Hands-On With Google's New Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Smartphones

[code-m]

You're joking right? - Cars see far more abuse. They spend all their time outside in all weather conditions, they have 1000x more parts, at-least 100 moving parts if not more. They get driven in potholes, get fender benders all the time.

All this phone has to do is move a piece of plastic up and then down again. I've seen lego actuators do the same thing more than 500,000 times at brickworld events and still they keep working, even when the plastic is wearing away from bricks rubbing together they still work.

LEGO actuators have been immersed in alcohol, salt water, chlorine water, toilet water, greasy foods, some bodily fluids, etc. If it has I don’t want to know details

Cars have been around for a century and are built for to withstand normal outdoor environments. Not much has changed. Compare that to a phone with a pop-up camera in all sorts of situations. I know one person who downgraded to a non-smart phone candy bar form as all his phones have suffered an ill fate and he had an otter box on those phones. Colour me surprised however there are some people who break everything.

What happens if dirt gets onto or in between the mechanism or some fluid, I can just imagine people forcing it to close or it stays ajar and who knows what else.

 

[Blaze4G]

Funny, the reviews I’ve seen. Especially ZoneOfTech on YouTube compared the two in a really good camera comparison. The XS was better in every way. Check it out.
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Go watch ZoneOfTechs camera comparison on YouTube. Pixel 2 vs iPhone XS. The iPhone was better in every way. Pixel cameras are good. But way over rated. Have you seen video from it? It looks cartoonish.

you keep mentioning that ONE comparison. I can show you multiple comparisons where the Pixel 2 comes out on top. So try again.

 

[Virinprew]

What exactly does iOS do that makes it better than android again? It's not 2010 anymore where the difference was stark. Android has farm more versatility and utility than iOS by a long shot.

5 years of software update, simpler to use and more time using the phone rather than time for tinkering with the “versatility”.

 

[jimbo1mcm]

Have an Iphone X that I love but also just traded in my Pixel 2 for a Pixel 3. Google Assistant is so much better than Siri. The Pixel OS is very fast and smooth. Google will hide the notch with software in the same way the LG G7 hides theirs. If you haven't used a Pixel it might not be correct to bash it. It's a very good phone. Apple doesn't worry about Google phones: they sell 2-3 million while Apple sells hundreds of millions.

 

[Abazigal]

What exactly does iOS do that makes it better than android again? It's not 2010 anymore where the difference was stark. Android has farm more versatility and utility than iOS by a long shot.

For me, it’s the whole ecosystem. Best apps on ios, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Music, and how everything just plays nicely with one another.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Sounds promising. One other thing that I wish the home screen did: instead of flipping between home screens to locate an app, I wish the rows of icons were scrollable and not limited to an amount that fits the screen’s width.

I have seen a YouTube of a launcher with a scrolling icon matrix. There was another where the homescreen in landscape looked like a Windows 10 desktop.

 

[Aftermath747]

I don’t get the ******** Google hate, google is fully integrated in our lives nowadays wether you like it or not! What would you do without their mighty search engine? And I am 100% sure many of you guys use google chrome. But google is evil, they sell our data! All companies use user data to make their algorithms more efficient and better in long term, even secure unhackable awesome crazy apple! Smash your phone,pc,laptop and don’t buy any data plans from your ISP, if you want to be saved from all that data spying! Such ******** rly!

I can’t speak for anyone else here, but the only Google service I use is YouTube. Only Safari/Microsoft Edge for web browsing, Yahoo/iCloud/Outlook for email, and Bing for a search engine. I purge Google from my life in as many ways as possible.
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I personally think that this looks much better than just a grid of icons as one example
Edit: This is a denotched Huawei P20 pro

View attachment 793834

A grid of icons with a persistent search bar, pointless globe, and massive clock for no reason? To each his own, I guess… Way too much clutter for my taste. I do wish the icon for the Weather app in iOS wasn’t static and would show the current temperature like Calendar shows the current date.

 

[AnthonyG6]

What I enjoy about iOS is that you can pick up any iPhone and know exactly how to use it and where to find things. This isn't the case with an Android phone as every user has their own preferences and layouts, widgets etc as do the different manufacturers. I am not against any of these customisations and I know millions of people like to tinker with their phones, but I prefer to spend less time tinkering and more time using the features of the phone (I know I have a choice NOT to tinker). Just my personal preference.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

I can’t speak for anyone else here, but the only Google service I use is YouTube. Only Safari/Microsoft Edge for web browsing, Yahoo/iCloud/Outlook for email, and Bing for a search engine. I purge Google from my life in as many ways as possible.
[doublepost=1539246873][/doublepost]
A grid of icons with a persistent search bar, pointless globe, and massive clock for no reason? To each his own, I guess… Way too much clutter for my taste. I do wish the icon for the Weather app in iOS wasn’t static and would show the current temperature like Calendar shows the current date.

This is the opposite of clutter. Clutter is pages of similarly shaped icons in a static grid.
The pointless globe was the moon showing a clear night in my localle. At the moment it is a sun shrouded in cloud. I chose to have a large representation of the old style digital desk clock with flip over times. My choice. There are other click styles/sizes to choose from. I like a nice large decorative clock display on my homescreen with updated weather info. All choice. One doesn't need to have clock display. CHOICE.
I take it you have no pictures or art on your home walls.

I can readily remove the Google search bar and move icons around as I please. Or let OS auto arrange. CHOICE.

[doublepost=1539252107][/doublepost]

I can’t speak for anyone else here, but the only Google service I use is YouTube. Only Safari/Microsoft Edge for web browsing, Yahoo/iCloud/Outlook for email, and Bing for a search engine. I purge Google from my life in as many ways as possible.
[doublepost=1539246873][/doublepost]
A grid of icons with a persistent search bar, pointless globe, and massive clock for no reason? To each his own, I guess… Way too much clutter for my taste. I do wish the icon for the Weather app in iOS wasn’t static and would show the current temperature like Calendar shows the current date.

I forgot to ask. What is the point of a weather app that doesn't show up to date weather?

 

[ROGmaster]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/9msiw2/google_pixel_3_xl_oled_display_earns_the_highest/

You were saying? Maybe next year when you dropped $1800.00

Yeah also iphone Xs Max's screen wasn't even better than Note 9's screen according to Displaymate's test results.
The iphone Xs Max basically won half of the time vs the Note 9.
Displaymate should be more explicit with their wording because from what I could deduce they are not ultimately comparing screens on different phones and trying to find out which is the best.

Anyway Pixel 3's result make sense if they are using a high end Samsung display.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

What I enjoy about iOS is that you can pick up any iPhone and know exactly how to use it and where to find things. This isn't the case with an Android phone as every user has their own preferences and layouts, widgets etc as do the different manufacturers.

I find the learning curve when going to a new Android phone is very steep, so it is not as issue.

 

[ROGmaster]

I mean it literally says it in the quote I replied to you with “leaving 8,000 unredacted emails to be read by employees”. The WSJ article is behind a paywall but if you search and come in through a search engine you’ll find even more explicit confirmation that personally identifiable information was not redacted in those mails.

Again with this FUD.
Users had to specifically give access for 3rd parties in order for that to happen.

I remember checking my google account after that story broke out and it was very conveniently reported by every apple site in an extremely "objective" way and surprise surprise it looks like I didn't give access to any 3rd parties to my Gmail account although I remember a few requests that specifically asked for that permission.

 

[Gudi]

I don’t care how XL they are, three pixels are simply not enough.

 

[ROGmaster]

Gilligan, is it possible to re-size icons in Android? That—and omitting their text labels—are settings that I wish were possible with any OS.

Yeah both are possible on android.
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A grid of icons with a persistent search bar, pointless globe, and massive clock for no reason? To each his own, I guess… Way too much clutter for my taste. I do wish the icon for the Weather app in iOS wasn’t static and would show the current temperature like Calendar shows the current date.

His home screen has the look he likes, my home screen has the look I like.

Spoiler: screenshots

There are no real limits regarding this on Android. It can be simple, complicated or anything between these two extremes.
But if we are talking about clutter, it's objectively much harder to manage on ios than on Android.
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What I enjoy about iOS is that you can pick up any iPhone and know exactly how to use it and where to find things. This isn't the case with an Android phone as every user has their own preferences and layouts, widgets etc as do the different manufacturers. I am not against any of these customisations and I know millions of people like to tinker with their phones, but I prefer to spend less time tinkering and more time using the features of the phone (I know I have a choice NOT to tinker). Just my personal preference.

I don't understand why there are so many people that think this is a constant time consuming burden that Android user have to accept.
Last I check any android phone allows the automatic placement of apps on the home screen, in the order they are installed. Anybody can treat their android phone like an iphone from this perspective if they want to, with a few exceptions of course(like they don't need to exist the camera app to change a setting, or the don't need to enter the setting apps to turn off wifi or blutooth).

 

[lowendlinux]

This is P on an OG Pixel it's nice and simple, I keep my iPad much the same but it's far more work since I can automatically keep icons off my home screen.

 

[weckart]

This is the opposite of clutter. Clutter is pages of similarly shaped icons in a static grid.

I can readily remove the Google search bar and move icons around as I please. Or let OS auto arrange. CHOICE.
View attachment 793968
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I forgot to ask. What is the point of a weather app that doesn't show up to date weather?

Why is the text under the oversized clock not neatly centred over the black background strip? That looks awful tbh.

 

[AnthonyG6]

I don't understand why there are so many people that think this is a constant time consuming burden that Android user have to accept.
Last I check any android phone allows the automatic placement of apps on the home screen, in the order they are installed. Anybody can treat their android phone like an iphone from this perspective if they want to, with a few exceptions of course(like they don't need to exist the camera app to change a setting, or the don't need to enter the setting apps to turn off wifi or blutooth).

I never said that I think it's a time consuming burden. I just said I prefer not to tinker. When I get a new iPhone I like the fact that it feels familiar like my previous iPhone but just better in many respects. To be honest I don't know what the user experience is like when say for example if you go from a Samsung S8 to a S9. Can you restore the new S9 with the same layout and widgets as your S8 automatically or do you have to redo everything to get it just right again?

 

[Aftermath747]

This is the opposite of clutter. Clutter is pages of similarly shaped icons in a static grid.
The pointless globe was the moon showing a clear night in my localle. At the moment it is a sun shrouded in cloud. I chose to have a large representation of the old style digital desk clock with flip over times. My choice. There are other click styles/sizes to choose from. I like a nice large decorative clock display on my homescreen with updated weather info. All choice. One doesn't need to have clock display. CHOICE.
I take it you have no pictures or art on your home walls.

I can readily remove the Google search bar and move icons around as I please. Or let OS auto arrange. CHOICE.
View attachment 793968
[doublepost=1539252107][/doublepost]
I forgot to ask. What is the point of a weather app that doesn't show up to date weather?

If it makes you happy, I’m totally happy for you. Just saying it’s not for me. I don’t think there’s any debate that Android allows for more customization than iOS. The only question is whether such a level of customization is desired by a given consumer. For me, I’m generally satisfied with the choices Apple has made with the home screen so I don’t feel the need for more options. If I had an Android device, I’d probably make it look pretty similar to my iPhone and never touch it again.

I also like the uniformity of iOS. All my widgets share a design language, and they’re available in a single, logical location. My search bar is always accessible when I need it, but kept visually tucked away. My app icons are all held to the same visual standard, meaning no mix of square and round or whatever other shape an app developer may choose. The consistency is appealing to me.

As for the weather app, I acknowledged that it’d be better to have a live icon, but live weather details are only a swipe away.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Why is the text under the oversized clock not neatly centred over the black background strip? That looks awful tbh.

Looks fine to me. Do you mean full width clock?

 

[Defthand]

This is P on an OG Pixel it's nice and simple, I keep my iPad much the same but it's far more work since I can automatically keep icons off my home screen.

I like the fact that the apps are arranged from the bottom up. And see how much better the (docked) icons look without their text labels? All icons should have that option. What's the point of a logo if it needs a text label to identify it?

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

If it makes you happy, I’m totally happy for you. Just saying it’s not for me. I don’t think there’s any debate that Android allows for more customization than iOS. The only question is whether such a level of customization is desired by a given consumer. For me, I’m generally satisfied with the choices Apple has made with the home screen so I don’t feel the need for more options. If I had an Android device, I’d probably make it look pretty similar to my iPhone and never touch it again.

I also like the uniformity of iOS. All my widgets share a design language, and they’re available in a single, logical location. My search bar is always accessible when I need it, but kept visually tucked away. My app icons are all held to the same visual standard, meaning no mix of square and round or whatever other shape an app developer may choose. The consistency is appealing to me.

As for the weather app, I acknowledged that it’d be better to have a live icon, but live weather details are only a swipe away.

The point of widgets is that info is available without touching the screen.

 

[weckart]

Looks fine to me. Do you mean full width clock?

I mean this



with the first line overlapping the black background and the wallpaper. Not sure what the effect striven for is here. That black bar serves neither as a proper background nor a dock. It just looks awkward.

 

[Aftermath747]

I mean this

View attachment 794047

with the first line overlapping the black background and the wallpaper. Not sure what the effect striven for is here. That black bar serves neither as a proper background nor a dock. It just looks awkward.

That’s the attention to detail you can always count on Apple to get right. Not so much for the multitude of Android options.

 

[Defthand]

Google harvests your identity and spreads it like a virus to anyone that wants it.

That's not quite how Google operates. You're confusing Google's business model with direct mail marketing, which typically bought and sold mailing lists. It is in Google's best interest to guard your identity. What Google does instead, is tells advertisers, "We know of people who are more likely to be interested in what you're selling. We'll deliver your ad to them." You remain anonymous unless you click on the ad and give the advertiser identifiable information.

Think. If Google were selling your identity to advertisers, you'd be flooded with email solicitations. Email is still the most effective advertising tool. Why do you think websites are constantly asking you to sign up for access and "newsletters". They are more likely to divulge your identity with third party "partners" who will clutter your email inbox with offers.

Also, open your browser's Cookies cache. Google isn't the only player tracking your online activities and trying to profile your interests and identify you.

Data mining isn't a privacy issue (unless a government or underwriter uses personal information to discriminate against you). The problem with data mining for commerce reasons is the unrelenting solicitations themselves that detract from the content you're trying to enjoy.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

I mean this

View attachment 794047

with the first line overlapping the black background and the wallpaper. Not sure what the effect striven for is here. That black bar serves neither as a proper background nor a dock. It just looks awkward.

Like I said. Text is good for me. No problem reading it.
I was referring to your comment about "over sized" clock. It's a full width clock.
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That's not quite how Google operates. You're confusing Google's business model with direct mail marketing, which typically bought and sold mailing lists. It is in Google's best interest to guard your identity. What Google does instead, is tells advertisers, "We know of people who are more likely to be interested in what you're selling. We'll deliver your ad to them." You remain anonymous unless you click on the ad and give the advertiser identifiable information.

.

I had been looking to get a particular LG TV and after a lot of searches for reviews and shops, I had decided to go for John Lewis. Unfortunately they were no longer stocking. Tried searching for other offers. Then got an ad for the TV from a retailer I had forgotten about. £30 cheaper and 6 year warranty. I really wish that hadn't happened. Yeh, right