Intro
I've been using the Google Pixel 2 (manufactured by HTC) for almost three months now so I think I've got my bearings roughly right with this camera - I mean the phone. There were three main reasons why I decided to pony up the pretty substantial amount of hard currency:
The camera
The camera!
Plain vanilla Android
Latest updates straight to the phone
Oops, that was more than three! Anyway, let's say I had three main reasons and then there was this one more thing: the extremely cool Moment lenses that attach to their special Pixel 2 case (sleeve, whatever). So, I got the Pixel 2 together with the Moment photo case and two of their lenses - Wide and Superfish.
The larger phone - XL, made by LG - was never an alternative for me. I find it too big and there have also been several pretty serious issues with the device, connected both to the software and the hardware. Obviously, the hardware related problems are extremely difficult or completely impossible to fix by software updates. Surprisingly messy for sure, no way I’d want to deal with any of that.
Getting started
Let's start with the general user experience. It's been a long time since I was using a brand new phone so everything immediately felt extremely responsive and fast. Lightning fast! The fingerprint sensor (whoa, high-tech) - is conveniently located on the back of the phone and it works flawlessly. There is no traditional audio jack and that sure is a bummer (hate the adapters) but not a deal breaker for me; I use my old, tiny Sony MW600 bt receiver together with the in-ear Bose QC25; the bt connection has been rock solid. There is no external sd-card slot either and no exchangeable battery but I’d guess that’s just the way things are these days. The screen looks just fine but the ‘Adaptive brightness’ feature is way too nervous, often changing the brightness even when there’s no noticeable change in the ambient light. So, I often prefer the manual setting 2-3% indoors and when I then go out to the bright sunshine it’s impossible to see anything on the screen! It drives me nuts; guess I’ll have to see if the Lux app functions okay with the Pixel 2.
Battery life seems decent enough for me, perhaps because I hardly ever play games and very rarely make (or receive, yay!) phone calls. The Battery saver gives me some additional hours and affects my use of the phone less than I thought. Most often - if I don’t go completely crazy, shooting photos and video - the fully charged battery takes me through the full day with some juice to spare when it’s time to hit the hay. Charging is not wireless but pretty fast anyway, especially when using the dedicated charger that came with the phone. I must also admit it’s neat that I can’t insert the plug into the phone the wrong way any longer! That’s part of the USB-C upside for sure.
The looks of the phone? Sure, very nondescript and kinda old fashioned with the large bezels both on top and at the bottom. However, that’s fitting for me in general - I’m slightly nondescript and old fashioned myself - so I don’t mind at all. I also always have the phone in the Moment photo case (wooden back!) which I really like a lot. Re-booting the Pixel 2 is something I haven’t done many times but it sure is very fast. The only weird thing, when re-booting, is that the screen turns super bright for a couple of seconds. What on earth is the point with that?!
The camera
It’s definitely true: the Pixel 2 camera is pretty darn great. Demanding sunshine-and-shadows combinations, really low light conditions, the computational ‘bokeh’ (simulated shallow depth of field) - all of this works amazingly well. Add the superb Moment lenses and hey presto: it’s almost like real photography once again, brought back from the days long gone straight to my phone! Video quality seems very good, too, and the built-in stabilization does an excellent job. On the wish list, still: more manual control (naturally optional, only for those of us who like that kind of thing) in the camera app. There are lots of additional bells and whistles in the app which are not that interesting to me; the Lens is an exception though. You can already get quite a bit of interesting information through Lens and it’s most probably going to get even better in near future.
Just Android
I’ve never been a great fan of the apps - or the OS modifications - various producers of Android phones add to their devices. The apps that I never use tend to take quite a bit of storage space and most often they are impossible to erase completely from the phone. It’s a very real blessing, to skip all that crapware!
Latest Android
As soon as Google starts rolling out the latest Android updates, they will also be available to my Pixel 2 - which is the way it should be with any Android phone. However, I can’t help it, being a bit anxious every time it’s time for an update but I haven’t had any issues so far.
Summary
I have absolutely no regrets about my purchase so far; I had done my homework in advance and got my money’s worth, even though the auto brightness should function more smoothly in a premium device like the PIxel 2. Almost forgot: the phone is able to cope just fine with rain as well, or even worse. However, I’m not going to throw it in a bucket of water just to find out if the water protection really cuts is or not!
