**** The Official Google Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL Thread ****

GMac11 said:
When do we reckon the display units will appear in stores? (Or maybe they already are??) I wasn't sold on the Pixel last year until I got playing with one in Currys, totally made my mind up.
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I have found that the best place to get the touch and feel of Google phones, Google Home, all Nest products, Chromebooks, and now many new devices coming such as Home Mini, the Pixel 2's, the Pixelbook, Pixel Buds and soon Google Clip camera, is the Google Store within a store, which are the ones located inside a few main PC World Currys. I prefer the one near Warren Street Station on Tottenham Court Road (the Main Store) but there are at least two others including Fulham/Wandsworth.

Following the launch of the Pixel 2's on 4 October, I stopped by their Main Store and the Google employees in the store had the Pixel 2 to show me, which looked great. They demoed the Google Lens app which was everything that Google said it would be.

Of note, they are redeveloping this main Google Store (ie, the store within a store part) and it is due to open (fully redesigned) and showing all the new Google products on Thursday, 12 October. I expect to stop by at the weekend to view.

If convenient I strongly recommend any fence-sitters to do the same. There is also a Carphone Warehouse within this store if you choose to buy the phones. Carphone expects to have physical stock of the Pixel 2 on the launch date (19 Oct) and on 19 November for the Pixel 2 XL.

Hope that helps.
 
sesevans said:
I have found that the best place to get the touch and feel of Google phones, Google Home, all Nest products, Chromebooks, and now many new devices coming such as Home Mini, the Pixel 2's, the Pixelbook, Pixel Buds and soon Google Clip camera
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Right that's it, I've given you the benefit of the doubt previously but come on... that's a sales pitch all day long. :D
 
Someone on Reddit has a Pixel and is answering a few questions, full AMA tomorrow.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixe...pixel_2_xl/?sort=qa&ref_source=link&ref=share

kEzzeaW.jpg
 
String said:
The bezels look larger than I thought they would.
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It's not a bezel less phone, far from it. They are smaller than last years, but not up to 2017 standards. They had two choices. No front speakers and a better looking phone like the v30, or front speakers and larger bezels. It's the sides more than anything though which looks daft.

and those curves! damn, they are fugly
 
Along with the side bezels, I also dislike the rounded corners on the screen. The fad of 2017.

The top and bottom bezels are fine with me due to the speakers.
 
I do look at what Apple are doing on phones (esp with their new releases) and usually find Macworld a good source for all things Apple. Therefore I was quite surprised to see this article appear in which they basically are saying that as far as Artificial Intelligence/machine learning/voice assistants are concerned, Siri appears to have lost this war with Google big time. Heresy for Macworld to run with this story?

https://www.macworld.com/article/32...nning-the-ai-game-and-its-not-even-close.html
 
Siri is loosing because it tries to do stuff locally and employ differential privacy. Google Assistant just sends it all off the super mega Google clouds.
 
TheOracle said:
It's not a bezel less phone, far from it. They are smaller than last years, but not up to 2017 standards. They had two choices. No front speakers and a better looking phone like the v30, or front speakers and larger bezels. It's the sides more than anything though which looks daft.

and those curves! damn, they are fugly
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It may be a bad photo, but I really don't like the look of that. With a chin like that, the Pixel @ £399 is looking like an absolute steal.

I'd need to see both side by side for a comparison, and let's be honest... all of the software advances that are launched with the Pixel 2 XL will surely make their way to the Pixel XL and cascade through all Android handsets?
 
sesevans said:
I do look at what Apple are doing on phones (esp with their new releases) and usually find Macworld a good source for all things Apple. Therefore I was quite surprised to see this article appear in which they basically are saying that as far as Artificial Intelligence/machine learning/voice assistants are concerned, Siri appears to have lost this war with Google big time. Heresy for Macworld to run with this story?

https://www.macworld.com/article/32...nning-the-ai-game-and-its-not-even-close.html
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Considering google assistant has issues turning my house lights on, I'll keep quiet about AI thanks
 
GeX said:
Siri is loosing because it tries to do stuff locally and employ differential privacy. Google Assistant just sends it all off the super mega Google clouds.
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Agree in most cases, which is what makes the new Google Clips camera such an interesting exception to their automatic use of the Google Cloud for making AI in general and Google Assistant in particular such a powerful offering for them.

But take a moment to think of the way they addressed using their AI "chops" with Clips. Here it seems Google is making a big bet in that they are asking you to trust their AI capability in a memorable moment--which for a photographer might not occur again. Google's algorithm is telling Clips what to look out for and when. And of note, this automatic curation intelligence is done on the Clips camera, not up in the Google Cloud.

We will know that this product really works when Pixel uses like us put their phone (with its great camera) down to let Clips operate solo.
 
uvarvu said:
Were a batch of 2XL phones available for UK delivery today as well then or is mid October the earliest date for us?
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I think the earliest for the XL is mid November. It's not launched until, what, Nov 19th I think someone said above.

TheOracle said:
Considering google assistant has issues turning my house lights on, I'll keep quiet about AI thanks
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Funnily enough, I think my Echo did better at recognising specifically my request to change the lights brightness than my Home, but I don't think anyone that knows them all would suggest that Siri does anywhere near as good as Google Assistant. I have no experience of Siri, but definitely Google Assistant (Home) does a better job of answering questions than Alexa did.
 
Hardly
sesevans said:
I do look at what Apple are doing on phones (esp with their new releases) and usually find Macworld a good source for all things Apple. Therefore I was quite surprised to see this article appear in which they basically are saying that as far as Artificial Intelligence/machine learning/voice assistants are concerned, Siri appears to have lost this war with Google big time. Heresy for Macworld to run with this story?

https://www.macworld.com/article/32...nning-the-ai-game-and-its-not-even-close.html
Click to expand...
Hardly a surprise, Google software is everywhere. Apple isn't.
 
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