ISSUE 66 • ANDROID ADVISOR 63BUYING GUIDEIt’s the iPhone of the Android world in this way, and
is all the better for it.
Our benchmarks pitch the phone against the
smaller Pixel 3, the Pixel 2 and other devices with
similar specs. What the results show is that in
synthetic benchmarking, they are all very good. But
we think that using the Pixel 3 XL is the most fluid,
satisfying way to experience Android thanks to the
optimization of hardware and software.
The battery size is the only thing that changes,
aside from the display size, by opting for the 3 XL over
the 3. It’s 3,430mAh as opposed to 2,915mAh, so this
is the one to get if you want to eke the most out of a
day.A dayis aboutthemostyou’llgetif you’rea heavy
user.Wegotaboutfourtofour‑and‑a‑halfhours
screen‑on time with the 3 XL. That’s pretty good,
but not as much as you’ll get with the Galaxy Note9
which sometimes gets nearly six.
Camera
ThePixel2 phoneswerewidelyregardedtohavethe
bestrear‑facing cameras of any smartphone despite
only having one lens. The Pixel 3 XL is even better.
Seriously.It’sincrediblewhatGoogleis achieving
withpost‑processing software.
While two or three lens phones try to capture more
detail during shooting, the Pixel 3 XL elects to capture
several layers of image information with one lens and
then uses software to process the best possible image
after the fact. And it works stupendously well.
A new feature called Top Shot automatically helps
you select the best photo from a burst of photos, so