Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great phone. Camera is great except in dark places.

Short and to the point...I have had several Samsung products. Galaxy S4,S5,S6 S7 Edge and the Note 5. Not nearly as customisable as any of those. However, the speed of the Pixel is very fast and responsive. The Google voice function is the most notable function of the phone. This is the first time I've ever thought that I should have bought and iPhone over an Android.

This is a solid phone, there are a lot of mediocre points to it, but it is a pretty smooth phone and runs well. I just cant get over the price, debating whether it is worth it or not.

Let me start of by stating that I just didn't like the stock Android Google shipped the phone with. I just couldn't get into it. After a day, I had to switch to another launcher and remove Pixel and Google Now, it just didn't fit with my style. I recognize it is me, so I am not downgrading the phone at all on the UI/Software even though that seems to be a big deal, the new Google assistant just didn't do it for me at all. I just didn't find it useful. I guess I'm getting old. However let me state that is me, and others I'm sure will love it. The nice thing is unlike other phones you not stuck with the default launcher, so Yay for that. Though I haven't found a launcher yet that is making me love this phone. Hopefully I will one day, until then lets move on the other aspects of this phone, because I'm sure my above issues with the UI is more me. Hardware. Google found a good partner in a different OEM to build the phone for them. They did an excellent job. The phone is built solidly and size wise if this is the larger of the phones, this is the one to have, at least for my hands it fits perfect and the fingerprint sensor in the back is perfect. In fact I recommend making sure you get the senor to recognize both unlocking fingers on your left and the right hand to make 1 touch unlocking easy, because the one feature I like is when I pressing my finger on the senor it unlocks and turn my phone on. No reaching for the power button on the side. Very nice. Also under touch gestures enable the fingerprint senor on to drag down the notification bar, that too is handy. I was worried when I saw the speakers on the bottom of the phone, I thought great, tinny and quiet. They are actually fairly loud and decent sounding. In my office I could stream music and hear it quiet clearly. So the speaker is of good quality and loudness. The screen is great. I can use it outdoors in bright sunlight with minimal squinting at it, and watching a few movies/tv/videos on it I had no issues and everything looked great. Nice to see the WiFi chipset support Wireless AC. That is a plus in my household. In normal usage, watching videos, streaming music etc the phone would get a bit warm that my hands would notice it, but not hot. So Its nice to see the 821 handles itself quite well there. Now the downsides I found which is why I'm rating the phone as average: For the size of the battery (and I admit, maybe after a few days it will improve, but so far no luck) using the phone as I normally would I can eek out about day of use. With the size battery they are packing I was hoping for at least a day and half, but that doesn't seem to be the case so that makes me a sad panda. No slot for a MicroSD. If you are like me and travel and find yourself in situations without internet then the 32GB model may not be enough. If they had added a MicroSD slot it wouldn't be an issue, however in having this phone for 72, and just loading my normal Podcasts/Audiobooks/E-Books/Videos (Work and Leisure) I ran out of space and had to pair back. If you keep a lot of media on your device do yourself a favor and get the 128GB version. Also it is a shame they do not have a dual sim model. It would be nice to not carry 2 phones. Camera. A lot of people where down on the fact the camera didn't have Optical Image Stabilization. However Google via software worked around that and it is one of the better camera phones I've had to shot with. It is quick and takes good pictures. Not going to replace my DSLR anytime, but I don't mind grabbing this for taking a picture of the kids. Overall it isn't a bad attempt for Google for hardware. It is solid hardware, and for a phone it is responsive. Mine didn't come with any Verizon installed apps, and appears completely unlocked, however that could be the early versions they grabbed whatever was handy, so your mileage my vary. If you do consider this phone (and for android this is one I would, if only because Google will update this monthly which is important because OS underlining Android is always being updated) do yourself a favor and get the 128GB version so you have space to store your media and apps.

I bought the phone primarily for use with daydream headset and to compare with samsung S7 edge with the samsung gear VR. Although I like the hand controller (as samsung does not have any) - I have to say that daydream still seems very buggy and immature. It very often gets into a state where you can't select anything with the controller, and you have to reboot. I have also had crashes and reloads. Can't comment on other aspects of the phone

Let me first state that I am more of an Apple fan than Android, so I tried not to be biased when putting down my iPhone 7 plus for a couple of days to try out the Google Pixel XL. I like the sleek silver finish, it booted up pretty fast and takes great photos. It took some getting used to the fingerprint reader on the back of it versus the front home button that I am used to but it worked quickly and was easier to program than the Touch ID on my iPhone. Fortunately my phone didn't come with all of the bloatware that is customary with Android OS, so I was happy I only had to delete a few apps. It came with a cable and easy method to transfer all of my contacts and such from my iPhone so I was pleasantly surprised about that. I have one of the now hard to find unlimited data plans from Verizon so it wasn't easy to get it up and running by just putting the sim card in and powering it on, but I persevered. The tethering feature was lost once I switched to the Pixel, but after doing some online search, I found a way to work around having Verizon activate some feature they wanted and extra $30/month to enable the feature. The haptic feedback is better on the Pixel than my iPhone so that was a pleasant surprise. I love the USB-C charging cable it comes with. It charges relatively fast and comes with another USB cable to plug it into my laptop. The Google Assistant is slightly better than Siri, but I am still learning the ins and outs of Android, so I may find that it is actually better. The phone overall isn't bad, but not worth the $750 they are charging for it. It doesn't have the option of adding an SD card like most Android OS phones, although you can buy the larger 128gb phone for an extra $100 or you can upload things to Google Drive which includes 15gb or unlimited storage for photos and videos. My signal also seems to be weaker with this phone than my iPhone. Overall, I like the phone, but for the money, I would go an iPhone 7 Plus in 128gb for the same price. As I said, I am new to Android so my review is based on my short time with the phone and possibly not knowing all of the features Android has to offer.

Best buy forgot to add my protection plan to this phone. My first pixel had software issues which they helped zero and told me to contact the manufacturer. Not impressed.

Upgraded from an iPhone 6s plus, it's ok, but to get straight to the point, i believe I would have been better off getting the iPhone 7 plus...

I did return this item only because I wanted a Galaxy phone. However there is nothing wrong with this phone

"Okay Google" is such a helpful thing, but not helpful all the time. Hoping for a better phone in the future.

It's complicated, not user friendly, and my kids can't help

I come from the Apple camp, but decided to give it a go since Apple keeps breaking the music app. This is my first time venturing into the Android camp for a phone, so I focused on the Android capabilities rather than whether it can make phone calls or not. Note that my main uses are 1) playing music; 2) texting; and distant 3) making phone calls. Just like Apple, there is a learning curve for this newbie. The OS drops available memory by about 8GB. The screen is bright and colorful with easy-to-read text in the default size and font. It was annoying that I had to download a Music Player. I tried multiple approaches to get my iTunes library on my PC to reach the Pixel, but all of the easy options required payment. Contacts are easy to find.

This phone started having a lot of problems for me way too early. It is a decent phone when you first get it. It's fast, has light weight software, the camera is great. I wasn't a fan of the design, I miss having a physical home button and the space at the bottom of the phone kind of seems like a waste. But the real problem with this phone is that it's not built to last. My Pixel XL started slowing down considerably less than a year after I bought it. Coincidence or not, this was around the same time the Pixel 2 came out, so take that however you want. Also, my GPS doesn't work. It broke less than a year after getting the phone. When I tried getting help with it, they said my phone is outside of warranty. In comparison, my Galaxy 4 lasted 4 years before I had to buy a new phone. This will be the last time I buy an expensive phone. And I'd be wary of Google's hardware going forward.