Google’s two new babies are here – the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. Let’s take a look at their features and decide whether they stand a chance against the iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Imagine you’re trekking in the Himalayas and you want to capture the beautiful scenery to relive that moment of complete serenity when you’re back to your over-polluted, extra-busy city life. You pull out your smartphone and try to capture the beauty as it is, but sadly all you get is an overexposed image. This is the time that you’ll wish you had a good camera, or at least a phone with a good camera so that you can capture the essence of the moment.
Well, no more worries! The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, which come with the highest-rated smartphone cameras (according to Google), are here to capture your life’s precious moments in all their glory. Oh, and it’s not just the camera that’s awe-inspiring. These Google devices have got much more to them. Aren’t you excited? Here’s everything.
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Hardware
It’s indeed a beauty! Unlike most other glam-focused phones making their appearance in today’s extremely competitive smartphone market, Google’s latest Pixel phones decided to stay away from all the glam and glitz. There’s nothing too flashy about these phones – they aren’t going to get you all the attention when you walk into a pub! At the same time, the design isn’t too standard either.
Google focussed on practicality and ease of use and gave the new Pixels a design that’s somewhere in between homely and flashy, we’d say. It’s simple, but it’s still attractive! The aluminium unibody, great colour choices, fancy power button colours (what do you think about a neon power button?), Corning Gorilla Glass 5, and IP67 water and dust resistance won’t disappoint for sure.
The high-resolution, gorgeous display and front-facing, high-definition stereo speakers make the Pixels a great choice for multimedia (videos, music) addicts.
Performance
Both the Pixel 2 devices come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, an octa-core CPU, 4 gigs of RAM, and Android 8.0 Oreo. There’s no doubt that the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL will deliver a fantastic performance, no matter what you throw at it.
Being Google’s very own, you won’t have to worry about timely updates. And Google’s UI isn’t something to be bothered about. Storage isn’t an issue either. The base model comes with 64 GB internal storage space which is more than sufficient for most users. Plus, you get unlimited Google Drive storage space for your photos and videos.
All in all, you can expect a speedy, glitch-free performance.
Camera
Love to click photos or shoot videos? Then you’ll surely love the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. After all, it’s the camera that makes an awesome phone even more awesome. Unlike the current trend, Google stuck with a single lens at the rear instead of opting for dual lenses. Both phones have a 12.2 MP primary shooter and an 8 MP selfie camera. From what we’ve heard, the results have been quite impressive.
Additional Reading: Lights, Camera And A Whole Lot of Action – Behind The Lens With Pritham D’Souza
Battery
A 2700 mAh battery powers the Pixel 2 and a 3520 mAh battery powers the Pixel 2 XL. Though it’s pretty early to gauge the battery performance of these devices, heavy users can expect to get at least a day’s battery life especially on the bigger Pixel 2 XL. Both the devices also claim to give seven hours of battery life with just 15 minutes of charging.
Additional Reading: The 5 Best Smartphones Under Rs. 20,000
New Tricks
Google added a few exclusive features to its new Pixel range. Here are three that really caught our attention:
Google lens – With this feature, your Pixel’s camera will be used to pull up information about landmarks, objects, dates, emails and even famous works of art. Interesting, isn’t it? Let’s just wait and find out how well it works!
Squeeze for assistance – Yes, you heard it right! Just squeeze your Pixel smartphone and it will launch Google assistance. You can even squeeze to silence alarms and incoming calls.
Ambient music detection – Love the song that’s playing in your gym but have no clue about it? Your Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL will automatically identify the song and the always-on display will show the name of the song. So cool, right?
Additional Reading: iPhone X At Rs. 102,000? How About Smart Money First?
A Quick Overview
| Feature | Google Pixel 2 | Google Pixel 2 XL |
| Operating System (OS) | Android 8.0 (Oreo) | Android 8.0 (Oreo) |
| Display | 5” FHD AMOLED, 441ppi | 6” QHD+ P-OLED, 538ppi |
| Camera | Rear – 12.2 MP Front – 8 MP |
Rear – 12.2 MP Front – 8 MP |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, Octa-core | Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, Octa-core |
| RAM | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| Internal Storage | 64 GB 128 GB |
64 GB 128 GB |
| Battery | 2700 mAh | 3520 mAh |
| Waterproof | Yes | Yes |
The Verdict
Quality – check!
Functionality – check!
There isn’t anything exceptionally great about the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL but Google’s managed to pack all the right things into two modestly-designed phones. You can expect consistent performance, two great cameras and timely software updates.
Additional Reading: If We Gave You Rs. 1 Lakh, Would You Buy The iPhone X?
What’s the Google Pixel 2’s price in India?
The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are expected to hit the Indian market in November. The Pixel 2 will start at Rs. 61,000 (64 GB), while the bigger Pixel 2 XL will start at Rs. 73,000 (64 GB). There are three colour variants to choose from too – Denim, White, Black.
Here’s how you can finance and buy the phone:
Pre-orders for both of these gorgeous devices have already started on Flipkart, Google’s exclusive online partner for the two phones. And trust us when we say this – there are amazing pre-order offers, especially for HDFC cardholders. Pre-order now to avail the below offers:
- Exchange your old phone and get an extra Rs. 5,000 off. Applicable on select models.
- 50% buyback value guarantee from Flipkart. Woohoo!
- Get a Rs. 11,990 Sennheiser headset at just Re. 1. Ooh-la-la! Don’t really need the headset? A little birdie told us that you’ll get a good resale price for it <wink>.
- No-cost EMI option available. Starts from Rs. 3,389 per month.
- Use your HDFC Credit Card and get Rs. 8,000 cashback on your EMIs. Don’t have an HDFC card? There’s still time to get one. And we’ve got a few awesome ones for you too. Click here for more information.
With the Rs. 5,000 additional exchange offer for eligible old phones and cashback, HDFC cardholders can get the Pixel 2 for just Rs. 33,000 (This is an estimate because the exchange price will be decided by Flipkart ultimately). Here’s how we came up with this price:
| Pixel 2 retail price | Rs. 61,000 |
| Eligible old phone exchange price with additional Rs. 5,000 off | Rs. 20,000 (Estimate. Subject to change) |
| HDFC Credit Card cashback | Rs. 8,000 |
| Actual cost of the phone | Rs. 33,000 |
In addition, there is the 50% buyback offer too. So, if you want to upgrade your Pixel 2 to the next best smartphone after 6 months or a year or so, you’ll surely get an exchange price of Rs. 30,500 from Flipkart.
We’ve got one-day approvals on our range of Credit Cards. Get yourself a Credit Card before these awesome pre-order offers expire.