Google’s newest incursion into the smartphone market is upon us, and the Pixel and Pixel XL aim to offer top-notch hardware and the perfect realization of Google’s new vision for Android. Most importantly, perhaps, it is key part of a bigger push for a redefined Google ecosystem.
With so many great Android phones around, how clearly can the Pixels stand out?
In this review, we’ll take an in-depth dive into the Pixel XL. Rather than listing specs and talking about how the experience felt, this feature attempts to provide a thorough look with contents relevant to our reader base. At XDA, our reviews are not meant to tell a user whether a phone is worth buying or not — instead, we try to lend you the phone through our words and help you come to the decision by yourself. Before getting started, let’s get the specification sheet out of the way:
Device Name:
Pixel XL
Release Date/Price
Available Now, Starts at U$D 769
Android Version
7.1 Nougat
Display
5.5 inch AMOLED – 1440 x 2560 – 534 PPI
Chipset
Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821 “Pro-AB” | Quad-core CPU (2×2.15 GHz Kryo & 2×1.6 GHz Kryo) | Adreno 530 GPU
Battery
3,450 mAh
RAM
4GB LPDDR4
Sensors
Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
Storage
32GB | 128GB
Connectivity
USB 3.0 Type C, 3.5mm audio jack
Dimensions
154.7 x 75.7 x 8.5 mm (~71.2% screen-to-body)
Rear Camera
f/2.0, EIS, laser autofocus, video: 4K Video, 240FPS Maximum
Weight
168g
Front Camera
8MP, f/2.4
Index
DesignSoftware – UISoftware- UXPerformanceReal World UXCameraDisplayBattery LifeAudioDevelopment & Future ProofingFinal Thoughts
Hardware Design & Build Quality
The design of the Pixel XL is one of the factors that will likely get disputed the most among enthusiasts, owners and potential-buyers: in many ways, it is a deviation from the design language of the Nexus line as seen on the Nexus 6P and 5X, but the new shell gives credence to the idea of a discrete Google product. The HTC-manufactured body follows a mix between tradition and oddity, ultimately achieving a look that’s unique even if unconventional. While Google likely tried to make something different with its first new phone, given some of the recent revelations it’s unclear whether they really had much time at all to nail the body of the Pixel and Pixel XL, and some think that it might not even be a truly Google-designed device. None of that changes the merits and downfalls of the actual device that is already produced, though, so we’ll leave those arguments for the editorials where they belong. Let’s take a detailed look at each part of the Pixel XL.
The front of the Pixel XL is what I referred to as “conventional” when describing the makeup of the phone’s design. The “quite black” color option actually tones down the “black slab” motif of previous Nexus given its more of a deep grey, something worth pointing out due to the AMOLED screen the device packs. Nexus 6P owners will candidly recall the way in which the bezels merged with the screen on black background and images — not perfectly so, but well-enough to give the illusion in most lighting conditions. Unless you are in a dark environment, you will find a clear distinction between screen and bezel in the Pixel XL no matter which variant you pick. Something that I believe has been largely ignored, though, is that the Pixel XL has one of the absolute-thinnest black border around its actual display, which makes the white and blue variants of the device look more pleasing than they otherwise would, and than other white phones
The fact that you will notice the bezel is relevant given the phone’s below-average screen-to-body ratio, with average side bezels and sizeable top and bottom bezels as well. While the device is quite tall, its surface dimensions are largely the same in proportion to the Nexus 6P’s, as the screen-to-body ratio is 71.4% versus 71.2%. Due to the Pixel Xl’s slightly-smaller screen, it ultimately makes it a more-compact device with slightly-bigger bezels than an average 5.5-inch phone. An issue many will take with the frontal design, however, is the asymmetrical distribution of top and bottom bezel. We found the larger bottom bezel to be slightly more noticeable on the white front Pixel variants, too, as the pitch-black navigation bar makes a clear contrast with the bezel. It is a little disappointed to see that space unused given that last year’s Nexus phones had bottom-firing speakers, and that HTC (who ultimately manufactured this phone) has been renowned for its speakers too. However, I have found the ergonomics and nav-bar-reachability to be excellent on the Pixel XL precisely because of the bottom-heavy bezel, which ends up pushing the navigation bar higher and making it easier for the thumb to reach it. At the top you’ll find the usual camera, sensor and speaker.
A similarly-neat positioning is found on the sides of the phone: the 8.5mm-thick frame hosts both the volume rocker and the power-button on the right side, in such a way that they are easy to reach with either hand. Right-handed usage results in the thumb perfectly landing on the power button and only slightly above the volume rocker, while left-handed usage has the index finger reach the power button, and the middle finger land on the volume keys. I adapted to the new setup instantly, and the textured power button feels great and aids in giving tactile contrast between the two control pieces. It also shines differently at various angles when hit by light due to its geometry, and it ultimately feels extremely sturdy and clicky. The volume rocker, on the other hand, has been wobblier on all the units we’ve tested, and we’ve also seen numerous reports of other users finding their volume keys wobblier than the power button (and they can sound differently, too). That being said, they remain extremely clicky as well, and we’ve had no issues with asymmetric feedback when pressing either key either.
Other than that, the sides are pretty barren except for the SIM card slot on the other side of the device, which sits flush with the rest of the frame. The bottom of the phone contains the USB Type-C port as well as two grills, only one of which is a speaker as the right grill is a microphone instead. At the top of the phone, you’ll find the 3.5mm headphone jack. Around the edges you’ll find both the glass front and the back of phone fused with different curvatures: the 2.5D glass transition of the screen is extremely subtle, whereas the curvature merging the frame with the back is very pronounced and sudden, and the antennae bands follow around it.
Getting to the back of the phone is where we find some of the more interesting-aspects of the device’s design. The Pixel XL has a two-tone back with the aluminum chassis featuring a glass overlay at the top, which reportedly helps with signal as well (I haven’t found signal to be particularly better than on other devices, though, and I know friends abroad have had signal issues). It gives the design an unconventional look that makes it stand out from the crowd and it’s ultimately a more-prominent “Google phone” marker than the Google logo at the mid-bottom. The two-tone back is certainly a curious addition that brings unconventional side-effects, such as uneven heat distribution, different scratch and shatter properties for uneven durability, and an interesting difference in light reflection. The glass panel is glossy and due to the background under it, it ends up looking not-quite-transparent, meaning it can look like slick black glass or like a more matte grey texture depending on the lighting and the angle. I personally think it’s an interesting choice and I’ve grown to like it, but there are some nitpicks worth mentioning as well:
First of all, the glass is slightly raised above the metal, making the glass window prone to scratches when laid on certain surfaces. Our units have all been scratched as a result, with the edges in particular showing many microscratches. Second, we found a positioning mistake in multiple units where the window’s microphone hole is actually not aligned with the microphone under the glass. We’ve also heard reports of slightly uneven fusing of the glass and the metal across its four edges, but our units have been fine. Ultimately, cases and skins can help mitigate some of the potential durability side-effects.
The new redesign certainly borrows some structural similarities from other manufacturers, but the execution is very solid in itself. The phone feels very sturdy (in part due to the thickness), the materials feel premium and the ergonomics are very good for a large and thick device, with good button placement and reachability. A final nitpick would be that the device doesn’t feel properly balanced in terms of weight, although the center of gravity lays only slightly past the middle. I personally think the design is unassuming and unspectacular, but I also feel like it’s the kind of design one won’t get sick of after a year, or rather, the kind of functional smartphone design one can enjoy for more than a single year.
Software Design & User Interface
With the Pixel phones being Google-branded, we are actually seeing Google customize the system UI of their devices with an “exclusive” theme, but given that the Pixel is also running Android 7.1 we also see some UI changes that will eventually arrive to all Android devices. Google’s changes to the system UI are ultimately tame and lighter than the changes in OEM skins, but they are worth documenting because they either represent the foundation for what we can expect out of future Pixel phones, or the future of Android as the changes trickle down to all devices. And, perhaps most importantly, these modifications give the Pixel some extra character and uniqueness, not unlike what other OEMs intend with their modifications to stock Android.
Starting with the one change you’ll see on nearly every screen, we find that the navigation bar has now filled its icons and deviated from the standard imposed by Android 5.0 Lollipop now two years ago. The new buttons behave identically to the standard AOSP navigation bar for the most part, with the exception of the home button which has a short animation upon pressing it and long-pressing it. The Google colors make for a nice visual cue that signals the presence of Google Assistant as well, and the way in which they react to touch serve as visual aid to make long-pressing for the shortcut more intuitive.
Moving on to the Pixel Launcher, which you can download for your device, we see two important changes to the Pixel’s UI design language. First, we find the circular icons that are now a system-wide standard and not relegated to the launcher only, and that are enabled by Google but also can be enabled by any OEM who wishes to adopt the standard for their future Nougat releases. It’s an odd deviation for sure, but we’ll leave the subjective interpretation to you. The second big change is the use of transparencies across the launcher, perhaps most notably in the homescreen dock found at the bottom which presents a white, transparent rectangle that also merges with the navigation bar. There is a purpose to this rectangle, as swiping up transforms it into the application drawer. Another transparency is found in the message one finds when clearing all recent apps, as illustrated.
That transparency seemingly mimics the transitions by other OEMs into an UI with more transparencies and “glass-like” behavior, something which is also apparent in Google’s choice of default wallpaper, as the dynamic “Aurora Time lapse” background has the kind of blurred aesthetic we’d expect from other OEMs. The launcher also presents a weather widget that expands into an app with playful colors and transitions, and the “Google” pill which expands into a Google search bar when pressed. Swiping to the left expectedly reveals the Google Now feed, and that about rounds up the Pixel’s launcher. One of the nicest aspects of the Pixel homescreen experience is behind the launcher, though, as the built-in wallpaper picker offers beautiful photography and much of it is dynamic, reacting not just to your swipes and actions but also the time and weather.
What about the rest of the UI? There are no radical changes to the recents menu, but the notification panel sees an extra slot in the quick toggles after the first swipe. Here you will also find a hint of blue in the brightness slider, now replacing the stock Android green, and this color is the new accent color Google chose for the Pixel. Indeed, this accent color is found in various places across the UI including the camera, downloads and settings icons, the settings menus themselves (toggles and trims) and the new dialer also includes a vibrant and attractive blue theme.
Moving onto the settings, the blue theme is present on the material iconography; however, there is a prominent new tab to accompany the traditional settings, which takes the user into customer support. Under this tab, one can initiate phone or chat customer support as well as quickly access help resources, tips & tricks, and an option to send feedback. I don’t personally believe that such a feature deserves an entire tab in the settings menu instead of a submenu or an app you can hide, and I don’t see people using the feature frequently enough to warrant such an important shortcut. But at the very least it’s impossible to miss, which isn’t a bad thing for this kind of feature.
There aren’t other changes worth noting as far as aesthetics go, and I haven’t found any issues with the stock experience. The features under the System UI tuner, however, haven’t been properly updated: the “Do Not Disturb” toggle for the volume menu doesn’t scale with DPI which makes it look oddly big and unaligned, and the slide gesture for multi-window doesn’t work. These are small nitpicks in what’s otherwise a stellar Android user experience that offers a close to Stock UI with just enough character to differentiate it from the Nexus experience. The move towards rounded features, transparencies and blur might not develop prominently like what we see on other OEMs’ modifications, and I believe they are done rather tastefully. The new launcher and wallpapers steal the show, with the latter being excellently accessible to the mainstream consumer given they are part of the default homescreen experience. Overall, the UI of the Pixel phones has been delightful, though I wish that there were more ways to customize it — early reports suggested accent theming, and a dark theme has not made it here either, but hopefully future releases will keep making the experience better as currently, theme engines and available themes don’t see very good compatibility with the system UI.
Software Features & User Experience
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are the first phones to come with Android 7.1 out of the box, which means that they bring the latest in terms of Android features. At the same time, however, the changes that Google made to the Pixel’s software (the aesthetic ones being documented above) also mean exclusive features and changes beyond mere cosmetic accents. Some of these “exclusive” features didn’t remain Pixel-only for very long thanks to the talents of the developer community. But nevertheless, it’s clear that Google tried to bring extra oomph to the Pixel’s software past what a regular Stock Android device running Nougat would offer. And it’s important to look at the Pixel’s resulting software UX because it signals the underlying intentions and direction that Google has planned for Android. So what’s new in Android 7.1 Nougat, and in the Google Pixel and Pixel XL?
Google has leveraged its services to entice Pixel owners into using cloud storage, as Pixel owners get unlimited photo and video backup to Google Photos, and unlike the regular “unlimited” service, this one keeps the quality of the content pristine as Google otherwise compresses your pictures if they are above a specific threshold. This feature is complemented by Smart Storage which automatically removes already-backed pictures and videos from your device if they are old enough and if you are running out of space. Considering there is no storage option in between the Pixel and Pixel XL, this option might prove useful for those that opt for the 32GB variant.
Another quick feature related to photos and video transfer is the quick switch adapter which lets you restore your files from another Android or iPhone device.
The Pixels also bring “Moves”, which has its own menu within the settings. Under that menu you will find a few shortcuts that you can toggle, including “Jump to Camera” by double tapping the power button from any screen (like the Nexus 6P and 5X) and then “Flip Camera”, which allows you to switch in and out of selfie mode with a quick double-twist of the phone, similar to the Moto X’s lines’ camera jump shortcut. The fingerprint sensor of the Pixel XL also supports gestures, which the phone implements as a “Swipe for Notifications” shortcut, very much like what we’ve found on Honor devices like the 5X at the start of this year. This is a very welcome feature, and it works very well, but we would have hoped some extra functionality and/or customization; other devices with this feature include more options already, and Google could have pushed the envelope even further by allowing list scrolling or other nifty features.
There is no Dark Mode/Theme, and System UI tuner is almost as limited as always. There are power notification controls for setting an app’s notification importance (managing peek, sound, vibration, interruptions, etc), the Do Not Disturb shortcut for the settings menu, and then Status Bar controls. There is also a Multi-Window slide-up-recents gesture toggle, but it currently doesn’t work. Night mode is present and it’s as pleasant as ever, although not very smart and it can cause blinding flashes after it changes on you with no gradual adjustments (especially if it’s done automatically without you expecting it).
Multi-window itself, however, is a great addition to Android and something I’ve personally waited for a long time. Given that the feature is debuting on Nougat, and that the Pixel is one of the few devices running official Nougat out of the box, I’ll give a brief description and thoughts. You can enter multi-window by long-pressing the recents menu, or by dragging a recents menu card to the top of the screen. The top of the screen will be reserved for that app and there is no way to quickly switch it to the bottom panel like on Samsung devices, but the screen persists while browsing through recents and, while it disappears when on a Launcher, it pops backup atop whatever app you then launch. If you launch an app through an app shortcut (such as Settings from the notification panel), it will go to the bottom irrespective of which screen you are focused on. The dividing bar has a hinge separating the two windows, but it can only be dragged to select heights, and the 3 levels conveniently allow you to display a full video on top while browsing an app on the bottom. Dragging the hinge all the way up or down will exit multi-window and focus on the app thatremains
The fact that the Pixel has a status bar and navigation keys that are not hidden means that a chunk of the usable screen space is unavailable to the user on multi-window — while this is something we are all used to most of the time, that extra space becomes more valuable when multi-tasking this way. Samsung’s implementation (which will dramatically change under Android Nougat, according to the Android compatibility document) hid the status bar, and capacitive keys helped maximize usable space. The combination of a thick divider bar, status bar and navigation bar means the space is not maximized on the Pixel, and in reality all that used space is taken from one app’s interface. Luckily, the built-in DPI tuner of Android Nougat makes this less of an issue by shrinking the ratio of status/navigation bar to usable content, as well as increasing the content density within each application. The stock implementation is ultimately very fluid and useful and while features such as quick-swap between the top and bottom aren’t there, there is a lot I appreciate such as the ability to open two instances of certain apps like Chrome or the Settings menu.
So, what about Google’s flagship Pixel feature, Assistant? I’ve used Assistant throughout my review period, in great part because I actually use Search (and even Google Now) a lot for my day-to-day usage. Google Assistant is, quite clearly, in its early stages and we’ve noted as much in an editorial where we documented many of the oddities and inconsistencies we found when testing the service. There is clear feature disparity with not just Google’s current Search service, but also other Assistant versions such as what’s found on Google Home. That being said, Assistant comes to specifically tackle a problem that likely caused Google many headaches, and that’s the difficulty in marketing its services when they are disparately distributed in various parts of the UI.
Assistant ultimately tries to marry three core services – Google Now, Google Search and Now on Tap – which are currently (outside the Pixel) found on three different areas of the user interface (the leftmost homescreen, the search bars across the phone, and the home button long press). By making Assistant accessible through the home button, and capable of all of what Google services can do, the simplification of Google’s useful services would come about in theory.
The reality is that, in its current form, Assistant’s lack of feature parity make it a less-suitable alternative to actual search bars – or even Google Now, which you can get back with a simple build.prop edit – and other Google services. For example, the Pixel can’t currently recognize Songs, and its information display is separate than that of Search. An example that I found in my usage is that asking Assistant for or about math-related formulas or concepts doesn’t return the relevant formula or description to rekindle my memory, but instead initiates a search. We also found inconsistencies when making shopping lists across Assistant, home, and Allo’s neutered Assistant. Above you can find an example, and it seems that the same happens with Google Home. Then there are the issues with inconsistent command recognition and other problems we’ve been used to for a while.
Due to the feature disparity between Assistant and Search, the experience was ultimately not polished to the point where I could use Assistant exclusively
That being said, when it works, it works very well. Google Assistant is only a glimpse of what’s to come, I believe, and just like Google Now on Tap got better over time, so will this ambitious feature. The better aspects manage to shine through and suggest a really interesting future for voice assistants. For example, the ability to have Assistant recognize the subject of the next query tacitly rather than explicitly helps in making the service feel more conversational. Further expansions to context-awareness could push this even further, and currently it remains useful for fetching information, searching for images of more-specific objects (and of specific colors), or even launching music even if you don’t remember the specific song title. There is definitely a lot of impressive technology in Assistant, but I also know many of my colleagues have disabled the feature entirely given they didn’t see the additional benefit (also, you can go back to Google Now on Tap as well by removing the Pixel identifier from your build.prop). I have personally used it a great deal given I have been used to these types of services anyway, but Assistant was not solid enough to the point where I could use it exclusively. Part of that is due to the feature disparity, but the inability to input text for example hurts the more-technical search queries. Pro-tip: Assistant is great for finding items in game wikis, though.
There is also a live-support feature, which put us on the phone with a real-flesh assistant on the other side of the screen, but we only used this feature once. One last feature that you will only require about 12 times a year is the background updates system. Android 7.1 Nougat on the Pixel mirrors every partition of the device to form an A/B system similar to what’s found on Chromebooks. What this means is that updates can be downloaded and installed in the background, allowing you to then simply reboot into your updated state. This makes updates faster and safer (less prone to issues when updating), and you can actually see the activity that’s installing the update while you are using your phone (note that it will get slightly toasty). I’ve only experienced the system once through the November patch, but it was a quite short and satisfactory experience.
Performance
The Google Pixel XL has Google flexing its performance muscle once more: while the Nexus 6P packed the still-flawed Snapdragon 810, it’s worth remembering the Nexus 5’s excellent Snapdragon 800 experience, and the subsequent Nexus 6 with the unsung masterpiece that was the Snapdragon 805. Qualcomm’s misstep with the 810 stood in contrast with the jewels of its past, but with the 820 the company has managed to put out a really compelling chipset that some manufacturers have implemented extremely well, such as OnePlus with the OnePlus 3.
Others, however, have had less success with the processor as we’ve seen in our tests and reviews, but given this is Google’s chance at better control over both hardware and software, we’d expect this Snapdragon 821 to be very well-implemented.
Before we dig into the details, we must remind our readers that Google’s Snapdragon 821 is a variant clocked at 2.15GHz on the performance cluster, and 1.6GHz on the efficiency cluster — in essence, that means the Pixel XL can be expected to perform like a device running regular Snapdragon 820 in most benchmarks. The same goes for the GPU, and we can confirm that our results show the Pixel XL very similarly to other devices in 2016 as far as theoretical performance goes. However, there are some difference when it comes to thermals and throttling which we’ll detail, although not as extensively as we did in our separate Pixel XL throttling and thermals analysis (so head there if you want the specifics). We’ll also compare the Snapdragon 821 with the recently-released Kirin 960 in the Huawei Mate 9, so that people get an idea of the processor’s relative standing at the very end of 2016. As a final note, the Snapdragon 821 in the Pixel XL might perform at the same level as the 820 in other devices released earlier this year, but Qualcomm told us there is a smaller advantage in battery savings at the same clockspeeds of around 5%, so ultimately the inclusion of this processor is not unjustified.
CPU & System
In most aspects, the Pixel XL behaves just like the Snapdragon 820 devices we are used to. Luckily, this isn’t a bad thing, as the Snapdragon 820 is the most powerful chipset that is also widely-available, and those SoCs that are more powerful in specific aspects are also exclusive to Samsung and Huawei which offer user experiences particularly antithetic to stock Android. Perhaps most importantly, though, the Pixel XL not only scores higher than your average Snapdragon 820 device (if only slightly), but it also shows low score variance and very good thermal consistency when stressing the CPU.
While we’ve seen some Snapdragon 820 devices like the HTC 10 begin throttling within 10 Geekbench 3 consecutive tests, the Pixel XL joins the ranks of the OnePlus 3 and other thermally-consistent devices by not having a visible downward trend in its scores over those first 10 tests. With the A73 cores being implemented in newer chipsets and with Qualcomm’s 10nm future, we’ll likely be either extending the runtime of our CPU stress test or redesigning it altogether; it was good enough at revealing throttling in the 810 era and in early 2016, but the commendable performance of recent chipsets means we need to find more stressful CPU endurance tests more akin to our GPU endurance suite.
As you can see, one year makes a tremendous difference for sustained performance.
The Pixel XL ultimately does a great job in both the synthetic benchmarks with more-abstract tests as well as those that try to mimic real-world performance using system resources. PCMark and Basemark OS II scores are very respectable, and the phone manages to hold its own in various sub-tests even against the latest A73-based Kirin 960 found in the Huawei Mate 9. It’s worth noting that the Pixel XL suffers the most in the memory tests, which bring down the overall score, but are not a CPU-centric burden.
While Qualcomm’s CPU does perform worse on these tests than A72 and A73-based processors like the Kirin 950 to Kirin 960 as well as Samsung’s Exynos 8890 with M1 cores, the Kryo has ultimately shown it can achieve respectable performance while keeping a good thermal profile and minimize throttling. Sadly, the OEM’s application does seem to have a big impact on the results, but Google did a good job with the Pixel XL.
GPU & Gaming
The Snapdragon 821 brings the famous Adreno 530 GPU, which offers excellent performance in the one realm Qualcomm still has not been beaten in. The Pixel XL is also a shining example of what the Adreno 530 can do, and with very good reason too — this is a phone that Google needs to both powerful and efficient for their Daydream VR platform, which will stress the GPU the most, but it’ll also make good use of the Snapdragon 820’s peripherals like the Hexagon DSP. This makes the Snapdragon 821 the best choice for graphics performance, and consequently gaming and VR as well. Our usual set of graphics-intensive benchmarks emphasize this like we’d expect.
The Pixel XL manages to slightly edge out Snapdragon 820 devices on GFXBench off-screen tests and 3DMark’s Slingshot ES3.1, which renders at 1440p and then scales the image to the device’s resolution (effectively making it resolution-independent). When factoring in resolution, 1080p Snapdragon 820 devices like the OnePlus 3 do perform better in terms of peak scores and also performance-over-time in on-screen tests other than 3DMark, but off-screen results are very similar and in-line with what we’d expect out of an efficient 821 device.
The Pixel XL is also very good at sustained performance when testing both 3DMark and GFXBench (30 iterations), showing lower differentials and less throttling than other Snapdragon 820 devices as we’ve analyzed in previous features, as well as less throttling than what we’ve found on the Exynos Note 7. While the Pixel XL throttled significantly less than Galaxy devices on 3DMark, its final temperature was around the same, ranging from 43.1°C | 1