Ask more of your phone.
The original Pixels were both welcome and shocking - in their price points, but also when it comes to looks and their bezel-embracing similarity to Apple's phones of 2016. Now though Apple has the iPhone X and Google has gone back to the drawing board to come up with the Pixel 2 XL. A decidedly more modern-looking successor to the XL from last year, we've thoroughly reviewed this handset already. And if you're interested in our suite of standardized tests and objective impressions you're welcome to take a look over there.
This long-term review is going to take a deeper dive into what it's like to actually live with the Pixel 2 XL, as the main and only phone, for a longer stretch of time.
We'll try to answer the questions you might have about the device, regarding things that aren't covered in our proper review. For example, can you actually get used to that screen? Learn to enjoy it even? Is the Pixel 2 XL a huge improvement over its predecessor? Does it really take such amazing pictures? (OK, so you probably know the answer to the last one). We'll also cover how easy it is to set up and let you know about any niggles and issues we've encountered in day to day use. Let's jump in and find out if the Pixel 2 XL really is worth your hard earned cash.
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Shooting Range
The Pixel 2 makes the best case ever that camera specs don't matter. This phone has relatively ho-hum sensors inside, 12.2 megapixels and f/1.8 aperture on the back and 8 and f/2.4 on the front. All that actually matters here is the software. The company trained an algorithm to recognize human heads, which lets the Pixel 2 do the same sort of soft-background portrait shots as the iPhone 8 Plus, only with one camera instead of two. You can even see it work, since the Pixel 2 saves both the as-shot photo and the processed one. It works on both cameras, too, and I'm way into my newly bokeh'd selfies. It doesn't quite as well as the iPhone's portraits, though: the Pixel tends to blur out the edges of my head, and didn't always recognize objects in frame as portrait-worthy. But you know what's cool? That'll all get better. It's just software.
In general, the Pixel 2's camera ranks among the best I've seen on a phone. It's fast, it's sharp, it's amazingly dynamic. It's particularly impressive in low light, where Google's post-processing chops can really shine. I took lots of photos not expecting to get anything usable at all, and wound up with lots of slightly fake-looking but completely usable shots. My only gripe is that it occasionally cranks the contrast up too far, giving a few shots a neon, Blade Runner-y look I don't love. Mostly, photos came out as good or better than I could have hoped for.
I had a more mixed experience shooting video. The Pixel's video capabilities are impressive: it can shoot slow-motion video at up to 240 frames per second, enough to make the fast-spinning blades on our airboat look virtually still. It shoots 4K, though only at 30 frames per second, not at 60 or 24 like the iPhone 8. And Google touts the phone's ability to combine optical and electrical image stabilization to make your video smooth even in the roughest conditions. It does work as advertised, but it leaves traces: I have videos of our boat whipping through canals where you can see the video warping and stabilizing, and it can leave everything noisy as a result. It's up to most tasks, but a GoPro killer this is not.
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In the long run, the Pixel 2's camera will do far more than just take gator photos. They're the key to Google's augmented-reality plans, as it tries to turn ARCore into the platform behind all things digital and physical. Most of that's not here yet, but it's coming. Already here: the first inkling of Google Lens, Google's visual search platform. You can open Google Photos, go to any photo you've shot, and tap the Lens button to get more info. It can pull phone numbers out of addresses, find info about that bar you took a picture of, or find a book online you found in a store but don't want to buy because who buys books anymore. Google knows as well as anyone that your phone's camera is the new best way to communicate, play, and discover stuff. And it's set up to make all that stuff real on the Pixel 2.
