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- Google Pixel 2 review: What you need to know
- Google Pixel 2 review: Price and competition
- Best Google Pixel 2 contract and SIM-free deals
- Google Pixel 2 review: Design
- Google Pixel 2 review: Performance and battery life
- Google Pixel 2 review: Software and features
- Google Pixel 2 review: Display
- Google Pixel 2 review: Camera
- Google Pixel 2 review: Verdict
- Top-notch performance
- Much better display than the Pixel 2 XL
- The best smartphone camera, ever
- Expensive
Googles inevitable iPhone 8 riposte has arrived. Following the success of the iPhone 7-beating Pixel last year, it was obvious Google would once again attempt to trump Apple’s efforts with a barrage of refinements and hardware upgrades. And again, the Pixel 2 is primed to make the same hard-hitting statement this year: theres still a spot for Android in your pocket.
Google Pixel 2 review: What you need to know
The Pixel 2 is Googles latest Android flagship. The successor to last years excellent Pixel handset, this is the smartphone thats primed to set the benchmark for Android phones for the next 12 months.
As the smaller of the two new Pixels, the Pixel 2 is a 5in smartphone with an AMOLED screen and a 12-megapixel rear camera that, according to the folks at DxOMark, is the best in its class. And as you’d expect, performance takes a step up too, with the latest Snapdragon 835 processor buddying up with 4GB of RAM and a choice of either 64GB or 128GB of non-expandable storage.
Google Pixel 2 review: Price and competition
At £629 for the 64GB model and £729 for the 128GB variant, Googles second Pixel-branded smartphone doesnt come cheap. However, since its a smaller 5in phone, theres not quite as much direct competition as you might expect for the Pixel 2.
You have the iPhone 8, which has a 4.7in screen and costs £699, the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact with a 4.6in display for £499 and thats about it for the big manufacturers. Its worth considering the Samsung Galaxy S8 in the same bracket, too; although the screen is larger at 5.8in, its only fractionally larger than the Google Pixel 2, and its cheaper as well, at around £500 currently.
Best Google Pixel 2 contract and SIM-free deals
Google Pixel 2 review: Design
If youre already familiar with last years effort, 2017s design wont come as much of a surprise. Both the Pixel 2 and its plus-sized sibling keep the divisive two-tone glass and metal rear of their predecessors, although the glass strip at the top is much slimmer than before, occupying roughly an eighth of its behind.
Youll still find the circular fingerprint reader on the back, along with a solitary USB Type-C port on the bottom for charging. On the left-hand edge sits both the power button and volume rocker.
Are we missing something? Yep, the Pixel 2 doesnt have a 3.5mm headphone jack a startling move given Googles mockery of Apple last year. You better get familiar with the supplied USB Type-C to 3.5mm adapter, or invest in a decent pair of Bluetooth headphones. At least Googles latest phone has IP67 dust- and water-resistance, a feature last years Pixel lacked.
Theres also Googles Active Edge, with which you can activate Google Assistant without pressing a single button. Its basically the same as the HTC U11s squeezy feature, but with machine learning behind it that can tell a deliberate squeeze from an accidental one.
Google Pixel 2 review: Performance and battery life
Despite rumours suggesting otherwise, the Pixel 2 is powered by Qualcomms latest Snapdragon 835 processor, as opposed to the as-yet-unannounced Snapdragon 836 chipset. Thats not to say the 835 isnt welcome; most of 2017s best phones are all powered by it.
The processor works in tandem with 4GB of RAM and a choice of either 64GB or 128GB of storage. Like last year, theres no microSD expansion, but youll find a 2,770mAh battery on the inside, slightly down from last years 2,770mAh.
Its no surprise then given the more power efficient internals, that the Pixel 2 is a rapid performer. Its quicker than last years Pixel, naturally, and at least as quick as most of its rivals; the only phone it lags behind is the Apple iPhone 8 Plus. Heres how the Pixel 2 performed in the Geekbench 4 multi- and single-core CPU tests:
Likewise, the Pixel 2’s graphics performance is more than good enough to handle anything you can download from Google Play. As you should be able to see from the graph below, its once again as quick as its rivals and slower than the iPhone 8 Plus. The only outlier is the Galaxy S8, which has more pixels to render per frame than the Pixel and thus is slightly slower in the onscreen (native resolution) test.
Its battery life thats the most important aspect of performance, though, and here the Pixel 2 is a bit of a mixed bag. In our video rundown battery life test, with the screen calibrated to 170cd/m² brightness and Flight mode switched on, the Pixel 2 lasted 14hrs 17mins. For reference, that’s four hours longer than the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, but slightly behind last years Pixel and a long way short of the Samsung Galaxy S8. But it performed well in real-world use, dipping to just 30% after a snap-happy Sunday at Kew Gardens.
Should the Pixel 2 fall flat, though, Googles latest charges quickly. After 30 minutes of charging from zero, battery levels reached 44%, and after just 1hr and 20mins, the Pixel 2 was fully charged. It cant quite match the OnePlus 5s rapidity in this regard, but its pretty nippy nonetheless.
Google Pixel 2 review: Software and features
Software-wise, not too much has changed from last years Pixel. Its running stock Android Oreo which has made an appearance on the original Pixel but it doesnt include any real, impactful changes.
Picture-in-picture is the major development here, a feature focussed on multitasking that lets you keep one app, for example Netflix, in a small floating window while checking your email (or anything else you fancy) full-screen.
One of the cooler new features makes cut-and-paste much easier, through a feature called Smart Text Select. This automatically recognises items such as phone numbers, place names and addresses, making it easier to select what you need quickly with a single tap.
Buy Google Pixel 2 from Carphone Warehouse
And, finally, we have Google Lens, which is all about analysing live images rather than static ones, interpreting everyday objects like buildings, flowers and signs and providing information on them as you point the camera at them. Just like with Samsungs own Bixby, Lens should recognise what youre pointing your camera at and offer to perform follow-up actions on that information. I say should, because as it stands Lens struggles a bit, identifying Londons famous BT Tower as simply a control tower and a bottle of red wine as liqueur.
Google Pixel 2 review: Display
The Pixel 2 doesnt come equipped with the same edge-to-edge 2K display of the bigger, Pixel 2 XL; instead, were treated to a regular 5in Full HD (1,080 x 1,920) AMOLED panel with a regular 16:9 aspect ratio, bezels and all. Have a read of my Pixel 2 XL review, though, and youll find that this is, in fact, a good thing.
Unlike the original Pixel, you can choose from either standard or vibrant display profiles in the phones settings. The former produces more accurate-looking colours, while the latter had a tendency to oversaturate colours but not by much.
Both modes are reasonably colour accurate. The standard profile is the better of the two, with our X-Rite colour calibrator returning an average Delta E of 1.71 (0 is perfect) and is a much better display than the 2 XLs display with its viewing-angle problems.
Its reasonably readable in bright sunlight, too. A circular polarising layer helps to reduce glare while peak brightness reaches 410cd/m² . Thats not as bright as the Samsung Galaxy S8 achieves, though, so expect to do some screen shading in really bright conditions. Given this is an AMOLED panel, though, at least contrast is perfect, which means both movies and photos benefit from plenty of pop.
Google Pixel 2 review: Camera
Last, but certainly not least, is the camera. Here, were treated to an almost identical 12-megapixel rear snapper to last years, but with a wider f/1.8 aperture that has both optical and electronic image stabilisation for seriously stable shots.
Given the wider aperture, the Pixel 2s low-light performance is simply stunning, wrestling away its predecessors crown in one swift strike. If anything, the colours are slightly less rich than the originals efforts, but it outperforms its predecessor with more neutral and accurate colour representation.
White balance is slightly off, leaving us with pictures that looked slightly warmer than they should be, but theres a noticeable improvement over last years Pixel. The original tended to wash over the image with a yellow-ish tint, but the same ill effect hasnt reappeared.
Where the Pixel 2 also impresses is in outdoor shots. In good light, the Pixel 2 produced pictures with superb dynamic range and colour saturation, while the white balance was much more accurate. The Pixel really does set a brand new smartphone photography benchmark, distancing itself even further from both its predecessor and Samsungs excellent Galaxy S8.
Theres also a handful of new shooting features too, including motion photo, which captures a brief section of video to go with your still shots, and a portrait mode, which replicates the blurred bokeh background effect you get when shooting with a DSLR.
Meanwhile, the same cant be said about its video capabilities. 4K capture is crisp and bursting with detail, but the Pixel 2 suffers from some very odd-looking colours. Across the palate, colours are hyper-saturated, and detail capture is noticeably softer than both the S8 and last years effort.
Google Pixel 2 review: Verdict
Once again, Google is leading the Android charge. It might be sticking with same uninspired design as last year’s and lacks the bezel-less display of its supersized sibling but a much-needed processor upgrade and welcome camera improvements have seen the Pixel 2 rocket to the top of our smartphone wish list. The Google Pixel 2 is as good as Android handsets get and, arguably, as good as any smartphone on the market. You should probably buy one.
