Google Pixel 3 XL, unlocked, Clearly White, 128 GB, UK

Product Information

The Pixel ships with Android 9.0 Pie, the very latest version of Google's mobile operating system. The phone is free from bloatware, and comes with the guarantee of two years of updates at the very least. We've already covered many of the changes Pie brings, including the redesigned gesture navigation, integration with the Pixel Stand, improved Google Assistant, and features like call screening and the upcoming Google Duplex. Like other flagship phones, the Pixel 3 is IP68 waterproof, allowing it to survive in over five feet of water for 30 minutes. It stood up to a thorough dunking and rinsing-off in the kitchen sink without issue. Where the Pixel 2 XL suffered with dull colours and terrible viewing angles, the Pixel 3 XL pops with contrast and just the right amount of saturation in brighter colours like red and green. Viewing angles are great too: tilt the phone and there’s no ugly shift to blue. The chin below the display remains and once again this is so there’s enough space for another front speaker. The Google Pixel 3 is the ideal smartphone for anyone who cares about photo quality and isn’t satisfied with their phone’s picture-taking abilities today. It has the camera smarts and Android Pie-powered AI smarts of the Pixel 3 XL, without the awkward notch cut-out at the top. And, unlike the comparable, one-hand-friendly iPhone XS, it’s cheap – at least by 2018 and 2019 flagship standards.

But the Pixel 3 XL is more functional: It has two selfie cameras, dual front-facing speakers, and Active Edge, allowing you to squeeze the sides of the frame to trigger Google Assistant. We prefer this over a dedicated AI button, something that annoys us about Samsung and LG’s new phones with dedicated, often-mispressed AI buttons.Today we’re introducing Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL, the new smartphones from Google. Pixel brings you the best of Google in a phone, powered by AI to deliver more helpful, thoughtful and enjoyable experiences. That means a phone that answers for you when a telemarketer calls, a camera that uses AI to make sure you never miss the shot, and a more helpful visual and audio experience while charging, powered by the Google Assistant. We’re taking more photos on our phones than ever before, but we still often miss the perfect moment. Pixel 3 helps you get that perfect shot on the first try. You can save all your favorite moments with free, unlimited photo and video storage in original resolution. AI in Pixel 3 enables new features that make your day-to-day actions simpler. If you want to know more about something you’re looking at, use Google Lens, built right into the Pixel 3 camera. To scan and translate text, find similar styles of clothing, or identify popular plants and animals, you can long press in the Pixel 3 camera to easily open Lens. It easily fits in one hand, and, for the most part, you can operate it without resorting to using two hands. That's the best reason to choose the Pixel 3 over the Pixel 3 XL. It's screen size is big enough, yet the phone handfeel is rather manageable. Others will appreciate the fact that it doesn't have an ugly notch cut out at the top, a design choice deal breaker for many. Due to its late 2018 launch, the Pixel 3 also avoids the 'punch hole' camera design choice seen in the Honor View 20. It's trend that's sweeping 2019 smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S10. The real test of a phone like this isn’t how well it performs over a week or two – even the cheapest of phones start off fast – it’s how fast it stays once hundreds of apps are installed and it’s been in use for 12-18 months.

Give it a couple of hours, though, and the notch becomes much less obvious when you’re actually doing stuff. I’m not saying you’ll forget all about it, but in general day-to-day phone use I’m not constantly thinking ‘why is this notch here’. Strangely, this time is a lot less than the 12:09 the Pixel 2 XL turned in last year on the same LTE network, and the somewhat small difference in battery size doesn’t seem to account for the delta in endurance. We will be running additional tests to confirm our results and will be adding anecdotal battery life data after a few more days of use. Of course, the notch is here because of the bigger display, which runs a lot closer to the edge than before. Approaching the design like this means the front cameras – of which there are two here – and speaker need somewhere to sit – and that’s where the notch comes in. It’s a necessary evil for a phone like this. enjoyed using the Pixel 3XL – but it comes with caveats. For every stunning image or helping hand from the Google Assistant, there’s a niggle with calls or the position of the power button means I accidentally switch the device off when trying to turn the volume up. Also, when on a phone call, a small ‘bing’ goes off for every little notification and wakes the screen up – a problem if, like me, you have chubby cheeks that are sometimes mistaken as fingers. But this is by no means a poor device. When watching Netflix or YouTube, the settings mean the notch is not visible unless you zoom in. The main event is obviously the camera. A few of the photos I take are poor quality – though I’ll shoulder the blame for that. Otherwise, everything is how you would want it to look and night mode works a treat. The ability to dull bright lights at night and light up darker areas helps the Pixel to really bring the wow factor in a market with many good cameras. And the niggles are just that. Overall, this device is fantastic. The AI is as helpful as ever and the camera is stunning.This is one of the best implementations of AI that we've seen, and I could see other companies trying to copy this feature. Google says that Google Pixels will get transcription support for call screenings before the end of the year. Google Assistant is accessible by the simple squeeze of your phone. This is spot on for if you have a busy lifestyle - set reminders, make calls and texts, and ask questions and make commands simply by squeezing your phone and activating Google Assistant. You’ll find smoother corners on the Google Pixel 3 XL – everything has been rounded off and flattened, giving Google’s Material Design software ethos a foothold within real life hardware. The frame edges are polished and the rear fingerprint sensor is flatter. More so than even Apple, Google doesn’t talk much about specs when it launches new phones. It prefers to create a story around how the device works, rather than playing up the speed improvements in the processor or amounts of RAM.

The Pixel 3 XL has a 3,430mAh battery that lasted for 8 hours, 10 minutes while streaming video over Wi-Fi at maximum screen brightness. That's a bit better than the 7 hours, 57 minutes managed by the 2,915mAh Pixel 3, but the difference is fairly negligible. Both can take advantage of fast charging with the included 18W adapter or wireless charging with the 10W Pixel Stand or other Qi-enabled charging accessories.Performance is everything you'd expect from a flagship phone in late 2018. Like its larger sibling, the Pixel 3 is powered by a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, with 4GB of RAM. That isn't as much as some other new phones that come with 6GB or 8GB of RAM, but it's still ample for multitasking and high-end gaming.