Review: Verizon Google Pixel 2 XL

I’ve had my iPhone 6 for almost 3 years and it’s been pretty dang reliable until recently. Like many people, the latest iPhone updates had my phone getting slower and slower to the point where some apps wouldn’t open at all. This was around the time the nice people at Verizon contacted me and asked if I would be interested in trying the new Google Pixel 2 XL for a month. Of course my answer was YES!

I can only compare the Google Pixel 2 XL to my iPhone 6 since that is what I currently have but hopefully I can share some helpful insights on my experience testing it out. I’m a mom. I use my phone to take photos and videos of my daughter and that’s the primary function of my phone in this season of life 🙂 At the end I’ll share my thoughts on battery life, speed, sound and all of that. But first I wanted to share some photos!

Below are all photos I took with the Google Pixel 2 XL with no editing, filters or brightening. I wanted to show what a great camera this phone has!

The colours are so vibrant on this screen. When I would look at my Instagram feed on the Google Pixel 2 XL compared to my iPhone 6, the photos were always much brighter and more saturated on the Pixel. This photo is from a walk I went on with Piper and all the leaves and plants just looked so beautiful. One of the perks of living in rainy Portland I suppose!

I realized after I took this photo of Piper wearing her elf hat that I had the Portrait Mode turned on accidentally, so the concrete turned out a little blurry but I still think it’s a great photo 🙂

Portrait Mode is something I’ve been wanting for soooo long and this camera has a great one. I used it a ton during the month I was testing out the phone and it did a really nice job. It works best with stationary subjects like my yummy boba tea in the photo above. Check out Piper getting ready to grab it and steal a sip 🙂

Just look at that sweet face! I got so many great photos of Piper using the portrait mode although she did need to sit/stand somewhat still for it to work properly. You can see how the hair on the top of her head is a little blurry but otherwise the camera did a good job of keeping the “subject” clear and in focus.

When you switch to Portrait Mode it crops of size of the frame a little, so it can be tricky to get your arm stretched out far enough to get your whole phone face in the frame (blogger problems lol). Again, some hairs on the right side of the photo are a bit fuzzy but otherwise the portrait mode worked really well on selfie mode too.

Here’s my final thoughts:

• Size: I thought it would be weird switching to a larger phone but I really liked it. It didn’t slip out of my hand as much and it didn’t feel bulky at all. For comparison, my iPhone 6 screen is 4.7 inches and the Google Pixel 2 XL is 6 inches. It might not seem like much but that bigger screen was a huge upgrade.
• Battery life: It lasted way WAY longer than my iPhone. I could get a full day of use out of one charge and not even hit the “low battery” mode.
• Speed: It was super fast switching between apps with no crashing or freezing issues. Mind you it was a new phone with not a lot of data stored on it but even still, it was refreshing to be able to quickly switch from the camera to apps to email with having anything randomly shut down.
• Sound: This is the one thing I would say needs some work. Any time I would post a video on Instagram using the Google Pixel 2 XL people would mention that the audio sounded “tinny” or unclear. I think it was the microphone because even after trying to tweak the settings I couldn’t get it quite right. The speakers were nice though and I could listen to my favourite podcasts and playlists with clear audio!
• Camera: If you’re like me, 95% of the photos of your kids are taken with your phone. I LOVED being able to take beautiful, crisp photos of Piper without having to bust out my DSLR. The selfie camera wasn’t quite as nice as the forward facing camera, but that’s pretty standard with any phone.
• Price: The Google Pixel 2 XL (64GB) is $849.99 which is less than the new iPhone X.

It was so fun trying out this new phone and if you’re looking for a new phone with lots of features and less expensive than an iPhone, this is a great option!