Google Pixel XL Review By It Came From A Box

Took a while, but we're back with our review of the pixel XL by Google, welcomes you came from a box. I'm Sergio I am Google's. Pixel phone comes in two sizes, the small one and one we have here the XL. If you watched our unboxing, you got to see the very pretty really blue, pixel XL right here, which I incorrectly described as very blue by the way, and I'm sorry about that, and since then, we've been using it as our daily driver for about two months. So we have a very solid idea of what it's all about same as our other reviews. This video is split up into sections, which you can view in the description below now.

Let's dive in so in the box, you get a USB, see two USB quick switch adapter, which is used to help. You transfer the data from your previous Android or iPhone into this phone. Then we have a USB-C to USB cable, which we can use with all of our old USB ports and the newer USB-C to USB cable, which we need for the included USB sea wall adapter, which is 18 watts. By the way, we of course have paperwork in the form of cards and in there, you'll also have your sim tool and finally, our pixel XL. Now for the dimensions of the pixel XL, it has a length of 6 inches, a width of 2 point 9 inches a height of roughly 0.3 inches and weighs in just under 6 ounces. But let's also check out the cables.

The USB see, 2 USB cable is 3.4 feet, long, roughly 40 inches and the USB c2 USB cable is a bit longer at 3.9 feet or roughly 47 inches. The pixel phones come in three colors, very silver, with a white front, quite black, with a black front and the one we have here. The limited edition really blue, which has sadly been out of stock since it launched, as you can tell. The name makes a lot of sense because this blue, just it just pops, so the phone is really well-built and just screams premium. It's wrapped in a polished, aluminum unibody, with a chambered edge throughout the front that feels very good in hand, but it's also very smooth so much so that it almost has no grip to it and I.

Have this constant fear that it's just going to slip out of my hand when using it at the top? We have our 3.5 millimeter jack on the right side, we have our aluminum power button with a nice texture to it, which makes it easy to identify and below that. Our volume, rocker I, found that the actuation on those buttons feel slightly stiff, especially when compared to the previous Nexus 6p, but they still work really well on the bottom. Here we have our USB-C charging port, and you'll be disappointed to hear that we only have a single speaker. No, that's not ?, speaker slits. It's only this one on the left right here.

This one on the right is a microphone. Then, on the left side of the phone, we have our SIM tray. Oddly enough on the sim tray, we can see an address which is Google's main headquarters in Mountain View California. So, yes, the really blue pixel excel, has a white front which gives it this sort of interesting look at the top left. We have our front-facing camera to the right, our earpiece, which is covered up by a type of cloth, and I'm hoping, doesn't get dirty or turn yellow over time.

Behind that cloth to the left, we actually have a notification light right under that we have our proximity and ambient sensors on the left and right side. We have fairly thin bezels. These aren't even that much of a problem, but at the top and bottom, these large ones that are roughly half an inch in size. Not only do they add to the length of the phone, but they're very annoying and white, and stick out like a sore thumb, especially when you watch videos. So if you're considering a white front, keep that in mind because I'm sure the watching experience is a lot better with black bezels I'm.

Also, very disappointed that they didn't find a way to use this big empty one down here for a front facing speaker like the Nexus 6p had on the back here we have the most noticeable feature of the pixel XL, and that is that glass panel on the upper portion here Google calls its shade, which they say adds: personality and character to the phone and I have to agree. It definitely stands out amongst the competition, unless you know you of course cover it up with a case which I'm sure people will do because it's glass and no one wants to break that. They also say that the shade helps improve antenna performance which is hard to prove on my end, but I do know that aluminum is a nightmare for reception. Hence, why we see these antenna bands which helps the signal escape, so it wouldn't be surprised if that was actually true same as the screen on the front. It's made of Gorilla Glass 4, so it's very scratch resistant, but it's still prone to shattering.

As for the scanner itself, it works really well. The only issue with having it on the back is that when it's laying flat on a surface like your desk, you have to pick it up in order to use it top left of it. We have our dual tone: flash then the camera. These first two dots are the transmitter and receiver for the laser autofocus system and that last dot right. There is a microphone to capture audio and help with noise cancellation.

This time around, unlike the Nexus 6p you'll notice, we have no camera hump here, but instead the phone tapers off into this wedge shape great solution. It's simple and creates more space, yet still allows you to lay it flat on its back and being at the ins and outs of this phone are made by Google instead of having that third-party branding on the bottom. We now, of course, have Google's G. If I'm being honest, the pixel XL suffers from an uninspired design. It lacks that oomph or that POW that kaboom well, that's not more, like comic bubbles at this point, but you know what I mean don't get me wrong, though the design here isn't bad.

The phone does look great, but if it wasn't for the glass on the back in that really blue color I chose this wouldn't look that different from some of its competition, which is a shame because they had an opportunity to push the boundaries of smartphone design with their first pixel phone, but instead well it sort of blends in with the rest what it lacks on the exterior the pixel XL makes up for on the inside. This is by far the best performing Android phone I have ever used 99% of the time open instantly navigation is smooth, there's little to no delay when switching between apps, and they don't slow down or stutter when using them side by side. It's just extremely responsive- and this is due to the four gigs of ram and the latest Snapdragon 820, one processor that has a boosted 10% performance over the previous 820. As for that 1%, maybe even less early I did get some apps that lagged a bit, but that's most likely due to them connecting to the internet to display what's on them. So even then I don't think the phones to blame for that.

The pixel phones come with your choice of 32 or 128 gigs, but sadly that wasn't an option for the really blue version, which was only offered with 32. That wouldn't even be that big of an issue if they only gave us a micros slot, but nonetheless it's been easy for me to deal with, because most of my storage was taken up by photos and videos, all of which pixel owners can back up for free on Google photos. Speaking of photos. The horsepower in here allows me to quickly access the amazing pixel excel camera by just double tapping. The power button there's a very slight delay, but even that makes sense, considering that within that time it unlocks the phone, and it launches the camera app.

So once again, double tap, and you're ready to shoot another thing, I tested games. This thing can handle just about all the games. I threw at it, but also works fantastic with some emulators wink wink. So within my month of use, I've added and removed, many apps played a lot of games used up a good chunk of the storage and I have yet to see a drop in performance. Whether that will change with time has yet to be seen.

But if that's the case, I'll definitely post an update, but right now this is still, as I said, probably the best experience I've ever had on Android. Let's talk more about that screen here we have a very bright 5.5-inch AMOLED screen with a quad HD display that's four times the amount of pixels you get from standard HD, it's protected with 2.5 D Gorilla Glass 4, which is very scratch resistant. So you don't have to worry about your phone in the same pocket as your keys, but don't be careless because it's not completely shatterproof when you're outside in sunlight. The brightness on this display works very well. I had no issue using it at 50% brightness, and it only gets better as you crank it up, of course, for indoor use.

We also have nightlight, which is a mode where it dulls all the Blues. On the screen, so everything looks like a mellow Brown. The point of that is to make it easier for you to fall asleep at night. You know because science, so yeah everything on this AMOLED display it just looks so vivid, bright, crisp, and I'm running out of words here, but take my word for it. It's a thing of beauty, whether you're viewing video looking at photos playing games or reading everything is sharp as a tack.

Battery is a tricky thing to test, because everyone uses their phone in a variety of different ways, but so far the battery life on the pixel XL has served me incredibly well throughout a normal day, with moderate use. Almost beyond. Why expected? And here we have a non-removable 3450 William lithium-ion battery, which is roughly the standard these days for the average consumer. It should last more than 8 to 10 hours. Personally, on the last few days, I've noticed that I can get roughly 18 to 20 hours with a single charge, but then again that highly depends on your usage, but if you're ever worried about battery life, they do have this very handy battery.

Saver mode, which you can turn on manually or automatically at 15 or 5%, to help you squeeze in a few additional hours. Sadly, like the last versions of the Nexus phones, we have no wireless charging and I suspect it won't be coming back until the tech behind it is as good as what we have here, which is fast charging Google states that the pixel XL can gain seven hours of use from only 15 minutes of charging ridiculous. Now keep in mind that this won't happen unless you're using the correct charger. So, if you're charging by a USB port on your computer, it probably won't have enough power to fast charge your phone. This is why you're better off using the wall adapter that came with the phone which, by the way, explains why it seemed a little bigger and heavier than previous adapters, and if you're wondering whether you're fast charging, you can simply check on the bottom of your lock screen when you're plugged in everyone is talking about the DXO mark review, which gave the pixel XL camera a score of 89, which they say is the highest rated smartphone camera we have ever tested.

So that should give you an idea of what to expect here. On the front, we have an 8 megapixel camera with 2.4 lens which shoots up to 1080p video, and it's actually not that bad, considering you'll mostly be using it for video chat and selfies, but the one we care about is in the back. Here we have a twelve point: three megapixel camera with a f2 lens that can shoot up to UHD 4k video built into the sensor. We have phase detection autofocus, which quickly locks onto subjects moving towards and away from the camera, but it doesn't work too well in low-light situations, which is why we have a secondary system, and that is laser autofocus, which is what those two dots are for then, to the left. We have our flash, which is a dual tone LED, and it produces some decent images, but I still wouldn't use it unless it's completely necessary on our camera UI at the top.

Furthermore, we have a few options and those are timer, HDR+ grids, white balance and your flash. If we go into options, we have access to slow motion panorama photo sphere lens blur my favorite and additional settings. A few other features include burst fire. When you hold down the shutter button for those moments, when you don't want to miss the shot, then we have a video stabilization which utilizes the gyroscope to help with slightly shaky footage, I found that it works well, but if the footage is too shaky, it just looks odd and unusable. HDR is back and yes, they do have to process a bit, but the good thing is that it happens in the background, so you can continue.

Shooting using this camera reminds me of how much I love photography. The autofocus here works extremely well and locks just about instantly photos come out sharp and vivid, although I have noticed that the colors seem a bit too saturated, but if it bothers you, it can be fixed with an easy. This camera also produces some great looking. Video paired with an adapter I was able to mount it on a video head and motorized camera system to capture the footage you're seeing right now. So yes, the camera on this phone is amazing, and because pixel users get unlimited photo and video storage on Google photos, you don't have to worry about running low on storage, but I'll talk more about that later.

It's been over a month in every single day, I'm reminded as to how disappointing this speaker is. The Nexus 6p had these front-facing speakers, which I was a big fan of especially for games you're, watching videos in landscape, but with the pixel XL. We just have a single mono speaker if that's not bad enough due to its location, I keep accidentally blocking it, which mutes it and just ruins the user experience now. Overall, the quality of the audio itself is good for a single mono speaker, but it's a clear indication that this isn't one of the phone's strongest features when they announce the pixel phones. They showed us a teaser trailer where they flashed text on the screen, which mentioned just about every feature on the phone except the speaker.

So you know it's nothing to write home about, but it should be enough to get you by. One good thing to note is that the pixel XL isn't yet following in the footsteps of its biggest competitor, the iPhone 7, because we still do have a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. So you don't have to say goodbye to all those headphones and gadgets that utilize it to function. At least for now, I could dedicate an entire video to just Android 7.1 nougat, but for the sake of time, let's just check out some of the features that are exclusive, at least for now to Google's pixel phones, starting with Google Assistant, which is pretty much an improved version of Google now but smarter er, and this time around sounds a bit more like a person it can be accessed by either voice command or by holding down the home button. You can ask a question, be it philosophical, like okay Google, what is the meaning life? The answer is somewhere between 41 and 43, a little of a Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy Easter Egg there, or something more practical, like okay Google who is Santa Claus, so there's Santa Claus right there, and it also handles follow-up questions such as okay Google.

How old is he the first Christmas was in 336, so he's got to be over 1,600 80 years old. He looks good okay, so that's cool. It also has a lot of Easter eggs like okay Google. Can you sing well a little crazy there, so the layout is very clean, no clutter, nice and simple? It looks like what you'd see in any messenger or chat app with these speech bubbles and that's because they want you to have a conversation with it. They want you to talk to it below every reply.

You'll have additional suggestions pertaining to what you asked and that could either be related keywords, follow-up questions or an app on your phone and there's many other things you can do with it like asking it questions about. What's on your screen, launch apps from it check, what's on your calendar, etc. , one new addition is that it can now remember things like ok, Google, remember, my locker combination is 7, 8, 9, ok, and later you can ask for it: ok, Google! What is my locker combination? Here's! What you've told me December 1st 2016 remember. My locker combination is 789 November, 29th 2016. Remember! My locker combination is 1719, so I tested that before, but as you can see, it'll bring up what I said before along with a date.

So over the last month, I found that Google Assistant was very fast and accurate, but I did experience a few bugs here and there, for example. Sometimes while the phone was asleep, I'd use the key word: okay, Google, you see how it unlocks it wouldn't do that all the time, so I'd hear that chime, which means it's listening, but the phone wouldn't wake up or unlock, and it wouldn't respond other times, I found that every once in a while, it couldn't understand specific words, I said, but keep in mind that those things rarely have happened next on our list, we have the pixel launcher instead of a dedicated apps button, which we normally would have here in the middle. We now have an app tray which we can access by just swiping up from the bottom love this. It also gives us an additional slot where that button once was. Another new feature is app shortcuts, and it's like a right-click for apps that have options.

So, for example, here we have the Gmail app and if we tap and hold you'll see that these options fly out, and they're different per app, but this one has composed Hangouts as voice call. Video call chat, and it's just a way to quickly access a part of the app instead of opening and navigating to it. Since not all apps will have that feature. It gets a bit annoying because if you tap and hold an app that doesn't support it, it'll think you're trying to move the app somewhere, so you'll have to test each one out just to figure out which has it back to the home screen. Instead of a dedicated search bar that runs along the top.

We have this tab on the top left here with Google's G. By tapping it we bring up the search bar and below that you'll notice. It suggests things that are trending at the moment, and you can of course, type in what you're searching back to the tab. If we swipe it to the right, we have access to all those Google now or Google Assistant cards and options. By shrinking down the top search bar, they now had room on the right for this new weather and date, widget.

What you, sadly can't get rid of unless you replace the launcher with another, but I'm hoping they'll change that with a simple update, so the next thing I sort of talked about, and it's that pixel owners get unlimited, backup, storage on Google photos of original quality photos and video. Yes, that includes 4k. How awesome is that it just gives you that, much more of a reason to constantly take photos and record videos for the NSA for your family, then we have smart storage which works along that backup and what it does is it automatically removes photos and videos that are already backed up in Google photos when your phone storage is full. This can definitely be necessary, especially since we don't have any memory expansion options, but you can of course, also do it manually on the Photos app by just pressing free up space on the options' menu. The final feature I want to bring up is 24/7 customer support, which has a dedicated tab in settings.

This is fantastic for anyone who needs help with their phone on here. You can get assistance from a real person via phone or chat, and another cool thing is that you can actually share your screen with them, so they can see exactly what you're dealing with and help you through it pros and cons. Let's start off the pros: the pixel XL is a powerhouse, it's incredibly fast and smooth, which makes everything you do on this phone. A complete joy and I love, love, love! This camera paired with free backups on Google photos. Your find yourself constantly using it.

Knowing that it's a phone from Google, you know you can expect the best that Android has to offer along with the latest updates. It doesn't have the biggest phone battery on the market, but with the software we get amazing battery life and fast charge is fantastic now over to cons when technology evolves, you replace the old stuff with the new, but sadly that isn't the case with that single mono. Speaker big disappointment. This next one may not apply to the black pixel, but being that I chose one with a white front. The bezels stick out like a sore thumb and leaves me wishing that that space was better utilized.

Sadly, the pixel XL isn't waterproof certified. It has an IP 53 rating. The 5 means it's decent at dust resistance and the 3 means it has low water resistance, which means, if you actually get it wet in the rain. You should be fine, but you don't want to take it for a swim. Unlike some of its competitors, the insides of the phone are nothing short of amazing, but the exterior feels pedestrian boy.

I've wanted to use that word for a while, now pedestrian. So whether you're wondering whether the pixel XL is a good phone. Of course, it is, of course it is I. Don't know why I even wrote that into the script Google has made a drastic transition from the Nexus line, which had pretty affordable phones with decent specs to now being up there with competitors such as Samsung and, of course, Apple both in terms of pricing and power. It's definitely a step in the right direction, and although I do love this phone I just wish, they were a bit more adventurous and innovative with the design that wraps it up for now, I did get my hands on a daydream.

VR headset, to use with this phone so keep an eye out for that as well, and so what are your thoughts on Google picks, old phones? Let us know in the comments below, and I'll, see you for the next box. By the way the Hat is because I have a bad hair day, don't bring it up in the comments? Thank you so much for watching. If you like this video and want to help us out, you can do so by clicking that thumbs up button and while you're at it. Why not subscribe for more content? It's free! We also love to hear you out. So please leave a comment down below or talk with us on Twitter Instagram and Facebook I'm Sergio I am, and I'll see you for the next box.

Source : It Came From A Box