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Do the Pixel 2 and Pixel2 XL phones live up to the hype? Well, yes and no.
After the speculation, the 'leaks' and the hype, comes the reality. Google has unveiled the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones and announced India pricing and availability. If one were to do a reality check against what was widely expected ( see our story here) there are some hits as well as misses.
Yes, the battery has been beefed up as expected: 27mAh with the Pixel 2 and 3520 mAh with the Pixel 2 XL -- both promises 7 hours or more from a 15 minute charge.
Squeeze to ask
Yes, Active Edge has come to Pixel phones. Squeezing the side of the phone activates Google Assistant and avoids you having to say, 'OK, Google', in public. The Assistant remains Google's agni asthra, since it has the formidable Google search engine to back it. By fueling it with Artificial Intelligence, Google will probably pitch for a comparison with Apple's Siri , Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa -- and hope to come out on top. The squeeze on the "Active Edge" can also be used to silence the phone. By the way, the squeeze edge feature was available in HTC's U11 phone. No coincidence then that HTC is manufacturing the Pixel 2 for Google.
No, Google has not gone bezel-less like so many other "infinity display" phones. The bezel is slightly smaller in the XL model. But as expected both models come with OLED displays, albeit with minor differences. In this respect, it has taken on the new iPhone. Another 'me too' feature like iPhone 8: no audio headphone jack. If you want to use your old headphones, you have to plug it into the Type C USB port after plugging in an adapter.
Dual sensor, not dual camera
Also like iPhone 8 series, the Pixel phones let you record a few seconds of video before your click a still. Google claims it has now got the best phone camera in the market -- but that will need a closer look to substantiate. It has not gone in for twin cameras as widely expected. Both the rear ( 12.2MP) and front (8MP) are single camera systems , though the rear camera has dual sensors for superior depth sensing and autofocus. Both the iPhone 8 and the Pixel 2 make much of the abillity to blur the background in portrait shots. This will seem like no big deal to Indians, who are used to the bokeh effect feature in almost all leading Chinese and some Indian phones, for over a year now.
Pixel 2 and2 XL are matched to the also released new edition of the Daydream VR headset. This is a bit curious because with its other hat, Google is also promoting ARCore the augmented reality platform for phones which does away with the need to use a headset.
Google Lens
One new feature still not fully mature, is what Google calls Google Lens: a new set of visual features that harness computer vision and machine learning that will sense what the camera is seeing and bring additional information about the scene or object. Lens is enabled in Pixel 2 but it may be a few months before it becomes useful.
Other than the squeezable edge and Google Lens, most Pixel 2 and 2XL features seem to be incremental rather than disruptive. And the pricing places it in competition with iPhone 8 series and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Pixel 2 with 64 GB costs Rs 61,000 in India, and with 128 GB costs Rs 70,000. This is a 5 inch phone.
The 6 inch Pixel 2 XL costs Rs 73,000 and Rs 82,000 respectively for 64 GB and 128 GB. Both phones have 4 GB RAM. They will be available in India from November 1 ( Pixel 2) and November 15 (Pixel 2 XL).
