ISSUE 67 • ANDROID ADVISOR 115BUYING GUIDEsection at the top houses the camera with the lower
part containing the fingerprint scanner. This time
around, it’s a fully glass design, with the lower section
offering a matte finish, which looks and feels luxurious.
It’s not as grippy when compared to a typical glass
back, but feels nicer and won’t show fingerprint
marks as much. Importantly, this change also enables
wireless charging for the first time on a Pixel phone.
We’ll talk about this in more detail later.
It’s the front that you’ll see the biggest change
duetoa changeindisplayaspectratio– an
industry-wide trend. Smaller bezels not only look
better but mean you get a larger screen in a body
that’s essentially the same. Whatever side of the fence
you’re on, the regular Pixel 3 is the model without a
notch. The Pixel 3 XL, for the first time on a Google
phone, has the divisive feature. Both have a camera
bump on the rear, but it’s small and not a big deal.
Much of the elements we’re used to are the same,
so you get a USB-C port, no headphone jack, and
waterproofing – the latter is now IP68 instead of IP67.
Our main worry is dirt collecting in the speakers on
the front as they are slightly recessed.
Colour options are once again Clearly White, Just
Black and the new Not Pink (which has a peach tone
in real life) – each, apart from the black model, have
a difference accent colour on the side button.
Display
The most obvious change is the display, which as
we mentioned is now using an on-trend tall aspect
ratio. It’s 18:9 to be precise and sticks with a Full HD+