I have used the following phones so far starting with Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Nexus 5X and now the Pixel 2. I bought it when it was selling at Rs 39999 for a brief period as it seemed like good value for money. My choice was between One Plus 5T and the Pixel 2. I preferred the Pixel 2 owing to it’s better camera and the promise of getting new android versions as soon as they come out.
The look is nothing special compared to many of the new phones except the glass portion on the top part of the back which gives a different more polished look. The feel of the phone is very good thanks to the special coating on the back. Also it does not attract any fingerprints. The location of the fingerprint sensor is quite comfortable and the fingers of either left or right hand easily reach there. The power button and volume up/down buttons are on the right side and quite standard for many phones. The screen is not edge to edge so this is a minus for many people. The quality of the screen is excellent and you can adjust the colours to make it natural or more saturated colours as per your personal choice. It is an excellent screen and with HD it is easy to read and large enough for most day to day use including browsing. It is bright enough even in bright sunlight. There is a night light setting which makes it very comfortable to use at night. Sound is really excellent and loud enough as there are speakers in the front. This is good since the Nexus 5X had poor sound output. There is no 3.5 mm jack but only the USB C port which doubles for the earphones. There is a small convertor from USB C to 3.5 mm jack so you can use your normal earphones too.
The phone is moisture and dust proof. The software is currently Oreo 8.1 Feb 18 security patch. The phone is extremely smooth and fast. There is no problem in moving from app to app and one can have many apps open without feeling any hesitation. RAM is more than adequate. I have around 110 apps and might add some more. Video play is smooth and web browsing is a breeze with Chrome browser. Software wise one can’t fault the phone at all.
There was a problem with VoLTE activation. After some reading I was able to use Magisk module to activate it. The call sound is very loud and clear now. The same method also works on the Nexus 5X. Let us now look at the camera. I have always had good cameras on my phones and have used them extensively for shooting on holidays and at events as it is usually a bit of a drag to used the DSLR. The Nexus 5X camera was very good but the problem of slow picture taking using HDR+ was a problem. After taking a photo it would not be available for anything from 5-10 secs while the processing was completed. This resulted in excellent pictures which many of my friends could not differentiate from DSLR photos unless one greatly magnified the images.
The great difference in the Pixel 2 is that now the computation is done by a dedicated chip which does billions of calculations to give the photos instantaneously. The camera can also give a bokeh effect using only one lens unlike the two lens used in the Apple or other new phones. Portrait mode works quite well using the front facing camera except if there are strands of hair standing out these tend to disappear. The 120 and 240 slow motion work well particularly in good light. If the lighting is poor then the video images aren’t very good. This is a problem with all phones. Low light photography is a breeze and the results are exceptional. I can safely say that if I need some good photographs and I do not have my DSLR I would happily use the Pixel 2. Video in 1080p is excellent with good image stabilisation. I don’t use 4K Video but it works well but with high battery use.
I get a comfortable 4 hour Screen On Time(SOT) with 24 hour battery use. I need to plug it for charging only every 24 hours. The charging is quick and takes about 90 mins from around 20% to full charge. Thankfully the Oreo software gives very good control of all settings and one can really customise the notifications and power use.
I don’t do any gaming and for most of my daily work the phone never gets warm. Bluetooth works very well both in the house with speakers, headsets and even in the cars. Wifi is stable and I have never had any problem with disconnection or fading signal. I have used both USB and Bluetooth tethering. These also work well. The only problem I have had is that with my older USB C cable which worked on the Nexus 5X now does not work with the Oreo 8.1 and Windows 10. I have to use the new cable that came with the charger to connect the Pixel 2 to the Laptop. This is a bug which is I believe related to USB 3.0 ports. It has not yet been resolved.
I can’t really fault this phone for anything at the price I picked it up. I wanted a phone to use with one hand and to be able to carry it around in my shirt of trouser pocket without inconvenience. I think this phone meets that requirement very adequately.