Google takes on iPad Pro and Surface Pro with its new Pixel Slate

After months of endless leaks and speculation, Google finally took the wraps off of its premium new Chromebook at a media event in New York City on October 9 alongside its flagship Android phones. New this year is the Pixel Slate, Google’s take on a detachable Chrome OS tablet. The Pixel Slate supports a removable keyboard folio, making it a direct competitor to Apple’s iPad Pro and Microsoft’s Surface Go.

The Pixel Slate launches at an interesting time — Google announced the tablet a week following Microsoft’s New York City press event where we saw the Surface Laptop 2, Surface Pro 6, and Surface Studio 2, and ahead of Apple’s rumored Mac and iPad events. Though Apple has not scheduled a date for its media event, rumors suggest that Apple will launch update its devices, which would give the Pixel Slate some major competition in the premium hardware space.

Pixel Slate

The Pixel Slate is designed for productivity and life on the go, Google’s hardware chief Rick Osterloh said of the device, which represents Google’s re-entry into the tablet space after a three-year absence. The Pixel Slate comes in a midnight blue hue and has a folio keyboard accessory that lets it convert between tablet and laptop mode.

The Slate is described as Google’s new vision for Chrome OS, and gives you powerful productivity in a new mobile form. The Pixel Slate has a magnetic connector on the bottom edge that allows the Slate to snap into Google’s keyboard cover with a circular key design for the key caps. Google claims that the round hush keys will be comfortable and quiet to type on. The folio is described to be infinitely adjustable so you can use it at any angle you like.

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Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The UI supports split screen for productivity and a full desktop experience. And for downtime, there is a do not disturb feature to minimize distraction. The power button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor for easy unlock. Google also partnered with Adobe to launch a new version of Acrobat for Pixel Slate, which allows you to fill out forms and sign documents with the Pixel Pen.

The Pixel Slate takes a different language than the rest of Google’s lineup. Unlike the Pixel phones and the Pixelbook, both of which utilize a glass and aluminum design on the rear, the Pixel Slate’s back side is constructed of a solid piece of metal. For productivity and entertainment, the screen has a 3,000 x 2,000-pixel resolution with a similar 3:2 aspect ratio as Microsoft’s Surface Pro 6 and Surface Go.

Google says there is a custom display that’s more responsive than a traditional display. For a multimedia experience, the Pixel Slate has front-facing stereo speakers that “deliver surprisingly big sound,” Google said at its event. The speakers have a custom audio profile that supports crisp highs and deep lows.

The Pixel Slate 2 was designed for cord cutters, Google said, with three months of YouTube TV bundled for free. Google is also bringing the excellently rated cameras from its Pixel phones to the slate, with 8-megapixel cameras on the front and rear. The front camera supports crisp videos for video conferencing, while the rear camera also supports portrait mode.

The Pixel Slate starts at $599 and will be available in several configurations. The folio keyboard will be available for $199, and the $99 Pixel Pen comes in a color matched midnight blue tone this year. The Pixel Slate will be available later this year, Google said, in the US, Canada, and the UK. Google did not reveal memory configurations or processor details.

Want to know more? Here’s the full details on Google’s Pixel Slate.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Everything you need to know about the Pixel Slate
• Google Pixel Slate — the first detachable Pixelbook 2-in-1
• Leaked Intel processor could help Google Pixel Slate dual-boot into Windows
• Surface Pro 6 vs. iPad Pro
• Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review

Google Pixel 3 vs. Pixel 2 vs. Pixel: Picking the perfect phone for you

As the developer of Android, Google turns out the slickest Android phones. Snag a Pixel and you don’t have to worry about Android security or fragmentation — you can simply enjoy a silky smooth, swiftly updated slice of Android heaven.

The original Pixel is getting on a bit and the Pixel 3 offers some upgrades over the still-excellent Pixel 2. If you’re thinking of upgrading, or wondering if last year’s Pixel might be good enough, then we have you covered right here. Learn exactly what separates the three Pixel generations as we compare them.

Specs

Google Pixel 3

Google Pixel 2
Google Pixel

Size
145.6 x 68.2 x 7.9 mm (5.73 x 2.69 x 0.31 inches)
145.7 x 69.7 x 7.8 mm (5.74 x 2.74 x 0.31 inches)
143.8 x 69.5 x 8.5 mm (5.66 x 2.74 x 0.33 inches)

Weight
148 grams (5.22 ounces)
143 grams (5.04 ounces)
143 grams (5.04 ounces)

Screen size
5.5-inch AMOLED
5-inch AMOLED
5-inch AMOLED

Screen resolution
2,160 x 1,080 pixels (443 pixels per inch)
1,920 x 1,080 pixels (441 pixels per inch)
1,920 x 1,080 pixels (441 pixels per inch)

Operating system
Android 9.0 Pie
Android 8.0 Oreo (upgradeable to Android 9 Pie)
Android 7.1 Nougat (upgradeable to Android 9 Pie)

Storage space
64GB, 128GB
64GB, 128GB
32GB, 128GB

MicroSD card slot
No
No
No

Tap-to-pay services
Google Pay
Google Pay
Google Pay

Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821

RAM
4GB
4GB
4GB

Camera
Single 12.2MP rear, dual 8MP and 8MP front camera
Single 12.2MP rear, 8MP front camera
Single 2.3MP rear, 8MP front camera

Video
4K at 30fps, 1080p at 120fps, 720p at 240fps
4K at 30fps, 1080p at 120fps, 720p at 240fps
4K at 30fps, 1080p at 120fps, 720p at 240fps

Bluetooth version
Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth 4.2

Ports
USB-C 2.0
USB-C 1.0
USB-C 1.0

Fingerprint sensor
Yes (back)
Yes (back)
Yes (back)

Water resistance
IP67
IP67
Splash resistant

Battery
2,915mAh

Fast charging

Qi wireless charging

2,700mAh

Fast charging

2,770mAh

Fast charging

App marketplace
Google Play Store
Google Play Store
Google Play Store

Network support
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint

Colors
Just Black, Clearly White, Not Pink
Kinda Blue, Just Black, Clearly White
Quite Black, Very Silver, Really Blue

Price
$800
$650
$650

Buy from
Google
Google

Review score
Hands-on review
4 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5 stars

Performance, battery life, and charging

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

A look at the spec sheet reveals the Pixel 3 has the popular Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor inside — the same chip you’ll find in everything from Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 to Sony’s Xperia XZ3. It’s fast and plenty powerful. The Pixel 2 has last year’s Snapdragon 835 and the original Pixel has the Snapdragon 821. Each new generation of Qualcomm’s processor brings speed boosts and power efficiency enhancements. The Pixels all have 4GB of RAM.

There’s 64GB or 128GB of storage in the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3, and you can also get a 128GB Pixel. The original, entry-level Pixel offered just 32GB of storage, which is definitely not enough, especially since there’s no MicroSD card slot in any of these phones.

Battery size hasn’t changed much, going from 2,770mAh in the original to 2,700mAh in the Pixel 2 to 2,915mAh in the Pixel 3. Although it has a slightly larger screen to power, it also boasts better power efficiency, so we expect the Pixel 3 to offer the most stamina. these are all phones that will require daily charging, but the Pixel 3 is the only one to offer support for Qi wireless charging.

Winner: Google Pixel 3

Design and durability

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Google’s understated style could also be described as dated. It has been slow to react to the bezel-less trend, with each Pixel release featuring unashamedly large bezels around the screen compared to contemporaries. The Pixel 3 is certainly the most modern-looking of the trio. While the back of the Pixel 2 had a two-tone finish that combines matte aluminum with a glass portion at the top, the Pixel 3 is all glass. In the original Pixel, the glass took up perhaps a third of the back with the fingerprint sensor embedded in it, but in the Pixel 2, that glass portion shrank and the fingerprint sensor was found in the metal below. The Pixel 3 retains a similar style, but the back is all glass now. None of the Pixels have a 3.5mm headphone jack, relying on a single USB-C port instead.

The original Pixel was only splash-resistant, but the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 can be fully submerged in water without sustaining any damage. The relatively small size makes each Pixel easy to handle, and the original Pixel and the Pixel 2 should cope with falls better than their more delicate successor. The Pixel 2 and 3 both boast Gorilla Glass 5, while the original Pixel has Gorilla Glass 4.

Winner: Google Pixel 3

Display

All three of the Pixels boast OLED screens, but while the Pixel 2 and original Pixel have 5-inch displays with 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolutions, the Pixel 3 has a bigger, 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 2,160 x 1,080 pixels. The shift to a 19:9 aspect ratio, from 16:9 in the first two Pixels, gives you a decent extra chunk of screen real estate without increasing the size of the handset — in fact, the Pixel 3 is slightly smaller.

Winner: Google Pixel 3

Camera

Tinh tế Photo/Flickr

The Pixel 2 has been our reigning camera phone champion for the last year. Despite relying on a single 12.2-megapixel lens, it takes consistently excellent shots in all kinds of different conditions — and it appears Google has stuck with it for the Pixel 3. The original Pixel was no slouch either, with a 12.3 megapixel camera. The Pixel 3 offers a range of new and exclusive A.I. smarts in the camera that enable it to snap shots before and after you press the shutter button, so it can choose the best one, where your subject is facing the camera, smiling, and has their eyes open. There’s also an A.I.-enhanced zoom capability, automatic subject tracking, so you don’t have to tap to refocus if you or your subject move, and improved low-light performance.

The first two Pixels have 8-megapixel front-facing cameras, but the Pixel 3 kicks it up a notch with a dual-lens, front-facing camera that pairs two 8-megapixel lenses, one telephoto and one wide angle. That should enable you to get a solid bokeh effect, with blurred backgrounds on your portrait photos. The second lens is wide angle, allowing for wider group selfie shots, or enabling you to capture more of your background.

Winner: Google Pixel 3

Software and updates

Google’s Pixel phones are mercifully free of manufacturer meddling, with the purest stock Android, which enables some of the best performance you’ll see on an Android phone. They’re also the first devices to get software updates, as Google can roll them out whenever it likes. We’re giving the Pixel 3 the win here because it will continue to be updated for longer than the other two, but the software experience on these phones is going to be close to identical, with Android 9.0 Pie on all of them.

Some of the new Google Assistant capabilities, like the ability to screen your calls to weed out spam and the ability to make calls and makes restaurant reservations for you, will be rolling out on the new Pixels first.

Winner: Google Pixel 3

Special features

Google has something of a no-frills approach to its smartphones, preferring to focus on a slick, well-rounded experience. While there are no glaring flaws here, there also isn’t much to point to in terms of special features. The Pixel 3 sets itself apart from the other two with its dual-lens selfie-camera and the A.I. enhancements in the main shooter.

The Pixel 3 is also the only one with Qi wireless charging support, and if you charge it using a Google Pixel Stand, you get access to schedule and commute information and more via one-touch shortcuts or voice commands.

Winner: Google Pixel 3

Price

The first two Pixel phones cost $650 at launch for the lowest-capacity model, but the original Pixel can be found for significantly less now and we expect to see price drops on the Pixel 2, now that the Pixel 3 is here. The Pixel 3 costs significantly more at $800 for the 64GB version and $900 for the 128GB version.

Stock issues impacted the original Pixel and the Pixel 2 as Google seemed to be caught off guard by the demand, but we don’t expect to see a repeat with the Pixel 3. Google has offered each Pixel unlocked and ready for use on any major U.S. carrier, and you’ll also be able to buy the Pixel 3 on an installment plan if you prefer.

Overall winner: Google Pixel 3

It’s somewhat surprising to see how little the Pixel has changed in three generations. The Pixel 3 is definitely the best of the bunch, but we’re talking about refinements here, with a slightly more modern design that squeezes in more screen and a better front-facing camera. It should also be faster and have a little more stamina than its predecessors, but there are no giant leaps. If your budget is limited and you can snag a discounted Pixel 2, we think it will serve you well for some time to come. If you’re looking to upgrade, we think you’ll feel the difference if you’re trading in an original Pixel, but Pixel 2 owners can stick with that model for another year.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. Pixel 2 XL: Flagship face-off
• Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL: Everything you need to know
• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. Galaxy Note 8 vs. Note 5: All the changes of note
• 11 common Google Pixel problems and how to deal with them
• The Google Pixel Stand turns your Android phone into an Assistant-powered hub

Google’s Home Hub includes a large display, will go on sale for $149

Google Home Hub is here to turbocharge the Assistant experience.

The Google Home is a great product for controlling smart lights and streaming music, but as we’ve seen with the Lenovo Smart Display, a display makes things much better. Google is now rolling out its own offering in this space, the Home Hub. Like the rest of the Google Home ecosystem, the Home Hub is made out of custom fabrics and premium materials, and the large screen up front is ideal for viewing information at a glance.

The Home Hub has an Ambient EQ mode that automatically adjust the screen’s brightness, and interestingly, Google said it consciously decided to not put a camera on the Hub. The move could go some way to assuage buyers, but it limits the functionality of the device — you won’t be able to make Duo video calls from the Hub.

And with the Home Hub offering Voice Match, it will be able to offer personalized results for different family members. The device also comes with a dashboard that shows you a list of all the smart home devices in your home in a single place. The dashboard will also be making its way to the Google Home mobile app.

A product like the Hub is ideal as a photo frame, and you’ll be able to do just that by integrating your Google Photos albums with the device. Google is leveraging its AI smarts to filter out blurry or duplicate images, with only the best photos showing up on the screen.

The Home Hub also comes with six months’ worth of YouTube Premium for free. Google Home Hub will be available in four color options, with pre-orders starting today for just $149. It will be hitting store shelves from October 22 in the U.S., UK, and Australia. What are your thoughts on the Home Hub?

The Pixel 3 and 3 XL have arrived — here’s everything you need to know!

From specs, pricing, features, and more, here’s the latest on the Pixel 3 and 3 XL.

Following months of leak after leak, Google’s officially taken the wraps off its Pixel 3 and 3 XL smartphones. The two handsets look exactly like what we saw in all the early photos and renders, and while the element of surprise may be gone, we’ve still got two impressive Android handsets to talk about.

Without further ado, this is everything you need to know about the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL!

Check out our hands-on coverage

Our review of the Pixel 3 and 3 XL isn’t ready quite yet, but in the meantime, make sure you check out our written and video coverage for our hands-on impressions.

This year’s Pixel phones aren’t drastically different compared to their predecessors, but improved displays, a faster processor, wireless charging and more all result in a really well fleshed-out package that makes for what could be some of the best smartphones you can buy in 2018.

Here are the specs!

If you’ve got a Pixel 2, a lot of the specs for the Pixel 3 and 3 XL will look very similar. There’s still 4GB of RAM and a starting storage amount of 64GB, but the Snapdragon 835 processor from last year has been replaced by the newer 845.

For a full rundown on both phones, check out the link below. 👇

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL specifications

The displays are a lot better

Shortly after its release, one of the biggest controversies that popped up for the larger Pixel 2 XL was its poor display. We have an LG-made OLED panel once again, but the year-over-year difference is huge.

Google’s touting 400+ nits of brightness for both phones, 2X less burn-in potential, and less color shifting.

There are still three different color profiles to choose from so you can fine-tune your experience, and out of the box, both the Pixel 3 and 3 XL have been optimized so that their displays look identical next to one another.

There are three colors

Google’s probably the best when it comes to naming its device colors, and this year we have Just Black and Very White. New this year is a pink hue that’s been aptly named “Not Pink.”

All three colors are available for both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL no matter where you decide to buy them.

An all-glass back brings wireless charging support

For the past two years, Google’s used a mixture of aluminum and glass on the back of its phones. This year, the Pixel 3 shakes things up by adopting an all-glass construction.

There’s still an etched section near the top that adds a nice matte finish that allows for more grip and fewer fingerprints. Google’s also integrated Qi wireless charging support and selling a new Pixel Stand wireless charging accessory that’ll charge the Pixel 3 + 3 XL and put them into a new “dashboard” UI that shows a slideshow of pictures on Google Photos and various Assistant info.

The Pixel Stand is a $79 wireless charger for Pixel 3 that unlocks special display modes

Google’s made a ton of camera improvements

The Pixel 2 and 2 XL have some of the best cameras we’ve ever seen on a smartphone, and with the Pixel 3, Google’s making the camera experience even better.

Perhaps the biggest change includes the addition of a second front-facing camera. You now have access to a regular and wide-angle lens for all of your selfies and portrait mode works no matter which one you use. Google’s also integrated an algorithm to remove any distortion caused by the wider lens.

Other changes include:

• 40% faster HDR+ processing
• Improved detail retention while zooming
• Night Sight mode improves low-light shots
• Top Shot mode captures multiple frames before and after your picture and then recommends an alternative shot compared to what you actually captured

Along with all this, Google Lens is also built right into the Pixel 3’s camera app and works automatically when it detects something.

Android 9 Pie is available out of the box

As you’d expect, Android 9 Pie is running on the Pixel 3 and 3 XL from day one. This is the same Android Pie we’ve been using on the Pixel 2 phones, including the new navigation gestures, quick settings panel, etc.

The Pixel 3 does bring a handful of new software goodies, including the full release of Digital Wellbeing outside of its beta state and a slightly updated UI for the camera app.

There’s also a new call screening feature that’ll allow you to send your caller to a system that asks them to provide information about who they are and why they’re calling. What they say comes through in real-time and you can choose to hang up or pick up at any point.

Here’s when and where you can buy it

If you want to pick up the Pixel 3 for yourself, pre-orders are open right now. The Pixel 3 costs $799 for the 64GB model and goes up to $899 if you get the 128GB variant. For those same storage configurations on the Pixel 3 XL, you’ll pay $899 and $999, respectively.

The Pixel 3 series will be sold at Verizon, Best Buy, the Google Store, and Project Fi.

See at Google Store

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL hands-on preview
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 3 vs. Pixel 3 XL: Which should you buy?
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL specifications
• Join our Pixel 3 forums

Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

The Google Pixel 3 addresses our biggest complaint with the Pixel 2

The big “gotcha” of last year’s Pixels has been killed for good.

It only took a few weeks after the launch of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL for a major problem to be discovered: aggressive screen burn-in and image retention, particularly on the larger 2 XL. These very real and substantial problems were amplified by the fact that the rest of the screens’ characteristics weren’t good to start with. They were dim, inaccurate and lacking saturation. The displays were bad enough that it kept many people from buying the phones altogether — or at the very least wait for steep discounts. Software updates mitigated, but didn’t fix the problem — in the end, they were just bad displays.

With the Pixel 3 and 3 XL, Google focused on display quality to make sure the sort of problems that plagued the last generation have no chance of cropping up again. The perception that Pixels have bad screens will live on for some time, but anyone who sees one of the new phones will have their opinion changed.

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL hands-on preview

Google spent an inordinate amount of time making these displays as great as possible, and in my time with the phones it absolutely showed. The OLED screens are clearly higher quality panels than either the Pixel 2 or 2 XL, which is a great (and necessary) starting point. No amount of tuning can fix a panel that isn’t capable of producing the results you want.

The panel is undeniably better; the calibration and software just accentuate it.

Google took these better displays and went to work calibrating them: there was a huge focus on starting with precise display accuracy at the start, and further calibration was then applied in software to make them perform as well as possible in a wide range of situations. Google says that the displays, when set to “Natural” mode (in the display settings), are 100% RGB compliant and “visually indistinguishable from perfect” — you may recognize that exact sort of wording from reviews of Samsung’s stellar displays. That’s good company to be associated with.

But not everyone wants accuracy, they want eye candy — that’s why the Pixel 3 and 3 XL ship in a new “Adaptive” display mode by default, which bumps up colors and saturation but has been tuned to limit the over-saturation of skin tones and reds in particular. This is akin to what Samsung, LG and just about every other company is doing on their phones to make them look extra-nice in stores and be appealing right out of the box.

100% accuracy is here if you want it, but ‘Adaptive’ will offer a great out-of-box look.

But again, Google didn’t just bump up the saturation to cover up the fundamentals. It also worked on the other important factors in judging a quality display, like notably reducing off-axis color shifting (which is inherent in all OLED panels) and increasing the brightness for a full-screen image to a minimum of 400 nits. (Not to be confused with peak brightness for small portions of the panel, which is often much higher.) It all looked wonderful indoors — the question now is how well it all works outside, where Samsung currently holds the top spot in daylight visibility.

And yes, Google wanted to address the worries of burn-in and image retention — a big issue on the Pixel 2 XL in particular. Google says it has reduced the burn-in potential by half compared to last year. It has also applied additional mitigations in the software to address particular problem areas like the navigation bar and ambient display — for example Google’s own apps use an equal mix of white and black nav bars. The displays will exhibit some sort of burn-in and image retention over time like any other OLED screen, but Google’s confident its phones won’t perform worse than the industry averages in either respect.

You get the same great display on both phones, so you can pick purely based on your size needs.

For fans of the smaller Pixel 3, It’s important to note that all of these great improvements are applicable to both displays. Making the Pixel 3 and 3 XL displays look and perform identically was a goal of Google’s, and to my eyes it was achieved. Speaking with Seang Chau (VP Engineering) and Raj Singh (Sr Director, Tech Engineering) from the Google hardware team, I immediately understood just how seriously Google took the displays this year, and how proud both were of the end result. I can see why — these look like a pair of screens that can compete with the best.

I’ve yet to see exactly how these new-and-improved screens perform out in the real world, where fringe cases of poor ambient lighting conditions can really put a smartphone display to the test. But given the great starting point these phones are working from, it doesn’t look like they’ll be a talking point in the same way they were last the last two years — and they may even be a standout feature of the Pixel 3 and 3 XL.

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL hands-on preview
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 3 vs. Pixel 3 XL: Which should you buy?
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL specifications
• Join our Pixel 3 forums

Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL specs: New OLED displays and more

A handful of strategic changes.

No, your eyes don’t deceive you — the specs inside the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are very similar to last year’s Pixel 2 lineup. But we know Google’s never played the game of having new specs just for the sake of the numbers — it likes to build phones that have enough specs to accomplish its goals. That isn’t to say the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are bare, though — there’s plenty in here to compete with the latest high-end phones, and it’s of particular note that the Pixel 3 has all of the same internals as the larger version, aside from battery and screen size of course.

Here’s the complete spec sheet for both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL.

Operating system	Android 9 Pie	Android 9 Pie
Display	5.5-inch OLED, 2160×1080 (18:9)Gorilla Glass 5	6.3-inch OLED, 2960×1440 (18.5:9)Gorilla Glass 5
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845Pixel Visual Core	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845Pixel Visual Core
RAM	4GB	4GB
Storage	64/128GB	64/128GB
Expandable	No	No
Rear camera 1	12.2MP, 1.4-micron, f/1.8, OIS, PDAF	12.2MP, 1.4-micron, f/1.8, OIS, PDAF
Front camera 1	8MP, f/1.8, auto focus75-degree lens	8MP, f/1.8, auto focus75-degree lens
Front camera 2	8MP, f/2.2, fixed focus97-degree lens	8MP, f/2.2, fixed focus97-degree lens
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS
Audio	Stereo speakersUSB-C	Stereo speakersUSB-C
Battery	2915mAhNon-removable	3430mAhNon-removable
Charging	18W USB-C PDQi wireless	18W USB-C PDQi wireless
Water resistance	IP68	IP68
Security	Fingerprint sensor	Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions	145.6 x 68.2 x 7.9 mm 148 g	158 x 76.7 x 7.9 mm184 g
Colors	Just Black, Very White, Not Pink	Just Black, Very White, Not Pink

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL hands-on preview
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 3 vs. Pixel 3 XL: Which should you buy?
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL specifications
• Join our Pixel 3 forums

Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

The Google Pixel Stand is a $79 wireless charger for the Pixel 3

You pay extra to get Google’s design sensibilities — and a couple neat display features.

Google chose to switch to glass backs on the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, which opened up the phones to integrating wireless charging. They use the widely adopted Qi standard, the same one Samsung uses, but Google still took the opportunity to make its own special stand-up charger called the Pixel Stand.

In typical Google fashion the Pixel Stand is rather expensive, coming in at $79 — but in exchange, you get a sleek design befitting a modern Google product and a few added benefits.

See at Google Store

The Pixel Stand is pretty darn simple. It’s a round soft touch-coated base with an elongated circle stand portion protruding from the center that presents your Pixel 3 or 3 XL nicely. A small bump at the base holds the phone up, and the coils in the back let you place the phone either in portrait or landscape mode. The bottom has the same grippy silicone base as a Google Home Mini, and it plugs in with a USB-C cable. It’s a far sleeker and simpler solution than Samsung’s latest wireless charger stand.

This is a far more elegant-looking stand than Samsung’s latest, and has a few added software benefits.

Where Google is hoping to justify its higher pricing is the exclusive mode that the Pixel 3 and 3 XL change to when the phone is placed on the Stand. You get a configurable set of features that the phone can cycle through, showing everything from a rotation of your Google Photos albums, to a basic time/date display and a more advanced Google Assistant feed that shows pertinent information about your day. While docked the Pixel 3 and 3 XL will also use a different alarm clock style that slowly brightens the display ahead of the alarm time to hopefully wake you up more gently than a usual blaring alarm.

Having this handful of neat features available only while using the Pixel Stand feels like a bit of a consumer-unfriendly move considering the phones use the Qi standard and can easily charge on any other pad. It seems as though Google could make the phones launch into these software features while charging on any wireless charger of your choosing — and perhaps a simple solution from an app developer will make that happen in the future. For now, this looks like a nice simple charger for people who want to go all-in with Google accessories and don’t mind the higher price tag to get it.

See at Google Store

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL hands-on preview
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 3 vs. Pixel 3 XL: Which should you buy?
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL specifications
• Join our Pixel 3 forums

Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi

Google Pixel 3 vs. Google Pixel 3 XL: Which should you buy?

We’re a virtual company made up of tech experts from across the globe. We live and breathe Android phones, and use nearly every one and examine the details to help you make the best decision when buying.

Google Pixel 3

Compact yet powerful

$799 at Google Store

Pros

• Easily usable in one hand
• Stereo speakers
• Wireless charging

Cons

• No headphone jack
• Battery on the small side

It’s a relatively small phone, but the Pixel 3 has all of the same features and power of the larger 3 XL. The 5.5-inch 18:9 display looks great, and makes the phone compact enough for anyone to use with one hand. The only potential downside here is a smaller-than-average 2915mAh battery.

Google Pixel 3 XL

True flagship

$899 at Google Store

Pros

• Huge screen
• Stereo speakers
• Wireless charging
• Sizable battery

Cons

• No headphone jack
• Very large display notch

Google took the Pixel 2 XL’s body and fit a much larger 6.3-inch 18.5:9 display — and it’s not all about size, the display is dramatically better as well. The rest of the phone builds on all of Google’s strengths: simple hardware, capable specs, smooth software and an amazing camera experience front and back. It even has a sizable 3430mAh battery inside.

Google does a great job of offering a high-end smartphone experience in two different sizes with very few compromises. That philosophy carries into the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, which are identical aside from the chances necessitated by their size differences.

What’s the difference between the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL?

The best way to start off this comparison is to talk about everything that’s shared between these phones — and thankfully for potential Pixel 3 and 3 XL buyers, most of the experience is identical. Both have identical internal specs, anchored by a Snapdragon 845, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The cameras, too, are shared, including the dual front-facing shooters. Both have stereo speakers, and both miss out on a headphone jack. The hardware is absolutely the same from top to bottom — without a reference for size, you can’t tell the difference between the two in a photo. And they even come in the same three color choices: black, white and “not pink.”

Operating system	Android 9 Pie	Android 9 Pie
Display	5.5-inch OLED2160x1080 (18:9)Gorilla Glass 5	6.3-inch OLED2960x1440 (18.5:9)Gorilla Glass 5
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845Pixel Visual Core	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845Pixel Visual Core
RAM	4GB	4GB
Storage	64/128GB	64/128GB
Expandable	No	No
Rear camera	12.2MP, 1.4-micron, PDAFf/1.8, OIS	12.2MP, 1.4-micron, PDAFf/1.8, OIS
Front camera 1	8MP, auto focusf/1.8, 75-degree lens	8MP, auto focusf/1.8, 75-degree lens
Front camera 2	8MP, fixed focusf/2.2, 97-degree lens	8MP, fixed focusf/2.2, 97-degree lens
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS
Audio	Stereo speakersUSB-C	Stereo speakersUSB-C
Battery	2915mAhNon-removable	3430mAhNon-removable
Charging	18W USB-C PDQi wireless	18W USB-C PDQi wireless
Water resistance	IP68	IP68
Security	Fingerprint sensor	Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions	68.2 x 145.6 x 7.9 mm 148 g	76.7 x 158.0 x 7.9 mm184 g
Colors	Just Black, Very White, Not Pink	Just Black, Very White, Not Pink

There really are just two differences to evaluate: screen size and battery. I specifically say screen size because Google worked very hard to make sure this year’s phones have identical-looking displays. Whether you get the 6.3-inch Pixel 3 XL or smaller 5.5-inch Pixel 3, the OLED panels have been selected and calibrated to look the same. The Pixel 3 XL also has a sizable display notch that’s visually distracting for some people, and obviously cuts into the usable space of that larger panel — even still, it has a little more room than the Pixel 2 XL, and much more than the Pixel 3.

It simply comes down to screen size and battery needs.

The other necessary difference is battery — 2915 vs. 3430mAh. With a 17% larger battery, the Pixel 3 XL will certainly have longer battery life — we just don’t know how much longer. It remains to be seen how the battery size difference will translate into real-world usage, since Android 9 Pie is better with power management than Oreo, but Google’s history doesn’t fill us with confidence — the Pixel and Pixel 2 were both very weak in the battery department. Some are willing to take that battery trade-off to have a phone they can easily use one-handed, but it isn’t always worth it for everyone.

The screen size differences obviously lead to changes in overall phone size. The Pixel 3 is a bit of a unicorn amongst modern-day flagship phones, with a very compact case that’s actually marginally smaller than the Pixel 2. It’s easily manageable in one hand, and easier to slip into a pocket even with a case on it. The Pixel 3 XL, on the other hand, follows the flagship trend of being really large. It’s about 12% wider and 8% taller than the Pixel 3, which is considerable — but of course, you get the extra screen and battery as a benefit. You just have to decide if it’s worth it for your needs (and hands).

Google Pixel 3

Compact yet powerful

$799 at Google Store

A proper flagship phone without the usual massive size and weight.

A smaller screen doesn’t lead to compromises in features or hardware quality. The Pixel 3 has everything the XL version does, except the necessary smaller battery. You get the fantastic software, performance, camera capabilities and screen quality.

Google Pixel 3 XL

True flagship

$899 at Google Store

Google’s best-ever phone, with a big screen and battery to match its capabilities.

Phones are large nowadays, and Google’s Pixel 3 XL is no exception. A 6.3-inch OLED screen is dramatically improved from the Pixel 2 XL, and the rest of the experience builds on Google’s strengths: awesome software, great performance, innovative camera features and guaranteed updates.

Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL hands-on: Screens worth staring at

Google isn’t looking for volume, it wants to focus on quality and simplicity.

If you showed up here looking for details on a pair of all-new Pixel phones that push the envelope and bring tons of new specs and features, you’re about to be disappointed. (You also probably didn’t follow the bevy of leaks in the last month.) But I encourage you to stick around, because I’ll tell you right from the start that the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are worth your attention.

Google has never played the spec game. It has never focused on the raw quantity of features. Pixels have always been about creating an experience that’s greater than the sum of their parts. The new Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are the best-ever expression of these values.

The latest phones focus on just a few main pillars: evolving the hardware design, improving an already wonderful camera, and giving users a display befitting the price tag. That is, of course, while holding on to what made their predecessors so great: a sleek software experience, powerful performance and the promise of Google’s security and software support.

Evolution

Google Pixel 3 Hardware changes

This is a case of evolution, not revolution. The new phones are effectively unchanged in size from their predecessors, but the finishes and materials have been tweaked. Let’s address the sizes first: they are so close in size to their predecessors you can squeeze one into a case designed for the other. (Though there are enough subtle differences to make this inadvisable.)

Same sized phone, but with a larger screen — while keeping stereo speakers.

The Pixel 3 is actually smaller than the Pixel 2, but now has a 5.5-inch 18:9 display for roughly 10% more screen space — that of course means smaller bezels, which make the phone feel properly modern. The Pixel 3 XL jumps to a 6.3-inch 18.5:9 display, but the number is a bit of a misnomer as its large notch and taller aspect ratio don’t give it dramatically more room than the 2 XL.

But it’s the changes to other aspects of the displays that are far more important — and potentially the most important change to these phones over their predecessors in any respect. Google spent an inordinate amount of time making these displays as great as possible, and in my time with the phones it absolutely showed. The OLED screens are clearly higher quality panels than before, which is a great starting point. Then Google went to work calibrating them: there was a huge focus on base-level accuracy at the panel level, and then further calibration in software to make them perform as well as possible.

Google says that the displays, when set to “Natural” mode, are purely 100% RGB compliant and “visually indistinguishable from perfect” — the exact sort of wording we hear bandied about with Samsung’s stellar displays.

Google spent an inordinate amount of time making these displays as good as possible.

But not everyone wants accuracy, they want eye candy — that’s why the phones ship in “Adaptive” display mode by default, which bumps up colors and saturation but has been tuned to limit the over-saturation of skin tones and reds in particular. Google also worked on the other important factors in judging a quality display, like reducing off-axis color shifting and increasing the brightness for a full-screen image to a minimum of 400 nits. It all looked wonderful indoors — the question now is how well it all works outside.

These displays blow away the Pixel 2 and 2 XL — it isn’t even close.

And yes, Google wanted to address the worries of burn-in and image retention — another big talking point of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL. Google says it has reduced the burn-in potential by half compared to last year. It has also applied additional mitigations in the software to address particular problem areas like the navigation bar and ambient display. The displays will exhibit some sort of burn-in and image retention like any other OLED screen, but Google’s confident its phones won’t perform worse than the industry averages in either respect.

It’s important to note that all of these great changes are applicable to both displays. Making the Pixel 3 and 3 XL displays look and perform identically was a goal, and to my eyes it was achieved. Speaking with Seang Chau (VP Engineering) and Raj Singh (Sr Director, Tech Engineering) from the Google hardware team, I immediately understood just how seriously Google took the displays this year, and how proud both were of the end result. I can see why — these look like a pair of screens that can compete with the best.

Even with the stretched screens, Google’s retained its front-facing stereo speakers, and put extra time into both hardware and software so that they’re even louder and clearer than before.

This comes even though the top speakers on the Pixel 3 XL is rather small, living between the two cameras in the display notch — you can tell the sound isn’t perfectly even top to bottom (or left to right, I suppose), but it sounds good regardless.

This is a solid and simple design, refined and improved on ever so slightly.

Picking them up, both phones feel amazing; just the right balance of heft and usability. The frames are entirely glossy now, which counter-intuitively provides more grip than the previous painted metal (your fingers “stick” to the gloss). The backs look the same as before, but are of course glass now (Gorilla Glass 5, in fact). Roughly two-thirds of the glass surface is etched with a fine texture that mimics the painted metal of before, providing a little grip and dramatically reducing fingerprint accumulation.

The etching only covers the flat portion of the glass as well, letting the smooth part help transition more seamlessly into the metal on the sides. For me, this is the best of both worlds. You get the solid feel and texture that you’d normally associate with metal, but the wireless charging capabilities of glass. And yes, this means these phones will be more fragile than the Pixel or Pixel 2 — that just comes with the territory.

Both phones are available in a stealthy “Just Black,” classy “Very White” and altogether new “Not Pink” colors, with no exclusivity between sizes or storage options. Black and white are just as you’d expect — though to my hands the black’s back had a bit more grit to its texture. Not Pink is an interesting one because you just have to see it in person in order to make a real decision on it. In some lighting it’s very faint, almost just off-white, while in darker lighting it looks like an intense blush pink color. It also has a salmon-colored power button, and the white one has a mint-colored button — I’m glad Google keeps tossing in these little pops of color.

Carrying the torch

It’s all about the cameras

Google’s Pixel 2 is well-regarded as having one of the best — if not the best — cameras in the smartphone world. Google knows it’s onto something good, and it’s going even further with the Pixel 3. And it’s doing so with the exact same formula: leaning on software processing, not hardware.

Google didn’t add more rear cameras because it frankly didn’t need to — it thinks software is king.

Google didn’t add a second (or third) rear camera to the Pixel 3, nor did it substantially update the hardware itself. This is still a single 12.2MP sensor — albeit a new version with better dynamic range capture — behind the same f/1.8 aperture and OIS. What’s different is the supporting cast of sensors, backed up by new processing.

For standard photos, everyone will benefit from improved HDR+ processing thanks to the Pixel Visual Core. This dedicated image chip, which was present in the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, now handles all HDR+ processing — and you’ll be able to notice the 40% speed increase, particularly with burst photos. There’s also a new spectral sensor to interpret various spectra to aid in color accuracy, and a new flicker sensor to help reduce banding and visual issues when shooting in bad lighting. Google’s extremely confident that it’s improved image quality, and I can’t wait to try it out for myself.

Google added amazing new features purely in software — and let it all run 40% faster on the Pixel Visual Core.

When lighting conditions aren’t great, Google’s now leveraging its HDR+ processing and the PVC for a new mode called “Night Sight.” When you swap to Night Sight, the camera adjusts its capture and processing to make the most out of any available light to process multiple frames while focusing on brightness rather than pure dynamic range as HDR+ normally does.

The results I saw (two of which are below) were astounding, but there was a clear trade-off of increased grain and loss of detail — but we’re talking about the difference between a photo that’s actually bright versus unrecognizably dark, so this is a huge feature.

Night Sight sample images provided by Google.

Google’s also overcoming its lack of a secondary telephoto camera with enhancements to digital zoom. Pixels already had more advanced digital zooming capabilities that smoothed artifacts, but this new system is several steps better. Now, when you’re zooming in the viewfinder the camera will take several frames sequentially, and stitch them together using sensor and OIS data to follow your hand shake — the result is multiple frames that overlap ever so slightly and are processed to dramatically increase detail.

Samples I saw made 8X zooming look more akin to what 2X zooming is like on the Pixel 2. So, what if you’re zooming while the phone is stationary, perhaps on a tripod? Google thought of that: the camera can shake the OIS manually to create the exact same effect, generating even sharper zoomed images. Too cool.

The best selfie shooter in the industry just got a companion to take even better front-facing shots.

Motion Photos make their return on the Pixel 3, and a new feature called “Top Shot” is a good reason to turn them back on. With Motion Photos enabled, the Pixel 3’s camera will now look at the buffer of frames before and after the moment you hit the shutter button to find alternate photos that may actually look better.

Think about taking a portrait on a windy day, or a shot of a group where it’s tough to get everyone smiling at the same time — the Pixel 3 will look at the entire buffer and find the best of the group, similar to a burst shot today. The difference now is that once you select the Top Shot selection, that frame gets sent through the same HDR+ processing as the main photo so you don’t lose any quality in the process.

Unlike the rear camera, Google changed quite a bit about the selfie experience — despite the fact that the Pixel 2 was already excellent. The main camera is a new 8MP sensor with auto focus and an f/1.8 lens, which in itself is already an upgrade. And it’s supported by a second 8MP sensor behind an f/2.2 wide-angle lens — that gives you options for group selfies and also improved portrait mode shots. Google’s also applying really good lens distortion fixes for the wide-angle shots so you don’t look like you have a super-wide face.

Subtle tweaks

Google Pixel 3 Software changes

Google once again preempted itself with the launch of Android 9 Pie weeks before its new phones were announced. Pie on the Pixel 3 XL hasn’t changed much from what you can use today on the Pixel and Pixel 2, but there are a couple subtle tweaks and two new features.

The biggest addition Google is likely to promote and advertise is a new “call screen” feature built into the dialer. When a call comes in, you now have the option to “screen” the call with a single touch. The caller receives an automated response from a digital voice asking them for more information about why they’re calling. That response is automatically transcribed (locally, not online) to text and shown on your screen.

You can choose to pick up the call at any time, prompt the caller for even more information, or reject it and mark the call as spam. That’s a neat feature, particularly as spam calls seem to be a problem everyone’s dealing with and aren’t going away any time soon.

The whole suite of Digital Wellbeing features are also leaving beta with the launch of the Pixel 3 and 3 XL. They’ve been put to use by plenty of people on the previous Pixels at this point, so it isn’t surprising Google is ready to make it all official. It isn’t making any announcement of altogether new features or changes, though — this is just what we’ve seen before, placed into a stable release channel.

This may not be a super exciting launch when it comes to software, but that shouldn’t be surprising. Pie itself is an interesting and feature-filled update — we’ve just seen it already. If you haven’t, you’ll enjoy a sleek, smooth and powerful version of Android that’s enjoyable to use.

More to come

Google Pixel 3 Preview

Some will decry Google’s hubris in launching the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL with mostly unchanged internals, design and features compared to last year’s lineup. I’m not one of those people. A common thread throughout our coverage of flagship phones for the past two years (or so) has been the stagnation and homogeneity of the entire market — the fact that phones are all standardizing on similar specs, features and designs with less room than ever for differentiation. If you take this as a given, and add in Google’s general desire to have a simple frill-free phone, you get phones exactly like the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL in late 2018.

Google’s last two pixels weren’t at the forefront of specs or features, either — yet they were fantastic phones.

Google’s last two Pixel releases weren’t at the forefront of design, specs, features or pricing, either — and yet, they were some of the best-reviewed phones of their generations. They were also among my all-time favorites. After using both previous generations, I’m not going to underestimate just how good the Pixel 3 and 3 XL can be using the same formula. The hardware looks and feels fantastic, the displays are dramatically improved, the camera once again looks like a world-beater, and the software will likely be as strong as ever.

One trend Google’s happy to follow is pricing; yes the Pixel 3 and 3 XL are incredibly expensive, making the proposition of “less is more” even tougher to swallow. The Pixel 3 has taken a $150 jump from last year, starting at $799 for what’s historically referred to as the “small” phone. $899 gets you into the large Pixel 3 XL, and $100 extra on either one bumps up to 128GB of storage. That’s right at the top end of what an Android phone costs nowadays, and Google thinks these phones are worth it.

Right now, I’m inclined to agree. How it all comes together in the real world after several days of intense use will have to wait for my full review, which will be coming in short order.

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The larger one is large [#acpodcast]

The rumors are real, and they’re spectacular! Daniel Bader and Jerry Hildenbrand are joined by Andrew Martonik as he provides a firsthand look at Google’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. It’s an iterative device, but in all the right areas with improvements to the camera, display, and better spec parity between the small and lager models. The phones will be available on Oct. 18th, with a starting price of $799.

As an appetizer to the main course, the LG V40 ThinQ and LG Watch W7 are here as well. V40 ThinQ is a solid phone, but the crew are less than impressed by LG’s latest watch. Dive in!

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Show Notes and Links:

• LG V40 ThinQ review
• LG V40 specifications
• LG V40: Everything you need to know
• LG Watch W7 hands-on
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL hands-on
• Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL specifications

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