Gadgetory

in our first impressions for the pixel 2 I remarked at how much better the headphone dongle worked over other audio dongles and many folks in our comments seemed to think that was us acting like fanboys apologizing for Google where we'd criticized Apple in the past I'm not sure how much clearer I could have been in that video when I said quote I hate dongles but apparently that still wasn't clear enough regardless spending a weekend with Google's second-generation consumer flagship and we're ready to report on the overall audio quality of the phone Apple II a lot has improved here's our Google pixel 2 real audio review brought to you by D brand starting off with the speakers while the pixel 2 still has sizable forehead and chin bezels at least that area is put to better use a somewhat Xperia like form-factor front-facing speakers are always a nice touch for videos and games very competitive against similar stereo solutions and easily besting all of the mono speaker phones we've reviewed this year switching to the headphone game this is a bit more nuanced the first pixel was a poor performer last year circling the drain alongside the LG g5 this year Google could not be trying to emulate Apple more if they tried even down to dongle performance which is nearly identical to the Jack supplied with the iPhone seven and eight that means while cable connections are less convenient for keeping track of this thing audio quality is significantly better than last year's pixel that also means that many quality metrics are neck-and-neck with the Galaxy S 8 and Note 8 this year the major trade-off Samsung phones will properly output the full frequency range of 32 bit 192 kogo files where the iPhones and pixel are closer to CD quality but the amp on Samsung phones is slightly weaker than those dongles aside from its inability to reproduce frequencies of sound that dogs cannot hear the pixel 2 is a much more competitive performer against this year's flagships of course - the V 30 which handily stomps all over every other phone released in 2017 a little explanation of my comments from our first impressions video is in order why I am happier with this dongle well it actually has very little to do with the dongle I'm happy to see Google implement a real universal solution that other manufacturers can build products for HTC and Motorola have proprietary dongles sure they use USB C ports but only work on HTC or Motorola phones I cannot plug HTC's excellent earbuds into anything else other than an HTC phone by contrast Google's dongle worked on my laptop's Thunderbolt port and my LG v 30 Google's dongle not only worked on an HTC u 11 but delivered significantly better results than HTC's dongle so what does this mean for the future of consumer audio well why should we rely on phone manufacturers to build good I do Hardware not all phono jacks are created equal right so if we consumers invested in a really good pair of cabled USBC headphones we're a well-respected audio manufacturer was responsible for tuning the hardware like Sennheiser Audio Technica B&O bearer dynamic Sony etc then it would not matter what phone or computer we owned we would always have extremely high quality audio playing from entry-level and mid-range fare all the way up to $1,000 Samsung your headphone purchase would last for as long as USB C ports are still around ultimately yeah it is frustrating that this audio hardware isn't just built into the phone there's nothing special about this form factor which would have precluded including a jack so I still question the motives in removing it I still feel that it's more a ploy to improve accessory sales at the time of the phone purchase more than it could be for any announced consumer benefit but if we are going to remove the 3.5 millimeter jack at least now we have a real path for audio manufacturers to follow a do that the included support for high quality Bluetooth codecs and that's a best of both world situation better wireless quality for the convenience factor and for folks who still care about the advantages of cabled connections options for the audio files to Google has been promising better USB audio support since Ice Cream Sandwich so we're long overdue actually getting it the pixel 2 isn't special on its own but for audio fans we finally have some hope for a universally supported future and when you're out there bumpin those hot jams on your hot new Google phone shouldn't you be looking to protect it from scratches debrand has a wide collection of custom-fit skins in a variety of textures and colors to add a bit more style and keep that paint looking clean head on over to D brand calm or hit the links in the description below to start customizing your phone as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe for or reviews like these and help us out with a share on your favorite social networks with more companies removing the headphone jack we need to hear from you whether we should continue producing audio reviews and if we can't get shares and views we might need to drop this series 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