10 ms·

Pixel 3 Review

90 points by endorphone 8y ago

browsercoin 8y ago
im very excited of being able to take photos at night but what about videos? can I record really edgy, film fps, at night? usually in downtown alleys.
Yhippa 8y ago
Very thorough review! Phone reviews are pretty tough to go by. I'm including users comments on phones. If you're going with a major brand like Google or Apple chances are that your phone will be damn good. For the other tiers do some research to make sure the phone is obviously not bad or you can live with purported issues. Hopefully you can go with a phone that has a decent return policy in case it's not great. The reason I'm typing this is because if you go online for phone reviews you will probably only get an iPhone. There are plenty of great phones out there where minor issues get blown out of proportion.
- fermienrico 8y ago
  I don’t know why people like MKBHD. I much prefer reading a thorough objective analysis like they do on Anandtech than some anecdotal opinions. It’s entertaining to watch MKBHD though. I want data. Not entertainment in my reviews.
  - usaphp 8y ago
    > I don’t know why people like MKBHD > it’s entertaining to watch MKBHD thought.
    - fermienrico 8y ago
      Touche :-)
    - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
      He's a likeable fellow, doesn't ham it up too much. I watch very little video, broadcast TV nearly gives me hives listening to their anxious desperate voices, but do not mind an occasional Marques Brownlee video. Actually kind of soothing ...
  - rifung 8y ago
    That's a totally valid point of view to have. I used to be the same and care a lot about objective comparisons but I realized when I just listened to those I usually regretted my purchase. For me personally, the subjective things like feel, design, UX are way more important so that's why I now prefer anecdotal opinions because things like UX can't really be measured. For example the Fiesta ST was car of the year and very highly praised by critics, but when I test drove it, I felt nothing. I instead preferred a car that was much worse but for whatever reason I liked it and in the end isn't that what's important?
  - ryanmonroe 8y ago
    If nothing else, MKBHD reviews are 10 minutes of 4k video showing the phone from every angle
  - threeseed 8y ago
    I'm confused as to why you suddenly brought up MKBHD. Or why you think Marques should in any way be compared to Anandtech given they serve completely different purposes. MKBHD is a fun, light hearted Youtuber designed for a quick watch often whilst you're doing something else. Anandtech is a multi-page, detail focused review where you often need to block a half hour to read through. The two simply aren't comparable.
  - on_and_off 8y ago
    >I want data. I can't help but frown : the anandtech review really rubs me the wrong way when it starts with a long benchmark. Unfortunately benchmarks are an extremely poor simulation of real life workload and have indirectly contributed to extremely poor devices by making OEMs very tempted to optimize their devices for benchmarks and not for real life workloads.
bufferoverflow 8y ago
The phone is good, but the price is nuts. I'd rather have a disposable Chinese phone and spend the difference on Sony A7 III.
- kyriakos 8y ago
  As much as I appreciate the software efforts put in this but hardware wise a Chinese phone offers the same stuff for half the price.
- wffurr 8y ago
  That's a $2000 camera, almost three times as expensive as the Pixel 3, not counting the cost of the cheaper phone.
- pkulak 8y ago
  I'd rather use a string between two cans and spend the difference on a Mercedes.
- nickthemagicman 8y ago
  Ive had cheap phones. They're miserable. You're waiting for 30 seconds for google maps to open up while you're in traffic and need the directions...no thank you.
  - vetinari 8y ago
    I've had the original ZTE Blade when it was a new thing and Orange was selling it for 100 GBP. Best phone purchase I ever did.
  - yorwba 8y ago
    Depends on how cheap you go. "Disposable" phones aren't going to be comfortable to use, but you can get much better value for your money with a Chinese phone that failed on the international market and is massively discounted one year after launch. My current phone cost 1/6 of the new Pixel but has more than 1/6 of the hardware. My only hard requirement was support for LineageOS 15.1, which is already somewhat of a quality filter because no volunteer is going to support a phone that's too shitty to use.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
wcfields 8y ago
What I'd like to see in addition to raw stats is stacking up service and warranty. What's kept me an Apple user for high-end laptops and phones is being able to go to a brick and mortar store and walk-out with a replacement device.
- robertAngst 8y ago
  Ive been doing the 'buy 2' high quality products instead of the 'buy 1 apple product'. Now, I dont actually buy 2 products, but I simply replace with the latest high end product when I want/need to. I am unsure whats cheaper and better quality. Im curious in studying this for comparison(I run a consumer website), what are your quality metrics for service and warrenty? So far I have: >Time to fix/repair(downtime) >Cost/deductible/copay >Annoyance(losing contacts/photos/etc...) Can you think of anything else?
  - wcfields 8y ago
    Yeah that's pretty much it, for me at least. I'd consider myself very technically inclined (replaced screens on my iPhone 5's, build dozens of PCs...), but as I've learned from experience I'd rather just pay slightly more and expect it to work for my personal stuff. I guess one can view it as buying the cheapest new car with a long warranty versus a reliable as-is used car just so I never have to worry about it not working.
- ndesaulniers 8y ago
  I agree; it's hard to beat retail. The majority of customers don't have time to wait to mail stuff out or deal with trying to repair things on their own. They have $$$ and are willing to pay to just have their devices fixed. Making this as low friction as possible should be a priority, otherwise that's money left on the table.
asenna 8y ago
Anyone considering this phone and Project Fi, there's a really good offer going one if you get two of these and get a friend to sign on to Fi JUST for a month, you get $799 in credits. Really good if you're already paying monthly Fi.
- scrollaway 8y ago
  The credits get paused if your friends subscription stops, from what I saw in the terms. That said if anyone is interested in a pixel and Fi, email me and maybe we can arrange this.
- gst 8y ago
  The offer isn't available anymore (last day was Nov 1st IIRC).
- amerkhalid 8y ago
  I hate these BOGO offers. I was so close to buying it but saw the offer. So I stopped, called up bunch of friends, one was looking to buy Pixel 3 but already had Project Fi. We did more research and it looked like we could still get this offer as long as we get a new line for 30 days. Seemed a bit crazy but there were people on Reddit who had confirmed this with customer service. So again ready to place order and there is new post on Reddit where it claimed that customer service is now saying you cannot deactivate the 3rd line. Time to do more research. Friend backed out. I am waiting for people who bought extra phone for the deal to start selling their phones. Or maybe I will wait for Black Friday deals or get LG G7 ($400 after $150 service credit). I wish Google had released it for just $400 without BOGO deal. This whole thing was such a waste of time.
awill 8y ago
I really appreciated the critical honesty here. With a Pixel you're getting an 8 month old SoC. The reason this detail is important is because the 8 month old Galaxy S9 is now selling far below MSRP. You can get them new for around $500. That makes the Pixel FAR more expensive than it's SD845 brothers. Also, it's crazy to me that Apple has such a huge lead in single threaded CPU performance. They've been ahead for years, and no one seems to be catching up.
- kodablah 8y ago
  > the 8 month old Galaxy S9 is now selling far below MSRP. You can get them new for around $500 I am only seeing them ~$800 (not plus or note which are obviously even higher), e.g. from AT&T [0] and Verizon [1]. That's quite the difference from $500, can you link where you are seeing this or do you mean second hand or when you switch carriers or something? 0 - https://www.att.com/cellphones/samsung/galaxy-s9.html#sku=sku8730723 https://www.att.com/cellphones/samsung/galaxy-s9.html#sku=sk... 1 - https://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s9/#sku=sku2930295 https://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s...
  - culot 8y ago
    - Unlocked: https://swappa.com/buy/samsung-galaxy-s9-g960u1-unlocked?condition=new https://swappa.com/buy/samsung-galaxy-s9-g960u1-unlocked?con... $600 looks to be the most reasonable price for a sealed new unlocked Galaxy S9 [in the US]. The lower priced 'new' copies on Swappa look open-box, which are likely not new, but a refurb/return, or someone selling their used device as new. Most of the new copies on Swappa are apparently open-box units, as are most of the new units on Ebay. Definitely hard pass there. Best Buy has new copies for $700 - that'd probably be the... best buy. Maybe you can find a like-new refurb for $500, but it seems like a sealed actual new copy will be harder to find for that price. So like $150-250 saved by choosing Samsung, and probably getting a superior package in most ways. Google has reduced the warranty period in the US of the newest waves of Pixels by 1 year, so really they aren't offering a ton of value for that high price.
    - 8y ago
rackforms 8y ago
The basic point and shoot camera tests are fascinating. A cursory glance shows the Pixel 3's camera the best of the bunch, sometimes by far. That said, as an iPhone user it's annoying to see Apple purposely hobbling itself with its overly aggressive (re: terrible) image processing. In this image, for example: https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/A_iX_IMG_0308.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/A_iX_IMG_0308.jp... The cobblestone ground is literally left unrecognizable, a shame considering the sensor is capable of so much more. Since iOS 7 we're able to shoot raw, and Apps like ProCam show just how much better our sensor can be if it weren't for all that blurring. If you shoot with an iPhone I highly recommend using RAW, your shots will easily match the Pixels excellent results for basic point and shoot detail.
- celeritascelery 8y ago
  > A cursory glance shows the Pixel 3's camera the best of the bunch, sometimes by far. I am surprised that you drew that conslusion from the review. I got the impression that iPhone and Samsung flagships consistently beat the Pixel 3 in daylight and normal light shots. They just have better hardware. He stated multiple times that iPhone is a better representation of the actual scene. However the night mode is obviously best in class (given nothing in the frame is moving).
  - rackforms 8y ago
    Yeah, looking for I should qualify in overall presentation yes. My comment was more a remark on the de-noise Apple's default camera app applies. Again, I'd check out that image I linked to. At 100% zoom the ground detail is quite literally erased from the iPhone X image, to the point where it looks like a stylized art filter was applied. The Pixel at least retains detail in such places (also, for example, on the roof tiles). Link: https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/G_Pixel3_IMG_20181023_155151.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/G_Pixel3_IMG_201... None are perfect of course -- Samsung loves them some sharpening, and the Pixels images have a slightly garish blue cast I'm not a fan of.
    - 8y ago
mherdeg 8y ago
I distinctly remember working with grad students in 2006 whose project was "collaborating with Nokia to make super high quality cameras in cell phones". At the time, I laughed inside and thought, "ha, it's gonna be tough to beat a D2Hs and a decent set of lenses." I was very wrong. Image sensors have come a long way incredibly fast.
- on_and_off 8y ago
  I am considering selling my camera. To be fair my 500$ lens on a $1000 consistently takes better looking portraits (I know it is subjective) than a phone .. but my phone already takes good pictures and is always with me. It also automatically updloads my pictures to google photos, which is both creepy and incredibly useful.
  - matwood 8y ago
    It’s not even subjective. I would love to leave my dslr behind, but phones are just not there yet. My d7100 with a 50mm takes amazing portrait shots, even in my amateur hands. The d7100 isn’t even a newer body.
- claydavisss 8y ago
  the best camera is the one you have with you
fireattack 8y ago
The buttons to toggle photos from different phones don't seem to work here. Got "ReferenceError: ifg is not defined" error every time I click it.
- gniv 8y ago
  I had the same problem. Try going to individual pages: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13474/the-google-pixel-3-review/6 https://www.anandtech.com/show/13474/the-google-pixel-3-revi...
ken 8y ago
I see a bunch of numbers, a bunch of graphs, 10,000+ words analyzing them, and a bunch of photos that all look perfectly fine to me. The top two comments here say that Google and Apple, respectively, are clearly the best. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was in audiophile territory.
- frostburg 8y ago
  The photos are all really bad (technically, I mean, they're also bad artistically, but that's not the point), but you can easily tell the difference, it's not linear PCM vs DSD placebo effect.
- tyingq 8y ago
  Personally, I buy cheap Motorola G4/G5/G6, etc phones. $150 or less, new. They are fast enough, and work well enough for me. And, cheap enough that buying next year's model when it comes out isn't a problem. And no anxiety about dropping it.
  - xmichael999 8y ago
    Yah, I've been doing the - buy a generation or two back of the flag ship release. Just bought the LG g5 which was their flagship 2 years ago, amazing phone.
    - secfirstmd 8y ago
      I wouldn't mind doing that but the security update patch problem for Android phones that suddenly stop getting them is a nightmare.
      - riquito 8y ago
        GP mentioned the LG G5 which is still receiving security updates
      - herbst 8y ago
        If you go with that strategie you usually buy community supported or open phones. Everything with a locked bootloader is pretty much worthless after the 2-3 year update window.
Findeton 8y ago
Those pictures... that's Luxembourg. Beautiful city.
ballsyballsman 8y ago
I got new Huawei Nova 3 and photos are excellent, battery life 1.5 days. Super fast with 128gb storage for (edit 3-4 times) times cheaper than pixel or any apple crap. No wonder trumbo wants to block huawei phones from US market. Would sell like hot cakes.
ballsyballsman 8y ago
Anybody bothered by the Google's evil privacy flaws and deep integration of software?
- sanketskasar 8y ago
  Yeah. Everyone seems to miss the fact that in addition to your messages and emails, the always on microphone, google is now going to listen to your calls as well. Why everybody seems so delighted by that feature when it seems to be the root of a new evil is beyond me.
Jedd 8y ago
There's been a few stories & comments about the Qi Fast charging not working except on approved chargers - defaulting to 5W rather than 10W. I've looked for (but can not find) some graphs showing what a 5W vs 10W wireless charge over time actually looks like. I assume it's non-linear, and it's not a 2x factor at any battery %. For all the talk it's odd there's no good actual numbers though.
niuzeta 8y ago
It looks like a decent phone and I would love to use a Google phone for that clean-Android experience. Unfortunately headphone jack is still the dealbreaker for me.
- aembleton 8y ago
  Get a Nokia. Clean Android experience and my Nokia 8 had a headphone jack. I'm on Android 8.1, 9 should arrive later this month so it's not too far behind. Only £260. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Tempered-Blue-Black/dp/B075GWYH37/ref=sr_1_4?s=telephone&ie=UTF8&qid=1541324303&sr=1-4&keywords=nokia+8 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Tempered-...
StephenAmar 8y ago
As a Pixel 1 owner, I'm a bit disappointed by this new version. It just does not seem worth it to spend that much money on what looks like a small incremental improvement.
- lern_too_spel 8y ago
  There's no headphone jack. It's a downgrade.

90 points by endorphone 8y ago

im very excited of being able to take photos at night but what about videos? can I record really edgy, film fps, at night? usually in downtown alleys.

Yhippa 8y ago

Very thorough review! Phone reviews are pretty tough to go by. I'm including users comments on phones. If you're going with a major brand like Google or Apple chances are that your phone will be damn good. For the other tiers do some research to make sure the phone is obviously not bad or you can live with purported issues. Hopefully you can go with a phone that has a decent return policy in case it's not great. The reason I'm typing this is because if you go online for phone reviews you will probably only get an iPhone. There are plenty of great phones out there where minor issues get blown out of proportion.

fermienrico 8y ago
I don’t know why people like MKBHD. I much prefer reading a thorough objective analysis like they do on Anandtech than some anecdotal opinions. It’s entertaining to watch MKBHD though. I want data. Not entertainment in my reviews.
- usaphp 8y ago
  > I don’t know why people like MKBHD > it’s entertaining to watch MKBHD thought.
  - fermienrico 8y ago
    Touche :-)
  - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
    He's a likeable fellow, doesn't ham it up too much. I watch very little video, broadcast TV nearly gives me hives listening to their anxious desperate voices, but do not mind an occasional Marques Brownlee video. Actually kind of soothing ...
- rifung 8y ago
  That's a totally valid point of view to have. I used to be the same and care a lot about objective comparisons but I realized when I just listened to those I usually regretted my purchase. For me personally, the subjective things like feel, design, UX are way more important so that's why I now prefer anecdotal opinions because things like UX can't really be measured. For example the Fiesta ST was car of the year and very highly praised by critics, but when I test drove it, I felt nothing. I instead preferred a car that was much worse but for whatever reason I liked it and in the end isn't that what's important?
- ryanmonroe 8y ago
  If nothing else, MKBHD reviews are 10 minutes of 4k video showing the phone from every angle
- threeseed 8y ago
  I'm confused as to why you suddenly brought up MKBHD. Or why you think Marques should in any way be compared to Anandtech given they serve completely different purposes. MKBHD is a fun, light hearted Youtuber designed for a quick watch often whilst you're doing something else. Anandtech is a multi-page, detail focused review where you often need to block a half hour to read through. The two simply aren't comparable.
- on_and_off 8y ago
  >I want data. I can't help but frown : the anandtech review really rubs me the wrong way when it starts with a long benchmark. Unfortunately benchmarks are an extremely poor simulation of real life workload and have indirectly contributed to extremely poor devices by making OEMs very tempted to optimize their devices for benchmarks and not for real life workloads.

bufferoverflow 8y ago

The phone is good, but the price is nuts. I'd rather have a disposable Chinese phone and spend the difference on Sony A7 III.

kyriakos 8y ago
As much as I appreciate the software efforts put in this but hardware wise a Chinese phone offers the same stuff for half the price.
wffurr 8y ago
That's a $2000 camera, almost three times as expensive as the Pixel 3, not counting the cost of the cheaper phone.
pkulak 8y ago
I'd rather use a string between two cans and spend the difference on a Mercedes.
nickthemagicman 8y ago
Ive had cheap phones. They're miserable. You're waiting for 30 seconds for google maps to open up while you're in traffic and need the directions...no thank you.
- vetinari 8y ago
  I've had the original ZTE Blade when it was a new thing and Orange was selling it for 100 GBP. Best phone purchase I ever did.
- yorwba 8y ago
  Depends on how cheap you go. "Disposable" phones aren't going to be comfortable to use, but you can get much better value for your money with a Chinese phone that failed on the international market and is massively discounted one year after launch. My current phone cost 1/6 of the new Pixel but has more than 1/6 of the hardware. My only hard requirement was support for LineageOS 15.1, which is already somewhat of a quality filter because no volunteer is going to support a phone that's too shitty to use.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

wcfields 8y ago

What I'd like to see in addition to raw stats is stacking up service and warranty. What's kept me an Apple user for high-end laptops and phones is being able to go to a brick and mortar store and walk-out with a replacement device.

robertAngst 8y ago
Ive been doing the 'buy 2' high quality products instead of the 'buy 1 apple product'. Now, I dont actually buy 2 products, but I simply replace with the latest high end product when I want/need to. I am unsure whats cheaper and better quality. Im curious in studying this for comparison(I run a consumer website), what are your quality metrics for service and warrenty? So far I have: >Time to fix/repair(downtime) >Cost/deductible/copay >Annoyance(losing contacts/photos/etc...) Can you think of anything else?
- wcfields 8y ago
  Yeah that's pretty much it, for me at least. I'd consider myself very technically inclined (replaced screens on my iPhone 5's, build dozens of PCs...), but as I've learned from experience I'd rather just pay slightly more and expect it to work for my personal stuff. I guess one can view it as buying the cheapest new car with a long warranty versus a reliable as-is used car just so I never have to worry about it not working.
ndesaulniers 8y ago
I agree; it's hard to beat retail. The majority of customers don't have time to wait to mail stuff out or deal with trying to repair things on their own. They have $$$ and are willing to pay to just have their devices fixed. Making this as low friction as possible should be a priority, otherwise that's money left on the table.

asenna 8y ago

Anyone considering this phone and Project Fi, there's a really good offer going one if you get two of these and get a friend to sign on to Fi JUST for a month, you get $799 in credits. Really good if you're already paying monthly Fi.

scrollaway 8y ago
The credits get paused if your friends subscription stops, from what I saw in the terms. That said if anyone is interested in a pixel and Fi, email me and maybe we can arrange this.
gst 8y ago
The offer isn't available anymore (last day was Nov 1st IIRC).
amerkhalid 8y ago
I hate these BOGO offers. I was so close to buying it but saw the offer. So I stopped, called up bunch of friends, one was looking to buy Pixel 3 but already had Project Fi. We did more research and it looked like we could still get this offer as long as we get a new line for 30 days. Seemed a bit crazy but there were people on Reddit who had confirmed this with customer service. So again ready to place order and there is new post on Reddit where it claimed that customer service is now saying you cannot deactivate the 3rd line. Time to do more research. Friend backed out. I am waiting for people who bought extra phone for the deal to start selling their phones. Or maybe I will wait for Black Friday deals or get LG G7 ($400 after $150 service credit). I wish Google had released it for just $400 without BOGO deal. This whole thing was such a waste of time.

awill 8y ago

I really appreciated the critical honesty here. With a Pixel you're getting an 8 month old SoC. The reason this detail is important is because the 8 month old Galaxy S9 is now selling far below MSRP. You can get them new for around $500. That makes the Pixel FAR more expensive than it's SD845 brothers. Also, it's crazy to me that Apple has such a huge lead in single threaded CPU performance. They've been ahead for years, and no one seems to be catching up.

kodablah 8y ago
> the 8 month old Galaxy S9 is now selling far below MSRP. You can get them new for around $500 I am only seeing them ~$800 (not plus or note which are obviously even higher), e.g. from AT&T [0] and Verizon [1]. That's quite the difference from $500, can you link where you are seeing this or do you mean second hand or when you switch carriers or something? 0 - https://www.att.com/cellphones/samsung/galaxy-s9.html#sku=sku8730723 https://www.att.com/cellphones/samsung/galaxy-s9.html#sku=sk... 1 - https://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s9/#sku=sku2930295 https://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s...
- culot 8y ago
  - Unlocked: https://swappa.com/buy/samsung-galaxy-s9-g960u1-unlocked?condition=new https://swappa.com/buy/samsung-galaxy-s9-g960u1-unlocked?con... $600 looks to be the most reasonable price for a sealed new unlocked Galaxy S9 [in the US]. The lower priced 'new' copies on Swappa look open-box, which are likely not new, but a refurb/return, or someone selling their used device as new. Most of the new copies on Swappa are apparently open-box units, as are most of the new units on Ebay. Definitely hard pass there. Best Buy has new copies for $700 - that'd probably be the... best buy. Maybe you can find a like-new refurb for $500, but it seems like a sealed actual new copy will be harder to find for that price. So like $150-250 saved by choosing Samsung, and probably getting a superior package in most ways. Google has reduced the warranty period in the US of the newest waves of Pixels by 1 year, so really they aren't offering a ton of value for that high price.
  - 8y ago

rackforms 8y ago

The basic point and shoot camera tests are fascinating. A cursory glance shows the Pixel 3's camera the best of the bunch, sometimes by far. That said, as an iPhone user it's annoying to see Apple purposely hobbling itself with its overly aggressive (re: terrible) image processing. In this image, for example: https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/A_iX_IMG_0308.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/A_iX_IMG_0308.jp... The cobblestone ground is literally left unrecognizable, a shame considering the sensor is capable of so much more. Since iOS 7 we're able to shoot raw, and Apps like ProCam show just how much better our sensor can be if it weren't for all that blurring. If you shoot with an iPhone I highly recommend using RAW, your shots will easily match the Pixels excellent results for basic point and shoot detail.

celeritascelery 8y ago
> A cursory glance shows the Pixel 3's camera the best of the bunch, sometimes by far. I am surprised that you drew that conslusion from the review. I got the impression that iPhone and Samsung flagships consistently beat the Pixel 3 in daylight and normal light shots. They just have better hardware. He stated multiple times that iPhone is a better representation of the actual scene. However the night mode is obviously best in class (given nothing in the frame is moving).
- rackforms 8y ago
  Yeah, looking for I should qualify in overall presentation yes. My comment was more a remark on the de-noise Apple's default camera app applies. Again, I'd check out that image I linked to. At 100% zoom the ground detail is quite literally erased from the iPhone X image, to the point where it looks like a stylized art filter was applied. The Pixel at least retains detail in such places (also, for example, on the roof tiles). Link: https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/G_Pixel3_IMG_20181023_155151.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/G_Pixel3_IMG_201... None are perfect of course -- Samsung loves them some sharpening, and the Pixels images have a slightly garish blue cast I'm not a fan of.
  - 8y ago

mherdeg 8y ago

I distinctly remember working with grad students in 2006 whose project was "collaborating with Nokia to make super high quality cameras in cell phones". At the time, I laughed inside and thought, "ha, it's gonna be tough to beat a D2Hs and a decent set of lenses." I was very wrong. Image sensors have come a long way incredibly fast.

on_and_off 8y ago
I am considering selling my camera. To be fair my 500$ lens on a $1000 consistently takes better looking portraits (I know it is subjective) than a phone .. but my phone already takes good pictures and is always with me. It also automatically updloads my pictures to google photos, which is both creepy and incredibly useful.
- matwood 8y ago
  It’s not even subjective. I would love to leave my dslr behind, but phones are just not there yet. My d7100 with a 50mm takes amazing portrait shots, even in my amateur hands. The d7100 isn’t even a newer body.
claydavisss 8y ago
the best camera is the one you have with you

fireattack 8y ago

The buttons to toggle photos from different phones don't seem to work here. Got "ReferenceError: ifg is not defined" error every time I click it.

gniv 8y ago
I had the same problem. Try going to individual pages: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13474/the-google-pixel-3-review/6 https://www.anandtech.com/show/13474/the-google-pixel-3-revi...

ken 8y ago

I see a bunch of numbers, a bunch of graphs, 10,000+ words analyzing them, and a bunch of photos that all look perfectly fine to me. The top two comments here say that Google and Apple, respectively, are clearly the best. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was in audiophile territory.

frostburg 8y ago
The photos are all really bad (technically, I mean, they're also bad artistically, but that's not the point), but you can easily tell the difference, it's not linear PCM vs DSD placebo effect.
tyingq 8y ago
Personally, I buy cheap Motorola G4/G5/G6, etc phones. $150 or less, new. They are fast enough, and work well enough for me. And, cheap enough that buying next year's model when it comes out isn't a problem. And no anxiety about dropping it.
- xmichael999 8y ago
  Yah, I've been doing the - buy a generation or two back of the flag ship release. Just bought the LG g5 which was their flagship 2 years ago, amazing phone.
  - secfirstmd 8y ago
    I wouldn't mind doing that but the security update patch problem for Android phones that suddenly stop getting them is a nightmare.
    - riquito 8y ago
      GP mentioned the LG G5 which is still receiving security updates
    - herbst 8y ago
      If you go with that strategie you usually buy community supported or open phones. Everything with a locked bootloader is pretty much worthless after the 2-3 year update window.

Findeton 8y ago

Those pictures... that's Luxembourg. Beautiful city.

ballsyballsman 8y ago

I got new Huawei Nova 3 and photos are excellent, battery life 1.5 days. Super fast with 128gb storage for (edit 3-4 times) times cheaper than pixel or any apple crap. No wonder trumbo wants to block huawei phones from US market. Would sell like hot cakes.

ballsyballsman 8y ago

Anybody bothered by the Google's evil privacy flaws and deep integration of software?

sanketskasar 8y ago
Yeah. Everyone seems to miss the fact that in addition to your messages and emails, the always on microphone, google is now going to listen to your calls as well. Why everybody seems so delighted by that feature when it seems to be the root of a new evil is beyond me.

Jedd 8y ago

There's been a few stories & comments about the Qi Fast charging not working except on approved chargers - defaulting to 5W rather than 10W. I've looked for (but can not find) some graphs showing what a 5W vs 10W wireless charge over time actually looks like. I assume it's non-linear, and it's not a 2x factor at any battery %. For all the talk it's odd there's no good actual numbers though.

niuzeta 8y ago

It looks like a decent phone and I would love to use a Google phone for that clean-Android experience. Unfortunately headphone jack is still the dealbreaker for me.

aembleton 8y ago
Get a Nokia. Clean Android experience and my Nokia 8 had a headphone jack. I'm on Android 8.1, 9 should arrive later this month so it's not too far behind. Only £260. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Tempered-Blue-Black/dp/B075GWYH37/ref=sr_1_4?s=telephone&ie=UTF8&qid=1541324303&sr=1-4&keywords=nokia+8 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Tempered-...

StephenAmar 8y ago

As a Pixel 1 owner, I'm a bit disappointed by this new version. It just does not seem worth it to spend that much money on what looks like a small incremental improvement.

lern_too_spel 8y ago
There's no headphone jack. It's a downgrade.