Gadgetory

guys that quest to find my next Android smartphone is finally over Google has bestowed upon us two of their flagship smartphones for 2017 and let me tell you the competition is getting tougher which is a good thing and I can't wait to give you guys my full review on these two new devices so what are we looking at well say hello to the pixel 2 and the pixel 2 XL these are successors to the very popular pixel and pixel accel smartphones and interestingly enough Google is taking a completely different approach with these smartphones unlike the competition by combining AI software and hardware and we'll talk about that in a bit I was fortunate enough to get my hands on these two new devices so here's my initial take on them but first a quick message from our sponsor the Graham spectrum keyboard by Tesoro comes with a new mechanical agile switch with low profile key caps with super fast response and shorter actuation distance plus all the customization included with RGB lighting and macros for a premium user alright as always let's talk about the design and I want to kick things off with the pixel to excel because I feel like a lot of people might end up leaning towards this guy over the pixel - and I'll elaborate on that a bit later the excel is crafted in an all aluminum body but on top of that they've added a premium hybrid coating material that kind of resembles the texture on my IKEA desk I'm not joking it seriously does feel similar I can't technically describe the exact material being used here but it really does feel similar which isn't a bad thing to be honest though in fact both the pixel 2 and the pixel two Excel feature the exact same material they're built really well and I preferred this design over clasp backs found on other flagships offered by Samsung and LG the downside to an all aluminum body is the lack of wireless charging and unfortunately both pixel phones don't support that the display on the pixel to excel spans at 6 inches and it features an 18 by 9 P OLED display with a resolution of 28 80 by 1440 so it's similar to the resolution found on the LG G 6 meanwhile the pixel 2 features a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display now to be honest I'm really not liking the design on the new pixel 2 smartphone because it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the smartphone flagships of 2017 the thick bezels Stane doubt mean it stands out in a weird sort of way because if you'd compare it to the competition like the Samsung Galaxy s8 the LG g6 it just doesn't fit in I mean if the smartphone was released like two years ago I wouldn't mind the design at all because it would then fit in within the standards pack of the day but now that we're so much into admiring the design from Samsung and LG it just stands out in a weird way now the pixel to excel is a completely different story I absolutely love the screen to body ratio on that phone compared to the pixel - it does come with an 18 by 9 aspect ratio and it did manage to squeeze a 6-inch display so that's pretty awesome I really can't wait to get my hands on that phone compared to the pixel - so Mike spike in my excitement level is a lot more higher on the pixel - Excel versus the pixel - that's just my opinion now one of the major advantages to this design is the implementation of front-facing speakers and Google did manage to fit two of them on the pixel - but interestingly enough it's also available on the pixel to excel despite the almost bezel-less design and that to me is pretty amazing now when you compare the excel to something like the Galaxy Note 8 you're obviously going to notice the difference in bezels it's hardly noticeable on the note 8 but I think watching content on the pixel excel - is gonna be a lot more appealing since you won't get those weird distortions at the edges wrapping up the rest of specs both the pixel 2 and the pixel to excel feature the snapdragon 835 cpu 4 gigabytes of frame ip67 water-resistant rating 12 megapixel rear-facing cameras which we'll talk about shortly both variants come in 64 and 128 K by variants but unfortunately they're not expandable really Google you you really have to do that take away the most important feature that we all cherish I mean if you look at the competition the galaxy s safe and don't aid the LG G 6 the V 13 they all come with storage expansions why not this phone I don't know but hey they're at least giving us unlimited storage for photos and videos in original quality for three years and high-quality storage unlimited after that coming to think of it it's actually a much better deal than paying for iCloud storage for iPhone users so Apple if you're taking notes then this is a great thing to add a nail okay so let's talk about the camera it's a 12 megapixel shooter with an F 1.8 aperture and it comes with optical image stabilization as well as electronic image stabilization so this should complement low-light photography as well as video recording which by the way can shoot up to 4k at 30 frames per second 1080p up to 120 frames per second and 720p up to 240 frames per second there's also a portrait mode that blurs the background to make the subject stand out and here's the most interesting part unlike other smartphones that utilize two separate cameras to emulate that portrait effect Google is heavily banking on AI and it's machine learning capabilities so what's happening here is that Google is using their dual pixel technology to create this depth map that distinguishes both left and right pixels and then it across check Sid with their image database that contains facial analysis and the ability to identify objects once that process is complete it then refines the edges of that subject that you've shot and it blurs out the background now after playing around with it I was pretty impressed it does seem to do a pretty good job isolating the subject from the background without portraying any weird artifacts again this all depends on your lighting situation the composition and how complicated the shot is this also applies to the front-facing camera so I'll definitely be testing this out in depth in my full review so stay tuned for that now supposedly given the great camera hardware and the combination of AI Google was also able to implement google lens which is a feature that's baked into Google assistant so essentially what happens is you can use this to point at subjects using the camera and it'll pull up appropriate results so in my case I was able to point it at a camera and it was able to identify what type of camera it was and you know where I can purchase that camera with all the appropriate links within Google's search engine and I guess that's what I'm looping back into my first point that I mentioned in the beginning of this video where Google is taking a completely different approach unlike some other smartphone brands where they're combining AI software and hardware to create this seamless experience to make your life easier again this has to be validated so like I mentioned the beginning like just can't wait to get my hands on the pixel to accel smartphone and test out some of the AI features that's built in Google has also implemented a squeeze functionality on the pixel 2 and the pixel to excel essentially when you squeeze a smartphone it activates Google assistant regardless if you're on the lockscreen or if you're just using the phone in general I don't think I'm probably gonna use this feature I do wish that I was able to remap this command to something to open up a certain application or some sort but I'm so glad that there is no dedicated button to activate Google assistant because that would be such a disappointment I'm just so glad it's a squeeze functionality it can be turned off so that is something that I'm so grateful I should also mention that this is a Google device meaning it's gonna run stock Android you know how much I love stock Android you don't have to worry about custom skins or whatnot it's just pure Android it's gonna help a lot with performance because you don't have to worry about bloatware applications and most importantly it's gonna receive updates force online when compared to other flagship smartphones from Samsung and LG also if you were wondering Google did decide to eliminate the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the pixel 2 and the pixel to excel it's a sad day for everyone I did not expect this at all but it's something that we have to accept as a reality and at least you know they've included a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack adapter within the box so there's that and I want to wrap things up with pricing for these two new smartphones so the pixel 2 starts at six hundred $49 for the 64 gigabyte variant and it comes in three color options there is just black kind of blue and clearly white yeah those are the color options it really the pixel to excel can be picked up for $849 and this is for the 64 gigabyte variant and there are two color options so there is just black and black and white so let me know your thoughts on google's announcement on the pixel 2 and the pixel to excel what do you guys think of the design the specs and just the whole Google ecosystem and more specifically I'd like to hear your thoughts on the camera do you think it's gonna hold up that well with Samsung's live focused feature the iPhones portrait mode and even the oneplus fives portrait effect I'd like to hear your thoughts leave them in the comments down below any bar with hurricane X thank you so much watching make sure to subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next one