Gadgetory

all right so everyone and their mother have been showing off pixel unboxings and first impressions but I just got my pixel XL so while setting it up here are my early impressions and some predictions for what we might find in future reviews but getting the phone out of the box were well accessorized for charging cables and I'm happy to see Google include a USB OTG transfer it after but the pixel isn't a nexus this is an expensive consumer focused phone so it's disappointing when we don't have headphones in the box and the only time this phone has felt slow was during the very first boot this playful animation is well playful but it lasted long enough I was worried my unit might have arrived to do a thankfully I didn't need to use the adapters I've got plenty of USB C 2 USB C cables and I can already say the storage limitations on the pixel will be an issue for our future coverage looking at backing up files from the v20 the quantity of footage we need to shoot for a real camera review exceeded the built-in storage of the pixel all likely need to transfer files at least once while shooting samples here and once we finish the setup process were dropped off on a clean and simple home screen so it's time for a confession I was never a huge fan of the Nexus I understood why it was an important line of phones and I totally got why other people liked them but the idea of vanilla Android on vanilla hardware just never did it for me nothing against the 5x it's a fine phone but I'm really hoping the pixel will be a more interesting home for my project by sim and for no good reason here's a panning shot which doesn't really have anything to do with what I'm talking about now many have already waxed poetically about the design and we shouldn't be surprised that HTC made a nice looking phone which feels nice in the hand I can't think of a more trite description for any phone like there's some company looking to make gadgets which will slice your hands open when you hold them but I digress getting back to the pixel I wasn't particularly digging the idea of the glass panel and holding it I'm still not particularly digging the idea of a glass panel partly because of this edge on the transition I know myself well enough to know that I'll absent-minded keep rubbing away at this seam until I get a case for it the satin finish on this metal is so nice I wish the whole phone were made out of that an unlike glass it does a remarkable job of hiding your fingerprints and I'm usually not much bothered by forehead and chin bezels but Google certainly went out of their way to call attention to them with a white front face early impressions on software performance are very encouraging for the first time in my tech career I'm liking stock Android more than some of my favorite skins swiping up for the app drawer is a very nice evolutionary touch we've covered some aspects of nougat already like improvements to the notification shade and split screen apps all very welcomed here and we've seen some people criticize the Google tab up here but anytime you add gestures to software you deal with problems of conveyance how will people know there's something to slide over too you don't need to hit this tab but it tells you in a zuny kind of way that there's something over here I'd like to see the same for long pressing on an app shortcut as I feel i OS ASSA lacks any indication for which apps support that interaction one of the crown jewel features google assistant gives off a great first impression this might actually prompt me to use voice search and controls more than on any previous phones we've tested in the past and man does this software scream I did this little UI tour while downloading and updating apps and while the phone was warm to the touch it never got crazy hot nor did any of the home screens or multitasking stutter a single frame even the iPhone 7 will occasionally hitch on multitasking this is seriously impressive for an Android unfortunately the first listen on headphones headphones I supplied wasn't particularly impressive we'll have to test more but it doesn't seem like Google opted for any of HTC's audio DNA here which is definitely a disappointment and an early prediction that this camera will be very good especially at HDR in slow motion video and I'm happy to see a bit more control over settings like exposure and white balance but I'll likely not be declaring it the best camera of the year it's pretty easy getting it to show that halo ring flare and I'll be curious to see how Google addresses a hardware issue with a software fix and that's about where we should leave things off for now when viewed as the first step in a new platform for Google there's a lot to like out-of-the-box you'll go a long way with us when you champion optimization performance and support but we are concerned about the ramifications of trying to make a soft friendly high-cost all-rounder in such a competitive phone market it's not enough to say it'll outsell any Nexus ever made you don't need to be a genius to make that prediction but we're all curious to see if Google has landed the right combination of hardware and software to make serious progress in a saturated sales environment as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for our full pixel coverage hi may will be going hands-on with the smaller pixel and we'll have plenty of comparisons plus real camera and real audio reviews in the coming days for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos Becnel some gadget guy on twitter and instagram and i will catch you all on the next video you