Google - Pixel 2 XL 64GB - Just Black (Verizon)

I got my Pixel 2 XL with a $400 discount. With that being said, I feel like I certainly got my money's worth. If I had paid full price, however, I would be disappointed. What's great about this phone is the camera and the sheer speed of the processor. It opens apps and jumps to web pages in an instant. It blows my old Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge away in that regard. I also love the Google assistant features. I can even ask Google to take a photo for me. Then, it will give me a 3 second countdown before it takes a photo. I'm having a blast with the augmented reality features on the camera. You put the camera in video mode, select the augmented reality options from the camera menu, and then shoot a video with Star Wars characters, Strangers Things, or dancing cartoon and food creatures. This is sort of the icing on the cake when it comes to this camera. This camera takes beautiful pictures without me having to adjust settings manually or use a filter. It's just a wonderful camera. There are manual options in there, but if you don't want to bother with those, you can still get great photos without worrying about them. I love the motion capability. If you leave it turned out, it gives you the ability to turn your still photos into gifs. I love the gboard keyboard that is pre-installed on the phone as well. It has a variety of stickers and emoticons that you can use across your various apps. I can't say enough about how much I've enjoyed these little extras. The keyboard also is easy to use whether you're a traditional typist or someone who prefers to swype through words. My calls have been clean and clear on both my end and the receiver's end. I like the two speaker's on the front of the phone. They are great for listening to video clips, podcasts, or audiobooks. If you're looking for speakers to listening to music with heavy bass, you're better off using headphones. These speakers are loud, but they won't give you the highs and lows that you could get with a good pair of headphones. The phone is heavy in my hands. That's something I didn't expect. I knew I found it a bit hard to hold when I got it, but I had trouble figuring out why. Finally, it occurred to me. This phone is heavy for me to hold. I do have some trouble with my hands from time to time so this weight may be bothersome for me at some point. For now, I'm just assuming that I'll get use to the weight. That being said, I might have been better off if I hadn't gotten the XL edition, however. I'm just use to having a larger phone. I know there have been some complaints about the screen on this device. Personally, I'm very pleased with the screen. One of the first things that I did when I got it was to boost the color of the display to saturated. Once I did that, this screen was much sharper to my eyes than my previous phone. I've tried a few games like Temple Run and they have all worked beautifully. That being said, I'm not big on playing graphic intensive games on my phone. This phone charges incredibly fast. I thought my old phone was fast, but this one leaves it in the dust. Now, here are the little things that I don't like. This phone is Google's idealized version of Android. That means they didn't incorporate lots of extra fun features into the phone. The good thing about that is that the phone runs so quickly. The downside is that you may miss those goofy little extra features that you'd find on something like a new Samsung phone. For example, I can't create folders in my app drawer. That blew my mind when I first got this phone. Now, I could install a launcher and get that capability back, but that would defeat the purpose of having a pure Android phone. Likewise, the background of the text messages is completely plain. I can't find a way to add colors or backgrounds there. (It's possible that I just haven't figured out a way to do that.) What I'm trying to say is that I miss those goofy little customization options. I'm just use to having them because my last two phones have been from Samsung. I'll adjust. If I don't, I'll install a launcher later. Problem solved. Those minor gripes aside, this is a wonderful device. I feel like I got a premium phone for a mid-range price. In all honesty, that is exactly what I wanted. I have no intentions of paying $800-$1,000 for a phone when I know that I'll want a new one in 2 years. I believe I paid $550 for this phone with a Verizon contract and 128 GB of memory. I didn't have to trade my old phone in either. I feel good about this purchase.

I really wanted to like this phone but it has got to be defective. I will say that yes the camera and video is really very good, which is great because as the mom of a cute kid that's always doing funny things, I take a lot of pictures and video...but that's my only positive experience so far unfortunately. Half the time when I try to make a call, it will hang up as soon as it connects to the other party and go back to the home screen, and sometimes it just goes back to the home screen before I can even finish getting the number typed in. This has repeated up to...I'd say 6 to 8 times in a row with me trying to get a word in to the person on the other end before it disconnects me, and then we play phone tag for a while so it can hang up on them too...and it just goes on and on until I get tired of it and decide that I just don't need to talk to them ever again. When the call does connect, half of the time as soon as it starts dialing, the screen goes black and there's no amount of pushing any combination of buttons or the touch screen that will get it to come back... so if it's an automated call where you have to type in a # selection, or you get someone's voicemail, there's nothing you can do until the call disconnects itself and sometimes that can take quite a while if there's not another live person on the other end. Try having that little issue when your kiddo seems to have disappeared from her school campus and after 10 minutes of searching, you're frantically trying to call her phone or a family member to check if someone else picked her up,....but your phone has decided to go black on you and either it goes black and you can't get it to do anything or it just goes dead from lack of a successful charge. Lots of fun. Oh did I mention that sometimes it seems to not want to charge up either?? I've had random things open up when I haven't pressed anything at all also, because it seems to just have a mind of its own. I would have taken it back to Best buy immediately but I misplaced my receipt for a bit.. aaand I found it right after the return window had passed. I haven't contacted Google yet because I'm pretty sure they would just want to send me a refurbished phone if anything and I don't want that. I don't think its reasonable that anyone should pay hundreds of dollars for what's supposed to be a brand new, top of the line phone only to have some kind of problem with it that needs a resolution, which is bad enough...only to then be sent a used refurb, which you are still required to pay for as if it is a brand new phone....and it's a refurb in the first place because it was sent back with problems!!! On top of all that, design-wise all 3 buttons being on the same side of the phone so close together is a headache when you're having to figure out the exact placement of the one you're trying to press. Even looking right at it sometimes you can't see the distinction between the three because of its pitch black side. I did a Google search (ironically enough) for tips on how to fix any of these issues (the screen going black is apparently a known and frequent issue with these phones by the way) and followed instructions to do a hard reset, to power down the phone when the screen was black, to clear the cache, to put it to put it back to factory settings, etc etc, but nothing has worked. So yeah, it's been just a pain from jump. Sorry Google I like you guys but the Pixel 2 XL has just not worked out for me at all. I wish I would have waited a few more weeks on the 3, maybe I would have had better luck. Now I feel like I'm stuck with this, and I can't afford to buy something else :(

I won’t bore anyone with all the details that led me up to buying this phone. All I’ll say is that I have been a diehard fan of Samsung phones (ever since the GALAXY SIII), and I was an iPhone user before that. Now I’m a fan of the Google Pixel 2 XL. Why? It’s pure Android, fast and smooth; no bloatware installed/running. I believe that this phone might not have been so good if it were not for Android Oreo 8.0. It just feels like they just work very well together. This phone is being slammed hard for its LG manufactured pOLED screen, but I have not experienced the problems with it like others are saying. Ok… yes, if you tilt the phone to an extreme angle and look at the screen, it does have a blue tint. Who uses a smartphone like that though? I love where the fingerprint sensor is on this phone. It is very natural and practical, not to mention extremely fast and accurate. The accuracy, and speed of this authentication works very well for Android Pay. What really makes this phone shine in my opinion though is the battery life. The charge lasts me from morning (when I get up), until I go to bed (where I’ll usually fiddle with the phone another hour or two). The bottom line is, using this phone a month in - I never had to worry about running out of power. That includes when I use the Google maps app (which sucked-up enormous power on my previous phones). I’m not camera-crazy, and I feel that cameras on most of all the flagship phones are just fine. The pictures look great for sure though, and Google’s almost unlimited picture storage is a big plus. I also like having O/S upgrades for 3 years instead of 2. If I had to come up with something I don’t like about this phone, then I’d have to say it’s the charging. I don’t think the actual fast-charging times are as fast as Google advertises – although it’s possible that this could be fixed in a future update of some kind. I also miss the wireless charging capabilities of my Sammy. The lack of wireless charging is not a show-stopper for me though, and besides… there are addon kits available if I want to do that. My definition of a perfect (5-star) phone is pretty strict, but if any phone can come close to that criteria… it’s this one.

I HAVE HAD MY PIXEL 2XL NOW FOR A LITTLE OVER 6 WEEKS. MY 2 PREVIOUS PHONES WERE LG PHONES, AND I REALLY LIKED THEM, BUT MY LAST ONE GOT TO WHERE THE BATTERY WOULD NOT HOLD A CHARGE MORE THAN A FEW HOURS. I WAS DEBATING BETWEEN THE PIXEL 2XL, THE SAMSUNG 8 PLUS OR 9 PLUS, ANOTHER LG, OR THE ONEPLUS 6T. I DON'T THINK I COULD HAVE GONE WRONG WITH ANY OF THOSE CHOICES, BUT DECIDED TO GET THE PIXEL 2XL FOR SEVERAL REASONS. I DO A LOT OF RESEARCH, TO THE POINT THAT I END UP MORE CONFUSED THAN WHEN I STARTED SOMETIMES ;-). THE REVIEWS FOR ALL THE PHONES I HAD NARROWED DOWN WERE ALL VERY GOOD, BUT I KEPT GOING BACK TO THE PIXEL BECAUSE OF THE CAMERA PRIMARILY, ALONG WITH THE GOOGLE PHOTO STORAGE AND 2 YEAR MANUFACTURE WARRANTY. ALSO WHEN I WAS READY TO PURCHASE BEST BUY HAD A GREAT PRICE FOR VERIZON'S MONTHLY PLAN. WHILE IT IS A VERY NICE PHONE I STILL NEED TO SPEND SOME TIME LEARNING SOME THINGS ABOUT IT, ESPECIALLY THE PHOTO STORAGE. I HAVE BEEN USED TO A "GALLERY" THAT PICS WENT IN TO AND WAS EASY TO NAVIGATE. THE PIXEL DOES NOT HAVE A GALLERY SEPARATE FROM GOOGLE PHOTOS, EVERY PICTURE YOU TAKE GOES THERE. ACTUALLY IF YOU HAVE HAD A GOOGLE ACCOUNT YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT, EVERY PICTURE I'VE TAKEN EVER SINCE I HAD SMART PHONE HAS BEEN SAVED IN MY GOOGLE PHOTOS. BUT I FIND IT IS NOT AS EASY TO NAVIGATE AND DO THINGS AS QUICKLY AS I COULD THROUGH THE "GALLERY" THAT WAS IN MY PREVIOUS SMART PHONES. THAT BEING SAID I'M SURE I CAN PROBABLY FIND A GALLERY-TYPE APP TO DOWNLOAD THAT MAY BE EASIER TO USE. I GET THAT I JUST NEED TO PLAY AROUND WITH MY PIXEL TO LEARN SHORTCUTS AND SUCH, SO I DEFINITELY WOULD STILL RECOMMEND THIS PHONE BECAUSE OVERALL IT SEEMS TO BE A GREAT PHONE. SO FAR I'M IMPRESSED WITH THE BATTERY LIFE, BUT TIME WILL TELL. THIS PHONE DOESN'T HAVE A REPLACEABLE BATTERY, AND WHILE YOU TUBE VIDEOS CAN BE FOUND ON REPLACING THE BATTERY, I'M SURE YOU WOULD VOID THE WARRANTY BY DOING THIS. THE DISPLAY IS AWESOME, YES A HINT OF COLOR CHANGE WHEN YOU TILT THE PHONE BUT ABSOLUTELY NOT A BIG DEAL. THERE IS A BIT OF A BEZEL, ESPECIALLY TOP AND BOTTOM, BUT STILL AN OVERALL BIGGER DISPLAY IN THE SAME SIZE PHONE AS MY LAST LG(V10). I'M SURE AS I LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO USE DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF MY PHONE I WILL BE EVEN MORE PLEASED WITH IT.

I've been using the Pixel 2 XL Unlocked (from Project Fi) for a couple days shy of 6 months and it's probably been the best phone I've ever owned. I never bought a case for it as they were too expensive and simply threw it into the middle slot in my clutch everyday. I just cleaned the screen and there zero blemishes, with some very minor scratches on one edge of the rear glass. Waterproofing is excellent (I've done quite a bit of photography during thunderstorms) as is the camera for virtually anything i'd need to shoot shy not requiring a DSLR. The operating system has been updated three times to Android P Beta 3 and all versions have simply flown. I've tried most of the features excepting some of the less-secure smart unlock features. My only complaint is that the screen reader is all but worthless unless you're legit blind and have used multiple Android phones previously. Compared to the iPhone's screen reader, which i've used every night for the past five years to turn fanfics into audiobooks, Android's screen reader may as well be bloatware. Speaking of bloatware, there isn't any and nearly every app i've ever installed has run smooth as butter. I have tried installing 3rd party launchers and at least the Windows Phone launcher works well for what it is, though i can't imagine a need for them. Just now my phone rang and it recognized it as a suspected spam caller and didn't alert me. Battery life is really quite excellent if you follow the battery-saving steps recommended in the settings. Today i shot and then edited about 10 photos in Snapseed and uploaded them and had only lost about 8% power when I was done. Under normal/standby usage i usually get four-five days. Under heavy usage, about three. The always-on screen is terrific and well-designed to be read in any light. The Now Playing feature that Google used to advertise this phone works maybe 5% of the time? The concept needs work and the offline micro-database powering it is too small to be useful for any style of music. The biometric sensors are terrific and if you take your phone with you everywhere you'll never have to "start a workout" and still have excellent statistics (I recommend exporting them to Exist.io as the Google Fit app is designed for the lowest common denominator with little functionality). I have no use for VR and haven't used any of those features, but there are so many crammed in that this phone would be an excellent choice if you needed to. Occasionally for some reason i manage to accidentally switch on speakerphone and i'm not sure why but i doubt it's a real bug. 100% recommended. I can't imagine what Google would have to do to top this.

I'll preface by stating that I'm a long time iPhone user switching to Android - so there were a few learning curves and I did like the format and the UI. A few things to consider that I wish I had done more research on before I purchased - and ultimately returned because of these short comings. 1. Do not buy if you are on AT&T and have poor coverage at your main usage location. Because it's not AT&T, no WiFi calling and AT&T stopped selling/supporting microcell. When I asked AT&T if all functionality would be supported, the rep at the store said yes. Not true. 2. Do not buy if you need more than one bluetooth connection at a time. The Pixel only supports one connection at a time. This was ultimately what caused me to send it back. If you use a fitness device, smart watch, Garmin, etc. - and want to use your wireless headphones/car at the same time - you can't. Big show stopper for me. 3. Random reboots. About twice a day - including when I was on business calls, it would just reboot. Sitting at my desk, chatting away and my headset give me a "Pixel 2 disconnected". Look at the phone and it's rebooting. I sent the crash reports a few times and even spoke with Google premier support. They said it was a known issue. Overall, would recommend if you want a cool camera phone - but not if you're going to use it for business. Can't have reboots and the lack of support for multiple Bluetooth devices at a time were killers for me.

In the Pixel 2 Google set out to provide what most Android users have sought for a long time - a high-end phone running the best software Google has to offer. With this phone they've hit the mark. First, if you're used to the safety of a tech "ecosystem" provided by LG, or Samsung you'll dislike this phone. It runs the most pure version of Android available. With every bit of hardware designed around that system it makes the phone responsive and a joy to use. The phone feels sturdy and well built. Though if you're opting for the XL version beware of the "bend test" issues and store it carefully. Know that if you're planning on getting a case to protect your investment the Google Cases are designed to retain and enhance the look of the phone without adding the bulk other cases create. Of course the camera is second to none, but so is the AI and the call quality. The screen issues are overstated - unless you look at your phone from an angle for hours - you'll hardly ever notice the blue tint on the XL (check it out in stores to confirm for yourself). Add to all that the 4K photo quality and the unlimited Google Photo storage for 2 years and it's hard not to love this phone! My only criticisms of the phone rest with Google's failure to conduct slightly better quality control overall so that the slew of minor issues would have been caught and fixed prior to release. I just hope I love this phone as much a year from now as my friends who still own the original Google Pixel.

When I first bought this phone, I was super excited. All the tech people at the store told me it was one of the top phones on the market and had no issues. Let me tell you, there's plenty of annoyances and actual issues. First of all, if you want to plug your phone into anything, you need to buy a non-Google cable, and even then they are not always the best cables (nor the cheapest). Second, my phone refuses to connect to any devices via Bluetooth. I've tried every tip that Google has on their site, and they just refuse to work. It's an issue I've seen many others have online as well. There's also this issue that appears to pop up randomly is that it will decide that a wifi network has no internet. As of right now, my phone at home has not worked in over 12 hours, yet every other device in the home on the same network is fine. There's also a serious irritation when it comes to photos. It is very rare that I can just send a picture from the messaging app or post something onto social media. Instead, I have to open Google Photos and share it from there, which is highly irritating. There's also a serious issue with blackscreening. I have never had a phone that blackscreened being such a new phone. The first time it blackscreened I hadn't even had the phone for two months. In the month of January, it blackscreened three times. The phone gets two stars because the camera quality is excellent, and having Google Drive does provide a large amount of storage. However, I have not even had this phone for a full year and I completely despise the device.