The launch of Google Pixel XL marks a new milestone for its smartphone development where the name of Nexus has been officially ended. The greatest Pixel XL smartphone comes with the 5.5 inches Quad HD AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 clocked at 2.15Ghz, 4GB RAM and up to 128GB storage. The 12.3MP rear camera is the major highlight of it , where it officially won in DxOMark. Certainly, Google has added theirt new features into the Pixel and Pixel XL which are the Google assistant that relies on machine learning, unlimited Google Drive storage for full quality photos and the new Daydream VR.
Unboxing
A fairly simplistic overview of the Google Pixel XL which is kept in a white box with minimal amount of information printed on the front.
The Pixel XL comes with instruction manual, USB Type A to C converter, data cable, adapter and an earphones that look similar with the HTC’s.
The 8MP front camera has a pixel size at 1.4 micron and a f/2.4 aperture.
Manufactured by HTC, the Pixel is the representation of a quality build.
Only nano-SIM is supported.
Like it or not, there is a strong black contrast glass material surrounding the camera and fingerprint sensor module. The “Made in Taiwan” printing is embedded on the bottom of the smartphone that you might not be bothered to observe anyway.
The 12.3MP rear camera has an aperture size of f/2.0 and able to capture pixel size up to 1.55 microns. More details of the camera to follow. The fingerprint sensor has a fast recognition speed and comes with gesture detected to pull down notification.
System and Performance
Google Assistant is available by your side when you select English as primary language.
The OS experience of this Pixel XL is pretty stock, and this is what the Pixel (and Nexus) intended to be.
Camera
The camera UI is fairly simple to operate and comes with limited shooting choices.
Its camera can reach up to 12.3megapixels and recording up to 4K at 30fps.
The Pixel XL camera support HDR+ shooting mode. More samples image to come.
As HTC 10 camera is one of the best rated camera from smartphone reviewers, this HTC made Pixel XL is also expected to comes with similar shooting quality. For our test, the result didn’t disappoint us as it is surprisingly good.
Here comes the sample images taken with HDR+ mode on
4K video recording at 30fps
Camera PK: HTC 10 vs Pixel XL vs iPhone 7 Plus
There top, middle and bottom image of a same pictures came from HTC 10, Pixel XL and iPhone 7 Plus respectively. These images are fairly decent and it’s hard to compare side by side. You be the judge.
Similar performance for these 3 smartphones.
Pixel XL did a very good job in noise controlling and preserving details. Similar result is seen on HTC 10 in these small object details but iPhone 7 Plus has lost way behind. This could be attributed to the image EXIF where the iPhone 7 Plus only has ISO 80 enabled.
Conclusion
Google and HTC has did a very good job on the Pixel XL. Its hardware is on par with current flagship smartphone and it is expected that this smartphone will last for 2 to 3 years as Google has promised to provide continuous firmware support for 2 years and security patches for 3 years. Its camera is one of the best from all Android (and probably from Apple) smartphone out there as benchmark by DxOMark.
Source : Cool3C
