Google Pixel XL review: An excellent phone with one flaw.

For years, Google has been keen to stay on the sidelines of the smartphone wars, leaving Samsung and other Android handset makers to do the dirty work of fighting Apple and its iPhone. But now the search giant is diving head-first into the fray with its new Pixel and Pixel XL.

Available today and starting at $650 and $770 for the Pixel and Pixel XL, respectively, Google’s smartphones are aimed squarely at taking on Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, not to mention every premium Android phone out there.

After spending a week with the Pixel XL, I’m sold on Google’s new handset. Mostly.

In fact, if Google had just made this bad boy as water-resistant as its competitors, I’d be on my way to buy one right now.

Phone by Google

Before a bunch of frothing Android lovers descend on me in the comments section for being ignorant, let’s get one thing straight. The Pixel and Pixel XL are not Google’s first smartphones. The company has been releasing its own phones under its Nexus brand for years. Those handsets, however, were built by other companies including Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei and were emblazoned with their corporate logos.

The Pixel and Pixel XL are both built by HTC, but in reality, they’re all Google from top to bottom. That’s why the only logo on these handsets is the tech behemoth’s “G.”

With that out of the way, let’s get to business.

The Pixel and Pixel XL sport aluminum bodies with small areas of glass near the top of their rear panels, which house the phones’ fingerprint readers. As a side note: I feel like all phones should have their fingerprint readers on their back panels, as it makes them easier to reach with one hand.

Overall, the Pixels are relatively attractive — inoffensive really — but not nearly as elegant as Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus or Samsung’s Galaxy S7. The phones’ brushed aluminum bodies make them a bit slippery, though the same can be said of both iPhones and the Galaxy S7. I did, however, find the glass panel on the Pixel to be quite the fingerprint magnet.

Google is offering the Pixel in three colors: Quite Black, Very Sliver and Really Blue. The Really Blue version is easily my favorite and also already sold out.

I’ve be using the Pixel XL and while it’s certainly large, it never feels too big, unlike the iPhone 7 Plus. In fact, the Pixel XL is a bit smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus, despite both phones sporting 5.5-inch screens. The 5-inch Pixel, meanwhile, is slightly larger than the 4.7-inch iPhone and about the same size as Samsung’s 5.1-inch Galaxy S7.

I have just one big problem with the Pixel and Pixel XL’s designs: They don’t play well with water. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are all water-resistant and can survive taking a dip for up to 30 minutes. But Google’s handset isn’t much of a swimmer; so don’t expect it to keep on ticking if you accidentally take it for a dip.


By Daniel Howley.
Culled from Yahoo News.