Is The Google Pixel 3 Worth It? By Austin Evans

- Hey guys, this is Austin put the Pixel 3 side by side with last year's model, you'll find something that looks a lot like a Pixel 2.5, at least until you look at the display which is slightly style challenged thanks to the giant notch. Look past the looks, though, which is sometimes difficult and you're going to find a truly excellent smartphone. There's no doubt that the Pixel 3 is a nice piece of hardware. It's an all aluminum and glass build with a few interesting touches. The rear has a two tone finish. Again, it is all glass, while on top it's glossy, the bottom is a much more matte finish, which not only matches the previous Pixels, but still feels really nice by adding a little bit of grip to the phone.

Importantly, this also enables not only the IP68 water resistance, but importantly, the brand new fast wireless charging on the Pixel 3. Which is all fine and great until you realize that, uh, well, a slight drop onto concrete might shatter the entire back of your Pixel 3. Specifically, if a certain friend of yours borrows the phone to shoot some footage and the wind blows it onto the concrete. - You guys weren't supposed to tell him. - For real, though, this dropped from like three feet and the entire back is shattered and even the front corner is shattered.

- Yeah, I mean I think it hit just right, but this is gonna crack either way. - Yeah. - But it does scratch pretty easily, here. - So, fun fact, don't drop your Pixel 3, or the glass back will shatter and you'll have to ask Jerry to rig everything very kindly to fix your phone for you. - Get a case at AustinEvans.

com/PixelCases. - Great, now I gotta like make that a URL now. Something I appreciate is we have the same squeeze feature to access Google Assistant from last year. In my opinion, this is way more useful than say if a company were to put a hardware button on the phone, which can't be re-mapped and is only useful for a very useless voice utility feature, Bixby. Anyway, all you do is just squeeze it, what's the weather tomorrow? - Tomorrow in Claremont it'll be sunny with a high of 85 and a low of 61.

- It should be no surprise that the Pixel 3 only has a single USB C port, there's no headphone jack to be found, but what's nice is, is that not only is there a pair of USB C headphones in the box, but you also have the USB C power cable, the fast charger, and importantly, a headphone jack adapter and a USB A adapter. You know, like none of the things that Apple includes with the iPhone X, which is more expensive, so, yeah. The stereo speakers have returned, and while they're supposedly 40% louder, I've gotta say the Pixel 3XL sounds noticeably better than the standard Pixel 3. Now a big part of that, I think, is that this one seems to distort a little bit at higher volumes, whereas the XL sounds a lot richer, and specifically doesn't do that same distortion. Now mind you, neither of the phones are going to compare to something like the Razer Phone 2, but they sound pretty good, just the 3XL is a lot better.

It might be a small thing but something I appreciate on the Pixel 3 is the smaller camera bump. When you lay it down flat on a table, it doesn't really rock as much, especially compared to the iPhone. (tapping phone) The Pixel 2 had the best camera of last year and arguably this year as well, and it should be no surprise that the Pixel 3 steps up even farther. One of the most impressive things here is not only just the dynamic range, but the overall color. Things look so, so good on this camera.

And I don't think it's really an exaggeration to say that this makes every other smartphone camera look bad. Seriously, I mean just look at some of this stuff. The portrait mode is also fantastic. Even though it doesn't have the telephoto lens to get that extra depth data, Google does such a good job of being able to isolate a subject and really pull it out of the background of a photo. I've said it before, I'll say it again, this camera is straight up awesome.

And a lot of it really just does come down to the level of AI, machine learning, buzz wordery, that really just makes this camera dope. I'm just gonna keep saying that 'cause it's really good. While the Pixel 3 still has a single rear facing camera, what it has new this year is a pair of front facing shooters. A standard angle camera as well as a much wider angle which is what, like 184% wider than the iPhone XS? - Yeah. - (laughing) Did he almost he almost, did he almost like into the back of me? - Yes.

(Austin laughing) - What's cool is that there's a zoom slider that will seamlessly move between the front facing cameras, and when you go wide, it is really, really wide. So, you know, when you wanna take a photo with all your friends, you can get them all a shot with the Pixel 3. Right, friends? Friends? Friends? (camera clicks) Yeah, there we go. All my friends, with my Pixel 3, it's great. - Take that, Wes.

- This is what 4K video looks like straight off of the Pixel 3. So not only can you tell if there's a decent amount of dynamic range, and pretty good stabilization, but on top of that it has really good auto focus. So all you need to do is tap on a subject and it will track it around, so as I get closer or farther away from the camera, the focus should naturally follow. The only real downside here is that there is no 4K60 support, unlike most of the phones this year, but with all the processing that's been going on in here, the Pixel 3 looks seriously dope as far as videos are concerned. At the launch event, Google heavily focused on features like Cloud computing, AI, machine learning, other cool buzz words, but what they didn't talk too much about is performance, which actually is really, really solid.

The Pixel 3 has very standard specs for 2018. You've got the Snapdragon 845, only four gigs of RAM as opposed to six or eight, and 64 or 128 gigs of storage. If that sounds a bit underwhelming in a world where the much cheaper Pocophone has the same processor and more memory, then you aren't alone. At the press conference I was kinda disappointed. The 845 has been around for quite a while at this point, and the next generation is definitely right around the corner.

Now this is a complaint I've levied at other phones that have come out recently, including the Galaxy Note9, but it's just as well that here on the Pixel 3, this is a smartphone with specs that will be outdated very shortly. However, after about 10 seconds with the Pixel 3 my doubts quickly vanished. This thing is straight up fast. Now when you compare it to the OnePlus 6, which up until now has been the Android speed king, this is even faster and even smoother. Now that might not be a huge surprise considering that Google hopefully knows a thing or two about optimizing phones for Android.

And to be fair there are definitely some other advantages, here, including not only is it running Android Pie right outta the box, they've got the animations nicely tuned. But the long story short here, is it is incredibly fast, it's incredibly smooth, and it's, well, maybe not the most outdated spec in the world 'cause it works. With Android 9 Pie onboard you're getting a lot of nice little additions, but one of my favorites is the gesture navigation. Now, I'll be honest, this is one of my favorite parts of using the iPhone X. It's real easy to move between apps, and it is almost as intuitive here on the Pixel.

There are a lotta other smaller features, including some that will be coming to previous Pixel devices, but my favorite, by far, is call screen. The way this works is similar to Google Duplex, is if you get a call in and you don't wanna answer it, you can just allow Google to screen the call and you get a live transcription. (phone ringing) Oh, look, Matt's calling. I'm going to screen it. - Hi, the person you're calling is using a screening service from Google, and will get a copy of this conversation.

Go ahead and say why you're calling. - Is Mr. Austin Evans happy with his long distance provider? - Do you need to get a hold of them urgently? - Yes, this is very urgent. - Just so it's clear, go ahead and say more about why you're calling. - We have a really great deal on collect calls and really happy to, - They can't talk right now, but they'll give you a call later.

Thanks and good bye. (phone beeping) - (laughing) I love it. It even automatically hangs up. This is like the greatest thing ever. That's so cool.

- That's so rude. - I'm never gonna answer anyone's phone call ever again. (laughing) Looking back, I think it's safe to say that the Pixel 2 has aged well, but it's hard to avoid the elephant in the room. While the Pixel 2 did pretty well, the Pixel 2XL had some major screen issues. Not only the XL have some color issues right outta the box when it was brand new, but it also has some fairly severe burn in with those early units.

Now to be fair, software has solved some of these problems, and they've replaced most of the issues with the actual burn in. But still, Pixel 2XL screen, not too hot, which brings us to the Pixel 3. So first of all we have the standard Pixel 3, which does have a larger 5.5 inch display. Now this is, I believe, still an LG panel, but the gist of it is, is that while it is all there we don't have any of those same issues that we had last year. Color's very vibrant, it looks to be fairly accurate, and that also applies to the Pixel 3XL.

Of course, there's no overlooking the notch, and the chin, yeah, okay look, I'm gonna be completely real with you, this is one of the ugliest phones I've seen in quite a while. Now for some people, that's probably going to be no big deal. I mean, you know, you're looking at a screen, not what's around the screen, but, uh, I've never seen a notch I didn't like, until I saw screaming, tortured face of the Pixel 3 XL. - Noooooooooooooooooo. - Unlike other large notches, like on the iPhone, which has not only the front facing camera, but all of the face ID tech.

Here we got something a little different. Two front facing cameras, as well as the front firing speaker. Now the speaker does sound good, but it just sounds like the little bit of a, I don't know, is it really worth this huge notch? Maybe they could of just moved some things up, or made it not quite so deep. And don't get me started on the chin. It's just not symmetrical.

I mean I don't mind having a little bit of a chin, but, I, eh, hm, not good looking, not, not uh, hm, um mm, uh mm, uh mm, uh mm. I mean it still is a great phone, but as far as I'm concerned, I would much rather use the standard Pixel 3 which doesn't have a notch but also doesn't look ugly and un-symmetrical. And it's also a normal human sized phone, unlike, - Also not broken. - Something that's gone up this year is price. So where the Pixel 2 last year was $650, the Pixel 3 now this year starts at 800 bucks.

Now it's not quite a big of a difference when it comes to the XL models. Last year was $850 and this year it's 900 bucks, but regardless this is definitely a more expensive phone this year. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually isn't totally unreasonable. This is definitely a year where thousand dollar flagships have become the norm, so $1800 is kind of not that bad. What I really wanna see is a comparison between the iPhone XR and the standard Pixel 3.

Now this is a smaller phone, and it's about $50 more expensive, but they have similar aluminum build with a glass back, a single great camera on the back of it, as well as what should be pretty decent screens. If only we could do a comparison test of these two phones, when the other one comes out, soon. Hint, hint, wink, wink. Subscribe for the full video coming soon. Whether it's the smaller Pixel 3 or the larger Pixel 3XL as well as a pair of sunglasses so you don't have to look at the chin and the notch all day, I think it's pretty clear that the Pixels are worth this year if you're looking for a very high end flagship.

Not only are these some of the best phones of 2018, but probably some of the best phones of 2019 as well. - Sunglasses? - Yeah, you know, so you don't have to look at the chin and the notch. - That's not how seeing works. - Just squint, it's fine! What's the problem? Just, look, just, eh, oh, I can't see anything besides my glorious screen. That notch is just not even there.

It's blinded.

Source : Austin Evans