Pixel 3a XL: Full Review | Killer Camera + Value! | Two Weeks Later By Noah Herman

So I've been using pixel three AXL for a little under two weeks now, and I'm, just going to say it right off the bat before we get into the whole in-depth review here. I have a lot of good things to say about this phone and I think that Google is taking a step in the right direction and, speaking of Google. Thank you, Google again for having me as a part of team pixel and sending me this device free of charge for review. Without your help, this review would not be possible, and it's just really great that you reached out to a smaller creator like myself. It's not all the time that people, you know. YouTube creators like me with my kind of sub count and just sighs, get access to devices like this, like the top dogs, sometimes do weeks before their launch.

So it's been really great and this has been an awesome opportunity. So thank you again Google. So with all that said, without further ado, let's jump into my pixel 3 XL for review and no I did not intend that to sound like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book. Oh, my god so beginning with design when you hear polycarbonate, which is the material that Google used to create this phone's chassis, you think about you, know cheapness or achieve quality.

But this is not the case with this phone, and obviously it's not going to feel premium. This is a plastic device and if you want something premium, you're going to have to pay a premium to buy something like the pixel, 3 or 3 X L that feature metal and glass, but I'm, just going to say this phone feels super solid in the hand and Google has really made no compromises in terms of its look. It has retained a lot of the best design aspects that you find in the pixel 3 like that matte and glossy texture, or look to it, but this go-around made out of polycarbonate in order to cut down on cost to keep this phone in an affordable price range. Some other design aspects of the pixel 3, and you got this really high, lighter, yellow power button. And although it's not like my favorite color, it does give the phone extra character, and it is a unique design aspect of pixel phones that I actually kind of like in terms of the color scheme.

They have a black color, they have a white color, and they have a purplish and that kind of sounds weird on paper. But it's not. It sounds like it'd, be obnoxious, but it's like an off-white purple, and it actually looks really nice and unique, and on top of that, they have this really dope case to go with it, which has this really nice textured cloth, design, I've, actually gotten. Compliments for this case. I really love the way.

It complements this phones, purplish, color and just looks and feels in the hand once is two other great aspects of this phone's design number one. They managed to cram a headphone jack into this phone of this price range. That's amazing, I actually use wired headphones with this device. It was really convenient and the second quality being the speakers. They're almost stereo, and I got to tell you they're loud, and they sound amazing, if not better than those found in my tennis max which kind of disappoints me.

They have great sound separation, they have great punch and clarity, I love them. I actually have a musician friend who I shall just phone to, and he was like damn. These are nice, so I'm not making this up. Some people gave me flack I when I said this in a couple videos ago, but I truly think that these speakers in this phone are amazing for media consumption and just general music. Listening moving on to display Google made some excellent choices here, which is funny how they do that with a cheaper phone rather than their actual flagship device that costs upwards of nine hundred dollars um.

There is no ugly five inches long notch, so Bravo Google wow. It only took you this long and in all seriousness. Hopefully that translates to pixel four we've yet to see the vessels are definitely there. You have noticeable top and bottom ones and slightly noticeable side ones, but I'm not gonna lie since Google. Didn't include a hideous notch, I, don't mind them much at all, and that's coming from someone uses an iPhone tennis max on the daily and I think the bezels are made up for by the excellent image quality with this device.

You get great contrast, color, that's OLED, you got sharpness. It has great pixel density, it's like in the 400s lower 400s, but still great display on this phone great for media consumption. YouTube watching and whatnot I will say, though the brightness with this display isn't the greatest outdoors. I was at Cedar Point the other day and like I, could barely see my screen in like direct sunlight, but once again considering the price point and just the overall image quality of this display not much to complain about here. Moving on to battery I have done some tests with this device.

You know use it for an entire day in different conditions. I've used it all day in one case and then actually out of town. In another case, I went once again to Cedar Point the other day and I just brought my phone and only this phone with me purely to test. If I also brought a battery bank because we had like a six-hour bus ride. You know like here and back six hours in total, so I actually did make it through the day quite well, although standby time isn't as good as it is with iPhone, you know: because iOS somehow is perfect at Pacific.

Power Android needs to get at that, but yeah I mean overall I've managed to get around six hours of screen on time. A little over that my usage cases like moderate to heavy, you know, I do a lot of YouTube watching a lot of media consumption, go on Instagram I text, I call I use the web, or I surf the web, so yeah overall, and I'm going to say it again for a phone of this price range, it competes with the flagships. You know, six hours of screen on time is nothing to bat, your eye at and should be more than plenty for most people in their own. You know moderate is usage cases and say you do end up draining the battery, because you're insane, and you're on your phone for like eight hours a day, this phone features fast charging. So you shouldn't have nothing to worry about.

If you, you know, forget to charge your phone or drain it for super quickly, you can charge this phone to full capacity in like a little over an hour from my experience so yeah. That is also a great feature to have. Although we don't have wireless charging here, it's completely understandable, because once again this is a sub $500 device. Fast charging again is a really great feature to have in this handset moving on to camera. This is one of the big topics here and let me just tell you: I am really impressed in the past.

I've seen photos taken by reviewers and a couple friends who have pixel phones, and I was like damn, but after using this phone in person just playing around with it again, I am really impressed, especially, and I'll, say it again, and I'm going to keep saying it for up phone of this price range. This phone is for 79 the pixel 3/8 399. They take the same pictures, and they're just amazing from my first-hand experience, some of the shots that I've taken with this phone yeah they're like a smartphone picture, but they're like nothing you've ever seen before, at least in my case again. This is my first pixel device. The post-processing is unreal.

Honestly I mean I, say this genuinely and like the portrait mode is just like. Oh, like it's just perfect, like I, don't know, I haven't seen anything better, even with my thousand-dollar iPhone 10s max I, just love what the pixel has been able to do again, and it appears to me that this camera setup has little to no compromises. Yes, we don't get 4k 60 video, which I think is kind of rarely used a feature anyway, because that you know has a lesser processor. We do get great little a performance, and here great autofocus and optical image, stabilization that actually doesn't suck, because some Android phones have it, but it's just not great to backtrack a little. The photos that I'm taking with this device I've turned out.

Almost all fans take a contrast and clarity play a huge role in Google Pixel photos, especially with the Pixel 3a here, and I really do enjoy. That look. Dynamic range is also really great with the Pixel 3a and although it's not present in every single photo, because obviously smartphones are limited, they can't have everything super nicely exposed. Like some cinema camera, it is really great and when dynamic range really does shine in a photo, it really looks. Amazing gets so much value and the bones just looked like something taken with a DSLR in some cases, I think exposure for the most part ?, although it's not perfect- and sometimes you have to you- know kind of tap on things to make sure things are properly exposed, and you might have to edit things if you're really, really particular exposure for the most part is decent.

You got a nice autofocus ? and the colors for the most part look nice they pop, although they are a little more on the cooler side and may not be completely accurate in real life in terms of video quality. While it may not be the iPhone tennis max, which is honestly the king, a smartphone video at this point, in my opinion, it does handle itself very well, and it has a special quality to it. Also, um the pixel photo look applies to pixel video -. You get great contrast, great dynamic range, and it just looks like something out of a cinema camera. Sometimes not all the time I mean you can't just make these others, so it looks like it was taken on something way more expensive.

In some cases it does once again in some cases a dozen because at the end of the day, this is a smartphone, and it does have its limitations with the small sensor size, but what I will say is the shots that I got at Cedar Point and of my car here that you're going to see just look really, really nice in terms of the color, the sharpness, the stabilization, both in 1080p and 4k and again the dynamic range is just insane here. Autofocus, I found was really great, too and in some cases better than my iPhone as well. So that is also something to keep in mind, especially considering this phones price point. Nitrite is also an amazing feature for the first time ever, I feel comfortable, taking photos and really horribly lit places like I was at prom with my friends and like I, took a couple selfies and pictures there, and they turned out really decent for being shot in low-light, and I know. The peeler is like, oh, my god, thirty pros like much better yeah, but it's a lot more expensive, so keep in mind that you're getting the best of pixels low-light performance in this $479 package or a 300 and in another package, if you buy it, the pixel 3/8 the front of using camera 2 is really nice.

They brought that phone, the pixel 3. It has a really nice wide field of view which I really enjoy, and yeah I've never taken more selfies with a smartphone than this one. It's just fun, especially with the portrait effect, which is just as good on the front camera as the back camera is with this device, the AI that Google uses or whatever to make that both effect. Furthermore, it just looks incredible both ways and yeah I really do enjoy taking front-facing video and photos with this phone's front-facing camera once again so yeah. Overall, the camera performance with this phone is just incredible, and it's just really awesome that Google managed to cram everything great about the pixel 3s camera into this budget.

Oriented device and yeah I would say the image quality just like on the pixel 3. It's just super crispy and punchy and amazing to look at and last, but certainly not least, let's talk performance with the pixel 3/8 here and that's kind of been a controversial talking point with this phone because, yes, it features a non flagship processor. The Snapdragon 670, as opposed to an 8 45 or a 55 Google, has decided to put money in other places, as we discussed with the display, the camera and other aspects rather than with the guts or the hardware like the processor performance oriented things here, but I don't think that's the biggest deal, because this is a stock Android device. And if the company dictates the hardware and the software you're bound to get optimization, which is totally evident with the pixel 3 AXL with stock Android, do we know there's like pretty much zero bloat, where there's like 20 apps pre-installed in this device, when you first get it, and you do with it, what you will afterward apps open, pretty quickly and animations seem to go through their paces without much lag or stutter. But I will say this device is not amazingly, quick, like an OnePlus device with a snapdragon 845 or in a 55.

This is not your device if you want to get the best of the best in performance, I just started getting into cars. So if you're, you know get this lingo, imagine the pixel 3 an Excel. Has a v6 twin-turbo. It's fast, it's faster than most phones, but it's not overwhelmingly clicked like a 1 plus phone, which has like a Snapdragon 845, which I'm going to equate to like a naturally aspirated v12 or like a v8 twin-turbo. Something more insane on this phone again does not have overwhelmingly fast performance, but it's a more way more than adequate.

Once again, even with a more mid-range processor like the Snapdragon, 670, multitasking and RAM management appears to be pretty great with this device as well, that might be a product of optimization but yeah. This phone packs 4 gigs of RAM, and I'm able to keep like a handful or more of apps open without having to reload. You know web just in games and whatever I'm using biometrics with this phone are just what you need. The fingerprint sensor once again is can be neatly placed you tap it you're in your phone. It's definitely more than adequate and quick in terms of gaming.

I. Don't do a ton of gaming, so watch a different video. If you want to see some hardcore tests done, but what I will say is light games like doodle jump and thing your driver. My usual suspects to my reviews, we're on really, really well even with a snapdragon 670 and to quickly touch on software experience. It's clean its stock I've never had a stock Android home before.

So it's been a really great experience using the pixel here. Some things that I want to know are the system. Haptics I love them. You know, Android phones by default. Have this vibrating thing happening when you type, and you press stuff, I usually hate that, but the vibration motor in this phone is like kind of linear kind of like apple's haptic engine and just tapping around and just interacting with the phone feels great, especially with the little click sound that you get with.

You know interactions once again. I also really like the squeezed ability thing. I'm going to call it squeezed ability. Furthermore, I don't know exactly what it's called just squeeze to get Google Assistant. Furthermore, I thought it was kind of gimmicky at first, but it's actually really useful.

If you just want to call somebody or text somebody without having to go into your phone, you just squeeze the phone and talk to assistant, as you normally would again super convenient way, just some things up on the pixel 3 a and an Excel for 399 479, also considering or factoring in all the incentives that you might get for buying this phone. You know 100 other gift cards and money off trading values. So, at the end of the day, you're not paying the full upfront price for it anyway. Umm, this phone that google has offered is just a killer, deal a killer value and a killer package. So if you want a phone with a really decent display, an insane camera and a more than adequate to design a battery life and performance overall, this is the phone to get right now, and it won't hurt your wallet like the iPhone tennis max, and this phone does so many of the same things at the same quality for so much less money.

Anyway, it's been a hell of a review here. I've been recording this Eros for like 45 minutes. I haven't done a review like this for a while, it's been fun on. Thank you once again, Google for sending me this phone and having me as part of team pixel, it's been an honor and a privilege. I hope you enjoyed this review and really appreciate it.

If you leave a like in this video comment, if you have any questions or suggestions and subscribe for more content like this and as always, I'm Noah and I will catch you all in the next one.

Source : Noah Herman