re: Pixel 2 Thoughts?

Got my Pixel 2 (non-XL) in today, loving it so far.


The placement of the fingerprint scanner is perfect. It is very fast, and I love that you can swipe on it to lower and raise the notifications shade.

So far the phone has only lagged while I was messing around with the camera while it was still loading all my apps during initial setup. Since then this has been by far the fastest phone I've ever touched.

"Now Playing" is pretty neat, it even picked up a few songs from TV shows I've watched. I like little touches like that, when you're given information you didn't even know you wanted.

I haven't taken the phone out in the daylight, so I've only been able to take some indoor photos so far. But from what I've seen, the camera is every bit as good as advertised. I've never been much of a picture-taker (what's the word? a photographer? ), mostly because all my prior phones have had just ok cameras and the apps were always very laggy. I had no clue how much I would like portrait mode and how good it would be. And the speed of the camera is almost orgasmic. I know iPhones have always had fast cameras, and that was one of the few things I was always jealous of. I don't know how much of my perception is influenced by just how dog-slow my old Nexus 6 camera was (launching the app took at least 2 seconds and there was probably another second of shutter lag), but the Pixel 2's camera app launches very fast and I don't notice any shutter lag at all. I don't think there is any, actually.

The Living Universe wallpapers are awesome.

Squeeze for Assistant feels kind of gimmicky, but I will probably end up using it a lot more than I anticipate. Lens has been hit or miss for me, I'm assuming it will get better. I feel like the old Google Goggles was better 5 years ago.

I like the size of the smaller phone. I know most of you went for the XL, but coming from the large-ish Nexus 6, the Pixel 2 feels a lot better in my hand. One-handed use is much easier. I even like the big chin and forehead, and I don't think I'm just trying to convince myself that I like it. I like being able to hold the phone with a firm pinch grip (one or two handed) without touching or covering the screen. It's like a nice set of handles.