Pixel 2 XL Review: Burn-In Down The House By MrMobile [Michael Fisher]

(upbeat music) - When Google announced it's new Pixel smartphones, I knew right away that the bigger one was the phone for me. A more modern design, a larger screen, and battery and an exclusive paint jon. What could go wrong, right? Well, we soon found out. I'm MrMobile and this is the story of a very good smartphone tainted by tales of a second rate screen. Let's see if it's still worth your time in the Pixel 2 XL review. Brought to you by Tech21.

(upbeat techno music) Last year's Pixel phones are pretty easy to sum up. They were Google's first house labeled smartphones made for the mainstream and they made up for a dull, derivative design with great cameras and the very best Android experience period. The 2016 Pixels were outstanding smartphones and I recommended them left and right. Flash forward to October 2017. At first glance, the Pixel 2 XL corrects almost all of the failings of the previous models.

I mean, the headphone jack may be gone but so is the puny, bottom firing speaker. Thrown out in favor of two front facing drivers that sound great. ("Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads) IP67 dust and water resistance is also here, saving you a heart attack if you drop it in the toilet. The specs are solid, as befitting a proper flagship phone in 2017 and the design, while not stunningly beautiful, at least no longer looks like an iPhone clone. - Let's cut to the chase, okay.

- Okay, let's get into it. The trouble started with the first wave of reviews. People called out the display for looking washed out, lacking in saturation. Google's position on the matter was that this was intentional. The display is tuned for accuracy, not for vibrance but a really, in depth post from Fran Francois Simon explains that, no, the screen is just tuned very poorly.

I'll link to that in the description. Okay so, bad tuning is not a big deal. It's fixable in software and some people have already started using an app to correct the colors but then Youtubers like Danny Winget called out the display for a significant blue shift when viewing the screen at angles even slightly off center and then, most daring, Android Central's Alex Dobie tweeted a picture of his phone exhibiting a ghostly effect. Sometimes called burn-in, an after image of the Android soft keys was sticking around even when the keys were not displayed. Others joined in with their own images of the problem and, yes, it also appears on mine.

There's lots of technical debate about whether this is truly burn-in, which is permanent, or merely image persistence, which is temporary. Android Central has a great video exploring all this which I'll also link to in the description. It should be noted that the Pixel 2 XL is hardly the first phone to exhibit this problem, but the fact that it manifested itself in less than a week on the 2 XL is troubling. Now don't get sassy in the comments if you bought one of these and you're itching to defend it. I'm not one of those folks who holds the screen an inch from my eyeball, looking for problems to complain about, I'm really not.

But it does seem to me that when you combine the ghosting with the low saturation and the blue shift issues. (sighs) You'd have to tie yourself into a Windsor knot to argue that this display is a good one, it's just not. Fortunately, if you decide the display is something you can live with, the phone behind it is outstanding. That starts with the same well-oiled Android experience that made last year's Pixel so intoxicating. With maybe one exception I'm not allowed to mention it, press time.

I've never used a more performant Android phone than this. Be sure to subscribe to the MrMobile on YouTube so you don't miss my coverage on that mystery device. Back on topic, that excellent software is backed up by pretty decent battery life, too. In a week of testing I think I've seen the low power warning once. More often, I'm ending the day with around 30% left in the tank.

With average screen on time trending toward four hours. That's on a typical day which sees me streaming a lot of podcasts and taking basically non stop photos and video. The best endurance I got came on a lighter day consisting mainly of surfing Reddit for hours with the display at low brightness. That kind of usage got me to eight hours of screen on time. Side not folks, that inconsistency is the reason I seldom give screen on time figures.

It's just as deceptive a metric as any other. It depends entirely on usage. So let's stop treating it like some objective bench mark. Anyway, the bottom line is that the bigger battery delivers. If you want endurance and you want a Pixel too, I'd recommend at least considering the 2 XL.

Whichever one you buy, the camera is the same and, yep, it's excellent. Side by side with a Galaxy Note 8, the Pixel's computational edge pulls more light from the shadows and preserves more dynamic range and highlights with less noise to boot. Also, the camera can extrapolate depth information from the censor and blur the background for portrait shots. I'm not a big fan of these and the result is hit and miss about on par with the iPhone and Note 8 but remember, that's using one camera instead of two which is pretty impressive just from a nerdy standpoint. During my time with the phone, I ended up taking many more portraits with the selfie camera.

This relies exclusively on computational tricks but I was surprised how often it worked and worked well. In video, the phone features excellent stability. Thanks to a combination of EIS and the new optical stabilization system. Colors tend to be over saturated though with the tendency to favor the blue green side of the spectrum in at least a few examples. Other times, of course, that punchines works to the scenes benefit.

There are no built in manual controls and only a sprinkling of features over all. Google seems to want users to trust the camera in an automatic mode and in theory, it should get even better over time. There's a whole chunk of silicone called the Pixel visual core sitting inert inside these phones. Waiting to be activated with the feature software update. That should provide faster and better HDR+ performance.

More camera samples on the MrMobile Instagram page. Before we bring it home, let's round up the details. Squeezing the phone for Google assistant is pretty cool but squeezing it when you don't mean to is really annoying. I love that the phone will automatically ID music it hears playing in the background but don't expect it to work in loud environments. Like a busy bar where you hear a lot of music you probably want identified.

And noise cancellation on phone calls, on the other hand, is very good. I tested it in bustling Penn Station on Project Fi and callers said they couldn't hear thing except my voice and I love the feeling of the new hybrid coating on the chassis which is at once smooth and grip-y but the aluminum underneath means wireless charging is out. That's a shame. The Pixel 2 XL costs between 850 and $950 and I'm divided about whether it's worth it. On the one hand, Google does not deserve a pass for shipping displays with these issues on a product this expensive.

Particularly considering for the same money, you could a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with basically the best display that's ever been put on a phone. But people buy the Pixel for an excellent software experience. More so than for perfect hardware so if you're one of those folks, consider that the smaller Pixel 2 has a display that's free of many of the defects of the 2 XL and it starts at a much more reasonable $650. As for me, well I buy one phone from Google every year and the one I'm keeping on order is the 2 XL because the display issues don't really bother me unless I I go looking for them and they don't bug me enough in any case to sacrifice the bigger battery, slicker looks, and that panda paint job. Not the best reasons, I admit, and I'll probably feel differently after a year of burn-in.

In the mean time, if you're on the fence and you wanna hold off a bit, no one could blame you for biding your time. When you do pull the trigger, consider protecting your Pixels with a protective case from Tech21 who've made this video possible. These folks have been building phone cases for over 10 years using scientific materials tested in partnership with the national physical laboratory. The Tech21 Evo check case with FlexShock gives you an ultra slim profile with ten foot drop protection designed specifically for your Pixel 2 and 2 XL to keep them covered drop after drop. Get yours from Verizon Wireless at the links in the description below.

Until next time folks, thanks for wathing and stay mobile, my friends.

Source : MrMobile [Michael Fisher]