels all over the place, and so they decided to put aesthetics and that perfectly symmetrical look before sound quality. We got what we wanted, but is that really what we wanted for those that don't use their speakers on their phones for much other than podcasts and phone calls? You probably won't care performance on the pixel 5 feels more than sufficient for the majority of people. He uses the same snapdragon 765g processor as the international version of the OnePlus word, and it handles games just fine.

I didn't notice any notable issues while playing PUBG or Jensen impact temperatures, maybe hit about 105 degrees on the outside when pushing it. So no weird heat things going on, and rather than going over, all the features of android 11 I'll just provide some thoughts on how android 11 feels on the Google Pixel 5. The 8 gigabytes of ram and 128 gigabytes of storage is likely helping with the incredible snappy and smooth experience on the pixel 5. Period. I don't see any lag and, despite not having the neural core, the Google Assistant still manages to answer questions as you would expect from it and handles live voice transcription well period as a whole.

It finally feels like the software and hardware, were carefully crafted for each other, like what you might see on iPhone. Of course, there's still some room to polish some things, but as a whole, the small details provide a really nice experience, whether we realize it consciously or subconsciously. Now here's an area of confusion and potential frustration for many people. Why isn't there a top tier flagship processor in the Google Pixel 5? The best answer I can give for you for why they went with the snapdragon 765g comes down to price. You see, the cost of the 865 is rumored to be about 70 dollars more, and it doesn't even include a 5g modem with it.

So manufacturers have to buy a modem on top of that. That's essentially another hundred dollars in build of material cost and who ends up paying for that. You do, and that takes me to the fatal flaw of the pixel 5. In order to understand this, you have to look at the Google Pixel 45g. If you get the normal unlocked version of the phone, it's a fantastic price of 499 dollars.

It's crazy! If you get it from Verizon, though it's a hundred dollars more that's the result of adding in millimeter wave 5g, that's the type of 5g people can really only experience if they're, within line of sight, with a 5g tower that supports that and when you walk down the block, the benefit of millimeter wave goes away. That means that the majority of people aren't able to experience this benefit, especially those in more rural areas. In America, the price of the pixel 5 is 699, that's the cost of the new iPhone 12 mini and the Samsung s20 Fe. I think that this is a hundred dollars too high, and really it turns out that it is outside the United States. The pixel 5 goes for essentially 599 or only 100, more than the pixel 4 a5g.

That upgrade provides a really great value because you get a more premium, aluminum and bio resin build you get two gigs more of ram. You have waterproofing, and you have a really huge battery and for some of you who are able to order outside the United States, you get some perfect sounding Bose earbuds for free and that's a no-brainer. If you have the option to get that deal get on it now. So why the price disparity between the US and the rest of the world? It's that millimeter wave 5g antenna that primarily benefits Verizon users that happen to be in the right spot. That also explains different launch dates for the US version of the pixel 5.

What's frustrating about all of this is that google has focused so much on taking out extra features that are beyond what we absolutely need to get the price down, which is a perfect strategy. If you haven't noticed, the pixel 5 is more of an series device than any other pixel phone before it. Google obviously saw enough success in the Pixel 3a that they push into the lower price essentials, rather than the typical flagship, with all the bells and whistles, with flagships like the Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra, where you pay a ton of money, any issues or let-downs feel, especially as disappointing. Google has sought after what I like to call the delight to dollar ratio where you have a fantastic experience, and then you end up thinking, how does it cost so little? And if all this isn't obvious to you pay attention to how many a series devices we have and how many normal devices that we have this year with a price of 699. Google has now put it side by side with Samsung and apple and on specs alone, it looks like they have a better phone over there and people are not going to do the research and know about all the nuances of how good the software is on a Google Pixel device.

Of course, I say specs alone don't make the phone, and I still believe that, but the delight to dollar ratio is off and that might cause a lot of people to not even give the pixel 5 a shot when in nearly every other way the phone is fantastic and provides a really great experience, especially with all those unique Google software features. As always, I tell people to wait until the holiday sales as they tend to go down and price about a hundred dollars, and at that point it's a great buy. It's actually the price it should be, but if you're overseas and have that Bose deal get it now. You know what else you should get a VPN by this video sponsor private internet access, a leading VPN provider with over 30 million downloads, all around the world. You know private internet access is so helpful right now it helps you unlock region, block content from streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, prime Hulu, and it also protects your peer-to-peer downloads.

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Thank you so much for private internet access for supporting the channel, and thanks to all of you who support my sponsors. So I can continue to make content for you for free. So what do you think about the Google Pixel 5? What kind of things stand out to you, and what do you want me to cover in my in-depth reviews? Are you bummed out by the price and if not, are you outside the US? Let me know in the comments and in the is tech. Today, community discord chat server, I'm answering questions in there, so come join us. Thank you so much for watching.

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