Google Pixel 2 XL User Reviews

I've had this phone for a year now and I absolutely HATE it. I had a few droids before going to iPhone and finally back to Droid . The reasons I hate this phone sre not just because of the poor quality of pictures and videos from iPhones it's the poor construction and phone. Let's start with month one when it just decided to not charge unless the phone completely went dead and I would plug it in and then bam it charged . Let's stay inthe charginf subject because usb c is pricey and annoying time find because let's face it everyone has an iPhone or micro USB. No headphone jack so I purchased a Bluetooth connector for my car but if you want to charge your phone while you're driving think again! USB to USB c charged this thing in about 10 hours and if you have both music and maps going st the same time it charges slower than. It uses battery so roadtrips suck. My apps force close constantly and I've had so many errors in sending messages or them not going through. Fingerprint reader on the back is great and the camera is great but seriously stay away this phone is so overpriced and so poor . If you have an iPhone stay with it please do NOT make the change. My previous iPhone 6s had better battery life and quality than this junk.

It's a Pixel, I love it. I'm not a fan of the size, that's really subjective, though. I love it otherwise. I came from a Pixel 1. This is the same thing only bigger and maybe a tad faster. Needless to say at this point the camera is incredible. I'm no photographer but now I look like I know what I'm doing. The screen is great since they added the options to adjust it.

The Pixel 2 XL is an amazing device, from it's beautiful display to top notch build quality. It feels great in hand, the Just Black model sporting a ceramic type material on the lower 3/4 of the back. The upper 1/4 of the phone where the camera resides is glass. Definitely a sharp looking device. The battery life is pretty good. I consider myself a heavy user, and the battery can get me through the day without having to charge. I do charge nightly, however. I've had this phone nearly 1 year, and the battery life hasn't dropped at all, at least that I've noticed. Another great thing about the Pixel 2 XL is that it's pure Android. No bloatware, no BS. Pretty much fully customizable right outta the box. I use a Samsung phone for work in addition to the Pixel and the bloatware is a bit annoying. I don't need or want 2 versions of every app on my phone (Samsung's version and Google's version). I end up disabling or uninstalling all non-Google apps anyway. The camera on the Pixel 2 XL is top of the line. Even though the phone is now nearly 1 year old, it's still one of the best if not the best camera out there. Photography lovers will not be disappointed! It takes amazing photos and the portrait mode is easy to use and mimics a DSLR camera to achieve a bokeh effect. Overall, I'd say the Pixel 2 XL is a solid 9 out of 10. Couple things I'd change is bringing back the headphone jack and maybe add wireless charging. Neither are too big of an issue but having to carry around a dongle to use wired earbuds isn't fun. You're stuck using Bluetooth earbuds if you don't want to deal with that. Wireless charging is just nice. Set the phone down on a charging pad and done. I guess that's just me nit picking, though. The Pixel 2 XL is an awesome device overall and even now after a year I love using it. The Pixel 3 will be announced and released soon, so maybe the price of the Pixel 2 will come down making it an even better value.

I am a bang-for-the-buck phone buyer. When I spend money, however much it is, I want my money's worth. This phone? NOT EVEN CLOSE to the price tag. I'll get the good things out of the way first: The camera is basically as good as everyone says it is, really good. It is a joy to use. I also love that the phone is a metal body (for the most part) so I am not absolutely terrified to drop it. The "pure android" user experience doesn't really impress me much, and I've found that this phone lacks even some simple, useful software features that my previous phones have had.

Now for the bad, and boy there is bad here.
-For one... the speakers on this phone are an ABSOLUTE JOKE. Alone, they make the phone absolutely acceptable for purchase. If part of why you buy this phone is excitement that has dual, front-facing speakers, you will be HIGHLY disappointed. 1) right off the bat you will notice that the speakers only both fire simultaneously when you are consuming multimedia (youtube, music, games, etc), but both WILL NOT go off when the phone rings, when you are on speaker phone, or when you have an alarm. In those scenarios, only the bottom speaker fires. REALLY annoying. And worse yet, the bottom speaker crackles incessantly at any volume above 40-50%. It sounds like a tin can. The single worst sounding speaker I have ever heard on a phone. And guess what? I exchanged my Pixel 2XL a total of THREE TIMES for this issue, and it has existed on all three phones. Pitiful.
-Next, the rolled glass around the edges of the front of the phone. Just incredibly stupid. Exposes the the glass of the entire screen as an impact point for a drop, a scratch, everything. I've never had a phone with screen damage so quickly from routine use, and its all around the edges. Again, stupid.
-Next. No headphone jack. Just wtf.

For all the good, this phone simply blows.

my first ever review, look, i don't know what or how google does it but they nail a phone which although it use snapdragon 835, this phone isn't just a beast. it's a piece of art. so it's not THE bezel less phone ever made but overall and all around "player" in the market this piece of technology works so good. smooth, battery is so reliable and provides very good results, camera...oh well, camera is wicked, sw level and the polish google put there is absolutely awesome. ain't a fanboy. it's just a device that you will always go back to...i had and still have other smartphones like s9+, oneplus 6, iphone x etc.

The smoothest, most fluid and cohesive experience on any android handset. Fantastic camera, excellent fit and finish. Don't let the specs of other devices fool you. Use the pixel for a week and you'll see what the fuss is all about. This is the yardstick that other android handsets are measured against.

I had the original pixel XL and this improves on it in every category. People's complaints with the screen were not an issue after the first update a week after launch, being able to adjust color. That was more of a software settings on android 8.0 than it was a hardware problem. Camera is amazing and the speed is blazing. Only 2 small points keeping this from being a 10 is the lack of headphone jack and wireless charging. Google is really headed in the right direction with this line of phones!

I honestly don't know what's wrong with the display. The blue shift is very minimal and not as bad as what the media says it is, and I barely notice it after a while. It's really sharp and if you don't like the natural colours, there's a saturated mode that makes it look pretty much on par with phones that have Samsung displays.

I have had several 2017 Flagship smartphones, and this is just overall amazing with the only flaw being the fact that I have smaller hands.... but with this phones amazing camera that overall is my new number one of 2017. I only really have one issue and that is this phones screen doesn't pack a punch like Galaxy S8. But the Pixel's camera is where this phone outshines all others, but I wish it had manual settings built in but I will more than gladly use one of the awesome ones available on the Play Store. I also have the LG V30 and I will say it has a great camera but most of it is because of LG's camera app and the tricks it can do. The front firing speakers are impressive and make me wish HTC could have put them on the 10 and u11.

It is an excellent team, the design is not the last but it looks good, the perfect camera and everything else very well. It's the best phone I've had so far and I've been a user of the Samsung note line and also of iphone.

At first I was hesitant to get the Pixel 2 XL as I am coming from the Pixel and Nexus 5X before that. I always preferred the smaller one handed devices, but was extremely disappointed with the standard Pixel 2 design, build quality, and audio quality. This phone scared my after seeing Phone Arena review and everyone blowing up supposed screen issues online.

After receiving it I quickly got used to the size of the phone and the standard Pixel felt small to me. I noticed how deep and clean the stereo speakers wanted and this is definitely nice and the build quality is top notch. The battery life on this phone will last me at least a day with very heavy usage and high screen on time hours. If I need to charge my phone mid day, the fast charging is really convenient. Coming from a Google Pixel, I didn't see how a phone could get snappier, however this phone flies. I can heavily multi task without any slow downs what so ever, even PiP does not slow it down. The only complaint I have is the stock android messages app needs to be completely redesigned as it is way too slow, but this is easily fixed with Textra. On to the screen... I saw how much the internet blew this out of proportion and this is what made me the most nervous about buying the phone. When I received it the first thing I did was check for the blue tint on the angle and you will notice it is there if you are trying to see it. It really is not bad, and I compared it to my standard Pixel, all OLED screens are effected by this. Another issue it he google keyboard randomly (not often, once a week?) just gets very unresponsive and I do not know why. Another thing that takes getting used to is the 2:1 aspect ratio. I found myself noticing I had to reach down to hit the navigation buttons, but after a week it feels completely normal to me.

All in all this is definitely the best phone I have ever owned. I wouldn't mind getting the smaller Pixel 3 next year if Google doesn't cheap out on the smaller one again and give the XL all the premium build features... The price of the Pixel 2 XL is definitely steep and I don't think it is necessarily justified. However no flagship's price is justified right now. I guess this is the way the market is going, but I recommend this over any other flagship phone, ESPECIALLY if you take a lot of photos and videos (blows every other phone away).

I'm happy with my pixel 2 xl. I also have the Note 8, I wish I could combine features of both together. I Love the battery life, camera, and how the pixel just integrates with my life so well. Gives me little notifications of things that I don't get even from my Note. I love the speakers, but wish it had a headphone jack. WIsh Spigen had better cases for it like the Note but Oh well--It is a keeper

The phone is perfect for me, the build quality is amazing, camera is superb, battery lasts me more than a day. very snappy and fast software. Duel front facing speakers are amazing as well. The only thing I wish google made better is the screen. Yea, it is not the best in the market (Note 8 is the best obv.) but all the other features make up for it IMO.

It is hard to write an unbiased review on this device because I am a Google fanboy through and through and have been a loyal since the original G1. With that being said I will keep the gushing to a minimum and be as plain and clear as I can. First off, take what you hear in media with a grain of salt. All the reported issues about screen resolution and blue tint and burn in seem to be targeted instances because I do not notice any of that after over a months use. The screen looks very natural and not over saturated like Samsung displays which people rave about. It may take a bit to get used to but after a week I think you start to appreciate it and how it makes pictures look. That brings me to the next topic...

Everything they say about the camera is true. Portrait mode works like a charm, the live or motion pictures feature is a nice touch, it is fast and responsive and takes natural pictures with clear precision and detail. Best camera I have ever used on a smartphone without a doubt. I thought that about the original Pixel which I had prior.

The last two points I want to make are how smooth and quick this device is as well as it's battery life. The battery life on this thing is my number 1 point of enthusiasm with this phone. They only increased the size a tiny fraction from the previous model but something else is attributing to the wonderful battery life. I don't know whether to attribute it to Android masterfully managing power usage or if the hardware components are that optimized to minimize power consumption. Whatever it is, other phone manufacturers/software developers need to follow suit. I get through a full 14hr day from 7am-9pm laden with Instagram scrolling, Clash Royale playing, texting and general phone browsing and don't even look at my charger until I'm ready to go to bed. Even then at some points I am at 40%, it's great. That is my favorite thing about this phone.

Lastly, I mentioned the phone was fast and I mean it. It is fast, responsive, moves through apps with ease, supports picture in picture and dual screen like a super computer and doesn't even lose a step. The one thing I always credited Apple for was their smooth OS and how every phone "just worked". I can easily say the Pixel 2 XL is in that same company now.

I would be completely content with saying nothing negative about it but I want to be fair to those reading this review to make their own decision. So I will outline and explain my cons...


The phone is pricey, I didn't like paying that much for it but Google and Phone service providers have given out great incentives to make it affordable so this really isn't that much of a con for a flagship device that you are getting.

Another con is the lack of the 3.5mm headphone jack. But again that hasn't even posed to be an issue to me. I am all wireless all bluetooth everything so this might mean more to someone else than me. That's honestly it, and I've run out of characters so I'll end my review here.

don't take too much of what the media has said about the pixel 2 xl to heart!!!
their is a blue shift too the screen i have found it vary from phone to phone mine has it but is very soft blue and not tell you have the phone on its side you see it..

with that said front firing speakers are loud as hell an super clear. water proof up too a meter for 30 minutes .....
no head phone jack but here is a solution plug the dongle into your headphones an its as easy at that..

super fast an smooth interface running amazing 8.0 oreo .