Using the first Google Pixel, 4 years later - Review By 91Tech

The first Google, pixel and pixel Excel came out all the way back in 2016 and, unlike most other androids released the same year, the pixel actually runs Android, ten, hey how's it going I'm Josh from ninety-one tech, and today we're taking a look at the first ever Google Pixel, specifically here high of the first pixel excel. How does it hold up in 2020, while the Google Pixel is on Android 10 right now? It is unfortunately no longer receiving patches from Google. This shouldn't be a huge surprise, though. In fact the Google already gave the pixel more support than they promised by giving it Android 10, and this phone is getting pretty old. At least it did better than most of its Android brothers. This phone was a huge deal when it came out a brand-new Android phone, finally from Google themselves, replacing the Nexus line that had always been partially branded with a manufacturer like LG or HTC.

This phone was meant to be like the iPhone, a phone and straight from the company producing the software for it and at first the pixel seemed impressive. Although it was missing a couple features right out of the gate, the camera was always the biggest talking point. It was supposed to be amazing and for 2016 it was definitely one of if not the best smartphone camera on the market. The pixel to the next year was a significant improvement, but the first pixel can still produce some great photos. The design of the pixel XL is very of the era being fully aluminum with thick bezels.

On the front, there were a few color options, very silver, quite black, or a limited edition, really blue. That I have here. I love the blue. It looks fantastic in my opinion, although, unfortunately it is a bit harder to find, which is why I got mine as flawed as it is, but I'll get back to that. The aluminum on the back is complemented by the glass on top around the camera.

I'll admit it doesn't feel as premium as the newer pixels, but I love the general look, especially with that blue. We also have a fingerprint sensor on the back there, and it does a good job of letting you into your phone I. Don't understand why they didn't put it on the front, though that was actually a complaint of mine when it came to androids back in the day. A lot of them, though, notably not Samsung, refused to put in a physical home button, but instead would just have a digital button, and yet they would still have thick bezel on the bottom, where the home button would be. So why not just go the Apple route and stick the home button there.

It makes more sense, don't mention it allows you to unlock your phone without having to physically pick it up. It's a minor complaint in one very of veers and in all fairness, the pixel to Excel did reduce the bezel size, although the smaller pixels, who didn't which is again annoying. But let's move on the pixel XL has a 5.5 inch display with a resolution of 1440 by 2560, while the smaller Google Pixel has a 5-inch display and a resolution of 1080 20. So the pixel Excel does have a higher pixel density and will be a little sharper. That said, both screens are quite decent, particularly the pixel Excel, or would be if mine didn't have such extreme screen burning.

This is definitely something to look out for if you buy a used pixel, these older OLED screens had the tendency to burn in quite easily, and so, as a result of that, unfortunately, is the case with a lot of these, including mine, I, didn't mean to get one so bad by the way. I didn't look for a phone with burning. The seller said that it had light to burning. That was only visible on white screens. Yeah.

Okay thanks, but I did get a partial refunds, not enough I. Don't think he was very uncooperative, but at least I got something out of it. I could have returned it, but I just love that blue, so I ended up keeping it regardless the phone works, and it's good enough for me to review, but anyways, generally speaking on a phone that isn't destroyed like this one, the screen looks good, and I do prefer OLED over LCD when it, you know, doesn't look red on a white screen. Those bezels are massive, though, and I do wish. They went with the black bezels on the blue model.

Instead, I feel like black bezels, have always blended in with the phone better. It makes any phone just feel sleeker, even if it isn't, the pixels design is again very of the era, and that's just the way it is so. I can't complain too much on the bottom of the phone we have USB and on the top we have the headphone jack. The jack is kind of bittersweet here, because Google actually made fun of Apple when they release the phone for getting rid of the jack and then a year later, with the pixel 2, they got rid of it as well yeah great job there, Google anyways at least we do have the headphone jack on this phone as well as USB see. This is very nice, because micro USB was still way too common back in 2016 on the right side of the phone.

Is the power button and a volume buttons normally I, don't like it when phones put all the buttons on one side. The one thing I do appreciate is the textured power button makes it easy to feel for with your thumb- and it also just looks cool I wish they had kept doing this with newer pixels, because it's a nice touch all in all. This is buying far one of my favorite Android designs of all time and not even for the actual design, but just that beautiful blue color I know not everyone's going to agree with me, but in the world of 2016 smartphones colors were very boring. You know a lot of black whites gold sometimes rose gold, / pink, but there wasn't very much variation, so it was nice to see if flagship, actually try something different and typically Google does an interesting color like every year with the pixel and so for all its flaws. I do really appreciate that about the pixel line.

Battery life is always tough to give an impression of because most of these phones have been well-used in the last four years. Batteries degrade and get worse over time, and unless you want to actually go to the trouble of getting a replaced, which probably isn't worth the money you'll be stuck with needing to charge the phone potentially multiple times in a day. My pixel XL certainly doesn't last very long for me, I'm lucky to get a few hours out of it for needing a charge and that's the Excel. The regular pixel is smaller and has a smaller battery. Basically, if you use one of these nowadays, unless there's been a battery replacement, I'd keep a charger nearby, but hey at least that charger is USB, but I think it's about time.

We talk about the reason most people bought a pixel in the first place and possibly the reason you might want to buy one today and that's the camera. We have a single 12 megapixel camera lens on the back. This was back in the days when Google loved to say look at us. We can take better photos than the competition, and we only need one lens to do it and to their credit. The first pixel was definitely one of the top cameras of 2016 and honestly holds up well still to today.

These aren't too bad photos and, while newer phones definitely do a better job, it is still impressive what you can do with such old hardware now to be fair. Yes, it's a little over sharpened and there differently are flaws, but I'm not gonna, pick them apart, because, quite frankly, this is pretty ok even for 2020, and this is a 2016 phone. You can't really expect much better. We don't have portrait mode on this phone, unfortunately, but we do have an interesting feature called a lens blur. In short, this really is just kind of like a light version of portrait mode, but this photo actually turned out really, really nice.

So color me impressed edge. Detection, isn't perfect, but don't forget. This is a one lens camera from 2016, so yeah lens blur not portrait mode but also similar and still pretty cool. Video is bad, awful. The pixel films in 4k 30 but suffers the same issue as all pixels with just not taking good video.

The stabilization is awkward and the exposure shifting just takes too long. If you were doing still video, it might be ok, but with movement I'd recommend using an iPhone or a better Android I. Guess it's fine for the basic stuff, I'm just disappointed with it. Considering how good the still photos are, if Google ever figures out video, it could be amazing. The selfie camera is 8 megapixels and is still pretty decent, really no complaints here.

This is not terrible for 20/20 and pretty great for a four-year-old's camera. The pixel might be 4 years old, but you probably want to know that from the photos, if you need the best camera possible and are on a super strict budget, this phone might be the one for you, but we'll get back to that for now. Let's turn to the most entertaining subjects ever to grace: mankind, technical specifications, the Google, pixel and pixel excel feature: the Snapdragon 820, 1, chipsets and 4 gigabytes of RAM for storage. We have 32 and 128 of gigabyte model options which was fairly typical for 2016. Unfortunately, there's no expandable memory, so if you need more space than you have you're out of luck performance in today's world on android 10 is fairly mediocre, but it is android 10 making this one of the few androids from 2016 on android 10.

That said, it's not getting any more updates, so Android 10 is where it's going to be stuck forever. With this phone you're, getting a pretty bare-bones google experience with a decent camera, probably poor battery and mediocre everything else, but that might be worth it for the right price, and what is that right? Price? Well, the smaller pixel goes for around $50 on ebay. com, so I'd say that's pretty darn close yeah that small pixels' battery is like almost guaranteed to be rough. So if you want to go to the XL, you're going to have to cough up a whole twenty more dollars seriously. These things are insanely cheap on eBay, regardless of met, performance, 60 or 70.

Bucks for Android 10 alone is pretty much worth it. This is an insane deal if you're on an ultra tight budget, you need to consider this option. Just don't expect the best experience. No more updates, it runs okay, and it takes good photos for 50 to 70 dollar phone. You probably don't need much more.

At the end of the day, the pixel is not an amazing phone anymore. Besides the camera and software support, it's essentially a mediocre 2016 hardware that we sell all the time back in the day, this has been a common issue with the pixel line, amazing camera and software, but just plain uninteresting hardware: it doesn't bring anything more to the table than any other 2016 smartphone, but still assuming your battery is as shot the pixel can be. A half-decent experience into 20 is currently good enough to get you by not that you'll necessarily enjoy yourself, but it'll do the job smartphone tank when you think about it, really hasn't changed the lot since 2016 seriously. What's changed, we have more cameras on the back. We have thinner bezels besides that, like what's different, biometrics have changed in iPhones, that's something we do have more RAM now, and we use glass instead of aluminum, but when it comes down to it, the core of 2016 smartphones really isn't that much different from what we have today.

Because of this older phones like the first pixel or the iPhone 6s really still hold up well in terms of the basics they just look. Older smartphones can only get so much better, and I'm interested to see where they go from here, but I will say all in all. The first pixel has held up quite well, and it's a darn shame that Google can't seem to get one of these things right, because it really could be the Android to buy superior or at least equal hardware to the best of Samsung, along with the camera and software support you get with Google, that's the dream right there, but I'm getting off-topic here, and that might be a good subject to say for another video. So let's wrap this thing up. You shouldn't buy one of these anymore, that's pretty clear! Only if you're on, like a ridiculous budget, even then I mean I, would look into something new.

Wear it like going for an old phone is never a great idea, because you're going to run out of software support. Well, some people are okay with that I think for the majority, I'd say it's better to be on the latest version of software, for whatever you're using honestly, the first Google Pixel does still impress me. It definitely is a flawed phone, and it was in 2016 too, but running Android, 10 and the camera being as good as it is, is honestly really impressive for a four-year-old phone, so props to Google. Hopefully the other pixels hold up just as well, although I think some of them may not any of you out, there have the first Google Pixel. Are you thinking about getting one? Let me know in the comments down below if you found this video interesting or even helpful, somehow maybe hit that like button and consider subscribing for more content.

Just like this, you can follow me over on Twitter and Instagram at 91 underscore tech, if you'd like to for some reason, and we also have a discord channel, you can check out link in the description. Thank you so much for watching I'm josh from 91 tech, and I will see you all next time.

Source : 91Tech