Gadgetory

and what might finally be the actual most literal terms possible the very best that Samsung has to offer goes up against the best that Google has to offer instruction for gar from Android authority what's going on everybody and here we have a quick look at the pixel XL versus the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 now right off the bat it's obvious that both of these phones are very different but the question between these two could actually be a matter of productivity while with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 you have the obvious addition of the s-pen and all the note-taking and even almost mouse-like capabilities that the pen can bring to the Android experience Google is now injecting a lot of what it has been building over the last number of years into what they call the best of smart AI in a smart phone and that of course is Google assistant part of Android 7.1 nougat that is available only on the pixels at least for now but before we get to all of that the designs first where we have the dual glass panels that have edges on the front and the back so that they come to meet a very smooth middle in the frame of the samsung galaxy note 7 it's one of the sleekest devices that Samsung and probably any phone manufacturer has made and it goes up against a more bare-bones looking phone in the pixel Excel now bare-bones doesn't necessarily mean anything bad it's just that it focuses more on capabilities rather than being flashy in its aesthetic the big G on the back makes it clear that this is a Google phone and of course there is the slab of glass at the top third that encompasses the rear-facing fingerprint reader and the camera optics reaching all the way to the top now Samsung does get a leg up in this category because it does have a I P 68 rating meaning that it is dust tight and can be immersed in water up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes both displays are AMOLED displays in the case of the samsung galaxy note 7 it's a Super AMOLED display the pixel XL is still a beauty to behold with its 5.5 inch screen that should be able to provide a quad HD resolution a lot of the same experiences that you will get on the note 7 that said however the note 7 does have always-on display which can be catered to your taste so you can always have certain information on hand in terms of performance the newer devices of course going to have the upper hand and that is the case with the Snapdragon 820 one with four gigabytes of RAM that you get in the pixel and the pixel XL however when it comes to the extra capabilities the pixel Excel actually falters a little bit it does come in variations of 32 and 128 gigabytes but the samsung galaxy note 7 comes in just 64 gigabytes with expandable storage via a micro SD card slot however the pixel excel is trying to bridge that gap a little bit by providing unlimited storage at full resolution for all photos and videos so there is an easy way of freeing up space if you so need to now battery life should actually be a bit similar as both phones feature nearly identical specifications the note 7 does have the slightly bigger 3500 milliamp hour battery but that's only 50 milliamp hours over that of the pixel XL but also both have fast charging capabilities with the pixel X I'll able to get seven hours of battery life in just 15 minutes worth of charge which more or less should be about the same as what the note 7 is capable of getting in a very short time but when it comes to security yes the fingerprint readers are very good on either of these phones and we expect them to remain so but Samsung did put in the iris scanner which is a new way of getting into the device and locking certain portions of it by using one's own eyes butts in the cameras that we're really going to enjoy going through the comparisons here because the note 7 has a very wonderful camera that was derived from the Samsung Galaxy s7 that comes in at 12 megapixels with AF 1.7 aperture optical image stabilization and that dual pixel setup for large pixels but also improved light intake and better autofocus faster autofocus actually but the Google pixel XL is actually not that far behind it too has a twelve point three megapixel camera but it does not have oh is it relies on e is which is a software based stabilization it also should have some pretty fast autofocus but probably not as fast as that of the note 7 and it has an F 2.0 aperture however it does have what is supposed to be really great video stabilization and it's low-light should be it pretty good especially when you consider that the pixel XL was given a very high rating by DX Oh Mark a fact that Google was very keen on letting buddy now now the user experience will pretty much predicated on Android and multitasking preferences now you have two different versions of Android here where the note 7 is definitely not going to have at least 4 now the features of Android 7.1 new get that is coming on the pixel Excel and that main feature is Google Assistant essentially replacing Google now on tap that we have enjoyed on a lot of different Android phones by now Google assistant is incredibly contextually aware and has a wonderful speech recognition technology that will allow for all queries and requests to actually be taken to task inside of the Android software itself even with the short time that we had we could not find anything that the Google assistant was not ready to search for and it was even able to pop up all of the appropriate applications based upon what our requests were but on the other hand you do have the note 7 with its s-pen that also comes with all of Samsung's additions that of course make it a very feature heavy device you have the multi window pop-up view you also have the ability to do screen off memos at any time and you can take notes and even capture the screen or scroll through a website that will allow you then to write onto it with the pen so you can make notes on pretty much anything that you're looking at with that in mind it's easy to say that the pixel Excel might be limited by what the vanilla Android experience has to offer but vanilla Android has actually been getting a lot of flavor over the last number of years and now with Google Assistant it might become one of the best productivity phones that are out there it simply comes down to the way that you want to get your stuff done either you take notes all the time and you actually use all the multitasking features of Samsung or you're willing to do a lot of what you need on the pixel excel or the pixel using just your voice now this might be one of those few comparisons where the pixel excel which is a very premium device comes in at actually less money than that of other phones that's compared to and the note 7 is one of those phones the note 7 years around $900 in some US carriers and the pixel itself is $649 with the pixel excel in question here coming in at seven hundred and sixty nine dollars and obviously until we get our hands on a review units we will not be able to answer that question of whether or not that much money is enough for what is androids reference device but Google is really trying to move forward with its platform not only in the pixel but across a lot of devices that will use Google assistance in the mean time however the galaxy note 7 does have its own advantages and it is still one of the best productivity phones that are out there keep it tuned to Andra thority for a full comparison between these two phones including camera comparisons which we're very excited to do and don't forget to check out our full hands-on with the pixel and the pixel XL which you can find here at Android authority comm and our youtube channel because of course we are your source for all things Android