Pixel 2 and 2 XL review—The best Android phone you can buy

Hardware: A tale of two phones

The biggest area where the two phones diverge is the front. The LG-made Pixel 2 XL looks like a modern device that keeps up with the slim-bezel trend of 2017. By reducing the amount of dead space on the front of the device, LG was able to cram a 6-inch 2880×1440 OLED display into a phone that is still about the same size as the 5.5-inch Pixel XL. The 18:9 aspect ratio means the screen is taller than usual, which is great because you get to see more of a vertical list or more of a webpage. If you use Android's split-screen mode, you get more space for apps. The Pixel 2 XL front design is great—you get more screen in the same amount of space—and that makes it a huge upgrade over the Pixel XL.

On the other hand, the HTC-made Pixel 2 front is a disappointment. There are basically no gains made over last year—Google is still using an old-school 16:9 display with absolutely massive bezels on the top and bottom of the phone. It's still a 5-inch screen with a 1920x1080 resolution. The screen-to-body ratio is basically the same as last year, but the smaller Pixel 2 is actually uglier than its Pixel predecessor, since the sharper body corners make the bezels seem taller.

Thanks to references in the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) repository and some reliable reports, we know a bit about how the development process of the Pixel 2 went down. Originally, HTC and Google were sticking to the same plan as last year, with HTC making sequels to the Pixel (codenamed "Walleye") and the Pixel XL (codenamed "Muskie"). There was also a third phone, though—an LG-made Pixel 2 XL, codenamed "Taimen." Eventually, the HTC-made Pixel 2 XL (Muskie) was cancelled, and Google went with an HTC Walleye and LG Taimen lineup. The early reports tell us that the HTC Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL had similar designs, so did Google cancel the HTC Pixel 2 XL because it wanted a more modern looking flagship?

Enough about the fronts for now: both Pixels have moved this year to IP67 dust and water resistance, which is a big upgrade after last year's models had no water resistance at all. The first number in these "IP" ratings are the dust protection, and Wikipedia tells me the "6" means "No ingress of dust" even under a vacuum. A "7" water resistance means the Pixels are good for total immersion in up to 1 meter of water. Some phones have IP68 resistance, which generally means they're good for 3 meters of water. So you can wash a Pixel in the sink, take it swimming, or use it in a tub—just don't drop it in the deep end of the pool.

Just like last year, the Pixel 2s have an aluminum unibody construction. With most of the industry switching to glass, Google is making one of the last metal devices out there. I prefer metal because it survives a drop much better than the glass-backed phones out there, and it doesn't feel cheap to me the way plastic does. The industry's move to glass seems to be entirely because glass makes things easier for OEMs. Glass doesn't block RF signals the way metal does, so the antenna design for an all-glass phone is easier to design and manufacture than a phone with a metal back. It's definitely possible to make a metal phone with great reception—Apple did it for years with the iPhone 5, 6, and 7—but lately more OEMs are taking the easy way out regardless of the durability drawbacks.

Similar to its predecessors, the Pixel 2s take a mixed approach to the glass-versus-metal dilemma. The majority of the back is metal, but up at the top the glass back serves as an RF window to easily let all the bits in and out. This year the window is even smaller. The Pixel 1 and 1 XL had 47mm- and 49mm-tall glass panels, respectively, making the back of the phone about 32 percent glass. The Pixel 2 and 2XL have cut the window down to 30 and 32mm, respectively, so now only about 20 percent of the back is glass. There's not much of the Pixel design that stands out as unique, but I think these back panels look great. They also offer a good mix between the premiumness and durability of metal, while still letting all the wireless signals in and out.

Because the glass panel is so much smaller, the fingerprint reader on the Pixel 2 moved from the glass window to the metal back. Unlike a certain other flagship, the fingerprint reader sits in a great spot on the back of both phones—your finger naturally falls right on the sensor when holding it. This year Google says the Pixel 2 sensor "unlocks faster than any other smartphone," and in my testing it always seemed fast and accurate. A rear fingerprint reader does have some trade offs—you have to pick up the phone when it's on a desk, for instance—but there's certainly no room for it on the front until those magical under-screen fingerprint readers get made. Google has great supporting software to help with this; Android's "smart lock" feature allows you to set the phone to automatically unlock by location or paired Bluetooth devices. That's usually enough to never have the phone ask for a lock screen challenge in the kind of safe, familiar places where you would leave your phone, like on a desk.

Metal backs and wireless charging

The one thing you don't get with Google's metal-and-glass mix is wireless charging, which is probably going to experience a comeback thanks to Apple's backing of Qi charging. Qi charging is enabled by a big, flat metal coil that is usually placed in the back of the phone, and while Qi works fine through glass, a metal back can interfere with the inductive power transfer. Since 2015, Qualcomm has claimed it can do wireless charging through metal with its "WiPower" technology, but we've never seen the technology actually come to a phone.

Wireless power was all the rage in Android-land back in 2013, but that was back when wired charging was awful and wireless seemed like a decent alternative. We were all dealing with awful MicroUSB charging ports, which weren't reversible. Even if you had the right orientation, they were finicky to plug in, especially in the dark. They were fragile, and either the ports on the phones would break or the spring connectors on the wires would wear out, resulting in an unreliable, loose fit. Back in 2013, not having to deal with any of that seemed like a feature.

Since 2013, though, wired chargers have seen big updates. The USB-C connector is more durable, and its oval shape and reversible nature make it easy to plug in without a fuss. USB-C also has a much wider range of compatibility—never before have you been able to have a laptop charger double as a phone charger. Wired chargers have also seen a massive speed boost, with various "quick charging" standards that blast smartphone batteries from 0 to 50 percent in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, wireless chargers haven't moved forward much. They're still really slow, and they still require pinpoint positioning in order to charge the phone. Today, it's not hard to bump your phone off the wireless charger, go to bed, and wake up with a phone that didn't get charged.

Until Apple revived wireless charging interest with the iPhone 8, the wireless charger seemed like it was going to die of obsolescence. I certainly don't miss wireless charging on the Pixel 2s, and I'm really not sure why Apple is suddenly trying to bring the technology back. Hopefully this doesn't doom all flagships to fragile glass backs, but after seeing the 3.5mm headphone jack fiasco unfold, I'd guess most Android OEMs will be eager to follow Apple's lead next year. Hopefully Google ignores the industry trends and keeps the metal backs going forward.

The grainy LG OLED display

While the Pixel 2 ships with an OLED display made by Samsung—the leading supplier of OLED displays—the Pixel 2 XL is one of the rare devices to ship with an OLED display made by LG. Historically, LG doesn't make smartphone OLED displays, and its occasional efforts in the past haven't been very good.

In the 2013 to 2015 era, the company tried its hand at smartphone OLEDs with the awful LG G Flex and G Flex 2. Both of them had a distinctive "graininess" that meant solid colors weren't displayed as solids. Instead, images were full of brightness variations that made screens look "dirty." Sometimes, these variations formed in large bands that stretched across the display. We also saw large variations in the brightness of the display to the point that a solid color would appear as a gradient on the display.

After taking a hiatus from creating smartphone displays, LG returned to the OLED game with the V30, and both our pre-production unit and our final review unit still exhibited many of the image-quality issues that those older LG OLED displays had. The Pixel 2 XL uses the same display panel as the V30, and we're sad to say the same graininess issues apply to the Pixel 2 XL.

The Pixel 2 XL display has a consistent "dirty" grain to it, and you can see it all the time if you know what to look for. But the dirt is most noticeable in a dark room with the screen at 0-percent brightness, which is a totally normal, "night-time" use case. Any time there's a solid color background—like, say, in a list with a white background—you'll see the grain. It jumps out when you're scrolling, when the text moves but the layer of grain is stationary. If you're not in the "night-time" scenario, the grain is much less noticeable. But if you look closely, especially during scrolling, you can see it is always present.

Above, we have pictures demonstrating the grain, but please note that the pictures are meant to be exaggerated comparisons rather than realistic representations of what the screen looks like in the dark. Cameras don't work the same way the human eye does, and any time you process a picture you can make decisions about contrast, brightness, grain suppression or enhancement, or the use of smoothing algorithms. I edited the pictures with the goal of demonstrating the difference in clarity between the two screens.

In the pictures, it's easy to see that the LG-made Pixel 2 XL screen is grainier and blotchier than the Samsung-made Pixel 2 screen. This is not representative of the total amount of grain you will see in real life, but, comparatively, it's meant to demonstrate that the smaller Samsung screen on the Pixel 2 is clearer than the LG screen on the Pixel 2 XL.

The Pixel 2 XL screen also hurts the Daydream VR experience, if you're into that sort of thing. These are Google's "dumb" VR headsets that enable a smartphone-powered VR extension by sticking a pair of lenses in front of the screen. Sticking what is basically a magnifying glass in front of the grainy LG screen feels like strapping a dirty window to your face.

Again, the "scrolling" use case applies here, since you're constantly moving your head around: the world moves, but the grain in the foreground is stationary.