The Google Pixel XL Review: Life After Nexus
by Matt Humrick & Brandon Chester on November 8, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Snapdragon 821
- Pixel
Battery Life
Section by Brandon Chester
When a phone comes in two sizes, battery life is always one of the big questions on a potential buyer's mind. In general, if you have two devices with a similar hardware platform but one is able to fit a significantly larger battery due to its larger size, it's going to achieve better battery life. Obviously this is not a strict rule, as we've seen with web browsing on the iPhone and iPhone Plus, where both models have a very similar battery life. Even so, as a general rule it's usually a safe assumption.
The Google Pixel is one of those devices that comes in two sizes. There's a 5" model and a 5.5" model, both with equal thickness, and both sharing the same internal specifications. They differ only by the size and resolution of their AMOLED displays, and accordingly, the larger Pixel XL has a 25 percent larger internal battery.
Unfortunately, we don't have the 5" Google Pixel on hand, so testing will have to rely solely on the Pixel XL. As I just mentioned, it is usually the case that when a smartphone ships in two sizes the larger model provides better battery life, which is something to consider when thinking about where the normal Pixel would sit relative to the larger model. As usual, our battery testing begins with our internal web browsing test, followed by PCMark's general use battery test, and ending with a GFXBench GPU battery rundown.
In our internal WiFi web browsing test the Google Pixel XL comes in just under 8 hours. Considering the thickness, mass, and battery capacity of the Pixel XL, this is not a very impressive result. In comparison, the thinner, smaller, and lighter Galaxy S7 edge with a display of equal size and resolution manages to last for 9.72 hours in this test. Apple's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus do similarly well at 9.22 hours and 9.32 hours, despite the fact that their batteries are significantly smaller than the Pixel XL's. The S7 edge and the Pixel XL have very similar specifications, right down to the CPU configuration and the display. The S7 edge only has a 4% advantage for battery capacity, which isn't nearly enough to explain the gap. It could very well come down to greater power usage by the display, and this appears even more likely when one considers the additional power burden of using the wider NTSC gamut instead of sRGB.
Normally we would also run this test on LTE, in order to compare battery life between devices when browsing on a cellular connection instead of WiFi. Unfortunately, the Pixel XL presents a problem here. Both Matt and I have noticed that cellular reception on the Pixel XL is not very good. In particular, Matt was unable to achieve our target signal strength of -90dBm or better in the same area where he tests all other LTE devices. The best signal he was able to achieve was -100dBm (outdoors). Because we're dealing with a logarithmic scale, the difference in transmission power is not 10% like you might imagine based on the numbers, it's ten times the power. Unfortunately, we aren't equipped to do laboratory tests on the Pixel XL to directly compare RF performance to other devices, but it does seem that the signal strength is generally not as good as other smartphones.
In PCMark's battery test, the Pixel XL is much more competitive than when it's browsing on WiFi. The result is actually slightly higher than the Galaxy S7 edge, which is a good position to be in. However, the reasoning behind this has more to do with the Pixel XL's poor performance in PCMark than any sort of advancements in energy efficiency. While running PCMark's workloads, the Pixel XL's CPU cores run at lower frequencies for longer stretches of time than the Galaxy S7 edge's CPU cores, which helps to explain the Pixel XL's lower performance and longer battery life. In the end, PCMark is a test of general usage, and so this shows that the Pixel XL can last for a good length of time on a single charge, but only by sustaining a relatively low level of performance during that time compared to other smartphones.
The Pixel XL does quite well in the GFXBench Manhattan battery test. The total runtime is 3.19 hours, which is lower than other Android devices, although in most cases the gap isn't enormous. The Galaxy S7 edge is an exception once again, coming in at 4.88 hours despite its small battery advantage not being enough to create such a gap.
GFXBench battery always has two sides though, and when you look at sustained performance it's clear that the Pixel XL has an advantage over existing Android devices. It's hard to say how much of this is due to improvements in Snapdragon 821 and how much could be due to differences in thermal design between different smartphones. When you consider the battery lifetime and the sustained performance, the Pixel XL definitely does a good job.
A Note About Charge Time Testing
Due to changes made to filesystem access in Android Nougat, we are unable to perform our standard charge time test on the Pixel XL. The test requires data related to current, voltage, and charge level that are no longer accessible, meaning that there's no way to produce a result that is comparable to existing data. We will be evaluating potential options going forward, and may decide to migrate to a test that measures power at the source rather than on the device.
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andrewaggb - Wednesday, November 16, 2016 - link
Went phone shopping this past weekend. Everybody was pushing the Pixel pretty hard but honestly I didn't like it.Samsung has better screen to body ratio's and I dislike the virtual home button. Open chrome and it takes up a chunk of the screen, on the samsung phones you get text in that area instead. Cameras and screen weren't any better than samsung's either. I'd take an s7 edge over the pixel anyday.
But I was pleasantly suprised by the LG V20. Unfortunately the only carrier I could find it on doesn't have coverage in my area but the phone itself was pretty nice. Really wide angle selfie-cam (wider fov than my note 5 which already has a wider fov than most phones), nice large screen (that looked good, unlike the g5 that I think has a terrible screen), and the extra 2nd screen at the top for music controls/wifi/clock etc is a nice little touch as well.
ithehappy - Thursday, November 17, 2016 - link
This is pretty ridiculous! They are charging same as iPhone and S7E, but they don't give you a great display? Or like you mentioned, the camera even, which is Pixel's main selling point, S7 outperforms it in low light? What the heck is this? I wanted to buy this phone when it cooled down in price a bit, but especially after reading the Display section I think I am out! If OnePlus 3's display is better (more accurate is better in my dictionary) then I would simply go for it, it costs like 70% less too! Jeez!That display completely putting me off from this. Really sad.
syrious - Friday, December 16, 2016 - link
Yea, you'd be better off with the OnePlus 3 or waiting for a S8, the displays on the sammy phones are phenomenal.AMD718 - Sunday, November 20, 2016 - link
Reading through the comments, it's apparent to me that you have both Nexus/Pixel advocates and haters. The haters, as expected, are thoroughly delighted by this review as it plays to their confirmation bias. At the same time, the advocates are disheartened because it allows them no confirmation bias. But, let's be honest - The authors are biased as well. This isn't a cut on the authors. It's merely recognition that they are, in fact, human beings and not technology-reviewing robots impervious that remain 100% objective at all times. So, there is subjectivity in this article and people would be well-served in reading many reviews when they are looking for a new device. As an example, the TechSpot Pixel XL review (google it, not putting the link here) rates the Pixel XL's dispaly in sRGB mode as excellent -"... in my testing with the Pixel XL in its sRGB mode, this display is the most accurate I have seen. In my punishing custom CALMAN 5 accuracy test, the Pixel XL recorded an astonishing dE2000 value of 1.18, which indicates near-perfect color performance. The Pixel XL also reported near-perfect grayscale accuracy and spot-on gamma."
Similarly, other reviews offer drastically different assessments of the camera relative to the competition.
Bottom line, look at this review as one of many resources that you can draw upon to make your own conclusion. AnandTech's review is certainly professional and high-quality, but it is not the end-all-be-all.
ithehappy - Sunday, November 20, 2016 - link
Damn! I never heard about this Techspot, but will surely read their review. I really don't know how there could be this massive difference in calibration results when same tool is used, there can't be a human error, so I don't know what to say really!Androider - Sunday, November 27, 2016 - link
The launcher being evicted from memory is a familiar phenomenon for any Nexus user when you push the device. Happens on my Nexus 7, 5 and 6p. You get a completely black screen for maybe 3-6 seconds while the launcher is either restarted or swapped in. I have no doubt it would happen on the Pixel unless Google has rearchitected the whole thing, which they clearly haven't.This is exactly the type of thing you won't find in a few days of testing, but will run into after using the phone for weeks and months. Thank you Anandtech for a thorough, and honest review! Android has a lot going for it, and it is my platform of choice, but you have to be honest about its shortcomings.
lokesh - Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - link
I don't agree because still i vote for iPhone 7 than Google Pixel XL. In iphone i can download paid apps with vshare app but i don't know how to download paid apps for free in Google Pixel XL. http://www.vshareappdownloads.com/Zovuvazz - Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - link
I recently purchased a Pixel and have three things to say about it:1. It is the first Android phone I've ever owned about which I have no complaints. Everything about it works perfectly. It reminds me of iPhones, to some degree, in how polished the interface looks, feels, and works.
2. The bezel at the bottom is quite useful as an area of the phone in which touching it doesn't accidentally cause something to happen.
3. Its design is "boring"? Only to attention whores, perhaps.
syrious - Friday, December 16, 2016 - link
FINALLY a true review of the Google Pixel phones, people over hype this phone so much. TBH I think its absolute garbage and isn't ready to compete with Sammy or Apple.I mean the phone isn't even waterproof, how are you making a device that isn't water resistant in 2016?
eh_ch - Sunday, January 1, 2017 - link
This review is lies, the Pixel rocks.Crazy fast, smooth scrolling, camera is incredible and this review stole a month of enjoyment of my Pixel from me. I
hemmed and hawed, and then it was out of stock, so it was another week before it was available again, and then another three weeks to ship.
Anandtech I love your articles, but the criticisms of Apple fanboyism are ABSOLUTELY correct.