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Phones Google Pixel 2 / Google Pixel 2 XL
- Thread starter kkh786
- Start date
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I went to the You Tube site to make sure I would see the video in the highest resolution offered. I don’t get it. I can totally see a color shift going on in the smaller Pixel 2 as well. She wiggles that phone around really fast so you have to really pay attention, but it’s there. And why did she wiggle that one so fast and the other two phones slow? It was like she was trying to do sleight of hand “Nope, no color shift here on this Samsung-made panel”...wiggle super fast...”moving right along”. She didn’t say exactly that but the gist of it was that.
Someone did comment that they did see the color shift in the smaller panel, too. So it’s not just me imagining things. Plus I saw the smaller Pixel 2 at Verizon exhibit color shift, too, just not quite as extreme.
Everything else she said was credible. I just wonder why she handled the smaller phone and its obvious color shift differently. Can she really not see it?
Also, as a technology nerd, how does she not know that the Pandas are shipping later? I guess she is busy with other things but I would think someone of her caliber of tech savvy and nerd cred would know something like that.
She was definitely calmer and more professional on her video than she was on Twitter, just as she promised she would be. If she does go ahead with a full review on the rest of the phone, I would love to see it. She’s one of the handful of reviewers I am starting to become familiar with, and she’s quite thorough if I remember correctly. I’m more of a reader than a video watcher so I’m not as well versed with You Tube and its personallties as most other people on this forum are.
I went to the You Tube site to make sure I would see the video in the highest resolution offered. I don’t get it. I can totally see a color shift going on in the smaller Pixel 2 as well. She wiggles that phone around really fast so you have to really pay attention, but it’s there. And why did she wiggle that one so fast and the other two phones slow? It was like she was trying to do sleight of hand “Nope, no color shift here on this Samsung-made panel”...wiggle super fast...”moving right along”. She didn’t say exactly that but the gist of it was that.
Someone did comment that they did see the color shift in the smaller panel, too. So it’s not just me imagining things. Plus I saw the smaller Pixel 2 at Verizon exhibit color shift, too, just not quite as extreme.
Everything else she said was credible. I just wonder why she handled the smaller phone and its obvious color shift differently. Can she really not see it?
Also, as a technology nerd, how does she not know that the Pandas are shipping later? I guess she is busy with other things but I would think someone of her caliber of tech savvy and nerd cred would know something like that.
She was definitely calmer and more professional on her video than she was on Twitter, just as she promised she would be. If she does go ahead with a full review on the rest of the phone, I would love to see it. She’s one of the handful of reviewers I am starting to become familiar with, and she’s quite thorough if I remember correctly. I’m more of a reader than a video watcher so I’m not as well versed with You Tube and its personallties as most other people on this forum are.
The problem I have with her video is about 5 minutes in or so you realize you're watching someone obsess over these minute screen differences that have zero impact on the phone's function. It felt like you're drowning in someone's OCD.
I'm not going to comment on the mental faculties of the reviewer, but if you take any phone with a blue phase shift and compare it to an LCD phone without it, you will go insane.
That's why I like her. I obsess about displays the same way, so if she has an issue with something I most likely will as well.
All of the things she mentions are things that would really bother me. Color shifting from top to bottom while looking at it head on would be a reason for me to return.
It seems she got not just one, but two XLs that have the pesky grain problem. I would not accept that, either. It seems to have set her off for some reason. In her Twitter she was really p.o’d.
[Deleted some rambling —about my preferred display settings— induced by a caffeine deprived morning spent monitoring a feral cat colony)
What was I saying...yeah it seems like she took this personally. I saw her blast some guy in her comments section and unless he somehow edited his comment, I’m not sure what was up with that. He was just talking about how photographers like unsaturated settings and she claimed he insulted her. I don’t know. Weird. The whole episode was a bit of a rant for some reason.
After I get my coffee I’m setting in to watch Chris Pirillo’s video on getting to know the Pixel. He was an iPhone guy until the X’s notch gave him some kind of freak out that prompted a long rant. He’s not someone I’d ordinarily pay attention to.. I have to fast forward and skip around to get to the heart of what he’s doing or saying and that just tries my patience. But I found his reactions to the Pixel entertaining so far and kind of helpful since I will be a noob to raw Android, myself. (Edit update: okay I saw another of his videos. He’s not new to Android, just this Pixel. I get severe ADHD watching his videos and have to jump around a lot but he’s got some interesting points scattered here and there. I had to get used to how he talks).
Going from iOS to Samsung Android was easy. It’s going from a walled garden to a large well manicured park. Going to the Pixel will be like a walk in the woods with the possibility of meeting a bear. Or a cranky raccoon. Sense UI was more raw than Touch Wiz and I found a bit of a learning curve to it. I’m excited but a little nervous about my upcoming adventures with Panda.
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I can appreciate that, and I like her most of the time too. However I don't find that kind of obsessing really instructive overall to a device. It's a very fringe periscope.
I’m actually kind of glad my panda is shipping out later now. Hopefully the drama will die down by the time I receive mine. Haha
I thought she got angry because the T Smooth guy in the comments called her out for having no qualifications with regards to design or displays and even someone from BestBuy could do a better job at analysing panels than her and she should work at Samsung/LG before posting any opinion. That sounded kinda insulting to me.It seems she got not just one, but two XLs that have the pesky grain problem. I would not accept that, either. It seems to have set her off for some reason. In her Twitter she was really p.o’d.
[Deleted some rambling —about my preferred display settings— induced by a caffeine deprived morning spent monitoring a feral cat colony)
What was I saying...yeah it seems like she took this personally. I saw her blast some guy in her comments section and unless he somehow edited his comment, I’m not sure what was up with that. He was just talking about how photographers like unsaturated settings and she claimed he insulted her. I don’t know. Weird. The whole episode was a bit of a rant for some reason.
After I get my coffee I’m setting in to watch Chris Pirillo’s video on getting to know the Pixel. He was an iPhone guy until the X’s notch gave him some kind of freak out that prompted a long rant. He’s not someone I’d ordinarily pay attention to.. I have to fast forward and skip around to get to the heart of what he’s doing or saying and that just tries my patience. But I found his reactions to the Pixel entertaining so far and kind of helpful since I will be a noob to raw Android, myself.
Going from iOS to Samsung Android was easy. It’s going from a walled garden to a large well manicured park. Going to the Pixel will be like a walk in the woods with the possibility of meeting a bear. Or a cranky raccoon. Sense UI was more raw than Touch Wiz and I found a bit of a learning curve to it. I’m excited but a little nervous about my upcoming adventures with Panda.
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If Google puts a toggle to mess with the color settings, that will definitely help a lot, but the blue shift is never going away.
No I’m not talking about that jerk. It was someone named Connor or Connelly (I just looked it up...Clayon) talking about photography and how the desaturated look was suited for that purpose. His post looked fine but maybe he originally had it worded in a way that seemed condescending. If he did he changed it and said he hoped she wouldn’t be insulted over his dry humor.
I’ve noticed even the most conservatively dressed female tech bloggers on You Tube get pervy comments and all sorts of weird abuse hurled at them so I can’t fault her if she gets short with a few of those people. But she seemed more angry on this video posting than I’ve ever seen out of her so far. She must have been really looking forward to this unboxing and was massively let down. A LOT of people are reacting this way. I’m still new to the whole Android scene so I may be missing the significance of this debut and why so many people are reacting to it emotionally, men and women alike.
To me, it has all gone better than I expected, especially compared to all the issues and complaints I read last year. So I’m a bit puzzled the reactions have been so strong. Perhaps it has much to do with the high prices. It’s the second year in a row people aren’t getting the hardware they expected for the “Applesque” prices. I guess people are getting fed up and expect more on the hardware side.
I think they missed or shrugged aside the part in the Keynote where Google dude said basically “Eh, they’re all just slabs with a screen at this point. The real innovation is in the software.”
I think Google might have miscalculated a bit just how much stock people still put into impressive sexy hardware. They’re going to need to rethink that and pay closer attention to these little slabs, after all.
For the device or form to disappear into its function, it needs to not call attention to itself by being poor quality or well...notched.
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I'm going to go ahead and put this out there, but I'm honestly not caring about the blue as much as I thought I would. I have night light set at sundown, which may be a bit earlier than I would like, but I don't mind, honestly. I don't notice the graininess, either.
I would totally notice the graininess because I like to read in bed late at night. Especially this forum. All the arguing helps me to sleep.
But it’s not a deal breaker for me because I can put Kindle App on dark mode if it’s an ebook I’m reading and as for this forum...I’ll just read it on my iPad mini 4 and fall asleep and drop the iPad on my nose as usual.
I plugged my sim card back into my Note 8 for a few hours to see if I really noticed a huge difference with the Pixel XL.
Yup.
I don't think I can go back to the Note. I think the XL has ruined it for me.
Yup.
I don't think I can go back to the Note. I think the XL has ruined it for me.
Here are some of my observations on the Pixel 2 (non XL) so far.
The Good
It is a great device, worthy of consideration if you are considering a clean jump from iOS to Android. It lacks some of the Eye candy screen design (talking edge, and zero bezel), but as a phone is fast and solid. Like any modern phone, it has it's flaws, but even at the smaller size, if you move from a 6,6s,or 7 regular, to the regular pixel, you are getting a bigger screen. Not something I needed / wanted, but it was the smallest Pixel I could buy.
As an added bonus. If you keep an iOs device in your fleet, you can do similar to the iMore hack and have your Cellular Apple Watch stay on the network when you are out and about. This way you can still send and receive iMessages, even though your primary phone is Android.
With this, I have left my work sim in my personal iPhone 7 for testing, and had my personal Sim in the Pixel. Since I can still enjoy both worlds, it is nice to leave iOS behind on occasion, and still get iMessages .
The Good
- Display on my unit is solid so far, no dead pixels (no pun intended), and viewing angles are about the same as any other device with a similar Samsung panel, which is good overall.
- Speed is quite good across the system overall, possibly the fastest Android OS phone I have ever used.
- Really like the camera, does some things better than my 7, some things are a bit of a gimmick (portrait mode for instance). But, with it off, it actually does a decent job of Depth of field without fake looking edges to in focus items. Hoping the new processor will resolve this in 8.1
- Speaker audio is Good at Medium volume
- Native dark mode is really good, and I like how the UI adjusts to your background
- Love the live backgrounds
- AirPods work flawlessly with this device, I can connect from BT settings like I would on an iOS device, and the AirPods will connect without issue.
- Hand feel is great. Not quite Apple solid / feel in this regard, but the case also isn't as fragile as some other Android alternatives I have used.
- Fingerprint sensor is as fast as my iPhone 7. appears to do a bit better with wet fingers too.
- BT Music streaming is really solid from this device. Could be the newer BT specification, but it delivers well in range and fidelity (for BT)
- Squeeze is more useful than I expected, though, it confuses people when I initiate it without warning.
- Native Music ID has yet to identify any song playing nearby, even when intentionally putting the device near a speaker.
- BT call quality (through my car, boom headset, AirPods & other devices) is worse than my ~8yo iPhone 3GS. Lots of cracking and popping. Callers sound as if they are talking in a tin can.
- BT auto-connection to devices is really slow. I find myself going into BT settings to manually connect devices it already knows.
- Speaker Audio quality at high volume is distorted, crackles. I have to step it down 2 or 3 times for reasonable volume. somehow audio lacks mid bass, making mens voices sound off. My iPhone 7 is better in this regard, despite having a slightly lower max volume. I honestly feel they attenuate bass on the pixel in order to get higher volumes, but, the speakers can't honestly handle it. The sound quality on my 7 remains consistent across it's volume range. As an aside, , IMO the Pixel provides no better or worse stereo separation as compared to the 7 (likely 8). But I have no scientific way of showing that.
- Auto brightness has been really janky on this device. Reminds me of early iOS devices. My Nexus 6P was nearly flawless in this regard. Had to disable it.
- Not a fan of rear fingerprint sensors. This isn't unique to Google, I just have to hold my phone and position my hand in an unnatural way to use it. It is also hard to use a different part of your finger if you have a Case on it. Personal preference, not the phones fault.
- Tethering not supported on ATT (HUGE fail on ATT's part)
- Wifi Calling is not supported yet.
- Screenshots are difficult, require too precise of timing to get it to complete that task, versus locking the phone or turning the volume all the way down (Learning curve for me)
- Launcher has gone unresponsive on me twice, resulting in me needing to restart the phone.
- Chrome has crashed twice on me, once on MacRumors with no other activity.
It is a great device, worthy of consideration if you are considering a clean jump from iOS to Android. It lacks some of the Eye candy screen design (talking edge, and zero bezel), but as a phone is fast and solid. Like any modern phone, it has it's flaws, but even at the smaller size, if you move from a 6,6s,or 7 regular, to the regular pixel, you are getting a bigger screen. Not something I needed / wanted, but it was the smallest Pixel I could buy.
As an added bonus. If you keep an iOs device in your fleet, you can do similar to the iMore hack and have your Cellular Apple Watch stay on the network when you are out and about. This way you can still send and receive iMessages, even though your primary phone is Android.
With this, I have left my work sim in my personal iPhone 7 for testing, and had my personal Sim in the Pixel. Since I can still enjoy both worlds, it is nice to leave iOS behind on occasion, and still get iMessages
.I traded in my S8 for a Pixel 2 today (non XL). I'm very happy so far. Yes, the screen is smaller, but I think I'll adjust. The quality of the screen seems nicer than my S8.
My first impression of the 2 was that it wasn't as nice as the XL, but after comparing today, i couldn't tell any difference in saturation. And side by side with my S8 on Basic mode, the Pixel is more saturated in icons and app UIs. In web browser they look identical.
I also compared with a Note 8 today, and I just honestly don't get the hype. Adaptive display just looks bad. I don't know any other way to phrase it. Saturation is just too high in all apps to be enjoyable. The Pixel offers accuracy in photos and web browser, where it matters, while offering higher saturation in app UIs than a Samsung device using Basic mode. (For example, the blue in Dialer app and the red in Gmail app look very saturated compared to Basic on the S8 -- and I like that.)
I decided to go with the smaller Pixel 2 because of the screen inconsistencies with the XL, plus I just like the smaller size. Even though the screen is smaller it's the exact same size in hand as the S8. That's just the size phone I'm comfortable with, and it fits in my pocket.
I tested a 2 XL case and it stuck up quite a way out of my back pocket, which bothers me. Pixel 2 fits perfectly in my back pocket -- just like my S8 did.
[doublepost=1508614025][/doublepost]And when app makers start making their apps in wider gamuts, the Pixel 2 will show those apps accurately in the higher gamut while still displaying sRGB apps in their native gamut -- without oversaturating it. It's the best of both worlds. Of course once Samsung updates to Oreo they'll be able to support that feature as well, since it's baked into Oreo.
My first impression of the 2 was that it wasn't as nice as the XL, but after comparing today, i couldn't tell any difference in saturation. And side by side with my S8 on Basic mode, the Pixel is more saturated in icons and app UIs. In web browser they look identical.
I also compared with a Note 8 today, and I just honestly don't get the hype. Adaptive display just looks bad. I don't know any other way to phrase it. Saturation is just too high in all apps to be enjoyable. The Pixel offers accuracy in photos and web browser, where it matters, while offering higher saturation in app UIs than a Samsung device using Basic mode. (For example, the blue in Dialer app and the red in Gmail app look very saturated compared to Basic on the S8 -- and I like that.)
I decided to go with the smaller Pixel 2 because of the screen inconsistencies with the XL, plus I just like the smaller size. Even though the screen is smaller it's the exact same size in hand as the S8. That's just the size phone I'm comfortable with, and it fits in my pocket.
I tested a 2 XL case and it stuck up quite a way out of my back pocket, which bothers me. Pixel 2 fits perfectly in my back pocket -- just like my S8 did.
[doublepost=1508614025][/doublepost]And when app makers start making their apps in wider gamuts, the Pixel 2 will show those apps accurately in the higher gamut while still displaying sRGB apps in their native gamut -- without oversaturating it. It's the best of both worlds. Of course once Samsung updates to Oreo they'll be able to support that feature as well, since it's baked into Oreo.
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I am very much aligned to your way of looking at color calibration. I’m also someone who often sticks my phone in my back jeans pocket when walking around. I don’t keep it there and I certainly don’t sit on it or bend over with a phone in my pocket, but I wonder now if I should also order a small Pixel 2 and compare it to the 2XL and decide which one suits me best. I hate to abuse a generous return policy like that but I genuinely don’t know which phone will suit me best at this point. I love the Panda coloring but I can turn any phone into a Panda with a Skin. Ew that sounds more gross than what I actually mean.
Ugh, the weather is so beautiful today. We should be out in it but my husband brought home a nasty cold from the office and we are all sitting around coughing and sniffling. I like it better when he brings home chocolates.
I consider that a very good recommendation on the form factor. I love my SE.