hey what's up guys I'm Kip EHD here and
turns out the Google pixel is one of
those phones that you have to actually
use to really fully understand how good
it is and that's real like this phone
it's pretty uninspiring right the
designs not that exciting it's not
turning any heads just with its looks or
anything like that but we actually use
this phone full-time as a daily for a
couple weeks like I have that's a
completely different thing so
technically this is the first pixel
phone and not a nexus phone because
they're not openly putting another
manufacturers logo on at this time so we
had nexuses by Huawei by HTC by Samsung
in the past this is the pixel phone by
Google so you've got a Google logo on
the back and it's made by Google which
is great I respect that but you should
still know it's getting HTC to build it
and you can kind of tell it has that HTC
general design language has some
familiar antenna bands on the sides and
on the bottom and some of even said that
this is actually the design of a body
that HTC was working on before Google
came up to them and said hey we want you
to work with us on this pixel project
either way this is what we get to
showcase Android 7.1 a pretty plain Jane
looking phone mostly metal all around
the body as you can see and it does have
a slight wedge shape so it's a bit
thicker at the top if you didn't notice
and it has some pretty tactile buttons
on the sides with good placement and
travel it's also not the thinnest phone
in the world coming in at 8 millimeters
thick and I feel like you could land a
747 on those not very thin bezels as
well again maybe HTC was planning on
doing something different there and then
it has this glass thing on the back the
two-tone design has splits on people I'm
personally not a huge fan I kind of like
the way like the Nexus 6p handled glass
on the back better but it's fine you
know having a glass section can't
improve signal strength can be better
with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi so there's no
wireless charging so it's not for that
but yeah it's just kind of this big
glass window with no real shape it's
just kind of there so obviously this is
not my favorite smartphone design of all
time but if you want to spice it up you
can go with the really blue variant
that's an option you have or you can
cover it up at any time with the D brand
skin and this one's actually really cool
they'll let you keep a cutout of the
nostalgic Nexus logo on it that's dope
now it's kind of funny hearing this
phone is co built by HTC because H
was known for a while for having some of
the best speakers in the business and
mobile phones they pioneered boom sound
a couple years ago and then here comes
pixel in 2016 with one of the worst
speakers in a phone of the year it's not
very loud it's downward facing and it
can sound decent when you're not
blocking it but it's just extremely easy
to block with like one finger by
accident it's just bad and that combined
with no water resistance and no
expandable storage kind of makes it seem
like you're getting a not so premium
build for a pretty premium price but
those couple missing features are not my
least favorite part of this phone it's
literally just how boring it looks as my
least favorite part and maybe I've been
spoiled because I've seen you know I
played with the galaxy s7 this year
played with the note 7 we had the xiaomi
me mix even the new iphone and all its
matte black glory but by comparison
picking up and holding and using a pixel
just doesn't feel future like the edge
displays or doesn't feel all that crazy
I mean it's just it's the way it looks
it's the industrial design what you're
going to do but what's on the inside
though is really pretty
check out these specs you get a
Snapdragon 820 one chip you get the
Adreno 530 GPU 4 gigabytes of ram 32 or
128 gigs of storage yes I went with the
128 and then you have the only
difference between the pixel and the
pixel XL which is the battery size and
the display size that's it which I like
so no handicap and the smaller phone to
try to upsell you on the bigger one but
obviously you can see the benefits of
having the larger pixel XL the bigger
screen the sharper screen and the 3450
milliamp hour battery but both of their
batteries performed really well so you
guys already know you don't really need
a ton of super high-end specs to make a
pure stock Android phone run smoothly
that's kind of been its Forte but the
pixel kind of has those anyway so I'll
tell you right now this is definitely
the smoothest Android phone that you can
get right now
both out the box and way later this is
that's the first thing I noticed about
this phone right out the box with
Android 7.1 it's really buttery and the
battery life is phenomenal so I did most
of my testing with the pixel XL just
because I'm a big phone type of person
and this phone was regularly getting the
5 plus hours of screen on time every
single day and you guys know my high
intensity high brightness you know
bluetooth streaming all that type of
stuff by high intensity use usually crap
cell phones by the
of the day but I was ending the day
regularly with like 25 plus percent left
on the pixel XL and the fact that you
can also have a lighter day and end the
day with like 40% left means the standby
time was also very good and then
performance is top-notch as you should
expect we've seen other phones with
lower end specs run close to stock
Android or with lighter skins because
that helps performance and battery life
but since it already has these beefy
specs pixel is more of an optimized
Android experience and is able to handle
everyday use plus heavy multitasking
constant browsing games and back again
with no hiccups this is one of those
phones that super smooth way after the
day you take it out the box and for all
this you can thank Android 7.1 out of
the box the pixel is just so clean
there's hardly any pre-installed apps
and the ones that you do get can be
uninstalled it definitely doesn't have
many of the bells and whistles of the
galaxy s7 for example or should I say
the flashbang of the note 7 but it's a
great performer you can't hate about
that that's what the stock Android
experience has been so good at for a
while what it adds to the mix is stuff
like Google Assistant so now you can
argue it's not really adding that much
since most of its features like voice
control and stuff like that
we're already in previous versions of
Android but on a pixel it's just that
little bit more accessible you can long
press the home button at any time or
just that anywhere say ok Google which I
by the way loves saying in videos
because it always triggers someone's
phone but overall assistant is really
helpful and all of the features you can
see in a video that I dropped comparing
it directly to Siri there's also little
adjustments to Android like the new
buttons at the bottom they slightly
cleaned up Settings app you know the new
launcher where you swipe up to get your
apps instead of hitting a button these
are all things that you don't really
think of right off the bat but you get
used to them pretty quickly so when
trying to figure out if pixel is
actually a great smartphone if it's
worth spending the extra couple bucks on
you might want to consider my five
pillars of a great smartphone which I've
gone over before first great build
quality
well it's metal all around it's pretty
solid it's missing a couple things is
not water resistance so it's okay great
performance yes this definitely has that
no question great battery life yes
again this actually has that one of the
best in any smartphone great display
this is actually also a pretty solid
display it's an AMOLED it could be a bit
brighter it's not the best ink
but it's pretty good again and a great
camera oh the camera on this phone yeah
this camera is pretty special pixel is
rocking a twelve point three megapixel
camera all right no optical image
stabilization but an F 2.0 aperture and
a pretty big sensor with a one point
five five micron pixel size before the
phone launched Google hyped it up again
saying they're pumped about what they've
done with it it's got the highest DxO
mark rating of any smartphone camera
again but we've heard this before like
does that rating even matter anymore
well bottom line yet this is a really
good camera I've shared a lot of photos
from the camera in the past couple weeks
since I posted the unboxing video and
people are constantly impressed with the
quality I even did a blind test on
Twitter with the same photo angle from
the pixel camera and the iPhone 7 plus
camera and plenty of people couldn't
decide which was which the number one
main reason that the pixel can take such
good photos is actually the image
processing I mean it's a pretty great
sensor in all and that's nice to have
pretty decently wide aperture but hdr+
is really important here so remember
back in like the Nexus 5 review when I
told you guys even though it takes like
an extra two seconds turn hdr+ on
because those photos look way better
than the non HDR plus photos and you get
way better colors dynamic range
sharpness detail quality everything
right this holds true again with the
pixel camera but this time it's a
no-brainer because auto HDR plus can be
turned on by default and it Snapdragon
820 one makes it instant you can take
all the exposures of an HDR plus photo
instantly in the same amount of time as
a regular photo so just turn Auto HDR
plus on leave it on all the time for
every shot and you will get much better
photos with every photo out of the pixel
camera so a typical photo from the
Google pixel is pretty bright slightly
wider angle I would say has a really
bright vivid saturated colors and
excellent dynamic range and has an
occasional lens flare I think the colors
look great in terms of realism photos
from the pixel tend to have more
accurate like reds and greens and most
cameras that go for that more saturated
look and then there were quite a few
photos that I took that made me
literally say wow out loud after I took
them this is one of those photos now it
might not look crazy at first it's not
like a scenic landscape but consider
this this is taken from a car window I
rolled
the window the car is going 50 miles an
hour the truck next to me is going 50
miles an hour and everything is in
perfectly tack sharp focus colors are
super good the action is all frozen
super well and the dynamic range with
the blue sky holy crap that is good and
one the worst thing about this random
snap out of a moving car window is the
lens flare that can apparently be fixed
with a software update I think we got a
winner now yes the lens flare is pretty
common I don't know how much of it can
be fixed with software like google
claims because lens flare is caused by
hardware and physical lens elements but
I don't really care I love this camera
enough and the photos it takes with it
are good enough for me to say that this
is my new favorite camera and any
smartphone right up at the top of my
list in first place the 4k video from
the pixel also looks pretty good if
you're a person that shoots a lot with
their phone I did a whole video shot
just with this camera so I'll link it
below it's the video on Apollo and it
looks pretty good I think the main thing
you'll notice while watching is the
stabilization so like I said the camera
lacks optical image stabilization but
the app actually uses data from the
phone's gyroscope to provide an improved
electronic image stabilization but it's
it's super aggressive as you can see so
it can sometimes make it look so smooth
that you'd swear I was on a tripod even
though I'm holding the phone with my
hands but other times when it tries so
hard to smooth it it can look a little
jittery because your hands are moving
too much to keep a stable image so it's
a little distracting sometimes a little
bit beautiful at other times but this
can also be improved with a software
update I think the weirdest part can be
how much of a crop you see in the
viewfinder versus the final stabilized
video since as you know having a lot of
electronic image stabilization means you
get out some of the framing punched in a
bit alright so going back to the
original 5 pillars of what makes a great
smartphone the only thing that the pixel
isn't great or best-in-class at is the
industrial design you know it's not
water resistant it doesn't have
expandable storage the speakers are bad
and in a bad place and it's just so
boring but all that just melts away when
you actually use the phone the software
the pure Android the assistant the great
camera all that works so well so if all
that being said I think Google pixel is
right now my favorite smartphone
experience
tops in my book there I said it so is it
worth the price I think that by
challenging other flagship smartphones
at this you know the six seven hundred
dollar price it's going to price itself
out of a lot of other people because if
it shows up in a store next to you know
the galaxy s7 or a note seven or all
these phones that have these crazy bells
and whistles features or edge displays
or just things iris scanners things that
make you say wow the pixels just going
to sit next to it and not really look
like it's going to do anything special
so for a normal person they'll probably
skip over it but for an enthusiast for
someone who's made it through this
entire video and trying to figure out
what smartphone to buy looks on YouTube
and tries to find the best option this
is definitely a great pick and
hands-down I have no problem
recommending it so there you have it
thanks for watching I'll talk to you
guys in the next one peace
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