Google Pixel XL In 2021! (Still Worth It?) (Review) By Simple Alpaca

Welcome back everyone. This is one of those videos that I will probably be linking back to for the future of this year and mostly because I've been kind of saying that the original pixels are some best valued phones that you can pick up right now, they're, definitely not the best. Looking they don't have the craziest amount of features, but just because of the software, and maybe the performance in and of itself makes it that good of a deal. When you consider the price tag now, I will definitely leave a pixel excel and probably some other phones I'd recommend this year. Phones like the pixel 4 and the pixel 5 links will be down in the description. You can get them from there, and you can help support the channel at the same time.

Now, on top of that, you can also get them from cheapphones. com, which is my website either or you're, helping support the channel now, starting off with the front. Of course, you are getting that pretty big 5.5 inch AMOLED display. Now it is a 1440p panel. Now I will tell you, there are two different ways to look at it.

The very first way is that the panel itself is actually still perfect. Now you don't have fingerprint sensor in the display, and you don't have 120 hertz, but I do think that the panel itself is more than enough for people to actually go ahead and look at and be perfectly fine with. I think this is a pretty good panel when it comes down to it now it's definitely not perfect, but I think the panel is still a strong asset, but everything surrounding the panel is just crazy. There is so much bezel on this phone that the way this phone feels, in the hand, is almost similar to like a note, 20 ultra like it's definitely not like the same size, it's a little smaller, but it just makes it feel like it's the same size because of the amount of bezel on it, so you're getting a smaller display, but you're getting it in kind of the same footprint, and it feels like a much bigger phone on the hand. So that's a pretty big thing to keep in mind: it's a 5.5 inch panel, but it's a massive phone there's just so much bezel on it. I wasn't a fan of it, but again there's nothing.

We can do about it now. You do have USB type c and a headphone jack in this phone too, which I'm you know I love and funny enough on the back. You actually have an aluminum build, and this, I think, is the best premium feeling pixel phone that ever you know google ever made it feels way better than I think any other pixel device google made I'm trying to think. Maybe the pixel 4 with the know, kind of matte texture pack was feeling perfect, but I think this phone the way it feels in the hand, still feels extremely premium. You have a fingerprint sensor on the back, and you have a single camera setup on the back as well.

Now you do have things like you know: water, repellent coating. There is no IP certification, no micro, SD card slot, no 120 hertz or anything like that. Nothing super crazy, but this phone came on in 2016. It's going to be turning five years old this year. So it's kind of you know I'm totally.

Okay with how this phone is. You know I wasn't expecting this one to be the perfect phone at that time and for us to be expecting things like 120 hertz and everything like that. It's not really fair because it came out. You know almost five years ago, so I think it's still a tremendous phone when it comes down to it for the features that it had at the time now. I do want to hit on the camera right now, because this was probably the biggest asset that this phone had.

Besides the software, maybe even the performance. The camera was the thing that was hyped up the most now the nexus lineup never really had that great of a camera- and this was the know successor to the nexus lineup, and I think the nexus 6p was that device that kind of started changing up. The opinion of you know the Google devices and their cameras, but funny enough. The nexus 6p was kind of a flop because of the hardware defects that Huawei had so this device was the successor and this camera on this device is still perfect. So 2016, let me just paint out the landscape.

That year we had phones like the iPhone 7 plus, and I think we had the Galaxy S7 as well, and all those phones could only do 4k at 30. The iPhone 7 plus had that dual camera setup, which I was really happy about. This device does have that single 12.3 megapixel sensor, and you can do 4k 30 on it. Now. Let me put that out there right now in this day and age.4K 30 is kind of like the bare minimum for like a budget phone for this thing being a flagship at the time. It's okay, because when you look at the other phones at that time, they could only do 4k 30 as well.

So it's really not that big of a deal, but this camera, arguably was the best camera of that year. This in the random standard, pixel version- those were the best camera phones of that time and rightfully so, not only were the sensors pretty decent, but the biggest thing that google had going for them is their software. Their software enhancements or their photos are always top tier and because you know and there's a reason for it, they pretty much build it into stock android. So for a lot of their features that they have, I'm pretty sure all these other phones can. You know, use those same things, but sometimes they don't so with that being said, all those little standard, you know things that Google puts into their camera.

UI is pretty much transferred over to all this other stock. Android phones as well, and that's a strong thing. Most manufacturers will end up changing it up for their own flavor of whatever, but the software enhancements alone are strong assets for the android. You know development software in general- and this is one of my favorite things about this phone. I do have an eight megapixel, front-facing camera and again only 1080p at 30 on the front.

No 4k 60, like we've, been having on pretty much every phone since 2019, but again it's totally okay, because at that time, in 2016, most phones only could go up to you know 1080p at the max, so it's totally okay. I totally understand for sure when it comes down to it, the camera setup on this thing gets a thumbs up for me. I think it's a solid camera for sure. So, in terms of the camera setup I'll say yeah, it's still a perfect camera. You know it's definitely not perfect and of course all these other phones are much better, but I still think this camera is pretty good when it comes down to it now.

Moving on to, I think again the best thing about this phone for sure, which, as I said before, is definitely the software. I think the camera is probably the number one thing too, but this software on this phone is so good, and I always talk about it all the time it's stock android, it is literally like it, does everything that you wanted to and then some so this thing started off with android 7.1. You did end up getting android 10.0 on it, and I talked about this phone a lot last year on the android 10 updates, and this is basically what I'll tell you I think. Android 10 is a solid version of software. For this thing to end off, I think android 11 was a pretty good improvement too android 12 is looking to be a pretty big improvement.

On top of that. But here's the thing you can get a custom ROM. You can root this thing and gain so much more capability beyond what this phone actually ended off on stock. So when you look at a lot of other phones, especially Samsung's you're, pretty much only getting whatever they give you in this case, a lot of third-party developers will continue to keep supporting this device for years and years on end because it's a stock, google phone. It's super easy to root this thing in custom, ROM and a lot of people still want to pick it up.

When you look at phones like the nexus 4 the galaxy nexus, there are still people developing ROMs for that thing, on, like android, 11 or android 12. In the future, and if you think about it, if those phones get it, this phone is 100 going to get it. So that, for sure, is a humongous reason to pick up this phone. It's the software in and of itself, but on top of that, as I mentioned before, another pretty big thing about this phone is that it does have that pretty big size battery at that time too, a 3450 William hour battery and, as I said before, that is a perfect size battery to have on that device. And again, as I mentioned before, this thing came on in 2016.

I understand like a lot more phones, that much better you know battery life now and battery sizes, but at that time it's a solid thing for sure, and I really do think that is one of the best things about this phone for sure. Are you know this the software in the battery? So in terms of that I'll definitely say. I love this phone because of those things, and it's a strong acid, and you know strong contributor for sure now when to get off with the performance. This device does have that Qualcomm snapdragon 821 chipset, quad-core, CPU and arena 530, GPU and four gigabytes of ram on each model. Now what I can tell you about the performances, as I mentioned before, the performance on this phone is still perfect, really, no matter what you're going to do with it, you're going to be getting a pretty good performing phone for how old this device is.

Now. I've had phones like the Galaxy S7 from 2016, and even though those phones aren't extremely you know bad or anything by any means they are pretty glitchy compared to this phone. Whenever I do anything with those devices, I always feel like I'm getting a bloated version of android with a bunch of things running in the background on this device. I don't really get that feeling. I feel like this device is still super current, and I still feel like it has a lot more going for it and whether it's the pixel XL or standard pixel, even when you compare it to the notes of that year, which was the note 8, I believe, which was the note 7, but even if you compared to the note 8 when I feel the noting and I mess around with it and I mess around with the pixel XL.

Furthermore, I just feel like I'm getting a much faster phone now. This is smooth still there's not a lot of bloatware, so you're, getting a pretty smooth experience and minor apps are gonna, be fine. Medium-sized apps are gonna, be perfectly fine as well. It is kind of a little hesitant like I'm kind of hesitant, to recommend for those higher intensive games and higher intensive apps like video, editing and stuff, like that. This phone can handle it, but the four gigabytes of ram eventually will come up to you, the pixels 4 and all those that still only have four gigs of ram.

So it does kind of suck that this thing is limited there and that's probably going to be the biggest problem. It's still going to be plenty of fast and everything, but the ram is going to be one of those things. That's not necessarily going to be the best thing going for it. So in terms of the performance I say thumbs up for sure, I still think it's a solid performing. You know phone, but I do wish it had a little more ram.

I think they would have probably made this thing a little of a better sell for me to recommend it to people. So in terms of that, that pretty much covers it up in the performance segment and to kind of sum up this video to answer the question: should you go and buy the know original Google Pixel excel in 2021? Well, this is what I'll tell you. I think, as I kind of started up this video, the Google Pixel XL is a solid phone in 2021. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good for the price, and I think it is one of the best priced phones that you can pick up. That's still, you know customizable in so many ways.

So starting off the display, I think, is still perfect, even though it has a ton of bezel, and it does look pretty ugly. Sometimes I think the screen itself is pretty good for the most part, and I just wish it didn't have that bezel, but it's okay because it took it off. Eventually, you have USB c on this thing: a headphone jack. You have a pretty good feeling phone too. It still feels pretty premium, a really nice camera on the back.

Still an okay, front-facing camera. It's not bad, but you know I wish it was a little better. You have stock software. That's still, you know, custom notable, and you can root this thing too, so you can go ahead and expand this phone's lifespan for as long as you want to realistically and again that is one of my favorite things about this phone. Just being able to have that capability is super awesome for sure now, on top of that, battery life is pretty good.

Performance is pretty good as well. It's not perfect. You do have you know, lock some camera sensors. You don't have 120 hertz, no fingerprint sensor in the display. Furthermore, you only maxed out 128 gigs of storage, but I do think for the price that you're paying for this phone.

I think it's a pretty good addition, so that really pretty much covers it up again. Links will be down in the description you can get them from there and help support the channel at the same time hit the like button. If you guys enjoyed the video but definitely hit that subscribe button, every single subscriber that we get really does count. So me so much if you guys can hit that also check out the other links down in the description as well. My Twitter, my Instagram, my other channels.

More importantly, everything else. I love every single one of you, guys, hopefully I'll catch you guys in the next video peace out till then you.

Source : Simple Alpaca