If You Own An Android Phone, It Should Really Be A Pixel 2

Its killer features, though, are still software-side: free, unlimited, original-resolution storage in Google Photos for every picture you take with Pixel (which means it is literally impossible to use up all your space on pictures and videos), a dedicated gesture for direct access to Google Assistant, and the artificial intelligence–powered Portrait Mode, which gives photos DSLR-esque blurry backgrounds, even when you’re taking a selfie.

But, as with all of Google’s services, using Photos and Assistant — two of the Pixel’s core apps — means opting in to sharing your data. No, a Google engineer isn’t looking at all of your photos or listening to all of your Assistant commands in a dark room in Mountain View, but those anonymized data points are used to feed Google’s machine-learning algorithms, which in turn are used to identify every photo of your mom in your camera roll. (They can recognize your dog now too.) It’s similar to how Google reads your Gmail inbox to serve you more relevant ads.

Which is to say, if you are already deep in Google’s panopticon — maybe you use Gmail and Calendar and Search and Maps — it isn’t such a leap. I’ve been using the Pixel 2 for the past five days and find that, since I already rely on Google’s suite of apps, the tradeoff is worth it.

The Pixel 2 has f/1.8 aperture, which means that it can take better low-light images than its predecessor (which had f/2.0 aperture). Its rear camera actually has slightly less megapixels (12.2 MP this year vs. 12.3 MP last year), but the difference is hardly noticeable.

DXOMark, a company that rates image quality, gave the Pixel 2 its highest smartphone score ever for the second year in a row, an achievement that Google touted during its keynote presentation. The rating is especially remarkable, given that the Pixel 2’s camera only has one wide-angle lens, while the iPhone 8 Plus and Galaxy Note 8 (the second- and third-place smartphones) have two lenses: one wide angle and one telephoto for optical zooming. DXOMark cited the Pixel 2’s “impressive dynamic range” and “the best autofocus we’ve ever seen.”

The Pixel 2 is rated IP67, which means it can withstand freshwater submersion in depths of about 3 feet for up to 30 minutes. I used the Pixel 2 in the shower and ran it under a sink and, as far as I can tell, the phone is still operational.

I’ve been living without a headphone jack for over a year and have fully bought into the Bluetooth-connected, wireless future. For traditionalists, there’s an included USB-C adapter that you can use for any set of wired headphones, and you can replace it for $9 when you inevitably lose it.

I understand that this may be a deal breaker for some — in that case, Samsung’s Galaxy S8 still has a headphone jack.

I keep the adapter permanently attached to my earbuds with a microphone, which I use to make calls, and it’s really not too bad. Because the battery life on the Pixel 2 is decent (for now), I haven’t run into the issue of needing to charge the phone and use headphones at the same time.

This feature, also available in Samsung’s Galaxy phones, activates some pixels to always display the time (so you don’t have to turn on your phone to check it) and leaves other pixels turned off.

If you elect to turn on a feature called “Now Playing,” the Always-on Display can also show you the title of whatever song is playing, whether it’s in a car or coffee shop. It can only identify the “official” version of the song, however (like, for example, the album version of Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold,” but not the nearly identical “Live in Studio” version from Lovato’s official YouTube account).