The Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL once again promise to raise the bar for smartphone photography. But has Google fixed the some of the major shortcomings of the Pixel 2 in order to command a premium? Read our review to find out.
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL were unveiled a week ago in Google’s third attempt at establishing itself as a serious player in the premium smartphone segment. There really weren’t many surprises to be had on the hardware front, as all the leaks and rumours we’d seen in the months leading up to the event turned out to be spot on.
It’s no secret that Google has been struggling to get its Pixel brand into the hearts and minds of the masses last year’s foibles with the Pixel 2 ( Review) and Pixel 2 XL ( Review) didn’t help its cause either. Despite its struggles, the company managed to ship nearly twice as many smartphone units in 2017 as compared to the year before, according to a senior research director at IDC. While this is still a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the volumes Apple and Samsung ship every year, it’s progress nonetheless.
The Pixel 3 is an important phone for Google as we finally get to see if that $1.1 billion deal with HTC was indeed a worthwhile investment. It’s another step forward in having better control over the hardware and software integration in its products, something Apple has mastered over the years. Google is confident that its Pixel 3 is every bit as premium as Apple’s new iPhone models, and they have the steep price to go with it. But can it instil that same confidence in the end user? It’s time to put Google’s claims to the test and see if the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are really better.
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL iterate on last year’s design. Despite that, the most immediate change you’ll notice is the way they look and feel is an improvement over the Pixel 2 series, which now feel bland in comparison. It’s a welcome change as the design feels modern and fresh. Both phones now have a taller aspect ratios, with the 18.5:9 Pixel 3 XL being slightly more so at 18.5:9 due to the presence of a notch.
The Pixel 3 series still use an aluminium frame but rather than giving it a matte finish, Google has used a glossy coating for the side frame and the back is now glass. It’s gone a step further and added a frosted look to three-fourths of the glass back, which is achieved through an etching process. This lends continuity to the design language of the Pixel line, while adding a bit of style along the way. It also feels really good when you hold the phone. The sides now blend more seamlessly with the front and back Gorilla Glass, so you don’t feel any rough edges.
Both phones have glass backs and support Qi wireless charging
Both phones have the same thickness of 7.9mm but naturally, the Pixel 3 is a lot easier to grip due to the smaller display. The Pixel 3 XL is a bit of handful, especially when you try to use it with one hand. At 184g, it’s a bit heavier too, but the weight is distributed well so we got used to it pretty quickly. Unlike last year, both Pixel 3 phones are available in three colours — Just Black, Clearly White and Not Pink — off which we preferred the look of the white version over the others, though your mileage may vary. The lighter colours continue to feature a power button in a contrasting shade, which is a nice touch.
There’s a single 4G Nano-SIM tray at the bottom, which supports VoLTE and both phones also support electronic or embedded SIM (eSIM), just like earlier Pixel phones. The latter feature is dependent on support from the network operator, which essentially make them dual-SIM smartphones, if both Google and the telco decide to support this feature. Unlike the new iPhone models, Google has not yet announced any plans to bring this functionality to India just yet.
Next to the SIM tray is the USB Type-C (Gen. 1) port. The volume and power buttons are on the right side. The volume button in particular is a little stiff, which requires a bit of effort to use. This can be a little inconvenient at times, like when trying to click a picture using the volume-down button with one hand. There is no headphone socket, which means you’ll need to use the Type-C headphones or the included dongle.
Due to the front-firing speakers, the Pixel 3 has a thick bezel at the top and a sizeable chin at the bottom. However, this is still forgivable since the space is put to good use. The corners of the display have a large curve, due to which on-screen items like the time and battery percentage are pushed closer to the edge, compared to the Pixel 3 XL, which has more even spacing. It’s a mild aesthetic inconsistency and we’re probably just nit-picking at this point, but for what it’s worth, we prefer the way system information is displayed on the Pixel 3 XL.
The Google Pixel 3 has a thick bezel on the top (below) but the Pixel 3 XL has that infamous notch
This brings us to the infamous notch on the bigger model, which clearly isn’t winning any awards. The general consensus is that it’s ugly and we agree that’s it’s one of the most poorly designed notches so far. The cut-out is a little too deep which makes it really stick out. You can hide it if you want by digging into the developer settings and finding the ‘Display cutout’ menu, but then you lose that extra bit of screen real eastate. Having said that, you do get used to it after a while.
This brings us to the displays, which we’re pretty sure where Google has concentrated its in order to avoid another Pixel 2 Xl-like fiasco. Both phones use similar HDR-certified, flexible OLED panels, with the Pixel 3 pushing a full-HD+ resolution (1080×2160) on a 5.5-inch screen while the Pixel 3 XL has a QHD+ resolution (1440×2960) on a 6.3-inch screen. Both phones have a dense pixel count of over 400ppi too, so text and images appear sharp and crisp. However, we did notice some differences between the two panels.
First, we’re happy to note that the Pixel 3 XL does not suffer from the dreaded ‘blue tint’ issue that plagued its predecessor. There is a slight blue hue that’s visible when viewing the phone at an angle and with a lighter background, but it’s not very prominent. The Pixel 3, on the other hand, tends to shift to a warmer hue when viewed in a similar manner. Most people aren’t really going to notice this behaviour with regular use, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
However, we did notice that our Pixel 3 unit had slightly punchier colours and crisper whites, compared to the Pixel 3 XL. The difference is more apparent when using the ‘Adaptive’ colour profile but is equally noticeable in the ‘Natural’ and ‘Boosted’ profiles as well, if you have the phones side by side. We also found the smaller phone to have slightly better sunlight legibility. On the other hand, the Pixel 3 XL handles colour gradients better than the Pixel 3, likely due to the higher resolution. The difference is visible in some of the stock wallpapers on the phones. While we have to give Google credit for upping their display game this time around, we still think the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 ( Review) and the Apple iPhone XS are the gold standard when it comes to smartphone OLED displays.
The Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have a single SIM slot but they do have eSIM support for a secondary mobile number
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL ship with the usual accessories like a fast charger, a Type-C to Type-C cable, manuals, stickers, SIM eject tool, a Type-C to 3.5mm dongle, quick switch adapter and new this year, is a Type-C headset called Pixel USB-C earbuds. This headset is basically a wired version of Google’s Pixel Buds wireless headphones which was launched last year, with a focus on real-time translation.
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL rock the Snapdragon 845 mobile platform, which, as of today, is still Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line chip that we’ve seen in plenty Android phones so far. Google has added two of its custom processors though to try and differentiate the Pixels from the competition and help take the load off the main CPU. The Pixel Visual Core chip, which debuted with the Pixel 2 series, is present again and this time, it will be doing the heavy lifting of HDR+ processing.
Google has also added a mobile version of its Titan M security chip, which is said to help strengthen the OS integrity and keep sensitive information like lock screen data more secure. Only time will tell how effective this measure actually is, but for now those paranoid about data theft can rest at ease.
Coming back to the specifications, both phones surprisingly get just 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM. It seems like the high level of optimisation Google does with its Pixel phones doesn’t require more RAM, or at least that’s what the company want us to believe. Storage is non-expandable like always and just like last time, your choices are either 64GB or 128GB. There isn’t a 256GB model, which is especially surprising considering how Apple and Samsung are now offering up to 512GB of storage in their respective flagships.
Connectivity features on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL include dual-dual Wi-Fi 802.11ac with 2X2 MIMO antennas, Bluetooth 5, NFC, USB OTG, and support for four satellite systems. The phones are also IP68 rated for dust and water resistance and there’s Qi wireless charging support too.
Google has included two cameras in the front this time but is sticking to just one rear camera. There’s no laser autofocus this time to assist the dual-pixel AF in the sensor, but instead, we get a new spectral and flicker sensor placed between the camera and the dual LED flash. The spectral (or colour temperature) sensor should allow the phones to capture more accurate colours while the flicker sensor should help avoid banding when shooting against artificial lighting, which was an issue with the previous phones.
Both devices have the same thickness and have the power and volume buttons on the right side
In terms of software features, Now Playing is still present, which can automatically show on the lock screen the name of the song playing around you in the real world. Both Pixel phones also have HTC-inspired Active Edge, a feature that lets you squeeze the pressure sensitive sides to trigger Google Assistant. You can also use it to silence alarms, incoming calls, etc. It’s useful and the pressure sensitivity can be adjusted too.
You also get a bunch of sensors, including a barometer and new haptics engine. The latter is used judiciously on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, even for little things like pulling down the notification shade.
Google’s Pixel line has always been less about hardware and more about software and here, we get to see Android 9 Pie at its best. We’ve already covered some of the main highlights of Pie before, so we’ll just go over the most notable changes for the Pixel 3.
Gesture navigation is the only way to get around the OS in the new phones. Unlike the Pixel 2 where you could use gestures as an alternative to the traditional three-button system, there’s no going back in Pixel 3. It takes some getting used to, especially opening the app drawer, which requires a longer swipe-up gesture. However, after using the Pixel 3 duo for a few days as our primary devices, we got the hang of it eventually. Switching between apps is actually easier now but again, it takes a couple days to get used to the new gesture.
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL get new ‘Come Alive’ and ‘Living Universe’ range of wallpapers that look really cool and some of them even merge with the always-on display, giving you a nice transition when you lock or unlock the phone. We especially liked the ‘Groove’ wallpaper, which subtly changes colours and patterns based on ambient music. Android Pie also introduces dark mode for the Messages app and with the ‘Messages for Web’ feature, you can receive incoming messages directly within the browser on your computer, which is super convenient.
The new AI and machine learning features in Pie offer a very intuitive experience
However the big new change in Android Pie is on-device machine learning and AI integration and after using it for a few days, you start to see its benefits. For instance, if you have the habit of simply dismissing certain notifications, without opening it, the OS recognises that pattern and will eventually suggest to stop showing those notifications altogether. If you perform certain m actions within apps very often, they might show up as suggestions in the app drawer. For example, we started to get a shortcut for a WhatsApp contact we were recently chatting with and even a shortcut for a game as well as one to open a new Chrome tab. This is dynamic and keeps changing depending on your usage.
Another cool feature which we could totally get used to is the ability to interact with the content in the recent app carousel, without ever having to actually switch to the app. For example, you can hop to the browser with a quick swipe up, highlight a phone number with a long press in the webpage and the OS automatically gives you the option to place a call. This saves you multiple steps.
Digital Wellbeing is still in beta but it’s a pretty neat feature which gives you a break up of how much time you spend on different apps in a day, thereby allowing you to make lifestyle changes, as necessary. It’s easy to get addicted to certain apps — especially games — and lose track of the time you spend on it. This is where features like App Timer — which lets you set a time limit for each app — come in.
Wind Down offers options to automatically trigger Do-not-Disturb (DnD), tone down the colour of your display and make it greyscale. There’s a new ‘Flip to Shhh’ feature in the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, which automatically enables DnD when you flip the phone over and disable it when you switch it around. You get a subtle haptic feedback when you do this, to let you know its switched sound profiles. It works really well and we found it quite useful. The new Pixels are also the first phones to get Gmail’s Smart Compose feature, which should roll out to other phones too in the coming months.
Digital Wellbeing lets you keep a track on your app usage and provides an easy-to-read graph of your daily activity
Those in the US will be able to take advantage of Call Screen for incoming calls, where Google Assistant will answer the call for you, with the help of Google’s Duplex technology. According to Google, you’ll be able to see a live transcription of the call as it’s happening so you can take over at any time and speak to the caller yourself if feel it’s actually important.
Last but not least, both Pixel 3 devices come with unlimited cloud storage until 31 January 2022 for storing photos and video in their original resolution.
So far so good. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have impressed us with their build, upgraded display, and the highly intuitive software, but what are they like to live with? We have been using both phones, interchangeably, as a primary device for a week, which isn’t a very long time but it’s given us a fair idea of what you can expect.
Despite the glass back and glossy sides, we didn’t find them too slippery either. The display does pick up smudges easily but the soft-touch back is largely immune to fingerprints. Call quality is very good as the earpiece on both phones get sufficiently loud.
