Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Pixel 3 XL Second Impression: Notch City!”.
The pixel can’t stop leaking. We pretty much know everything there is to know about the pixel 3, as well as the pixel 3 xl. We, we have a very clear image now of this pixel 3., pretty much everything about it. No matter how hard you try, you literally can’t get anything past the internet, [ Applause ], so there they are. Oh, i think they look great.
They look great right for those of you on the live stream. Please stick around to see our products and more in-depth demos online really appreciate you being here with us today. Thank you very much have a great day hey what is up guys mkbhd here, and we got pixel 3 and pixel 3 xl in the studio. My main sim card has been in the pixel 3 xl since the event, so for two days now and there’s already a lot of stuff, i want to share with you that didn’t make it into my original video and that wasn’t in the keynote. So, first of all, there’s many things in that first impressions, video that weren’t in the keynote and that weren’t actually mentioned. So if you want the full rundown of all the new hardware and all the new software that was announced two days ago, that’s your video. Definitely watch that, but that was shot two weeks ago and there are definitely some things now that i’ve set it up with my own stuff that i’m starting to notice that i didn’t those two weeks ago when i was using a demo phone. So this isn’t a review. This is more like my second first impressions, second impressions with the pixel 3 xl, so right off the bat. This is the home screen setup. Yes, i’ll drop the wallpaper link for this guy in the description and my impressions of the performance right off, the bat are still that it’s fast. You know it’s smooth right now, just like my pixel 2 was out the box, and i just have to cross my fingers that this lasts a big question.
I’Ve had is how long will this last with the four gigs of ram and that ties back to the event that was easily the most low-key part of the phone when it was announced the specs they didn’t. I don’t even think they said any of the specs on stage, and that shows how much google really thinks it matters to the average person buying this phone, but for those who care snapdragon, 845, 4 gigs of ram and 64 or 128 gigs of storage non-expandable. So pretty much baseline standard we’ve seen phones with these specs from 400 to 1200. But again, if you remember the problems, i had with my pixel 2 i’ll link that full video below, if you haven’t seen it already uh.
It’S definitely got me curious. How pixel 3 will hold up now? The notch can’t talk about this phone without talking about the notch uh for me. So far, i’ve gotten used to it, but i feel like that says more about me using phones than it does about the phone. I feel like i’m in a weird position, because i’ve been using phones with notches from the oneplus 6 to the iphone 10 and 10s, and many many more for so long that uh as i use phones now, i’m just used to ignoring a notch.
You might not be in that position. A lot of people are coming from phones that don’t have notches and are trying to find a phone to buy, and this is just another one with an even bigger than normal notch. That’S not seeing it the same way, but the other reason it’s easy for you to get used to this notch when using.
It is because of the way android and apps interact with the notch or don’t interact with the notch. It all started on stage and google during the announcement, was really clever about how they showed this display on the bigger phone, always with the sweeping angles and hiding the notch and just overall, absolutely not embracing it. And who can blame them.
But then, when you actually get to start using the phone that continues like just like every other android phone with a big enough notch, the default seems to actually be to hide it. You pull down the notification tray. The notch is hidden a lot of apps and stuff that use the top of the screen apps every day i use like spotify ignore this top notch area. The camera app totally ignores it doesn’t put any controls in the notch area. Just regular rectangle waze ignores it as well, and then all the other apps that do use the notch area are basically just sort of color matching the huge notification area same as other phones. It’S just comically big now and some other apps still need updating.
I noticed instagram stories looks ridiculous right now up in the top and also uh for some reason, google’s own youtube studio, app is also kind of half cut off up there. So it’s obviously not ideal design wise, but it just kind of is what it is. Also, i’ve seen a lot of people talk about at least recently hiding this notch with software, so with pretty much any other android phone with a notch, you can use software to hide.
It you’ve probably seen that you can also technically hide this notch, though it’s buried in android p’s developer settings right now, but when you enable them, you can completely hide it all the time, but you lose so much screen real estate when you do that, obviously, because The notch is so big, it’s not quite at the point where you might as well just use a smaller phone, but it’s close i mean, i guess the screen’s still bigger so you’re gon na be fine, but people are gon na. Do this. You can also uh.
Add another notch at the bottom: if you’re just really into the pain of it, hey you do you man, so basically to round up my perspective on a notch before the review, but at least right now. I actually said this on sam sheffer’s podcast recently as well. I’Ll link that below as a person, that’s just using the phone just scrolling around swiping notifications, tweeting email or whatever you’re just numb to the notch.
At this point, i don’t really see it anymore. It’S just like every other phone with a notch uh. But when i become a video person like a youtuber or a viewer and i’m just pointing a camera at it, then it’s this horrible ugly thing.
Of course you see the notch. It’S hideous! It’S massive! It’S that bathtub! It’S a face staring back at you that you can’t ignore, but that’s when i’m in that youtuber mode, but when i’m actually using the phone. I don’t find myself uh complaining about it that much okay, a couple other small things, the haptic engine on the pixel 3 – is much improved right now. I would even say it’s the best.
I’Ve felt in an android phone, and i think google knows it they trigger it more often like almost all the time, you feel it when pulling down the notification tray every little tap, you get it while typing, while interacting with the ui a lot, and it’s pretty Good, it’s nice and clicky and really tight night sight in the camera. It’S not here! Yet it’s coming soon with a software update, but i have taken some night shots without night mode and they’re already pretty great. So night sight is hopefully going to be impressive. If it’s anything like that comparison, they showed on stage i’m really curious to see how that works out. But speaking of direct comparisons, that was a direct shot, fired a comparison to the iphone 10s on stage, which was recently announced, which is interesting to me. But i do plan on doing my own direct comparison with the camera of the iphone 10s versus the pixel 3 versus probably samsung galaxy note, 9 or whatever the best samsung camera is and then toss in one or two others, maybe red hydrogen, maybe whatever huawei’s coming Out with, let me know what you guys want to see, but hopefully that’ll be interesting to see if you can tell the difference between the best camera smartphones at the end of 2019.
anyway, on pixel 3 there’s also now in the camera app a raw plus jpeg Option which is awesome so, if you’re slowing down a bit and really trying to take some great shots, you can turn it on and get raw image files and go straight into editing those you can do lightroom or whatever app you use. I love seeing that baked into the stock camera app of a phone. That knows it’s going to be used for photography, and i also noticed that in the youtube app, if i go into full screen mode, it plays off center on the pixel 3 xl. It cuts off the area to one side, the size of the notch and then cuts off the other area on the other side, also the size of the notch. So it’s kind of annoying now that it’s off center to be honest, the best alternative would be having the notch cutting into the video and then losing also some of the top and the bottom. So i guess i’ll deal with it being sort of off center, but they could totally adjust that in a software update anyway.
That’S it for now just a super quick. Second, first impressions, uh can’t go too in depth, but the full review is coming soon, so definitely subscribe to see that to be among the first when it comes out, if you haven’t already, but until the next one thanks for watching catch, you guys later peace, .