Gadgetory

you know the drill new phone arrives there's an excitement over new technology as we all scurry to review it then after a couple weeks we all move on to the next new gadget how a phone ages is as important as that initial honeymoon period so let's do something about that this phone marked a major change in strategy for Google a step away from the developer focus of past first party phones this was an experiment to court a more consumer focused audience casually described by many as Google's iPhone with rumors popping up knowing a second generation is on the horizon how is this Bluebell handled a gadget reviewers lifestyle are there any advantages here over using the smaller variant of this phone strap in folks it's time for our Google pixel XL after the buzz right up front we've already produced a pixel after the buzz Wareheim a recounted his experiences with the smaller phone if you've noticed on our channel we treat these big small releases as separate reviews size introduces numerous differences and how phones are used and abused this ATB complements our pixel video but the XL asks us to examine Google's idea of what a phablet should be all the more important as this is Google's first attempt at a unified release instead of an LG in a qua wafer small and big options both pixels are built by HTC and with far fewer differences in design and features joining companies like Samsung Apple and Huawei for a dual flagship release I was pretty critical of this phone at launch it was clear that this device was produced and delivered on an aggressive timetable happily the XL has aged more gracefully than I would have expected it's rarely my daily driver around LA but has become my primary travel phone thanks to project Phi used infrequently during my reviews but used heavily when I need it it's never been out without a case in a screen protector I was originally an advocate for using phones naked but the practicalities of owning evermore fashionable devices for more and more of our daily communication is requiring better armor on our pocket computers this phone has taken too gnarly drops in airports but corners protected by decent bumpers the question I can't answer is if I would have dropped this phone at all that were smaller but I digress we don't need to resort to aspect ratio changes to pack more display into a similar form factor it's nice to have more screen for multimedia but few would disagree that this chin bezel space is put to poor use audio performance has also remained or reasonable speakers but a lower pac headphone jack is disappointing for folks who own nicer cans and the lack of advanced codecs for Bluetooth is a bummer for wireless fans hopefully this is improved with Android oh and the early focus we've seen on higher quality audio but the pixel has not been leaned on much for my multimedia consumption software really is the name of the game here the pixel started out snappy and remains one of the best performing phones in my collection even facing down more powerful hardware the XL handily competes for UI navigation where I experienced fewer instances of the phone halting before executing a command all devices can be forced to lag if you drive them hard enough but the pixel easily delivers the most consistent Android experience we've yet reviewed that it feels just as snappy today as it did out of the box is a phenomenal accomplishment more than just getting patches in bug fixes quickly we've noticed some subtle but appreciated improvement battery life has been a nice perk the phone bench is about the same as when we initially reviewed it but the way this phone handles background tasks and doze low-power modes have been refined where I end the day with a little more juice than when this phone was new another terrific example software can't really fix the lens flaring issues on this camera but the video no longer suffers from such an inaccurate crop in the view finder software stabilization still alters the view slightly but we can far better trust the framing of a shot now than we could at launch otherwise this camera remains the top option for folks who only ever want to interact with a shutter button speedy processing great noise reduction smooth video in good light people who enjoy a bit more control will still likely be disappointed by this hardware software combination just to drive the point home about support while shooting this video I got yet another update sent to the phone see these numbers mean something we don't want these updates to climb higher just for the sake of having higher numbers here when spending a lot of money on a gadget we should expect a part of that price tag to include support improvements and evolution and that largely boils down my pixel exile experience in a nutshell I don't turn to it as a multimedia or content creation solution instead it's one of the best performers I've used for daily computing the fewest headaches the cleanest example of UI and navigation and native integration of Google services without competing bloatware the only problem I don't really need a phablet for all that a big phone is most successful when there's purpose behind the increase in dimensions some phones make an excellent argument for why you should use all of your attention both hands and your eyes to operate them but lately we seem to be pushing screen sizes simply for the benefit of having larger screens every time I wrap up a trip with the pixel XL I'm glad I had it I'm glad I had a powerful reliable device I'm glad I had project fine I'm glad to know I'm getting great updates and support shutting the phone down at the end of a trip I'm happy for all of these reasons and yet I still kind of wish I'd gotten the smaller pixel instead and of course we want to hear from you the critical success of this phone makes a pixel to a pretty safe bet what do you want to see in the next big pixel should Google help LG and Samsung Drive a new display aspect ratio drop a comment down below this video as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews like these like Jaime's after the buzz on the smaller pixel and helped us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos bag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review