Google Pixel Phone and Pixel XL review: Is Google killing off its smartphone standard-bearer?

Alas, the day has come to talk about the original Pixel phone’s future. According to new reports via Ars Technica, the Californian giant is expected to have ceased production of any new Pixel or Pixel XL devices. Neither handset can be purchased directly from Google, either.

This is sad news, but the Pixel 2 has had a good run. After almost a year-and-a-half on store shelves, Google’s standard-bearer set the benchmark for smartphone photography and we’ve since seen manufacturers all across the smartphone gamut pay particularly close attention to their camera tech. Not to mention that the Pixel’s successor – the Pixel 2 – launched late last year to critical acclaim, and remains one of the best smartphone camera choices to this day.

Still, owners of Google’s previous flagship smartphone should be aware that with Google stopping sales, comes the likelihood of support for the phones expiring soon, too. According to some reports, Android updates are expected to stop on the Pixel and Pixel XL in October this year.

The future, they say, is ahead of us rather than behind, so why not take a look at what we expect from this year’s Pixel 3 while we mourn the loss of our dearly beloved Pixel?

RIP Pixel, you will be sorely missed.

Katharine’s original Pixel and Pixel XL review continues below

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review

Goodbye Nexus; hello Pixel phone. After years of collaborating with other phone manufacturers to create stunning mid-range handsets – the most recent being the excellent Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P – Google has finally taken things into its own hands and ditched its much-loved Nexus brand in favour of the premium Pixel moniker.

It makes sense, as it means Google’s smartphones are now completely in line with its Pixel C tablet and Pixel Chromebook devices. And yet, I can’t help but feel like something has been lost in the process.

With both the Pixel and its jumbo-sized brother, the Pixel XL, Google has abandoned the mid-range. It has instead chosen to align itself with the giants of the industry, matching Apple’s iPhone 7 prices note-for-note across the entire range.

That’s a long way from the £300 Nexus 5X, and it means both Pixel phones are now competing in the much more crowded flagship arena. Where the Nexus 5X stood out at £300, the Pixel and Pixel XL have the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge to compete with, along with the LG G5, iPhone 7 and HTC 10.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Design

The good news is that both phones are more than up to the task. Packed with the latest hardware, Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box, and an improved version of the Nexus 5X and 6P’s superb rear camera, the Pixel and Pixel XL have everything they need to become true Android heavyweights.

The only problem is that they’re quite possibly the ugliest flagship smartphones I’ve ever come across. Both the Pixel and Pixel XL share the same basic design, and from the front they look pretty bland, its metal frame being the only highlight on its otherwise featureless white or grey exterior.

Turn the phone over and things don’t improve. As much as I like its overall metal construction and textured power button, I find its mash-up of glossy glass and matte aluminium very off-putting. The glass is a magnet for fingerprints, and I started noticing small hairline scratches after only a couple of days use. It ends up making the phone look very scruffy overall.

There is at least some solace to be found in its rear-facing fingerprint reader, which is every bit as quick and nippy as the one on last year’s Nexus 5X and 6P. Admittedly, rear-facing fingerprint readers aren’t all that practical for using Android Pay or unlocking your phone when it’s lying flat on a table, but I’m a big fan. I find them much more practical for unlocking the phone when I take it out of my bag or pocket.

The only feature noticeably absent is any kind of dust- or water-resistance. This is surprising, especially since Apple and Samsung have been making a song-and-dance about their smartphones’ respective IP ratings this year, and it seems odd that Google hasn’t followed suit.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Display

Provided you’re not too heavy-handed with either Pixel Phone, you’ll find a lot to like outside Google’s divisive design choices. The Pixel XL’s 5.5in, 1,440 x 2,560 AMOLED display, for instance, is a real beauty. It covers a full 100% of the sRGB colour gamut and, as with all AMOLED displays, its contrast ratio is effectively perfect. It’s an outstanding screen that’s both rich and vivid, without being overly saturated.

The only real sticking point is its peak brightness, which comes in at 411cd/m2. This isn’t bad for an AMOLED display, but it’s low compared to the best IPS-based screens, such as the super-bright iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and it can’t match Samsung’s S7 and S7 Edge, which peak at around 500cd/m2 in auto-brightness mode. This makes Samsung’s handsets more practical, readable screens outdoors than the Pixel XL.

The regular Pixel, meanwhile, has a 5in, 1,920 x 1,080 AMOLED display, but it’s an equally good-looking panel. Just like its big brother, the Pixel covers a full 100% of the sRGB colour gamut, and blacks hit a perfect 0.00cd/m2. It’s just as bright, too, peaking at an identical 411cd/m2, so you’re certainly not losing out by picking the smaller phone.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Performance

Powered by Qualcomm’s latest quad-core 2.15GHz Snapdragon 821 chip and 4GB of RAM, the Pixel phones are two of the fastest Android handsets you can buy today. Android 7.0 Nougat feels silky-smooth in daily use, and the Pixel XL’s Geekbench 4 scores of 1,546 in the single-core test and 4,142 in the multicore test put it very near the top of our speed leaderboard.

The Samsung S7 and S7 Edge and the iPhone 7 are still a way out in front, mind, with all three handsets reaching over 5,000 in Geekbench 4’s multicore test. However, apps are still exceedingly quick to open on the Pixel Phone, and you’d be hard-pushed to notice the difference in typical use.

Elsewhere, the Pixel makes for a fine gaming companion. It achieved an impressive 2,989 frames (48fps) in GFX Bench GL’s off-screen Manhattan 3.0 test, and 1,895 frames (31fps) in the on-screen version, which runs at native resolution. This nudges the Pixel in front of the S7 and S7 Edge, but it still has some way to go before it overhauls the perfect 60fps achieved by the iPhone 7.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Google Assistant and Android 7.0 Nougat

As with every new Google smartphone, the Pixel comes with the latest version of Android. This time, it’s Android 7.0 Nougat, and one thing Google was keen to show off during its launch event was its brand new Google Assistant. This new feature is a great addition to the Pixel and can be activated simply by long-pressing the Home button or by speaking the “OK Google” key phrase.

It’s far more conversational than Google’s previous attempts at voice assistance, and it even has a message-like interface that mimics your real-life SMS exchanges. Largely, it works in the same way as before, but there are some enhancements.

My favourite is that it can now recognise previous snippets of conversation, without you having to spell everything out each time you ask it something new. For instance, ask it: “Where’s the nearest café?” followed by “How long will it take me to get there?”, and it will know that “there”, in this case, means the café you just asked it about.

The Assistant pops up in other apps, too, including Maps, allowing you to use the same conversational principles, such as adapting your route to take in petrol stations or somewhere to eat along the way. It works well in practice, but there were still occasions when it either didn’t recognise what I said or failed to understand what I was referring to elsewhere in the request log. It’s times like these when Google’s Assistant feels decidedly un-smart. But on the whole, it’s good to see Google finally give its voice recognition a bit of a polish and  repackaging.

And fans of Google Now and Now on Tap needn’t worry, since these features remain. The former’s card-based interface is still a right-swipe away from the homescreen, and the latter comes into play with an extra swipe up after you’ve launched Google Assistant.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Battery Life

Now that I’ve had a chance to test both the Pixel and the Pixel XL, I’ve updated this section with battery scores for both phones. Generally, you’d think a bigger phone with a bigger battery would be the one to buy. However, that wasn’t the case in our battery life benchmarks, as it was the regular-sized Pixel that actually beat the Pixel XL.

Despite only having a fairly modest 2,770mAh battery, the Pixel lasted an impressive 16hrs 23mins in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2. Compare this to the Pixel XL’s 3,450mAh battery, which lasted a still highly respectable 15hrs 55mins, and it just goes to show that bigger batteries don’t automatically equal better overall battery life. That’s more than enough for a full day’s use, if not well into the next morning, but it’s clear the Pixel XL’s larger screen definitely takes its toll on the phone’s stamina.

That said, both scores start to look a little less impressive when compared with some of its rivals. The Samsung Galaxy S7, for instance, lasted 17hrs 48mins, and the S7 Edge achieved an even more outstanding 18hrs 42mins. There’s also the OnePlus 3 to consider, which lasted 16hrs 56 mins under the same conditions. The OnePlus 3 comes with a Snapdragon 820 processor, too, giving it almost as much speed as the Pixel phones, but it costs just £329 – less than half the price of the Pixel XL.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Camera

That’s an incredibly tempting proposition if you’re a bit strapped for cash, but where the Pixel turns things around is with its superb 12-megapixel rear camera. The sensor on the rear of the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P was one of the best smartphone snappers I used last year, so it’s great to see it’s been improved even further on Google’s new Pixel phones.

With an f/2.0 aperture and large 1.55um-sized pixels, the phone’s low-light performance is simply stunning, wrestling away the S7’s smartphone camera crown in one fell swoop. While there’s still a small amount of mottling evident in darker areas of the frame, the level of fine detail the Pixel XL’s camera is capable of is stunning, and it overtakes the best efforts of the Galaxy S7 Edge with ease. I also found its colour balance more accurate and object edges much cleaner, showing fewer signs of aggressive edge enhancement.

In outdoor shots, the difference was even more obvious. Fine details were much sharper on the Pixel than the S7 Edge, and I was even able to make out the thin strips of a double yellow line on a road in the distance in one shot. This detail simply blurred together on the pictures I took at the same time with the S7 Edge.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Storage

If that’s what will swing it for you, then one thing you’ll have to decide upon early is how much storage you want, as neither Pixel has a microSD slot for expanding the phone’s 32GB or 128GB of storage. Google’s cloud services are on hand to help alleviate some of your storage woes, however: Pixel owners will receive unlimited free storage for all their photos and videos shot at full resolution, including 4K videos.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Verdict

It’s certainly a welcome concession, but even this and the quality of its camera aren’t quite enough to persuade me that the Pixel or the Pixel XL are better buys than their main rivals. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge aren’t just faster than the Pixel Phones, they’re also longer-lasting and have a more attractive and practical design. Then there’s the OnePlus 3, which does almost everything the Pixel can at half the price. The Pixel has a better camera than its rivals, but we’re talking pretty marginal gains in the grand scheme of things.

The Pixel might have stood a better chance if it was cheaper, but with the regular Pixel starting at £599 for the 32GB version and the Pixel XL starting at £719 for the 32GB version, it just isn’t special enough to command these kinds of prices.

Throw in contract prices that will set you back at least £50-per-month, on top of a hefty fee up-front, and it appears Google has shot itself in the foot. I’d be tempted to bump it up a star if the price ever comes down – but right now, there are better phones out there for less.

Buy the Pixel Phone now from Google Store