Google Pixel 2 review: not quite 'pixel perfect' but damn close

Camera

Again like its predecessor, the Pixel 2’s camera delivers results that are nothing short of astonishing for a smartphone. A lot has been made of the Pixel 2’s DxOMark score of 98. However, even putting that aside, the results speak for themselves.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

Foregoing the dual-lens setups found in most other flagships, the Pixel 2 uses a single 12.2-megapixel sensor and advanced computational photography techniques to refine the results into more impressive images. Relying on the algorithms mean that Google have made a smartphone that is impressively difficult to take bad photos with.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

It’s got a software-based Portrait mode and will also detect and record the few seconds before you take a photo, giving the option of turning it into an animated gif instead.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

The difference is even more pronounced when it comes to low-light settings.

Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG

As with the original Pixel, photos you take with the Pixel 2 are automatically backed up in Google Photos. This remains a very appealing perk of the package.

Battery Life

Even if it does lack wireless charging, the Pixel 2 does rank fairly favorably for battery life. Like many 2017 flagships, battery life is an area where it feels like only the meekest of improvements have been made for fear of repeating the mistakes of Samsung’s Note 7. The Pixel 2 delivered good battery life, making it through a day of mixed use without too much hassle. However, a second day of use felt like a reach.

Thankfully, the device does boast Fast Charging that allows for 7 hours of battery life from 15 minutes of charge.

When we ran both phones through PCMark’s Battery Life Benchmark, the Pixel 2 took 6 hours and 38 minutes to go from 100% to 20% battery. The Pixel 2 XL took 6 hours and 20 minutes to do the same.

The Bottom Line

There’s little question isn’t whether or not the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are good phones. They’re clearly outstanding ones that raise the bar for both the execution of the Android OS and smartphone photography. The question is whether or not that’ll be enough to win over the Apple crowd. Like the iPhone, the Pixel 2 isn’t trying to squeeze everything it can into a pocket-sized form factor. It’s trying to squeeze in the things that matter most.

If you want a smartphone that does everything or is the best at any one particular thing, there are lot of other options out there. As brilliant as the Pixel 2 is, it's not going to sate the ambitions of power-users out there. However, if you want a smartphone that’s as clean as they come and highly-effective at dealing with the everyday pain-points it sets out to solve, the Pixel 2 is a clear-cut winner.

Credit: Google