Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL

[Aneres11]

After watching some camera comparisons, glad I went the way of the iPhone this time round. The gap is definitely closing and the Pixel can't touch it for video recording.
I'm glad actually, as Google don't deserve my money for what is essentially a Pixel 2 only worse looking.

 

[epicrayban]

This is why Google needs to do better in hardware. They can't rest solely on their camera any more. Not in late 2018.

Google could have, should have, and next year, must do better. Hardware matters. We can't keep saying Google is a software company and pretend that hardware isn't going to be a factor in people's phone decision. There's no reason Google can't continue to be great at software while elevating their hardware game to match the competition.

 

[Aneres11]

This was the first video that was on my feed when I loaded YouTube earlier.
Pretty much bob on I reckon.

 

[epicrayban]

I finally read through the Ars Technica review, and I like that they're calling Google out on things.

I'm not seeing enough reviews calling out the gesture navigation. Ars Technica's review does so nicely:


Gesture navigation takes Android's normal "Back," "Home," and "Recent Apps" button layout and just removes the Recent Apps button, making the whole bar look lopsided. The home button, which is normally a circle, changes to a pill shape, and now you can swipe up on it to open the Recent Apps interface. A swipe left on the pill will switch to the previous app, and a swipe right on the pill doesn't do anything at all. That's right—there's no gesture for "Back." The back button is still here and just awkwardly hangs out to the left of the home button whenever you are in an app.

Recent apps is also really clunky. Swiping up on the home pill opens Recent Apps, but it alsoopens the app drawer if you keep going. So, usually you open Recent Apps and then half-open the app drawer, which slides back down the screen after it realizes you don't want to open it. Putting the app drawer on the Recent Apps screen was supposed to be a benefit, letting you open the app drawer from anywhere. But since this is the only way to open the app drawer now, it's just a lot harder to get to. With normal navigation, the app drawer was just a swipe away on the home screen. Now you need two swipes, or one unreasonably long swipe that covers, like, 75 percent of the phone screen.

There's also a scrubbing gesture for Recent Apps, which you can access by swiping right on the home button and then keeping your finger down and moving left and right. This will rocketthrough the recent apps list and open whichever app you stop on. I've never found a use for it, since it's really finicky and hard to control.



This is spot on. Gesture navigation on Android is a half-baked, unintuitive mess. And Google needs to know this. It broke the app drawer, the scrubbing feature is difficult as hell to control and be accurate with (that is to say, it's useless), and the gestures don't do anything to save screen space.

I don't believe the Verge review, for example, even mentions gestures in the write-up. How can they not talk about the primary navigation interface of the OS?

 

[JaySoul]

Hmmmm....

1) Surprised at the reviews but glad so many of them have subtly called Google out for certain hardware decisions.

2) The camera isn't the quantum leap ahead we've been told, BUT loads of these reviews had conflicting results, plus I suspect Google will push out certain improvements over updates. Will be interesting to see the non-YouTubers give more real world tests over coming months.

3) It doesn't really seem like enough of an update over the Pixel 2. They've obviously made improvements, but in conjunction with the price hike, I'm not sure. This seems like an 'S' update, but then they clearly should have futureproofed the RAM at least.

There is a lot to like, but these reviews aren't exactly stellar. However, if you were upgrading from an OG Pixel or some other older phone, you'd probably love it.

 

[torana355]

I was considering this phone but after reading some early reviews I think ill stick with my S9+ till the S10 is released.

 

[tbayrgs]

I’ve admittedly just seen a small sampling of reviews and camera comparisons but I’m a bit surprised by how close the camera performance is. In stills, while I’ve seen clear wins over the other for each phone, overall I’d still lean ever so slightly towards the Pixel. Front camera stills aren’t even close. Apple really needs to make some changes to their algorithms to step back the aggressive noise reduction here.

When it comes to video though, with either front or rear cameras, it’s not even close—the iPhone consistently outperforms the Pixel. The fact that Google can’t match the iPhone’s 4k 60FPS or 1080p 240FPS makes the discrepancy here even greater. Audio quality is also noticeably better on the iPhone, a very welcome improvement over last year’s X.

I find I use my phone for video an awful lot now, especially when capturing my kid’s moments, so I’m pretty happy with my decision to go with a XS Max.

 

[epicrayban]

I’ve admittedly just seen a small sampling of reviews and camera comparisons but I’m a bit surprised by how close the camera performance is. In stills, while I’ve seen clear wins over the other for each phone, overall I’d still lean ever so slightly towards the Pixel. Front camera stills aren’t even close. Apple really needs to make some changes to their algorithms to step back the aggressive noise reduction here.

When it comes to video though, with either front or rear cameras, it’s not even close—the iPhone consistently outperforms the Pixel. The fact that Google can’t match the iPhone’s 4k 60FPS or 1080p 240FPS makes the discrepancy here even greater. Audio quality is also noticeably better on the iPhone, a very welcome improvement over last year’s X.

I find I use my phone for video an awful lot now, especially when capturing my kid’s moments, so I’m pretty happy with my decision to go with a XS Max.

If I could use iOS, I'd get a XS over the Pixels, too.

Google isn't doing enough and it's clear their cameras aren't going to be the tipping factor anymore.

 

[Lloydbm41]

This is why Google needs to do better in hardware. They can't rest solely on their camera any more. Not in late 2018.

Google could have, should have, and next year, must do better. Hardware matters. We can't keep saying Google is a software company and pretend that hardware isn't going to be a factor in people's phone decision. There's no reason Google can't continue to be great at software while elevating their hardware game to match the competition.

Same could be said for any phone really. Why does Apple always leave out tech for years and years, when they could easily allow it when it is available? Wireless charging, LTE, NFC, OLED, etc.
Why does a company like One+, that has had a bumpy bunch of launches and FINALLY gets into the US market, insists on dropping wireless charging and not getting an IPx rating?

Does hardware really matter to the masses? If you use Apple as a basis for that question, then the answer is a resounding, "No!" Tech enthusiasts care, but the average Joe? Nope. They couldn't tell you the difference between an A12 chip and a Snapdragon 845 or the difference between ROM and RAM.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Man, love how these reviews dog Google for not doing this or that right, and it being cheap, and bad design, or whatever. But these cons NEVER get mentioned in an iPhone review.

Listen, I'll be the first to say the Pixel 3 XL could have been A LOT BETTER, no doubt. The notch should have been more like Essentials little hole, or at least iPhone X size at the most. And no bottom chin too. And many other things could have been made better on the phone.

So yes, it seems the Pixel 3 isn't a huge leap forward from the Pixel 2. But lately all phones are like that. Not to give Google excuses, but look at the Galaxy S9+ vs the S8+, or the LG V30 vs the LG V40, or the iPhone X vs the iPhone XS, and the OnePlus 5t vs the OnePlus 6. Year to year isn't a big upgrade anymore, but go back 2 years ago, or three years ago, then we're talking big time upgrade.

Why weren't people dogging Samsung hard when the S9+ came out, because compared to the great S8+ the year before, the S9+ isn't not a massive upgrade AT ALL. But people fawned and jizzed all over how great the new S9+ is, and it is. But compared to the S8+ it's a weak upgrade. But Google comes out with a "weak upgrade" and it's ****, and they suck for slacking off.

A Nexus 6P to a Pixel 3 XL would be a big time upgrade. A Galaxy S6 to a S9+ another night and day huge upgrade. Or a iPhone 6S Plus to a iPhone XS Max, gigantic upgrade.

But, at the end of the day I pre ordered a new Pixel 3 XL from Google for grand total $855 w/Tax + shipping. The same iPhone XS Max would be running me around $1200, which to me is unacceptable for a smartphone, to spend Laptop money on. Is the XS Max a better phone than the 3 XL ? I dn't know, maybe. But I prefer stock Android, and the cheaper price.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Man, love how these reviews dog Google for not doing this or that right, and it being cheap, and bad design, or whatever. But these cons NEVER get mentioned in an iPhone review.

Listen, I'll be the first to say the Pixel 3 XL could have been A LOT BETTER, no doubt. The notch should have been more like Essentials little hole, or at least iPhone X size at the most. And no bottom chin too. And many other things could have been made better on the phone.

So yes, it seems the Pixel 3 isn't a huge leap forward from the Pixel 2. But lately all phones are like that. Not to give Google excuses, but look at the Galaxy S9+ vs the S8+, or the LG V30 vs the LG V40, or the iPhone X vs the iPhone XS, and the OnePlus 5t vs the OnePlus 6. Year to year isn't a big upgrade anymore, but go back 2 years ago, or three years ago, then we're talking big time upgrade.

A Nexus 6P to a Pixel 3 XL would be a big time upgrade. A Galaxy S6 to a S9+ another night and day huge upgrade. Or a iPhone 6S Plus to a iPhone XS Max, gigantic upgrade.

Exactly!!! Like most companies, I'm sure costs vs benefit means not getting one thing or another.

 

[Michael Goff]

https://twitter.com/journeydan/status/1051988879874523137?s=20

Hmm. I'm told the Pixel doesn't need more than 4gb of RAM though. Weird.

 

[dazz87]

https://twitter.com/journeydan/status/1051988879874523137?s=20

Hmm. I'm told the Pixel doesn't need more than 4gb of RAM though. Weird.

saw an interview last week about this.......

At the 12:51 mark. he talks about it......Unreal.......4GB of ram.......smh

 

[Michael Goff]

saw an interview last week about this.......

At the 12:51 mark. he talks about it......Unreal.......4GB of ram.......smh

It makes sense that they should have upped the RAM since they're throwing more things at the camera and OS in general. I don't think this is an optimization issue. Why does Google pretend otherwise?

 

[dazz87]

It makes sense that they should have upped the RAM since they're throwing more things at the camera and OS in general. I don't think this is an optimization issue. Why does Google pretend otherwise?

Maybe Google think their software is sooo great that it does not need good hardware to run it.....Who knows.

 

[5105973]

Man, love how these reviews dog Google for not doing this or that right, and it being cheap, and bad design, or whatever. But these cons NEVER get mentioned in an iPhone review.

Listen, I'll be the first to say the Pixel 3 XL could have been A LOT BETTER, no doubt. The notch should have been more like Essentials little hole, or at least iPhone X size at the most. And no bottom chin too. And many other things could have been made better on the phone.

So yes, it seems the Pixel 3 isn't a huge leap forward from the Pixel 2. But lately all phones are like that. Not to give Google excuses, but look at the Galaxy S9+ vs the S8+, or the LG V30 vs the LG V40, or the iPhone X vs the iPhone XS, and the OnePlus 5t vs the OnePlus 6. Year to year isn't a big upgrade anymore, but go back 2 years ago, or three years ago, then we're talking big time upgrade.

Why weren't people dogging Samsung hard when the S9+ came out, because compared to the great S8+ the year before, the S9+ isn't not a massive upgrade AT ALL. But people fawned and jizzed all over how great the new S9+ is, and it is. But compared to the S8+ it's a weak upgrade. But Google comes out with a "weak upgrade" and it's ****, and they suck for slacking off.

A Nexus 6P to a Pixel 3 XL would be a big time upgrade. A Galaxy S6 to a S9+ another night and day huge upgrade. Or a iPhone 6S Plus to a iPhone XS Max, gigantic upgrade.

But, at the end of the day I pre ordered a new Pixel 3 XL from Google for grand total $855 w/Tax + shipping. The same iPhone XS Max would be running me around $1200, which to me is unacceptable for a smartphone, to spend Laptop money on. Is the XS Max a better phone than the 3 XL ? I dn't know, maybe. But I prefer stock Android, and the cheaper price.

I don’t know. Have we been reading the same forums and articles and reviews? Samsung got slammed big time over on Android Central for being a weak upgrade. A lot of reviewers have called out the competition for being iterative instead of revolutionary.

I felt the sting of it same as you do now because I purchased the S9+ and the iPhone 8 Plus. People getting the XS from the X probably feel tired of hearing reviewers gloss over the upgrades in the XS in order to lavish attention on the Max.

If anything, it’s the multitude of reviewers who are stale and jaded! The formats and attitudes are all long in the tooth. iJustine was one of the few I saw attempt something new and different to show off the Max’s upgraded camera.

Anyway I think all of these phones show meaningful improvements each year. Unfortunately a lot of improvements go toward improving flaws that were there due to sloppy execution and lack of forethought or in Apple’s case, stinginess. That’s why the reviewers have a hard time getting excited about significant improvements.

The Pixel was sloppily executed last year. It’s now definitely improved, but suffers from Apple-style stinginess. So it’s hard to work up the excitement for it. But it’s still going to be better than anything anybody has to use from last year.

Every year these pocket computers get more refined, more powerful and capable— and every year we outdo ourselves in taking them for granted.

 

[jamezr]

I don’t know. Have we been reading the same forums and articles and reviews? Samsung got slammed big time over on Android Central for being a weak upgrade. A lot of reviewers have called out the competition for being iterative instead of revolutionary.

I felt the sting of it same as you do now because I purchased the S9+ and the iPhone 8 Plus. People getting the XS from the X probably feel tired of hearing reviewers gloss over the upgrades in the XS in order to lavish attention on the Max.

If anything, it’s the multitude of reviewers who are stale and jaded! The formats and attitudes are all long in the tooth. iJustine was one of the few I saw attempt something new and different to show off the Max’s upgraded camera.

Anyway I think all of these phones show meaningful improvements each year. Unfortunately a lot of improvements go toward improving flaws that were there due to sloppy execution and lack of forethought or in Apple’s case, stinginess. That’s why the reviewers have a hard time getting excited about significant improvements.

The Pixel was sloppily executed last year. It’s now definitely improved, but suffers from Apple-style stinginess. So it’s hard to work up the excitement for it. But it’s still going to be better than anything anybody has to use from last year.

Every year these pocket computers get more refined, more powerful and capable— and every year we outdo ourselves in taking them for granted.

Very well said! Samsung got slammed here and elsewhere on the S9 and Note 9 not being that different than the previous models they replaced.
But until Samsung or Huawei can produce a foldable phones....there isn't much by way of features in the smartphone space right now.
Everything is going to be incremental with the current technology limitations.

 

[epicrayban]

If the idea of Google's gestures is to get users to navigate more through the app switcher screen, they should have put 6gb of RAM.

I get to the end of my list pretty quick and notice some apps missing from not long ago.

Oh and apps at the end of the list do refresh. So, yeah, 4Gb of RAM in a late 2018 flagship is weak.

 

[Michael Goff]

4gb of RAM is actually the one big flaw for this year. Let's hope they fix that next year.

 

[JaySoul]

If this is an 'S' kind of model, then they really should have upgraded the RAM.

For me, if you want to be a flagship, you need to fix as many of the problems from last year as possible. Samsung did it with the S9, Google tried it with the Pixel 3 but neglected to do a couple of really easy things.

I get companies have roadmaps and want to plot out features etc to keep customers thinking they've got a good deal, but Google have already said they know this isn't going to sell crazy amounts, so they should keep their loyal followers happy. Especially if performance (over 3 years) is likely to suffer for something so easily fixable as chucking in a bit more RAM (if that is the problem).

 

[kasakka]

Does hardware really matter to the masses? If you use Apple as a basis for that question, then the answer is a resounding, "No!" Tech enthusiasts care, but the average Joe? Nope. They couldn't tell you the difference between an A12 chip and a Snapdragon 845 or the difference between ROM and RAM.

While the iPhone 6/7/8 design left a lot of things to desire, the internals on Apple phones have always been pretty good and now their SoCs are a lot faster than anything on the Android side. That said, the speed difference doesn't really show in everyday use so no wonder the average Joe doesn't care too much. Nobody but tech enthusiasts will care if their favorite app takes a bit longer to open as long as the overall experience is smooth.

Google seems to make phones as if they are in the same vacuum as Apple where they are the only vendor. But that's not the case for Android. You can get a varying combination of SD845 + 4-10 GB RAM + 6+" display + decent camera module + near stock Android from so many different brands. All of those things 6 months earlier than the Pixels. Compared to those phones I see no reason why someone would opt for a Pixel 3 over a much cheaper phone from the other brands.

 

[Michael Goff]

While the iPhone 6/7/8 design left a lot of things to desire, the internals on Apple phones have always been pretty good and now their SoCs are a lot faster than anything on the Android side. That said, the speed difference doesn't really show in everyday use so no wonder the average Joe doesn't care too much. Nobody but tech enthusiasts will care if their favorite app takes a bit longer to open as long as the overall experience is smooth.

Google seems to make phones as if they are in the same vacuum as Apple where they are the only vendor. But that's not the case for Android. You can get a varying combination of SD845 + 4-10 GB RAM + 6+" display + decent camera module + near stock Android from so many different brands. All of those things 6 months earlier than the Pixels. Compared to those phones I see no reason why someone would opt for a Pixel 3 over a much cheaper phone from the other brands.

I don't think the Pixel should be considered Stock Android. It's Android as seen by the Pixel team, the most Google of Android. That's what you're not going to get from those cheaper phones.

 

[Zaft]

Who manufactured the Pixel 3 xl? I think google needs to fire the design team head.
Same thing Samsung did when they released the band aide looking GS5.

 

[Tig Bitties]

https://www.theverge.com/platform/a...-camera-best-phone-android-sales-market-share

Interesting article, and they make a good point.

 

[epicrayban]

Tear down reveals a Samsung panel for the 3 XL.

LG sucks, I guess?