Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Hands on with the latest Google phones

The launch of Google’s first in-house manufactured smartphones – the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL – marks the first time the search giant has nose-to-nose with Apple on both software and hardware fronts after years of partnering with third-party manufacturers such as LG and Huawei. That’s a big deal. It means Apple has another big rival to deal with in the smartphone space, and one with the muscle of Google means it should be worried, or at the very least mildly concerned about where the industry is heading.

But what are these two new phones like? Well, after months of rumours and leaks… then more leaks and rumours, I finally got my hands on the two phones at the launch event, at which Google also unveiled the Daydream VR headset and Google Home (which, alas, is not currently destined for UK release). And, as you might expect of a pair of smartphones priced at exactly the same level as Apple’s two flagships, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, they’re very nicely made things indeed.

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Essentially, the look of the Pixel is a progression of that seen on last year’s Nexus 6P but sleeker and more attractive. It could even be described as a touch outlandish, with its inset glass camera surround spanning half the entire rear panel, encompassing the camera and circular, centre-mounted fingerprint reader. The result is eye-catching – in a good way – and the rest of the physical design is right up there with the best of them as well.

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Both the Pixel and Pixel XL are surrounded by a slender, slightly squared-off aluminium frame. The power and volume rockers are in sensible positions along the right edge, the SIM tray is on the left edge, and the speakers are in the bottom left and right corners facing down. A USB Type-C data/charge port delivering “up to seven hours of battery life in just 15 minutes” sits between them. It’s probably worth pointing out, too, that there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack here, on the top edge. Google was keen to point this out at the launch, to much chuckling from the attending crowd.

Overall, the design is neat, understated, solid and smart: everything you’d expect of a Pixel product in fact, and the fact it looks a little out of the ordinary is just a bonus. I’m a fan of the colours the phones come in, as well: “Quite Black”, “Very Silver” and “Really Blue”. Very knowing.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL: Key specifications

Where Google’s Nexus phones have succeeded in the past is by including a top-level specification at a reasonable price. That’s certainly true of the raw hardware specifications of 2016s Pixel phones.

Both phones are identical in most of the important areas. Each has a 2.1GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor and 4GB of RAM forming the core performance partnership. The phones come in 32GB and 128GB variants, just like Apple’s iPhone 7, but there’s no super-expensive 256GB option. 

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Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Cameras

The rear-facing camera is a 12-megapixel unit, the same resolution as last year’s Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X phones, but this time with optical image stabilisation to improve performance in low light. The front camera is an 8-megapixel snapper, outdoing Apple’s iPhone.

And it looks as if it might be quite good as well. Pre-launch, Google sent a Pixel to imaging experts DxOMark, which have awarded it a rating of 89 – that’s one mark better than the Samsung Galaxy S7, no less, and three in front of the iPhone 7.

Google was also keen to push the speed of its camera app and the effectiveness of its “HDR+” processing algorithm, which is enabled by default. It smugly demonstrated the effectiveness of its optical image stabilisation for video capture, and announced that Pixel owners would receive unlimited storage for photos and videos, at original resolution. Until now, unlimited storage has been available to all Google Photos users, but at reduced quality.

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Another nice touch is support for physical gestures in the camera app, in particular the ability to switch between front and rear cameras with a quick double twist of the wrist. 

Battery capacity, as I mentioned earlier, is the only place the two phones differ – apart from the size, of course. The smaller Google Pixel has a 2,770mAh battery, while the Pixel XL has a 3,450mAh power pack. Whether this translates into better battery life on the bigger phone depends largely on the efficiency of the display. My guess is that it will be better, but not by a huge margin. 

Google Assistant and extra software features

Both the Google Pixel and Pixel XL run Google’s very latest operating system – that’s Android Nougat – but there’s one more thing it has waited until now to add. Google Assistant, which is effectively Google Now renamed and tweaked, forms the fulcrum of the firm’s AI vision, and it’s woven into the very fabric of everything you do with the Pixel.

Assistant works in a slightly different way to Google Now. To activate it, you can touch and hold the phone’s home button or use the long-standing “OK Google” keyword. There’s also a new graphic on the homepage to access the feature: instead of a wide box that stretches across the width of the screen, you get a compact circular icon in the top-left corner, leaving more room for your app shortcuts.

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Effectively, it’s an expanded, refined Google Now, and the new Pixel phones will be the first to get it. Other features include automatic software updates and a new tool for transferring across all the data and apps from your old phone.

And, of course, the phone is “VR ready”: just drop the handset into Google’s new Daydream View headset, strap it to your face and you have access to a variety of new VR content, the whole of YouTube and Google Movies, plus games, a bunch of educational stuff and more.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Hands-on impressions

With Google now going head-to-head with Apple, the big question is has the search giant cracked it? First impressions are immensely positive. As you’d expect for a smartphone running the very latest Qualcomm hardware and clean Android OS, it feels super-slick in use.

Most impressive, however, is the sheer quality and attention to detail in the design. Both phones are super-slim at 8.6mm from glass to aluminium at the rear, and yet – unlike Apple’s iPhones – eminently grippable. What do I mean by that? Simply that by introducing something as simple as slightly angled edges, the phones feel less slippery in the hand, and less like you’re going to drop them onto the floor.

The fact that the larger Pixel XL is lighter than its iPhone 7 Plus counterpart helps a lot, too, although the smaller Pixel is actually a touch heavier than the standard iPhone 7. That’s probably because the smaller Pixel is a 5in phone, where the iPhone 7 has a 4.7in screen.

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Google Pixel and Pixel XL review: Early verdict

Google’s two Pixel phones mark a major move for not only the company itself, but also the technology industry in general. It’s disappointing, though, that Google apparently hasn’t made any effort to keep the price down to a more reasonable level – and that may affect its long-term popularity.

What we have here is a pair of smartphones that are precisely the same cost as the equivalent iPhones. The Pixel is £599 and the Pixel XL is £719, matching Apple’s flagships pound for pound. Will this approach work for Google in what is becoming an increasingly cut-throat business? How many phones this expensive can the market support? Only time will tell, but the phones themselves certainly look the part.