Google Pixel: Review

Google has finally launched an own-brand smartphone, the Pixel, to challenge Apple head on and provide a premium Android experience with the hardware tailored to the software by the people who actually make it..

The new smartphone succeeds Google’s Nexus line of devices and the company claims that the Pixel is now 100% Google, unlike the Nexus devices where Google provided the software and had some input into the devices but not total control. The Pixel phone joins the Pixel C Android tablet and Chromebook Pixel as Google’s first in-house devices.

DESIGN

With an all-metal body, all-glass display, rock-solid build, fingerprint scanner and headphones socket, the Pixel ticks most of the boxes expected of top-end smartphone, except for a lack of waterproofing. It’s slightly different looking too, with a glass panel covering the top third of the back and a wedge-shape that’s thicker at the top and hides any camera lump. How attractive it is as a design divides opinion.

The Pixel feels great in the hand, with nicely curved edges and flat sides that make it easy to grip and hold on to. It’s also not too thick, with the wedge shape meaning the bit you hold is thin and has good weight distribution.

At the Pixel’s base it is 7.3mm thick and it weighs 143g. In comparison to the competition, namely Apple’s 7.1mm thick, 138g iPhone 7 and Samsung’s 7.9mm thick, 152g Galaxy S7, the Pixel is right in the middle. It’s thinner than last year’s 7.9mm thick Nexus 5X and but 7g heavier.

The Pixel has a 5in full HD AMOLED screen on the front, which makes it one of the smaller premium smartphones available, with most others having 5.1in or larger screens. The display is crisp and vibrant, with deep blacks and excellent viewing angles. It’s relatively easy to read in direct sunlight too, making it one of the best displays fitted to a smartphone, although not quite as good as Samsung’s best.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Screen: 5in 1080p AMOLED (441ppi)
• Processor: quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
• RAM: 4GB of RAM
• Storage: 32 or 128GB
• Operating system: Android 7.1 Nougat
• Camera: 12.3MP rear camera, 8MP front-facing camera
• Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, USB-C and GPS
• Dimensions: 143.8 x 69.5 x 7.3-8.6 mm
• Weight: 143g

BATTERY PERFORMANCE

Using the Pixel as my primary device, it lasted just over 24 hours without charging, managing three hours of app usage and browsing, hundreds of emails and push notifications, a couple of photos, five hours of music over Bluetooth headphones and the odd game of Dan the Man during my one hour and 20-minute train commute to and from work. It means you’ll get through a day and a night out, but you’ll have to charge it overnight or it’ll most likely be dead before you get to work the next day.

The Pixel has fast charging through USB-C’s power delivery specification, not Qualcomm’s QuickCharge or any other accelerated charging system. A full charge from completely flat took one hour 45 minutes, reaching 25% capacity in about 15 minutes, 40% in 25 minutes and 66% in about 50 minutes. It’s not the fastest charging smartphone available, but it’s considerably faster than Apple’s iPhone 7.

CAMERA

The Pixel’s 12.3-megapixel camera is cracking. Camera rating firm DxoMark ranked it slightly above all other smartphone cameras and it’s clear why, as it’s very difficult to take a rubbish photo with it.

In good light you get crisp, well judged photos with an excellent amount of fine detail. Google’s HDR+ feature is particularly good, producing some of the best high dynamic range photos I’ve seen and without the image blur that can creep in with other systems.

Low and poor light performance is also excellent, despite the camera not having optical image stabilisation, while the Google Camera app now has some much needed extra features, including the ability to switch the automatic white balance with the tap of a button and a golden ratio grid, which helps you frame your photos. The camera struggled to correctly identify office fluorescent lighting, however, leaving images with a yellow tint. Selecting the fluorescent lighting option corrected it.

The 8-megapixel selfie camera is also very good, producing images with good depth and colour. Most selfie cameras are either soft and lack detail or hard and capture every wrinkle and pore on the face, but the Pixel’s treads that fine line with soft, flattering focus without losing too much detail.

THE VERDICT

The Pixel is an interesting device. A phone designed by Google, the maker of Android. The software side is top notch: the smoothest, newest and best optimised version of Android available at the moment and most probably into the future, what with rapid updates coming straight from Google.

If Google’s aim was to beat Apple, it has done so on battery life alone. If it was to challenge the current king of Android, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 line, then the result is less clear.

• Pros: great camera, good screen, good battery life, Android 7.1 Nougat, Google Assistant, great fingerprint scanner

• Cons: not waterproof, no expandable memory, no wireless charging, expensive