Where my Pixel 2 XL’s screen is dull and lifeless, the Pixel 3 XL’s display is as sharp, bright, and vibrant as any OLED I’ve used, with none of the annoying blue shift that plagued its predecessor.

While the Pixel 3 XL has basically the same Quad HD 1440 P-OLED screen as the Pixel 2 XL (albeit with a slightly lower 523 ppi), the displays couldn’t be more different. What does look right is the display itself. Even when you find an app that’s optimized for the tall notch, it just doesn’t look quite right. Another annoyance: The corners at the bottom of the screen don’t match the shape of the ones at the top of the screen, making the phone appear even more unbalanced than it should. The front-firing stereo speakers that sound great are present as well, which somewhat breaks up the empty space below the screen. Other than the deservedly maligned notch, it has relatively thick bezels around the top and sides, along with a chin that’s about as big as last year’s 2 XL. Would you like some chin to go with your notch?įlip the phone over, however, and the refinement ends.

And of course, there’s no headphone jack, though Google is finally bundling a pair of Google Assistant and Translate-capable USB-C Pixel Buds in the box. The sides of the Pixel 3 are aluminum to match the back color, with the non-black models once again featuring a colored power button to break up the monotony. I’ve picked up a couple of scratches during my first case-less week with it, but they generally wiped off and aren’t nearly as noticeable as they are on other all-glass phones. The result is a texture that’s less slippery and fingerprint-prone than most other glass phones. Google’s frosted glass has the opposite effect: It makes the Pixel’s glass back feel like smooth aluminum. Back when it created the iPhone 7’s “jet black” color, Apple developed a new manufacturing process that gave the aluminum a glass-like feel. To mimic the aluminum look and feel of the first two Pixels, the bottom of the Pixel 3 XL is made of frosted glass, and it’s difficult to describe how luxurious it feels.

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