Gadgetory

one of these devices has been accused of maybe being a little too similar to the other now having spent some time with the pixel Excel has Google carved out a new consumer niche or is this a situation of google flattering it's time for a showdown between the pixel excel and the iPhone 7 plus get it flattering because that's the sincerest form of never mind for you specs junkies you can pause the video here to see what these two Titans are packing now with that out of the way we can completely appreciate some of the design concerns some of our viewers have shared down in our comments when dealing with similar screen sizes white front bezels largely aluminum frames there is a concern of Google falling for the same trap which is doomed other manufacturers there are several significant design departures of machining subtle corners around these edges keeping all of the phone controls on the right hand side and moving the fingerprint sensor to the rear glass panel now on a personal note I'm a big fan of rear mounted fingerprint sensors but the more I use the pixel the less I like this rear glass patch happily for having similarly sized displays the pixel XL manages an overall smaller footprint there's bles wasted space happening here and when using adaptive brightness the pixel screen cranks brighter than the iPhones Apple's LCD is one of the best displays available for color accuracy but the higher resolution and slightly higher contrast AMOLED panel on the pixel scores our win comparing camera performance these two are very evenly matched in both pros and cons a bug focus heavily on point-and-shoot II auto modes no manual features here of both our HDR in slow-motion champs both feature terrific image stabilization and both only record audio in mono when shooting video for once though Apple leads with the more innovative hardware and the dual sensor set up on the iPhone delivers a novel zoom feature the extra sensor and hardware image stabilization just edging out the pixel for our camera win the competition isn't quite so close when listening to the audio the pixel still has a headphone jack but even through this adapter the iPhone walks away with an easy win higher quality output with a low noise floor and worst of all for Google a noticeably louder amp stereo audio on the iPhone also wins out over the single bottom firing speaker solution on the pixel this is definitely an area where we wish HTC had managed more influence over this hardware thankfully the battery situation is a bit more even-handed both phones are all de champs easily lasting meet at dinner time with room to spare under moderate use but in sustained use the iPhone is better at coasting in our media test streaming 30 minutes of HD video over Wi-Fi at 190 Lux the pixel drained 7% of its battery the iPhone drained 3% the seven-plus is easily the best performer we've yet run through this bench where the script flips is on recharging Apple continues to pack an anemic charger on our review unit after 30 minutes the seven-plus only managed a 19% recharge while the pixel almost doubled that topping off 37% and wrap up let's have a chat about software the pixels greatest asset to the Android ecosystem is it's terrifically smooth performance we've never used an Android before which felt this fast in daily use on its own hardware Google has largely closed the gap on perceived UI performance even if Apple can still claim some victories when looking at synthetic benchmarks what's impressive is the balance between simplifying the Android UI and retaining what we like about Android is a flexible platform the little touches which help convey additional functionality like this G bar the app drawer arrow or the little carrots used in your notification shade of course conveyance is still an issue with features like long pressing and force pressing but if you could take both phones back in time to the 90s and hand them to people who had no experience using a smart phone after the shock had worn off because of the time travel the pixel might just be the easier phone to get the hang of add to that some nice usability and multitasking tweaks and more organic conversational interactions with the Google assistant who is the President of the United States the President of the United States of America is Barack Obama Barack Obama from January 20th 2009 2% how tall is he six feet one inch we're inclined to give the software edge to the pixel so let's wrap this up where does that leave us between the pixel XL and the iPhone 7 plus iphone android comparisons are always tough but complicating the showdown is the feeling that google has their sights set on one specific competitor where we genuinely enjoy the aspects of the pixel that make it unique the software performance the rest of the phone seems tunnel vision focused on last year's iPhones the pixel becomes more a response to the competition than a showcase for how Google is better than the competition and Apple is a moving target the iPhone 7 plus bests the pixel with better speaker and headphone audio more innovative camera hardware and enhanced water resistance in a battle of lifestyle features on devices that both start at $769 we want more than just a response to the market leader we got to give this overall win to the iPhone as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for our full pixel and pixel XL coverage and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos Wagnalls some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next comparison