Google Pixel 3 - Review 2022

Lovers of small Android phones rejoice, Google has answered your prayers with the Pixel 3. For the first time in years, yous no longer accept to make the option between comfort and functioning. The Pixel 3 ($799.99 for 64GB or $899.99 for 128GB) has the same top-of-line specs and features as its larger sibling, the Pixel iii Twoscore, including excellent camera performance and some very cool new functionality like call screening and automated travel booking (once Google Duplex is released). If you want a pure, AI-driven Google experience in a one-handed course factor, the Pixel 3 is the telephone to buy and our Editors' Choice.

Blueprint and Features

Google is going for a more modern look for the Pixel 3. The entire back is glass, just near of it uses a proprietary matte terminate while the superlative is left sleeky. The front is protected by a pane of Gorilla Glass 5. Colour options include black, white, and a very lite pinkish that Google calls "Non Pink." The bezels have been slimmed down from the Pixel 2 and the phone at present has a current xviii:9 aspect ratio, maximizing screen real manor relative to its size. That said, in that location's however some notable bezel on the top and bottom to adjust the front end-firing stereo speakers.

The telephone measures 5.vii by two.7 past 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.2 ounces, making it significantly lighter than the Apple iPhone XS (5.7 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches, 6.two ounces) and only a little shorter than the Samsung Milky way S9 (5.eight past two.seven by 0.3 inches, five.8 ounces). The real selling point over its larger sibling (which measures 6.2 by 3.0 past 0.3 inches and weighs six.5 ounces) is simply how manageable it feels in your hand. I institute it easy to reach beyond the screen and to the top to collaborate with notifications and other elements. It'southward one of the most comfortable phones to use with one mitt.

Despite being covered in glass and having a shine coating along its aluminum sides, the Pixel 3 doesn't experience slippery thanks to its soft-touch terminate. The white model we tested didn't option up fingerprints or scratches while we used it, but y'all can always throw on a case if yous're worried. Google'southward distinctive fabric cases (not included) are a especially overnice option.

As far equally buttons and ports get, there are no surprises here. At that place's a USB-C port on the bottom for charging next to a SIM card slot. There'southward no expandable storage, which has always been the example for Google's Pixel/Nexus line. The fingerprint sensor on the dorsum is inside piece of cake reach. And you won't find a 3.5mm headphone jack, but yous do go a USB-C dongle along with a pair of wired USB-C Pixel Buds.

Left to right: Pixel 3 Xl, Pixel 3

A somewhat stiff power push and volume rocker are on the right side. The quondam is brightly colored (lime green in the case of the white Pixel three), making information technology stand out from the remainder of the phone. Double pressing information technology allows you to quickly launch the camera. The standard software buttons are gone, replaced with gesture navigation. Swiping up on the home screen and continuing to swipe brings up the app drawer; swiping up one time enters multitasking and swiping to the left or right lets y'all curl open apps; swiping right on the habitation button and apace releasing lets yous switch to the previous app. It takes a fiddling chip of getting used to, simply I quickly grew to enjoy information technology.

Similar on the Pixel two, hither you have Google's Agile Border, which incorporates a squeeze sensor on the sides of the phone to speedily launch Google Assistant. Information technology's responsive and doesn't trigger accidentally once you calibrate the squeeze sensitivity, and in that location'southward satisfying haptic feedback when it activates. Information technology's not reprogrammable to launch a different app, but you lot tin too squeeze to silence timers, alarms, notifications, and incoming calls.

Like other flagship phones, the Pixel 3 is IP68 waterproof, allowing it to survive in over five feet of h2o for 30 minutes. It stood upward to a thorough dunking and rinsing-off in the kitchen sink without issue.

Display and Pixel Stand

The Pixel 3 has a 5.5-inch two,160-past-1,080 OLED display that's thankfully free from the scourge of a notch. The resolution works out to a crisp 443 pixels per inch. While we've been seeing higher-resolution screens lately (like the 570ppi Milky way S9), the Pixel 3 is still enough abrupt for the size. It's crisp enough to hands read text, scout videos, and play games, and you won't notice whatever real difference in clarity between the 2 devices. The ane thing to note is that, while the screen is certified to support HDR content, it doesn't practise whatever upscaling as we've seen on phones like the Sony Xperia XZ3 and the midrange Nokia 7.1

Likely taking heed of complaints from last year, Google has given the Pixel 3 several screen color modes from the more than color authentic Natural to a richer, more saturated Additional. Past default, it's on Adaptive, which I find offers the best of both worlds. Viewing angles are peachy and effulgence is loftier enough to easily come across the screen outdoors and even under straight sunlight, barring some reflectivity.

Like last yr'due south Pixels, the Pixel 3 has an OLED panel that gives information technology dense, inky blacks and makes it handy for the ever-on screen to bear witness the fourth dimension, date, and notifications without sucking upwardly too much ability. If you identify the phone on a Pixel Stand (a $79 10W wireless charger), the Pixel 3 transforms into a smart display, like the Google Dwelling house Hub. With the installation of a split up app, information technology tin can exist enabled to display news headlines, calendar appointments, and wheel through albums in your photo gallery. Information technology becomes particularly useful when you set morning or bedtime routines, in which Google Assistant volition launch into a briefing and give you updates on traffic conditions and conditions. Information technology can besides interact with the Nest Hello to automatically testify you video footage when someone rings your door.

Network Performance, Calls, and Audio

The Pixel 3 is bachelor directly from Verizon, Project Fi, and unlocked. It supports LTE bands 1/2/iii/4/5/7/eight/12/13/17/18/19/xx/25/26/28/29/32/66/71, allowing it to piece of work on all carriers including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. It has Cat 16 LTE, 4x4 MIMO, and can back up eSIM for certain carriers and markets.

Nosotros tested it on Verizon, the winner of our Fastest Mobile Networks testing this year. In midtown Manhattan, the phone delivered excellent network operation with top speeds of 51.2Mbps down and 37.6mbps up.

Other connectivity protocols include dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC for use with Google Pay, and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless listening.

Meet How We Examination Cell Phones

Vocalism calls are fantabulous, with articulate transmissions through the earpiece and solid dissonance cancellation for outgoing calls. Voices came across naturally in testing, without the robotic edge we frequently hear when noise cancellation kicks in. The only background noise that bled through was from the sound of loud construction.

One of the most interesting new features on the Pixel 3 is phone call screening. When you lot receive calls from unknown numbers, Google gives you the option to take the phone call screened. On the caller's cease, this results in an explanation of what'south happening and a request for you lot to explain the purpose of your call. The receiver then gets the explanation as text on their manus. The voice transcription for this is quick and accurate, I can run into this service existence very useful to filter out robocalls and spam.

One time Google Duplex is rolled out, the phone will exist able to do even more than in the phone call section. Google Banana tin take over calling duties for you lot, sparing you from the tedium of tasks like scheduling pilus appointments and making dinner reservations.

As far every bit additional audio goes, the front-firing stereo speakers may not be room-filling at maximum volume, merely they were more than sufficient to concenter the attention of my colleagues when blasting Iron Maiden. The Pixel 3 supports 24-bit sound with the included Pixel Buds. The Pixel Buds are comfy to wear, come up with an adjustable ear loop, and integrate with Google Assistant. I found audio quality to be robust, with a crisp and authentic range, though the LG G7 with its dedicated quad DAC still provides more customization for audiophiles.

Processor and Bombardment

Performance is everything you lot'd expect from a flagship phone in late 2022. Like its larger sibling, the Pixel 3 is powered by a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, with 4GB of RAM. That isn't equally much as some other new phones that come with 6GB or 8GB of RAM, merely information technology's still ample for multitasking and high-end gaming.

In the PCMark Work 2.0 examination, which measures general performance in a diversity of tasks like web browsing, and video and photo editing, the Pixel 3 scored 9,358, higher than any other phone nosotros've tested. The Pixel three also had some of the fastest responsiveness I've experienced when it comes to launching apps and scrolling web pages. Demanding games like Cobblestone 8 and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds were smooth every bit butter, with scarcely whatsoever frame drops.

Battery life is solid. The phone clocked vii hours and 57 minutes in our test, in which we set screen brightness to maximum and stream total-screen video over Wi-Fi. That's on par with the Pixel 3 XL (8 hours and x minutes), though neither tin match the Galaxy Notation ix, which outlasted our 12-hour battery test with juice to spare. The included 18W adapter lets y'all fast charge the telephone and supports USB-PD two.0. You can also use wireless fast charging with the Pixel Stand, and the telephone will also work with other Qi-certified wireless chargers.

Camera

Camera performance is where the Pixel 3 really stands out. It "only" has a single 12.2MP dual-pixel camera with optical prototype stabilization, foregoing the double or triple rear sensors we're seeing on other leading phones. Despite this, it has one of the fastest, near responsive sensors we've tested, with first-class mail service-processing and low-light capabilities. Nosotros put it to the test in a shootout against the iPhone XS Max, the Galaxy Note 9, and the LG V40 ThinQ. While the Pixel 3 didn't necessarily come up out on top in every setting, it took the most consistently skilful shots, capturing the most detail in a multifariousness of challenging scenarios.

In the higher up shots, the Pixel 3 focused fast and captured highly detailed images with minimal dissonance and blur. When it comes to capturing objects like trees and buildings, the Pixel 3 is true-to-life, capturing details like shadows, textures, and crevices without overly smoothing them like the LG V40 or oversaturating colors like the Note 9. That said, we're actually getting down to minute details here—all iv phones are fantastic shooters.

Super Res Zoom kicks in automatically when yous zoom in more than 1.2x. Essentially, it increases the resolution of an prototype higher than what you'd typically be able to accomplish without a telephoto lens, without the graininess and artifacts from a pure digital zoom. To exam this, we zoomed the Pixel three 2x on a clock belfry, which fabricated for solid results you can run across below.

When information technology comes to low-light shooting, the Pixel 3 over again holds its ain. In the dim setting of PC Labs, the phone consistently focused with reliable clarity and minimal noise. Unlike LG's Super Vivid Camera, the Pixel 3 doesn't employ pixel binning to combine pixels, preserving details rather than brightening the shot as a whole. To me, information technology's a worthwhile trade-off, though shots on the V40 may look clearer to some optics.

The front prepare of cameras consist of a pair of 8MP standard and wide-angle sensors. The latter tin can snap with a 97-degree field of view, giving you a wider sense of your surroundings when taking a selfie. The sensors are sharp and accurate when it comes to color reproduction and pare tones. Most interestingly, while it appears to take barrel distortion in the viewfinder, with post-processing the effect is removed, minimizing the distinctive fish-eye effect nosotros normally see on wide-angle cameras.

Similar simply almost every other phone on the marketplace these days, the Pixel 3 can have bokeh shots, blurring out the background and putting a foreground object into focus. It's able to practise this for both the front and back camera. With either set of sensors, the effect is a crisp shot, with a generally excellent application of the blur effect.

Too deserving of mention is Playmoji, Google's branded AR stickers. Not only do they announced realistic, but they also take the ability to respond to the environment. For instance, if you add Iron Human into a scene, he'll know when you're taking a selfie and point and moving ridge as you snap the shot. As time goes on, the Pixel 3 volition use machine learning to suggest things you can add to your AR scenes.

The Pixel iii'southward rear photographic camera is capable of recording 4K video at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps. In both cases, video is polish and stable, buoyed past a mix of optical and electronic image stabilization. Nosotros found video to be smooth, with minimal jittering or frame drops.

Software and AI

The Pixel ships with Android 9.0 Pie, the very latest version of Google'south mobile operating system. The phone is gratuitous from bloatware, and comes with the guarantee of two years of updates at the very least. We've already covered many of the changes Pie brings, including the redesigned gesture navigation, integration with the Pixel Stand up, improved Google Assistant, and features like phone call screening and the upcoming Google Duplex.

1 affair nosotros haven't mentioned is Digital Wellbeing. It'southward a new panel in the Settings bill of fare that shows your device usage, what apps y'all've accessed, and gives you options to restrict your telephone'south agree over your life by letting you set a current of air-down period before bedtime, limiting interruptions and graying out the screen to discourage utilize. Over time the phone uses motorcar learning to understand what apps you use and prioritize them over others when it comes to memory and power.

Since this is a pure Android phone it merely comes loaded with Google apps. Our 64GB model had 51.11GB available for use. That's plenty of space for apps and photos, peculiarly since yous get unlimited Google Photos cloud storage for life.

Conclusions

The Google Pixel 3 has fast performance, excellent camera capabilities, and useful AI functionality that goes across what we're seeing in other Android flagships. It's $100 less than the larger Pixel three XL, doesn't have the distracting screen notch, and shares nearly all the aforementioned hardware and software features. It's likewise one of the most comfortable Android phones to agree in i hand that we've seen in some fourth dimension. All of this earns the Pixel 3 our Editors' Choice every bit non simply the all-time "small" Android telephone you can buy, but simply i of the best Android phones, period.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/29916/google-pixel-3

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