I decided to upgrade from my old Nokia 8 to a Google Pixel 3 XL a few weeks ago when the Pixel 3a/ 3a XL wasn't launched yet and Google was selling the 3 XL at a highly discounted price (500€). But then the cheaper 3a series dropped, offering most of the features of the more expensive counterparts at less than half the price. So does it make sense to buy the flagship Pixel 3 XL now?
Where to buy: https://amzn.to/31FwLrx
If you can get past the ugly, ugly monster notch, the Pixel 3 XL display is stunning, and it offers more usable onscreen real estate than it's predecessor, the Pixel 2 XL. It's a 6.3-inch HDR-enabled OLED display with a QHD+ (2960x1440) resolution at 523 PPI and with a tall 18.5:9 aspect ratio. It offers a stunningly bright 100,000:1 contrast ratio, 16 million colors, and deep, dark, inky blacks.
From the front, however, the Pixel 3 XL is a buck-toothed monstrosity thanks to its comically large notch (it almost looks like a small face, the two cameras would be the eyes and the speaker grille the mouth of said monster), which is about twice as tall as the notch on any other normal smartphone. This required Google to make some odd design choices in Android, so that the status bar (at the top) isn't just cut in half and lacking any usable space, but it's also twice as tall as on any other phone. For the most part, this wasted space stays wasted in most apps - full-screen video does not occupy it, many apps (like Huawei Health and Google's own Duo) fail to scale properly and content often ends up getting in the way and covered by the notch.
Adding pain to the injury, the Pixel 3 XL also has a fairly large and noticeable lower bezel (chin). This makes absolutely no sense: One way phone makers have justified notches is that using one eliminates the need for a lower bezel, creating an "all-screen" look with three bezel-less sides. Google's design team apparently did not get the memo.
Where to buy: https://amzn.to/31FwLrx
Hardware and Specs
Let's start with the basics. The Pixel 3 XL comes in 3 colors, "Just Black", "Clearly White" and "Not Pink", each available with either 64 GB or 128 GB of onboard storage. Here are some detailed specs from GSM Arena.
- Body
- Dimensions: 158 x 76.7 x 7.9 mm
- Weight: 184 g
- Build: Front/back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame
- IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins)
- Display
- P-OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
- Size: 6.3 inches, 100.3 cm2 (~82.8% screen-to-body ratio), Gorilla Glass 5
- Resolution: 1440 x 2960 pixels, 18.5:9 ratio (~523 ppi density)
- Ambient Display (Always-on display)
- Platform
- Android 9 Pie
- Chipset: Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (4x2.5 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.6 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
- GPU: Adreno 630
- RAM: 4 GB
- ROM: 64/ 128 GB
- No expansion card slot
- Main Camera
- Single-Lens: 12.2 MP, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, OIS, dual pixel PDAF
- Selfie Camera
- Dual-Lens:
- 8 MP, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), PDAF
- 8 MP, f/2.2, 19mm (ultrawide), no AF
- Sound
- Stereo speakers
- No headphone jack
- Comms
- WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
- Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
- GPS, NFC, no FM Radio
- USB Type-C 3.1 reversible connector
- Sensors
- Rear-mounted fingerprint reader
- accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
- Battery
- Non-removable Li-Po 3430 mAh battery
- Fast battery charging 18W
- USB Power Delivery 2.0
- QI wireless charging
- Price (at launch): ~950€
From a hardware perspective, the Pixel 3 XL was almost as well-equipped as most flagships when it launched back in late 2018. However, compared to the new flagships of that have launched since it has fallen behind a bit further. Still, that doesn't mean that the Pixel 3 XL won't provide great performance for the next few years. But it's less future-proof than more recent flagships and this needs to be considered into the buying decision.
First up is the combination between the Snapdragon 845 and the Adreno 630 GPU, a potent combination, albeit outperformed by the new Snapdragon 855 and Adreno 640 graphics. The 4 GB of RAM is also enough for day-to-day usage, but most other flagships (even at the time of the launch) come with at least 6 or 8 GBs of RAM. Last years OnePlus 6 can even be configured with 10GBs! The option to choose from either 128 or 64 GBs of memory is also adequate, but there are many users who would have preferred a 256 GB option. The last point is, in my opinion, nitpicking at this point, because Google offers unlimited photo and video storage in the cloud with Google Photos on all Pixel purchases. Given this, why would you need that much memory for?
As listed previously, the Pixel 3XL also comes with dual front-firing speakers, a relatively small 3439 mAh battery, as well as ac WLAN, Bluetooth 5 LE and NFC. This is all well, I do, however, have a few small issues.
The speakers are certainly pretty good, as they provide much deeper and richer sound than a mono setup would, but the phone's body vibrates with the sound at higher volumes. Just as annoying, the stereo is imbalanced and heavily biased towards the (indeed larger) bottom speaker. I've had issues with call quality, I could clearly hear static and popping sounds during calls and at times callers reported that my voice would suddenly distort quite badly, to the point where they could not understand what I was saying anymore.
On top of that comes the abominable battery. I switched from the Nokia 8 (reviewed here) and I noticed immediately the short battery life of the 3 XL. Sure, the Nokia 8's battery is by no means large, but that phone could last a day and a half or two on only one charge. The Pixel's 3 short battery life can only have one cause: When you couple the Pixel 3 XL’s very large display with a high-end processor and a relatively small battery, your longevity is going to suffer. A lot. Google should have equipped the 3 XL with at least a 4000 mAh battery.
As listed previously, the Pixel 3XL also comes with dual front-firing speakers, a relatively small 3439 mAh battery, as well as ac WLAN, Bluetooth 5 LE and NFC. This is all well, I do, however, have a few small issues.
The speakers are certainly pretty good, as they provide much deeper and richer sound than a mono setup would, but the phone's body vibrates with the sound at higher volumes. Just as annoying, the stereo is imbalanced and heavily biased towards the (indeed larger) bottom speaker. I've had issues with call quality, I could clearly hear static and popping sounds during calls and at times callers reported that my voice would suddenly distort quite badly, to the point where they could not understand what I was saying anymore.
On top of that comes the abominable battery. I switched from the Nokia 8 (reviewed here) and I noticed immediately the short battery life of the 3 XL. Sure, the Nokia 8's battery is by no means large, but that phone could last a day and a half or two on only one charge. The Pixel's 3 short battery life can only have one cause: When you couple the Pixel 3 XL’s very large display with a high-end processor and a relatively small battery, your longevity is going to suffer. A lot. Google should have equipped the 3 XL with at least a 4000 mAh battery.
Display
The display is the one thing you will always looking at when you use your phone, so it's important for it to be good. And very good it is.
If you can get past the ugly, ugly monster notch, the Pixel 3 XL display is stunning, and it offers more usable onscreen real estate than it's predecessor, the Pixel 2 XL. It's a 6.3-inch HDR-enabled OLED display with a QHD+ (2960x1440) resolution at 523 PPI and with a tall 18.5:9 aspect ratio. It offers a stunningly bright 100,000:1 contrast ratio, 16 million colors, and deep, dark, inky blacks.
Compared to the (also really bright and vivid) LCD display found in the Nokia 8, this one gets all the more impressive. It also doesn't offer curved edges like other flagships from Samsung and Huawei, which I really like and prefer. This, along with the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 coating (on both the front and the back) should protect it against cracks and scratches when dropped. (I still strongly recommend a case, of course, since the entire phone is practically made out of glass. In Austin Evan's review, one of the review devices fell from a small height and the glass broke.)
Another nice thing about Google's flagship is the support for the helpful ambient mode that displays time, date, weather notifications and calendar events. You can even reply to incoming notifications, as long as you don't have a password. I find this great and compared to the Glance Screen of the Nokia 8 (where you could only see the time, date and only the number of calls, SMS text messages, and e-mails). It's one of the most practical ambient display implementations I've seen since Windows 10 Mobile on the Lumia 950 or the Moto Z.
I know that many people online have complained about issues with the flashing screen when the display turns off and ambient mode is enabled - I must say I haven't experienced this yet.
Design
The Pixel 3 XL visually resembles previous Pixel handsets, with the same dual-panel design on the rear. The main difference is the material, this time it's glass instead of aluminum, to belatedly enable wireless charging. This only makes the 3 XL a lot less durable than previous Pixels, and especially prone to cracking. This is why I strongly recommend a case. A real shame, because the Pixel 3 XL is a pretty handset from the rear and has good, minimalistic looks. It comes, as mentioned previously, in three colors: Clearly White, Just Black and Not Pink. I have the Just Black version but I couldn't help but notice how the other two color variants have playful little details, like the turquoise power button on the white variant and an orange power button on the "more like pale rose gold" variant. |
| The notch is just horrible |
Adding pain to the injury, the Pixel 3 XL also has a fairly large and noticeable lower bezel (chin). This makes absolutely no sense: One way phone makers have justified notches is that using one eliminates the need for a lower bezel, creating an "all-screen" look with three bezel-less sides. Google's design team apparently did not get the memo.
Camera
I picked quite a bit at the issues of this phone until now, but when it comes to cameras, the Pixel 3 XL still has some of the most appreciated cameras in the industry and (a first for Google) this can be said even about the front cameras (yes, cameras, there are two sensors on the front). It's really interesting to see how Google insists on a single-camera setup in the rear and still holds the title of best-in-class when it comes to photography, where most of the competitors need 3 or 4 cameras and still can't outmatch the Pixel's camera prowess.
From a specifications perspective, the rear camera is a 12 MP single lens unit with an f/1.8 aperture, autofocus with dual pixel phase detection, and optical and electronic image stabilization. The dual front cameras include an 8 MP wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture and an 8 MP normal lens with an f/1.8 aperture. The normal lens has a 75-degree field of view, but the wide-angle expands that to 97 degrees.
However, new phones, like the Galaxy S10 line or the Huawei P30 Pro have better-rated cameras overall then does the Pixel 3XL. Simply put, other cameras have more features that exceed everything the Pixel can do. The iPhone still continues to be the phone to beat for panoramas and the Galaxy S10's version of portrait mode lets you adjust the amount of bokeh blur while and after you've taken a shot, for example. On the Pixel 3, you can either choose to blur the background or not. And where other cameras have 2x, 3x and even 5x optical zoom, the Pixel still makes do with basic, blurry digital zoom.
But the Pixel 3 XL does hold the top spot and is unchallenged when it comes to low-light photography. Google's Night Sight produces incredible results even in minimal lighting thanks to Google's powerful algorithms and the tried-and-tested sensor.
The front camera now consists of a two-sensor array, as mentioned previously, and now enables a super-wide selfie mode. This is very useful, especially when taking large group photos. Using the standard lens then creates this cool zoom effect.
To sum up, the Pixel 3 XL provides one of the best camera experiences you can get on any flagship phone, in any condition. You just point the camera towards what you want to shoot and you will undoubtedly get a good picture. Yes, it may lack the insane contrast and saturation you often see on Instagram these days, but it will never disappoint you. It's one of the best phone cameras you can get right now.
Here are a few sample images.
From a specifications perspective, the rear camera is a 12 MP single lens unit with an f/1.8 aperture, autofocus with dual pixel phase detection, and optical and electronic image stabilization. The dual front cameras include an 8 MP wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture and an 8 MP normal lens with an f/1.8 aperture. The normal lens has a 75-degree field of view, but the wide-angle expands that to 97 degrees.
However, new phones, like the Galaxy S10 line or the Huawei P30 Pro have better-rated cameras overall then does the Pixel 3XL. Simply put, other cameras have more features that exceed everything the Pixel can do. The iPhone still continues to be the phone to beat for panoramas and the Galaxy S10's version of portrait mode lets you adjust the amount of bokeh blur while and after you've taken a shot, for example. On the Pixel 3, you can either choose to blur the background or not. And where other cameras have 2x, 3x and even 5x optical zoom, the Pixel still makes do with basic, blurry digital zoom.
But the Pixel 3 XL does hold the top spot and is unchallenged when it comes to low-light photography. Google's Night Sight produces incredible results even in minimal lighting thanks to Google's powerful algorithms and the tried-and-tested sensor.
The front camera now consists of a two-sensor array, as mentioned previously, and now enables a super-wide selfie mode. This is very useful, especially when taking large group photos. Using the standard lens then creates this cool zoom effect.
To sum up, the Pixel 3 XL provides one of the best camera experiences you can get on any flagship phone, in any condition. You just point the camera towards what you want to shoot and you will undoubtedly get a good picture. Yes, it may lack the insane contrast and saturation you often see on Instagram these days, but it will never disappoint you. It's one of the best phone cameras you can get right now.
Here are a few sample images.
Security
Unlike many newly released phones, the Google Pixel 3 XL doesn't come with an in-display fingerprint reader or facial recognition. You are confined to using the Pixel 3 XL's excellent rear-mounted fingerprint reader. I prefer this "traditional" approach because it's a lot faster than in-display readers, more convenient than front-facing fingerprint readers (although one could argue that you can't use your fingerprint to unlock the phone if it's lying flat on a table - point taken) and far more secure than any facial recognition implementation on any Android smartphone (Apple ID is excellent, but the Android landscape lacks anything like it).Additional features
Google sticks to the basics here and doesn't include a headphone jack or facial recognition. That being said, there is one noteworthy feature called Active Edge. It lets you squeeze the bottom sides of the phone to summon the Google Assistant, but it can be remapped to launch the camera, for example. I have left the settings for this untouched since I got the phone, because I never thought I would ever use it, but I use the Google Assistant more often then I would like to admit to manage my agenda, to get the latest news, to check the weather or to get directions and set alarms and the Active Edge has proven it's use.
The Pixel 3 XL also supports fast charging and, unlike Apple, Google is shipping the handset with an 18-watt fast charger in the box. Other included accessories are a USB-C to headphone jack adapter, a USB-C to full-sized USB-A adapter as well as a USB-C to USB-C cable for charging and data and the wired version of the Pixel Buds, a more than decent pair of headphones.
Software
The reason to buy a Pixel handset is mainly the software. Google ships the phone with a very clean version of Android 9 Pie with absolutely no bloatware or any useless apps. You also get two more major Android OS upgrades as well as security updates for a year after that (that makes 3 years of promised updates - and Google really is delivering on its promise, the original Pixel is getting Android Q after 4 years). This is my preferred flavor of Android and I can't help but recommend it.
Price
The Google Pixel 3 XL starts at 949€ for the 64 GB model and can be upgraded to 128 GB for 1049€. In Europe, the phone is available on the Google Store or from any other major electronics retailer.
However, no one should ever pay that much for a Google Pixel 3 XL, not today in mid-2019 when more modern flagships with better functions and more exciting features are on sale. Google and many other retailers often have special offers for the Pixel 3 line and the price then falls by 3 to 400€. These prices are a lot more realistic and the relatively poor sales so far reflect that.
Now, I purchased my Pixel 3 XL at half-price during a rare 400€-off sale, and at that price, things change quite a bit. I paid about the same price for my 64 GB Pixel 3 XL as one would today for a 128GB Pixel 3a XL and while that doesn’t quite make it a no-brainer, it does help me overlook some issues. You see, the Pixel 3a line has the same camera, the same software and the same long-term support as the Pixel 3 line for half the price. And you only lose the glass build, the wireless charging, trade the Snapdragon 845 for a newer, more power-efficient Snapdragon 670 and lose the ugly notch.
Conclusion
Despite its excellent cameras, clean Android image, and full Google Fi compatibility, the Pixel 3 XL is hard to recommend, especially at its full asking price: The handset is simply too expensive and has too many design and functional issues. And thanks to the passage of time—the Snapdragon 855 was released earlier this year along with some truly excellent new smartphone flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Huawei P30 Pro (although I'm not sure why you would buy a Huawei handset right now given all the trouble Huawei is in) —it’s falling further and further away from the top spot. Worse, Google’s recently released Pixel 3a XL is both significantly cheaper and fixes several issues with the more expensive Pixel 3 XL.
Where to buy: https://amzn.to/31FwLrx
You should also consider getting a case to protect the glass backplate of your phone: https://amzn.to/2XfCDYR
Where to buy: https://amzn.to/31FwLrx
You should also consider getting a case to protect the glass backplate of your phone: https://amzn.to/2XfCDYR
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