Customer Ratings & Reviews

Very easy to navigate! My Google assistant is the best. Love, love the camera!

If you are a fan of Google's (not Android in general) utilitarian style, then you will love this phone. I prefer a little more dressing on my phone however. The look of the phone is a bit boxy with no curved glass. It has a big white bezel that has no function on the bottom of the phone. There is no actual home button or touch features on the bezel, so it seems to be a bit of wasted space. On the other hand, it makes it easier to pick up the phone without accidentally hitting buttons. The fingerprint sensor works well, but it is on the back of the phone which takes a little getting used to and means you have to pick up the phone to use the fingerprint to unlock it. The screen looks beautiful with rich colors and sharp images. One odd thing I noticed is that when viewing pictures, it doesn't seem like it zooms in as close as other phones I've had. It pretty much stops zooming before the image starts to look degraded. Not a big deal I guess. The camera takes some stunning pictures, especially portraits. It has a lens blur feature that automatically blurs the background and makes the subject of the photo stand out better than any phone camera I've used. I love that feature. It also has a Photo Sphere feature that lets you take a series of pictures to create a 360 degree image. It's the next best thing to having a 360 degree camera. If you like to manually adjust settings to shoot like a pro, you're out of luck though. This camera is made for those that like to just point and shoot and get a really good picture without the work. The user interface is all Google. It's very sparse. I couldn't even figure out how to rearrange apps or create app folders except for on the home page. I prefer to have a clean home page with apps neatly arranged on an app page. That doesn't seem possible here, or if it is, it is not intuitive. There is no expandable storage for this phone, which means you can run out of room fast. You do get unlimited storage of pictures in the cloud, but who knows when/if you will have to start paying for that service. The battery life seems to be excellent and it really does charge up to 70% very quickly. Overall, I'd say this is a well made phone. If you like bells and whistles, you might want something different. If you like stripped down, no nonsense features that work well then you'll like this phone.

The Google Pixel XL is Google’s latest attempt at a pure Android device. Unlike the Nexus line before it, the Pixel XL doesn’t have any partner branding, or attempt to identify anyone other than Google as the manufacturer. This, unequivocally is the Google phone. I’ve been a long time Nexus user, owning a Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, and Nexus 6p. I made a jump over to the OnePlus One, but found the software experience lacking. Unfortunately when it came to the Nexus 6p my experience wasn’t quite as good as I had been used to with the Nexus 4. The OnePlus had spoiled me on battery life and unique build quality, while the Nexus had spoiled me on software support. I’ve recently switched to an iPhone 7, so I feel like I’m in a unique position to give a perspective on this phone. The build of the Pixel XL is definitely high quality. The body feels of high quality aluminum. The front glass teardrops into the chamfered edges which is much more attractive looking and feel better in the hand than the Nexus 6p’s flat glass. The chamfering is quite a bit more pronounced on the Pixel XL than its predecessor. This makes it feel slippery compared to the Nexus 6p, however the glass back around the finger print reader adds a nice bit of grip to the phone. It still has more grip than a naked iPhone, and thus, I feel like you’d be more likely to use the phone without a case. The bezels are embarrassingly large, a trend that has continued since the end of the LG Nexus era. Why a device with no front home button needs a bottom bezel that is this large is kind of a mystery. Even the 6p’s bezel, justified by its secondary speaker, is smaller than the Pixel XL’s. Another interesting piece is that its thickness is near identical to the Nexus 6p, but its tapered instead of having a ‘bump’ found on its older brethren. The camera is excellent. There are plenty of comparisons out there, but essentially you get a really nice camera without an annoying bump, hump, or protruding lens. This alone makes it a winner to me. It’s a slick package, and Google should be praised for a sleek design that is a form and functional improvement over the iPhone and most of its competitors. The phone is light, but doesn’t feel cheap. The iPhone feels heavy in comparison. I can’t comment on durability at this stage, but it isn’t probably a stretch to say it’s better than its predecessor. The materials here are all aluminum and glass, an there aren’t any stickers covering body pieces like on the Nexus 6p. The speakers are of good quality as well, even if they are bottom firing only. Up top you’ll find the 3.5mm headphone jack, a clear indication that Google doesn’t feel quite as strongly about this legacy port. Performance wise, the Pixel XL is a screamer. Youtube videos started playing almost instantly compared to the Nexus. Side by side it was clear the Snapdragon 821 in this phone is a class above the 810. This observation is yielded also in benchmarks, with Geekbench 4 showing a huge multi-threaded improvement, even though the 810 technically has 4 more cores. Indeed even Antutu showed roughly double overall score with big boosts across the board. The Pixel XL had 137521 in Antutu, while the Nexus 6p was only 74760. The iPhone 7 plus pushed out an impressive 189382 score, but essentially all but the most discerning power user would have a hard time pushing these phones beyond their comfort zone. Inside the box you'll find not only the power brick, but also a USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to USB-A male, and a short USB-C to USB-A female host adapter. That's a lot of nice cables in the box, and a great head start for anyone that doesn't have a USB-C cables or accessories. USB-C is the future, and this phone is ready for it. Battery life is hard to gauge at this point, but I can’t say it’s bad. The biggest indicator to me is that it slowly drains on stand-by and doesn’t seem to drop too fast under heavy load. It charges quickly thanks to USB-C PD, and even gives a nice estimate to how long till it’s fully charged (which has been pretty reliable). The screen is bright, and the AMOLED shines here against the iPhone’s IPS. The whites are also whiter than the Nexus 6p - this is a superb screen in every way I observe. Obviously being an AMOLED it’s saturation is a bit over exaggerated, but most people would find that an advantage. It certainly is pleasing to look at it. Overall Google’s ‘freshman’ attempt at a phone is pretty good. I won’t say this is their first phone, as their hand has been deeply involved in every Nexus device since the first Nexus One. There are so many similarities to previous Nexus line devices it’s hard to call this a first generation phone from Google. Regardless, this device has a higher polish than any of its predecessors, and it’s by far the fastest Android device I’ve used. If you want Android unadulterated, this is the phone to get right now, and it’s a huge improvement over the Nexus 6p.

I've had this phone for a little more than a week and I love it. The case is very stylish, almost iPhone-ish, it's very simple to use, and the screen is gorgeous. The most outstanding feature, at least for me, is the camera. The design of the case avoids the usual lens bump that you find on most cameras, but the first picture I took truly amazed me. The colors were much more accurate than my slightly older Samsung phone and the camera app is MUCH smoother than what I'm used to with my other phones; most noticeably the lack of shudder lag. As usual, there are tons of features/settings for the camera, but my favorite is the panoramic mode; it's extremely easy to use and the results are absolutely fantastic, so much so I'm including one for the review. The other nice thing about the phone is the clarity of the speaker phone. The first time I used the feature, the person I was talking to was unaware I had him on speaker. Compared to my other phone, he said the difference was very noticeable. The sound from the phone is good, but the odd thing is that although there are holes at the bottom of the case that appear to be speakers, only the left is an actual speaker... I assume the other one is just there for a symmetrical look. The battery life is quite good. I don't watch a ton of videos, but I do stream music quite often, and so far the battery lasts about 2 days before I have to recharge it. Now for the things that I didn't really like. The first, there is no SD expansion slot. Why? I have no idea. The second, I didn't really care for the fact that the USB plug is not the same as my other devices... not a huge deal, but that means that I now have to carry another cable when I travel. The last thing that is that there is no physical 'home' button at the bottom of the case. There's plenty of room for it, so I'm not sure why they didn't include one. If they planned on not having one, I think they should have increased the size of the screen and made the border one the top and bottom smaller. All of these things are not big issues, so overall, I think the phone is incredible, and I would definitely recommend it for someone who is looking for a 'premium' phone.

The Pixel XL has a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display that pops, its a high quality screen and matches that of other well known Amoled devices, its that good. Rocking the new Snapdragon 821 processor and 4gb of ram you wont find anything but smoothness when using this devices, from the moment you use it you will see just how fluid everything, and credit to google for making the software to take advantage of the hardware 32gb of storage or 128gb, kinda sad we didn't get a 64gb option also as 128gb is more than ill ever need and 32gb is just not enough for me personally Gorilla glass and like most phones its a fingerprint magnet Finger Print sensor on the back works liek the previous Nexus with an added bonus, you can now slide your finger down the scanner to lower the notification shade on the phone 12.3mp camera with large pixels at the back and 8mp at the front, this is another place Google have nailed it, the camera is amazing. Crisp clean images to rival any other handset. For video this is where Google may just stand in a league of there own, not only is it great at capturing detail but by placing the camera with the gyroscope it has created some of the most amazing stabilization ever seen, it has to be seen to be believed USB C with fast charging of course. Only a single firing speaker but in my opinion the best you can get for a single fire system, it has some good sounds for what it is At 3,450mAh, the Pixel XL's battery is among the largest we've seen in a flagship Android phone this year. Aesthetically the Pixel XL is a little bland, with a very large chin thats there for no reason other than symmetry, it feels great in hand but lacks that visual pop you get with some of its Not only does this device work great on Verizon, but i have also used this on T-Mobile with no issues So to sum it up, the Google Pixel XL is the greatest phone i have ever used, its slick, its easy to hold, its a pleasure to navigate, while it may not be a looker on the outside its Googles magic on the inside that really makes this device shine and for me is a glimpse of the future. for a first generation true #MadeByGoogle device its really remarkable Oh and Google assistant is great... and tell it "Im feeling lucky" for a really good surprise

I have to admit, I expected quite a bit from this phone going in, and I am glad to say, all my expectations have been met, and surpassed. Google really did a great job here. The packaging is sleek, well done and about what one would expect from a premium flagship device. Included in the box are the Pixel itself, a 18W USB-C power adapter, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a USB-C to USB standard A cable, a SIM tool as well as a dongle to aid in the transfer of data from your old phone to the Pixel. A nice touch. In addition, there is warranty information, a quick start guide and a couple of promo cards, including one for a 90-day trial of Google Play Music. Again, a nice little add-in for a good service. As for the phone, where to begin? Given the specs, which you can see above, one would expect it to perform. Perform it does. The phone is fast, very fast, with zero lag in my experience. Apps open and close quickly, and movement in the apps is as fast as I have experienced with a phone. This speed is carried over into the camera, which again, has simply blown me away. The camera can be opened with a quick double-tap on the power button assuring you won't miss any action. It opens, is ready to go and has lightning quick focus, aided by lasers, and produces high-quality images in every situation i have thrown at it. Video, which can be taken up to 4K, is striking, and with the image stabilization, is rock steady. Here, the phone delivers again, as Google has provided unlimited lifetime storage of all your photos in high-resolution, as well as all video. It assuages the ever present storage issue when it comes to your files. It does seem to be a lost feature in today's phones, but expandable storage via a SD slot would have been a nice way to also tackle that issue. The battery, which comes in at 3,450mAh, lasts long, charges quick and can give me a full days use without issue. A fingerprint reader is located on the back of the phone, for unlocking the home screen, and while some may think it is an odd placement, i have found that is the best location. When you pick up the phone, your fingers are naturally there, and i have found it quick, useful and near-perfect in it's ability to scan my finger. The screen is bright, vibrant and great for consuming media. I will say, the decision to use only one set off speakers was a surprise, and, while sound was "good," I do feel stereo speakers would have been better here. As for the Pixel itself, it is definitely a premium build, has some weight to it, and feels "good in the hand." The construction is aluminum for the body, with Gorilla Glass 4 for the screen. I feel it will last the typical bangs and hits a phone receives. Ultimately, among all the positives I have discussed to this point, I think the most important is that the phone is being brought to market by Google. With that, you get pure Android. With other manufacturers, there is typically a "skin" on top of the phone software, making it act and look as they want it to. With this phone, you are getting the Android software the way it was designed, with better integration, from Google itself. In line with that thinking, you also get the Android Assistant, which is their version of an online "helper," like Alexa from Amazon or Siri from Apple. At this point, I feel Google has far and away the best of the three, and with more and more use, I hope going forward it can only get better and improve on that lead. Lastly, on this front, Google will be providing the software updates to this phone, so, as soon as they are available, they will come to your phone. In addition, Google sends security updates every month which will can only help in today's world. I don't know what else to say, this is an excellent piece of hardware and it comes with a pure version of Android, simply, it is the best device on the platform, and arguably the best device on the market. full stop.

Everything the Google advertisements have been promising has been delivered upon with the new Google Pixel XL. This phone is really fast, has a superior screen, a better than average battery life, charges very quickly and is fully loaded with the most amazing smart phone AI I've ever used, the new Google Assistant! There is room for improvement, and I wish there were some additional features and specs that you can find on other smart phones in this price category however I'm very pleased with the final product. I'm listing some of my personal pros and cons for this phone below. Pros Ergonomically designed fingerprint scanner conveniently located on the back of the phone. I love the placement of the scanner and it reacts very quickly. Wi-Fi Calling Three microphones with noise cancellation. The screen is beautiful! It has an AMOLED display with 2560 x 1440 resolution, packing 534 pixels per inch! It really looks great, probably the best I've seen. The Google Assistant works very well. My voice is recognized easily and it responds quickly. I have been using it for the past couple of days to set reminders, alarms, play music, make phone calls and search for phone numbers and other information. I'm looking forward to forming a working relationship with my Google Assistant! The battery lasts very long allowing hours of on screen time. Much longer than any other phone I've had. I'm curious to see how it performs over time in the coming months to years but I'm very hopeful! Quick charging battery is amazing! Just as advertised. Unique design soon to be easily recognized by other Pixel users. Cons Is not water resistant. No wireless charging. No 3D touch. Does not have duel speaker stereo sound. The price is a bit higher than I would have expected but I think it might be because of the screen, speed, Android version and Google Assistant, but I'm just guessing. Overall I am extremely pleased with this phone. I believe Google has made a great phone and in my opinion, the Pixel seems to be a perfect blend between other major brands. I think that users from these other brands will find Pixel to be somewhat familiar while still being fresh and new! Good job Google. I've uploaded a couple sample pictures taken with my Pixel XL, please do not judge them too harshly and look for other samples as I am not a very good photographer.. LOL My dog, Keiko, says hello! :)

Pixel XL Very silver, 32GB, Verizon Sim As a long time Android user I have been on this journey along with lots of others. With the Pixel we have a real third option other than Samsung and Apple. This is getting interesting and will be good for all mobile devices and of course their users. From a pure hardware side as compared to the current Samsung S7s and the Apple iPhone 7, the Pixel is competitive but it didn’t really break any new ground. All three are amazing phones and the top end of what you can buy today. The open box and setup experience is fun and you know right away this is a high end phone. If you're on Verizon, the sim is preinstalled and it is a simple matter of turning on the phone where you can then activate on an existing account or setup a new one. If you're not a Verizon customer you would need to remove the preinstalled sim with the tool provided. It’s easy and the phone should activate on other providers with the correct sim. The phone is fast, smooth and feels great in the hand. But it’s where Google is taking the user experience that’s the real story here. This is the introduction of advanced learning from the device you have within arms reach most of the time. If you use Google services and your in the market for a high end phone this is it. If you just got an new iPhone you're already at the high end. The price here is also at the high end but not much different than the competition. The Pixel has the Assistant and like Siri was, this is the real news here. Google Assistant if allowed, can learn the more you use it to be your personal Assistant. If Google’s Android TV, Chromecast, Daydream VR and Google Home Assistant come together the way Google plans, were just another step closer to future. The possibilities Google can bring together to make this happen are very real. This is the very best of what Android can offer today. We have great hardware, the camera is excellent. The build quality and the display are premium. You get unlimited free storage of your pictures and videos. If you chose the smaller 5.0” display version you're giving up very little so don’t count that out especially for smaller hands. It worked correctly with Android Auto in my car. My only wish is that Google would include support for expandable storage. I hope Google Assistant can grow quickly over the months to come. And I also hope that Google Assistant becomes widely available on lower cost devices so more users will benefit from it. When Google Assistant becomes even smarter it can access resources to make a new smartphone experience that drives innovation for everyone.

Some background: My first smartphone was an iPhone 4. I currently own (and adore) an iPhone 6 and use an iPhone 5c for work. I've also used a Windows Phone for work (which I liked way more than I thought I would). I have loved and lost an iPad 1 and 2, before switching to much cheaper Android tablets. I now use a Surface 3 daily as my main computer (docked) and tablet (keyboard and pen). I have never owned an Android phone. I have always pooh-poohed them as "cheap." Android was fine for a tablet I used sometimes to watch movies on my lap, but for a phone that I used all the time? I preferred a more durable Apple product--an investment. Even a Samsung phone didn't hold appeal... I've had Samsung tablets, which I liked, but couldn't stand their version of Android--too bloated for my tastes. I guess I just preferred the more streamlined iOS experience, walled garden and all. I don't think I'm alone. If all Android devices worked like the Pixel, though? More people would be changing their minds. I happened to get my phone in the mail the day before leaving for a weekend out of town trip... so I had an opportunity to try out a lot of features on this phone I might not have otherwise used right away. I'm going to try and step-by-step through my thoughts on how things worked. 1. Set-Up Set-up was incredibly easy. A SIM card tool was included and it was a piece of cake to just move my SIM card from my old phone to the new one and turn the new phone on. My Verizon signal was recognized immediately. I was then prompted to log into my home's wifi network for the rest of the setup, so as not to kill my data for the month. How thoughtful. :) Like with any other Android device, you'll also be prompted to log into your Google account or create a new one. Even transferring from my iPhone 6 was way simpler than I thought it would be. Google included two charging cables, one with USB-C connectors on both ends for use with a wall outlet charger (also included) and the other with a standard male USB connector. There was also a dongle which allowed you to connect another USB cable to your other device. So, I was able to plug my lightning cable from my phone into my new Pixel XL when prompted and transfer all of my contacts, music and pictures right to my new phone. The transfer took about 15 minutes, during which time I was able to continue with a couple of other setup procedures. The setup process was somewhat lengthy--depending on how you want to set up your device (as a new device, or from a backup of an old device), it may take some time to download apps and transfer data from an old phone or the cloud. Be prepared to take this time... but once it's done, it's done. It's also a nice touch that you get free extra cloud storage for movies and pictures that you take with your phone... No more paying for extra iCloud space! You can also allow/unallow the phone to automatically "dump" pictures from your phone to the cloud when on Wifi to open up space on your phone. This happened once on my trip, and it was actually a really helpful feature. 2. OS and Navigation The Android OS on the Pixel phone is by far the cleanest version of Android I've ever used. It is clean, snappy and intuitive. A quick right swipe opens up essentially your "Google Now" feed. An upward swipe opens up your full app list, so you have them quickly and easily accessible, without having all of them cluttering up wallpaper space, and a right swipe takes you to the next wallpaper page where you can add more app shortcuts. You can also add and place widgets, move things around, etc. A down swipe pulls up your standard settings selections like screen brightness and airplane mode. Even coming from iPhones, I was able to pick up this phone and figure it out right away. It's really easy. 3. Speed and Ease of Use It also just works. I've used cheap Android tablets that are all kinds of slow and hiccup-y and just no fun to use... This phone is FAST. Downloads and installations of apps are super fast, even on LTE. Apps open and load FAST. Pages reload FAST. It is way faster than my iPhone 6 and just a pleasure to use. 4. Camera and screen It's great. I attached a photo I took... which I downloaded from my Google Drive after the phone automatically backed up my photos to save space. :) I had it set to download lower resolution photos than the original photos taken by the phone, but you get a good idea of the color. I was happy with how my pictures came out! The camera app is pretty standard fare for a phone camera, with some other little features available to explore for kicks. I generally don't use extra filters or anything though. The screen is absolutely beautiful. The XL screen is big, but not too big, even for my tiny little kid hands. I did get a fairly grippy silicone case for my phone, if only to help keep it from slipping out of my tiny little kid hands as phones often do. I do find myself two-handing this phone, but the way they set up the OS with many of the controls and most-used apps at the bottom, I find my thumb is actually able to reach most things very easily and I don't have to think about being able to reach things too much. 5. Fingerprint Reader. This is one of my FAVORITE things about my iPhone 6. I love that the Pixel XL has one... I am not thrilled with its placement on the back of the phone. I will be the first to say that I am probably just still getting used to it. But in practical use, there are times when my phone is sitting on the table and I just want to check for notifications, and having the fingerprint reader on the front would allow me to just press my finger to the reader and see the notifications without picking up my phone. (I know... first world problems) Having the reader on the back means I have to pick the phone up and properly hold it. I'd love to at least have a "knock to wake" feature or something (maybe there is one--I looked all over and couldn't find it) so I could just see notifications without having to pick the phone up all the way to use the power button or fingerprint reader. I'm also looking forward to more apps making use of the fingerprint reader for logins like they've been doing in the iOS ecosystem. If you build it, they will come--I know they'll be coming. Just need to be patient! 6. Third Party hardware I have a Pebble Time Round smartwatch which uses Bluetooth LE. I found my watch stayed connected to my phone and actually got richer notifications than it ever did with my iPhone 6. I actually love my Pebble more now! I also use bluetooth headphones of varying types regularly. They all connected easily, stayed connected and worked great! The one downside is that I did not see a quick reference show of the battery level of the connected device on my Pixel like I do on my iPhone 6. Maybe that's not a feature I've figured out yet, maybe it's not available on Android at all--I'm not sure. 7. Hotspot and Tethering If you have Hotspot/Tethering enabled on your plan, you can use this phone as a hotspot. I found it really quickly in the settings and found that it kicked on and connected with my Surface 3 more quickly than when I use my iPhone 6 as a hotspot, which was a pleasant surprise. So far I've found this feature to work really well and the speeds going through to my hotspot connected devices were good and solid. 8. Google Maps and Navigation This was one area where maybe a software update may be coming along. I don't know if anyone else had trouble with this, but I did a lot of walking on my trip, and found that my "facing direction" when trying to follow walking directions in Google maps was pretty inconsistent, to a point where I really needed to stay aware of cross streets and make sure I was actually facing the direction Google Maps says I was. I turned the phone off and on to try and recalibrate, which helped for a short time, but the problem came back. This may be user failure in that I missed a setting that I needed to have, even after making sure all location services were on, but out of everything I love about this phone, I think this may be my one complaint. Otherwise, the Google Maps app was very fast and responsive. 9. Google Assistant Siri and I never got along. I don't have an accent or anything... but some reason, she could never understand what I was trying to ask her. Google Assistant and I had several worthwhile little chats over the weekend and actually got things done. She's a breath of fresh air, doing things for me like setting alarms, reminding me what time my flight was going to leave, and making sure I didn't forget my hotel room number. I'm looking forward to seeing what else she can do. I love that you can speak in regular language to her and almost every time, she understands. 10. Aesthetics and Design In terms of look and feel, this phone is very premium. It has just the right weight--heavy enough that it's got substance and won't fly out of your hand, but you won't get tired holding it. The finish is beautiful, and I really like the way they did the contrasting finishes on the back with the matte metal on the bottom and the mirror-y smooth gloss on the top. The button locations are intuitive and, even being on the back, the fingerprint reader is well-placed and a natural location for either index finger to reach. The front screen covers the entire front of the phone with no interruptions in the glass except for the earpiece. It's all very smooth and flush. And yes--it has a headphone jack! I think I remembered everything I wanted to say. Thanks for taking the time to read--I know buying a new (and very expensive!) phone is a big deal--I hope my feedback is helpful.

I have been through a few different Android OS smart phones over the years and this Pixel XL phone by Google sets the bar. Not only do the specs speak for themselves, the performance I have witnessed thus far have met my expectations. I upgraded from a smaller 5 inch screen to the larger 5.5 inch screen and am glad I did. For those of you hesitant to go big, after using it a few days I have no regrets and will go with the bigger screen in the future as well. I have been very pleased with the responsiveness of the phone due to the processor speed combined with the DDR memory. The aesthetics and screen are stunning in comparison to the competition on the Android market and the camera absolutely lives up to the hype with sharp, colorful pictures even in low light. The perfectly positioned fingerprint reader on the backside of the phone has really came in handy with no need to enter a password and by the time you use it your phone is up and running. Another great function of the phone and it's OS is Google Assistant which I recently used on several occasions while traveling and looking for something to do or somewhere to eat. Google also backs it's hardware with two years of customer service and Android updates. The only exceptions to my review are the lack of a SD card slot and the fact that it's not waterproof like some of the other newest smart phones on the market. Even with those exceptions, I still believe the Pixel XL deserves a 5/5 star rating and have already recommended it to several people in the market for a new phone that want to stick to or switch to an Android OS.

Packaging and First Impressions -------------- Right away when I looked at and held the packaging, it felt like this was going to be an absolute treat. The box itself was just the right size making it compact but efficient. The excitement just kept building as I opened everything up and proceeded to unwrap the phone. The phone is sturdy, completely solid, and smooth in the hands. Although this is not the lightest phone I’ve ever had, the weight it does possess adds to the overall premium vibe in my opinion. I was able to get a good grip in one hand, and transferring from hand to hand did not have much of a “slip” factor that some other phone enclosures. Plain and simple, this felt like a well-engineered piece of work! The Screen -------------- Simply put: gorgeous. The colors, the clarity, and the glass are spectacular. Pictures were a pleasure to view and I found myself revisiting old pictures just to see how they view on this display (more on Google Photos later). Text while reading articles and posts were incredibly crisp and legible. The touch responsiveness and accuracy were also top notch and smooth. Granted I haven’t had every phone out there, but out of my experiences, it is the best screen I have ever had on a phone. Camera/Photos -------------- I am not a professional photographer, but I 100% appreciate the art and the easier it is for me to take beautiful photos, the more I find myself taking. Having just had my first child a month ago, this was incredibly important. Here are the following things that totally got me hooked: Speed: Opening the Camera app and snapping pics was very fast. I didn’t find myself in a panic that I would miss an opportunity Tools: You have standard grid overlay available, HDR+ processing, environment presets (cloudy, sunny, fluorescent, etc. – for my tests I just used auto), a timer, and a very capable flash. You have the ability to do panorama and even photo sphere, but the feature that had me addicted was the Lens Blur. I could not get enough of this and was able to capture some amazing shots that put into focus the subject in a beautiful way! Integration with Google Photos: Since I already had signed into the phone with my Google account, the phone was automatically set to sync with Google Photos. What is nice about this? Google Photos gives you unlimited photo storage support, more tools to enhance and edit the photos, and automatically syncs as you take new pictures. You then can access these photos on other devices easily enough and all the while you don’t need to retain the photos on your local storage of the phone. A huge plus if you find that local storage starts to become a problem. Quality: The pictures were very impressive with high detail and realistic color representation. I even had pretty good success with low-light environments, which in my experience has been an absolute killer for a lot of cell phone cameras I’ve owned. I attached just a few to give an idea of how nice they can be. I found myself looking at these on my laptop in greater detail and being blown away by how it looks! Android Nougat and Google Assistant -------------- This has been the most pleasant version of Android that I have used to date. I believe the phone’s solid hardware specs help with that impression, but the interface was as clean as I have seen yet. The pre-installed apps were ones that I expected to be there and were useful. The transitions were very smooth when toggling through different apps, the scrolling was precise, and this is a pure example of how far Android as come throughout the years. Google Assistant also had me impressed. Asking for directions to a restaurant worked right the first time, even though I was a little hesitant about the restaurant name confusing the voice recognition. Asking questions brought up relevant information from weather to sports, and while feeding my baby daughter, the phone picked up my voice from a distance and actually was able to hear and answer me. I can only imagine this feature will get better through time Battery -------------- The question of today for any device that you use. There’s nothing more disappointing than when you run out of juice, so with a 5.5” screen and the way I use my phone, I was a little nervous as to how much power I would get. To test it out I first made sure I was at full charge. Through my level of usage, I literally was able to get through 1.5 days and still have 18% left! One of the features then I was so excited to try out was how quickly the phone charges (as is one of the features that is highly touted on the Pixel). I was able to add hours and hours of usage within 10-15 minutes of charging. This is a BIG factor for me considering I commute every day for around 3 – 3.5 hours a day. If I don’t have charge and don’t have the ability to charge fast, I’m left quickly without the use of a device. Phone/Wireless -------------- Being on Verizon has its perks and both coverage and speed are part of that. I am in full LTE coverage and was able to enjoy speeds that were as fast as Wi-Fi throughout most of my use so far! It’s incredible how much speed and connectivity are at your fingertips now and I have nothing but high marks on the phone’s performance in this area. Phone calls were also clear and solid. The ear piece volume more than covered my needs (and I am a little hard of hearing as it is) and I was told that my voice was sounding great on the receiving end. The speaker phone volume also was right where I needed it to be. Conclusion -------------- This review is a little long and could be a lot longer but I will try to wrap it up here. I am so happy with this phone and just ever more excited to try out more features and grow with it. The hardware makes this a pleasure to use, the newest Android OS is very awesome, and the camera really makes me question when I really even need to break out my bigger bulkier SLR. It does EXACTLY what I need in a phone, does it extremely well, and leaves a lot more room to learn and have fun. Paired with my Verizon Wireless account, I have the world at my fingertips and the ability to capture and expand my own personal life.

This phone is blazing fast! Applications open up fast and switching between apps is smooth and quick also. The camera is probably one of the best currently out and the low light pictures I took have turned out great. I found that I really didn't miss the optical image stabilization as much as I thought I would. It simply works good. If you like to have movies and lots of music stored on your device I would suggest getting the 128gb version, although the 32gb will suite me just fine. I just have to get used to letting Google photos delete my old photos to make room. It's nice that they give you unlimited full size storage in you photos account now. Now the bad, I don't care too much for the boring design, I wish it was a little flashier. But to be honest, I will just hide it in a case anyway. I also came from using a Samsung device and I do miss the physical home button and the onscreen buttons are taking some time to get used to. All in all, this is a great phone and you won't be disappointed with it.

I switched from a Galaxy S6 edge to the Google Pixel XL, my wife has an iPhone 6, and my impressions of the Pixel thus far have been very positive with some exceptions. First off, the phone is aesthetically similar to the iPhone 7 Plus with the exception of no button on the front and a finger print sensor on the back. I found the fingerprint sensor to be actually quite useful except if it's mounted in your car, then you would have to revert to using another log in option. As soon as you use the fingerprint unlock button, which is appropriately on the middle back of the phone for your index finger, the phone is on and unlocked ready to go. The responsiveness of the phone and OS were quite noticeable due to the fast processor and DDR memory. The camera has definitely lived up to the hype and outperforms both my S6 edge and iPhone 6; the shutter speed is very fast and pictures and video are the best I've seen on a phone as noted in the professional reviews. The only downfalls are there is no micro SD card slot, which really doesn't matter to me since Google allows you to use unlimited cloud storage for your photos and video which usually take up most of the memory. If this is a concern, I would suggest opting for the 128gb version. Another downfall is the fact that it is not waterproof like the S7 and iPhone 7 which I would've expected with new technology, so maybe in the next version I suppose. Other than those two exceptions, the phone has lived up to it's expectations all around as extremely responsive, fast, beautifully designed and obviously works great with the latest Android software offered first on the only truly all Google phone on the market. And lastly, I must add, the battery lasts very long even with heavy usage and has not yet exploded... sorry Samsung, I just had to even though I enjoyed your phones until then. I still rated this phone a 5/5 star due to all the features and, to me, it's clearly the Android phone to beat and sets the bar even with the aforementioned exceptions.

Out of the box (which was cleverly designed for the WOW experience) the phone feels great in hand. No buttons on the front, but a finger print reader on the back. Only a volume button and activate (on/off) button on the right side. I love the white accent trim on the "very Silver" metal case. Full featured 12 MP rear camera, 5 MP front facing camera (easy to switch by touching the icon on the lower left of the screen). On the bottom is a uni-directional charging / USB port. No more fumbling to plug it in. On the top , a standard audio headphone jack (missing on some newer phone). The camera lens and LED flash are located at the top. left of the phone helping avoid those photos of your thumb and index fingers. Just below , center is the fingerprint reader. The nice thing is, you can add a second user so a family member can answer the phone if needed. Again the reader will verify its you even on an angle so you just feel the embossed ring without having to turn the phone around to find it. Some cool features: Quickly double tap the activation button to go straight to camera mode. Set the display for night mode (manually or at preset times) to turn the display a sepia brown color (removes the blue hue from the display for better sleep). Double tap the display, touch the fingerprint button and it wakes up. The best thing, say "Okay Google" and it wakes up. I think you can likely perform all your tasks with just your voice. I'll have to try it while driving, "Okay Google, call home." My XL sports a whopping 32GB internal memory, but will upload all photos to the cloud. If you need to add extra memory, buy the 128 GB version. Or, use a wireless external drive or memory card adapter. (No slot for adding internal memory) Since Android is open source, the apps available are astounding. Charge to 75% in 15 minutes with the included charger, or a little longer with the standard USB port. Nice Job, Google.

The new Pixel XL smartphone by Google sets the bar in the Android market and excels in most areas with a few exceptions. Not only do the specs and hardware Google used to create their new smartphone speak for itself, the performance is noticeable from the moment you begin to use the device due to the quad-core processor speed combined with the LPDDR4 RAM. The larger 5.5 inch screen ergonomically fit my hand and worked great with the backside fingerprint reader. For those of you hesitant to go big, after using it a few days I have no regrets and will go with the bigger screen in the future as well. The aesthetics and screen are stunning and the 12.3 MP main camera absolutely lives up to the hype with sharp, colorful pictures and 1080P video even in low light. I have gone over 24 hours of moderate usage without having to charge my battery and the battery charges relatively fast when using the provided charger and USB-C cables. Another great function of the phone and it's OS is Google Assistant which I recently used on several occasions while traveling and looking for something to do or somewhere to eat. Some room for improvement are the lack of a SD card slot and that it's not waterproof. Even with those exceptions, I still believe the Pixel XL deserves a 5/5 star rating and have already recommended it to several people in the market for a new phone.

I’ve always been hesitant to own an Android phone due to being overwhelmed by the operating system and navigating my way through it. I can genuinely say that the Google Pixel is user-friendly and performs far better than I had imagined. There’s a learning curve to the Pixel it’s not overwhelming. It didn’t take long to adjust to the fact that there’s no physical home button but instead, there’s a virtual one on the screen that appears no matter what app is opened when you double tap the screen. Having no physical home button would allow the phone to utilize more screen space but for some reason, there’s an empty spot where the tactile button would have been. This isn’t a deal breaker, just an observation. Where other smartphones require a thumb scan (usually in the location of the home button) the Pixel has a finger scanner on the back of the phone which wakes up the phone when you naturally cradle it in your hand. The Google Pixel runs on the latest Nougat operating system which I can definitely say it competes with other phone systems. Google Chrome, Google +, Google Photos, Gmail and Google Drive can all be synced to the Google Pixel making it a more of a powerhouse than it already it is. Customizing the phone is SMOOTH! Wallpaper, ringtones etc can be adjusted to your needs and wants. The HD wallpapers look STUNNING on the rich display. The voice recognition is incredible! Once I started using Google Assistant, I couldn’t stop using the voice capabilities! Rarely were my voice commands not understood. Now let’s talk about one of the most important applications which is the camera. The 12.3 MP camera is fast and has built in features that I haven’t seen on other smartphones like Sphere Mode and Photo Blur. Trust me; these are just a couple of fun photo features that can be played with. The camera does a great job with low light pictures. I did notice that sometimes in daytime photos, colors like red or green and be oversaturated but this was a rare occurrence. Here’s another fun feature; when you want to take a selfie with the camera app opened, you simply flick your wrist and the front facing camera is activated. Games such as Real Racing 3 and Angry Birds 2 load fast and look beautiful on this device. With all that said, I have to admit that there are some negatives to the phone but only a few. The Google Pixel isn’t water resistant which would’ve been nice to have. In my opinion, the Google Pixel feels too light in the hand. It almost floats as it were but this issue can be easily remedied with a phone case on it. Finally, stereo speakers would’ve been a really nice finish. At the end of the day, the Google Pixel XL is definitely an option for those that don’t feel comfortable with an iPhone or other brands. In fact, the Google Pixel XL might draw envy from other people.

This review is for Google Pixel XL Very Silver, Verizon version. I want to start by saying that this phone has very simple yet, practical design. But don't let this trick you, the finishing on this phone is beyond phenomenal . it feels very elegant when holding it in your hand, its not slippery, and you won't see fingerprint smudges all over it after use. the package of this phone has all your needs except for a headphone (but Thankfully the phone still has a headphone jack!!). - the charger of this phone come with 5 V, 3.0 Amp output, this charger will make a huge difference in speed charging this phone. it has a USB type C input, and comes with a USB type C cable on both ends. Also, included in the box a standard USB to USB type C cable, A dongle with Standard USB input and USB type C output to help you transfer the contents of your old android phone to your new Google Pixel phone. also, the package contains a complimentary free 3 months subscription to Google play music and ad-free videos with Youtube Red, the phone has 5.5 inch screen which is super responsive, dual speaker, fingerprint security, and a Snapdragon 821 processor, and off course the latest Android 7.1 version with Google assistant. i have been playing with the phone for about 10 hours now and it is AMAZING! setting up the phone was a breeze, and Google Assistant is actually very interesting and helpful. the phone was able to connect to my 65 inch 4K smart TV withing seconds and I was able to cast all kinds of content directly from my phone. all in all this phone is all I need for now, and I also can't wait to get a chance to try out the Daydream VR. a final note: although the phone was a Verizon only phone, fortunately enough, there was absolutely no junk-ware installed on the device.

Quick bit about my current situation, I was offered this phone for testing purposes. Currently I have a Nexus 6P that I loved for a number of reasons, so this phone had quite a challenge to live up to. How did it do? Frankly, not bad. Out of box experience was almost perfect. From the container it was shipped in to the typical holiday feeling one gets when opening new gadgets, it was all there. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but activating the phone on Verizon was the easiest thing I have done with them in a number of years. All I needed to do was move the SIM card from one phone to another. Transfer of data was as simple as saying “OK Google, Set up my new device” on the old phone and the magic that is Google Now/Allo took care of the rest. The only minor disappointment I had was that the transfer started by offering to link one device to another via USB cable. For some reason, it didn’t want to work with my 6P - which is disappointing, but easily enough resolved via Google Now. Before we get too far into this review, the next question has got to be “how much software did Verizon ship with it?” The answer is nothing above base carrier software - IE, the stuff that will stop those “VZWSYNC” messages from appearing when you have a voicemail. It doesn’t even come with the MyVerizon app! So now your voicemail is built right into the dialer, a nice touch if I can say so. Interacting with the Verizon network on this phone is far, far better than what currently exists (or possibly will ever exist) for the 6P. Look and feel is amazing. From day one with my 6P, the one thing that I hated was that it was ever so slightly too big for my right hand to reach the top left corner. That problem appears to be mostly gone now, and yes, I do view that as something worthy of upgrade points. Honestly, with the white coloring, it reminds me of something out of a certain fruit shaped vendor. The phone itself is slightly lighter and smaller than the 6P and I could definitely see myself using this phone on a daily basis. The only thing that I don’t particularly care for (outside from the white color) is the glass panel on the back. It doesn’t seem to do much for the phone visual appeal, but it should help with letting the phone talk to the world. Camera. Believe it or not, this camera is actually a huge improvement (in the one scene I tested). Taken in low light, the 6P had a slight blur with no flash, and a yellow hue to a shot with a flash. The XL had no blur for no flash, and though the flash picture did have a bit of yellow in it, it was not nearly as pronounced. Also, a new, amazing feature: the new camera app has a white balance slider on the side of the image - allowing you to tone down a picture while taking it with next to no effort. Audio quality.This was my one fear when I signed up for this device. The lack of front firing speakers is a fallback to an older time in my mind. The phone, built and designed by HTC, should have had full access to the HTC BoomSound technology. In its place, they put two down-firing speakers. The result? Muffled sound if you are viewing it head on unless you cup your hand around the base of the device. This was what killed off one whole star on my review. I rarely used the speakers on my 6P, but when I did, I didn’t have to worry about anyone hearing it. In the case of the XL, I had difficulties hearing it when I was in my small apartment alone. At this price point, this is unacceptable from my point of view. Phone quality hasn’t really improved or declined - though we have had the opportunity to improve mobile phone technology for 43 years. Cool new things. The latest version of Android OS ships with a feature very similar to f.lux called “Night Light.” Personally I hate adding red to my screen (and would rather be sleepless), but this feature adds something that a number of people have been seeking for a very long time. The new launcher itself is somewhat appealing and definitely reminds me of things that appear in Nova Launcher. Is it good enough to be my only launcher, no - I much rather Nova for the amount of customization. So, would I run right out and buy one as an upgrade from a 6P? No. There is not much more present in this device versus the last generation. Against a Nexus 6? Maybe. This is a nice upgrade, if a bit expensive. Against an Apple product? Yep, I’d take this thing any day - even with its cost.

When I first saw this phone, I wanted it. I've used nearly every android device that has hit the market, and I really enjoy android. But I must say, you will never get the android experience you get on this phone from any other device running android. Just won't happen. Once you can get over the price like I did, you are golden. It is my daily driver, and I'm super happy to have it on hand. The software is worlds ahead of other android phones, and it's the original Google experience you would want on their first device launch. The hardware is great to me, because it's made by HTC. The cameras are very nice, battery is just amazing (at least 1 day of use, with about 5 to 6 hours of screen on time). I've not seen a faster phone out right now running android, just fluid...you will be happy. I gave it 4 starts though, because the price is way to high. No phone is really worth this much, when it lacks an SD, dual speakers, and higher memory on board. The really kind messed us over by only bringing 32gb or 128gb, very sad. 64gb should be the cost of the 32gb. But greed can get everyone at some point. They killed off the Nexus line, only to bring HIGH priced phones with less features. All in all, I'd still recommend this to TRUE android fans. PURE android is the best way to go.

OK, I ran this phone through its paces over the last 24 hours doing everything I would normally do with my iPhone, and while I'm impressed with it as an Android phone it is not better than the iPhone 6 that it replaced and certainly not better than the 6S or the new iPhone 7. I'm going to walk that statement back for one thing. Speed. This phone is incredibly fast. Apps open in a blink of an eye and close down just as fast. I was quite impressed with that feature. Google is touting this a a great photo device but after doing some pixel-peeping (see what I did there) and some A-B comparisons of shots taken with the Pixel and the iPhone 6, the iPhones still produce a nicer shot. The color in the iPhone shots is brighter and they just have more pop! That being said I have not played with any of the shots in a photo editor because I wanted to see what they would be like right off the sensor. Speaking of editors though, I will say that the editing tools that Google baked right into their Photo app are really very good and I could have probably made the photos looks as good as the iPhone ones but again, the iPhone shots were really pretty good as they were. In the pictures below you can see the phone and all of its accessories as they were right when I opened the box. On the left you have the guidebooks and the phone in its wrapping. On the rights was a disconcerting array of cables and adaptors. On the top right you have the charging brick which only accepts a USB-C plug (ugh, now I need Lightning, micro-USB, and USB-C cables? Seriously?!). Below that is the USB-C to USB-C cable for use with the aforementioned brick. In the area to the left under where the phone was is a USB to USB-C cable to plug your phone into a normal brick, charging station, or computer. Above that in the little cubby above is a USB to USB-C adaptor primarily to be used to transfer data from an iPhone to the Pixel. I appreciate that Google is trying to take market share from Apple and to make it a bit easier to get your data from one device to another (heck Apple has been doing that for years with their computers to great effect), but it did not work out as nice as I would have liked. After connecting the two devices together, I had to log in to a website on the iPhone's browser and select the info to transfer. In the interest of time I just did the basics and did not try to move my huge photo or music libraries but stuck with the basic data to make the phone usable. While much of that data come over without a problem, some data came over weird and jumbled. The data that did come over easily is all of my Gmail and other Google app data which I kind of expected since Google does a nice job within their own ecosystem. I do have to say another couple of things that I like about the Pixel. The screen is big, beautiful, and bright and may even edge out the iPhone though I would have to put them at the same brightness settings a such to make a true comparison. Also, I like the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone and how it immediately opens up the phone without a press. Just being able to rest my index finger where it would normally land anyway and having the phone pop on is nice and definitely helps this phone feel a bit more 'snappy' in its usage. OK, almost done with this review but I can't end without saying something about the battery and the call quality... wait, this is a phone and I'm actually going to have to talk to someone on it? The battery life is very good and gave me a full days worth of pretty heavy usage though I did not do any streaming of video or music since I never really do that anyway. Mostly, it was heavy internet surfing, photo use, and calling. Speaking of calling, I don't know what it is but the calls didn't sound as clear as they do on my iPhone. I'm using the Pixel in all the same places that I used my iPhone and even swapped the SIM card back into my iPhone to check and the Pixel sounded a bit hollow and distant. Not sure what that is about. I could still hear the other person but they sounded like they were talking into their phone from a distance unlike when I talked to them with my iPhone. So, final word. If you are deep in the Android ecosystem, then this is a great phone for you. It is fast and will do everything that you are used to doing very well. If you are in the Apple ecosystem, get an iPhone 7 or heck, even a 6S if you want to save some money. This is not the iPhone killer Google wanted but it is a solid phone and it will do a very good job for you no matter your OS allegiance.