It can be hard to find a phone for under $200 that has features such as an OLED display and top end camera. Especially in the US where many budget options are not available. If this is the kind of phone that you were looking for then it’s definitely worth it to look at old flagships. Android flagships tend to come down in price rather quickly and many of the flagships released three years ago have already reached the sub-$200 price point. However, a major issue in terms of getting these old android flagships is software updates. Android phones usually only receive two years of software updates and three years of security patches so many phones released in 2017 did not and will not get android 10. The Google Pixel 2 XL stands out both as one of the only phones that got android 10 on day one but also possibly the only phone released in 2017 that will get android 11 and this should also come on day one. The phone also receives all of google’s security patches on Day One. That is not to say that software updates will not be an issue on this device as Google is only planning on releasing security patches up until October.
The pixel two XL has near stock android 10 although there are some pixel exclusive features. The pixel two XL comes with a built-in now playing feature which is similar to Shazam where it detects songs playing nearby and tells you the name of it. Because of the software integration there are a few extra things that you can do with this. The pixel two XL has an always on display and you can pin now playing to the always on display so whenever there is a song playing nearby you can see the name of it by simply glancing at your phone. You can also see the name of the song in the notifications area and it even keeps a list of songs that you had previously.
The pixel two XL also comes with special customization features known as styles. They are a set of different attributes for things like the icon shape, font and background. You can also create custom styles. All of the things that are modified by styles can be adjusted via the developer options on other Android phones and you can certainly do more customization if you use the developer options. However the styles options are still a convenience and can be especially helpful if you don’t want to mess with the developer options on your phone but still want to modify it.
The software isn’t the only thing that can be noticeably outdated on older flagships. The designs of not only flagship phones but also budget phones has changed dramatically since 2017. Phones have gotten larger so the XL in pixel two XL doesn’t really mean as much anymore. It is pretty much the average size of phones in its price range. Another thing that has increased in smartphones is the screen to body ratio. Phones released today have at least an 80% screen to body ratio even in the sub $200 price range however the pixel two XL has large top and bottom bezels giving it a screen to body ratio of only 76%. Because of these larger bezels the pixel two XL is not able to fit as large as a display as modern phones in the sub $200 price category. However it does not require a notch or a punch hole since the camera and speaker are built into the bezel with some people will definitely prefer. Also while most phones have larger displays they are only larger in one dimension and that is height. This phone has an 18 x 9 aspect ratio whereas most phones from today have at least a 19.5 x 9 aspect ratio or taller. If you like using your phone for watching YouTube most of the videos on YouTube are in a 16 x 9 aspect ratio as with this video is using so having a taller display which when in landscape obviously will be a wider display will not be an advantage as far as getting a bigger picture. They also have the advantage of allowing for dual front facing speakers which I will talk more about later.
The pixel two XL also as a mostly metal back instead of a glass back like almost every other phone from today this means that you don’t have to worry about fingerprints as much and you also don’t have to worry about the the back of the phone shattering although it also means that the pixel two XL cannot have wireless charging. I personally don’t really care for wireless charging. I have a phone with it and I don’t think that you are missing out on much if you’re using regular wired charging as an alternative but if you’re already invested in wireless chargers then this can certainly be a dealbreaker. The back of the pixel two XL is not entirely metal there is also glass at the top to allow the phone to get a better signal this one is in the black and white color where the metal is white and the glass is black there is also a just black option where both the metal and the glass are black. Both options come with a black front. You’ll also notice that this option comes with an orange power button. This isn’t the case for the just black option where the power button is just back.
Although Google had me at a point in their advertisements for their original pixel phone that they had chosen not to remove the headphone jack they turned around and removed it with the pixel two so you will not be getting a headphone jack in this phone. Another thing that you will not be getting is expandable storage. The pixel two XL comes in two storage options of 64 GB or 128 GB and is worth considering the lack of expandable storage when choosing between these. Some brands have different amounts of RAM depending on what storage option you get although Google does not do this you get 4 GB of RAM whether you get the 64 GB variant or the 128 GB variant. The pixel two XL also has IP67 water and dust resistance so you don’t get IP68 but then again when comparing it to most budget phones most of them don’t have an IP rating at all.
As previously mentioned the display is one of the main advantages of getting an old flagship over a new budget phone. The pixel 2 XL comes with a 1440p OLED display which is much better than the 720p or 1080p IPS display that you can find on most similarly priced phones. however it is not quite the quality that you can get on a modern flagship or even other flagships from 2017 there were many issues with this display the main one being the viewing angles usually OLED displays have better viewing angles than IPS displays although the pixel 2 XL display has a noticeable blue shift when looking at it from an angle. This is more noticeable on screens with a mostly white background. Interestingly when looking at the screen directly actually has warmer color tones than most other displays. Aside from this, while the Pixel two XL comes with HDR like most flagship displays it does not meet the HDR 10 or Dolby Vision standards and the shortcomings are certainly noticeable when comparing HDR content to flagship smartphones. Other than that the display is only mediocre in terms of brightness and it can be a bit hard to see in direct sunlight. The colors were also an issue when the phone was first released with some reviewers claiming that they were two dull especially considering that it was an OLED display although since then software updates added three options for the vibrancy of the colors there is the original natural option but Google added a new boosted option and for even further saturation a saturated option so this shouldn’t be a huge issue. Overall the display is probably the main weakness when comparing it to other used phones that you could buy for the same price although it is also a major strength when comparing it to a new budget phone that would be for the same price. It is still an OLED display and therefore has much better black levels then when IPS display as well as more vibrant colors. It also has HDR and while it’s not as good as flagship level this feature certainly will not be found on any budget phones. There is also the option for an always on display and because it is OLED this does not reduce the battery life that much.
As previously mentioned the pixel two XL comes with two front facing speakers. These allow for stereo sound and the positioning means that they are less likely to get muffled when holding the phone like speakers on the side of the phone are. They are also much higher quality and can get us louder than your average phone speakers. There aren’t many speakers that can get louder than the pixel two XL the iPhone can although it tends to lose quality and get more tinny overall at the louder volumes. The pixel two XL however does not tend to lose audio quality at higher volumes although there is sometimes a little bit of distortion which can be heard on a lot of smartphones. Overall the pixel two XL has one of the best speaker setups that you can find on any smartphone even today.
Well the display may be the main weakness of the pixel two XL its biggest strength is probably his camera. In some ways the pixel two XL camera can actually compare with some flagships from today. By far the strongest aspect of the camera is it stabilization the image stabilization on the pixel two XL is actually better than most flagships from today it looks like you have the phone on a gimbal and it’s hard to tell that you were even holding it in your hand in this video clip I tried to shake the pixel two XL as much as possible as were stepping as hard as possible to make it hard to get a stable side but because of the pixel two XL‘s image stabilization it’s hard to tell that I was holding it in my hand and walking and not just rolling it on a big camera stand. Other than its great image stabilization the microphone on the pixel two XL is also one of the best that you can find on any phone which makes the pixel two XL agree camera to see video on the only issue that you may have is that does not support 4K at 60 frames per second and probably does not have as much detail as a modern flag ship but other than that there are no complaints in terms of videos.
Another strength of the pixel two XL‘s camera is low light. The pixel two XL comes with a night mode which appears in low light environments. This usually uses a long exposure combined with Google’s image processing to take a picture that is much brighter and has less noise while maintaining detail. In environments with poor lighting the night mode makes the image look like it as well lit without the requirement that you use the flash. The only issue is that it sometimes makes colors look unrealistic. You can even use it in extremely late where it is difficult for even your eyes to see although once you get dark enough you will have to find a way to stabilize the phone as it will use up to a 1/2 second exposure which will make images appear very blurry if the phone is not stabilized but even in these conditions because of the image stabilization you don’t even need to use a tripod you can to stabilize it by putting it on a flat surface. While of course you could still use a flask instead this can light the image unevenly and anything more than a few feet from the camera will still appear dark. Additionally there are some conditions where the flash may reflect and not produce a good image. Overall the night mode allows you to take pictures that would otherwise be impossible and it is a major feature of this phone that makes it competitive with modern flag ships.
There are still some areas where the pixel two XL‘s camera falls behind current flag ships in and even similarly priced budget funds. The pixel two XL comes with a single 12 megapixel camera while many flag tips from 2020 and even some budget funds come with 48 megapixel cameras or above and have either a triple camera or even quad camera set up. Usually the secondary cameras are Ultra Wide telephoto or macro lenses. For the most part on these higher resolution cameras the higher resolution is only used in good lighting conditions where are the cameras take advantage of pixel burning in conditions where there is not optimal lighting and output the same 12 megapixel image as the pixel two XL one so you will have to take this into account. Even if you are not using the full 48 megapixels the phones with a telephoto lens will still most likely have better resume than the pixel two XL. I see most likely because while the majority of telephoto lens is offer a better resume then a digital one some of them like the image stabilization to take a good picture and a good example would be the LG V40. I would advise that you buy a phone with a telephoto camera over this one simply because of the telephoto camera without looking for a review with camera samples. The wide-angle however has now become more common than the telephoto camera and this can be a major advantage it offers a much wider field of you than the main camera at least on every phone that I’ve seen with a wide angle option here is a sample from the LG V40 comparing the wide-angle to a standard lens. There is also of course the macro camera which allows the phone to focus on objects much closer to the lens then you can with the standard camera. It might be a good thing to look into if you find that you were having trouble focusing your phones camera often because you were taking pictures of objects close to it.
Another thing that a lot of budget funds do with multi camera set ups is have a dedicated depth sensor to help with portrait mode photography. Usually at least a dual camera set up is required for portrait mode photography although some phones including the pixel two XL can take portrait mode photos with a single camera. The address to Texan isn’t actually too bad considering that as a single camera and because you don’t need a secondary camera which is inferior you can take portrait pictures in lowlight. You can also modify the background blurry after taking the photos in editing. The only issue with having a single camera is that you cannot see in the background blur live in the viewfinder since it is added to using processing after you’ve taken the picture. You can also take portrait mode pictures with a front facing camera and the same things apply that I said about the rear camera in portrait mode photography although the edge detection isn’t as good.
Another thing that you will not be getting on the pixel two XL‘s camera is super slow motion. You are limited to 240 frames per second like most fans. This may not be a huge thing for most people after all you could only record for a fax in a second on most fans with a super slow motion although it is worth noting. You will also be missing out on 4K video at 60 frames per second.
The pixel two XL comes with a snapdragon 835 and 4 GB of RAM. These facts are from three years ago so you can definitely find better performance in modern day flagships although performance has reached a point where there isn’t a huge difference between generations overall the difference between a snapdragon 835 and an 865 isn’t going to be hugely noticeable unless you were running heavier apps and games on your phone in which case you might want to look Adam more expensive option. However you can’t expect much better performance at the price point. You also will not be getting 5G in the pixel two XL obviously since it came out in 2017 and you won’t find any 5G phones in the price range of the pixel two XL although the Honor 10X is rumored to be coming up at a price of under 1000 Chinese yuan which will be equivalent to around US$141. Of course since it is a Huawei phone this will not be available in the US.
However of course the processor does not only affect the speed it also affects the battery efficiency which has gotten better on the newer QUALCOMM chipsets. The snapdragon 835 is a 10 nm chipset whereas the 865 is a 7 nm chipset. Combining this with the fact that the pixel two XL has a 3300 mA hour battery compared to 4000 to 5000 mA hours on many modern flagships the pixel two XL should not be able to compete with modern flagships in terms of battery life. Aside from this my battery unless if it’s in chipset chances are if you’re buying this phone into thousand 20 you are most likely getting used and if you were getting a used phone then the battery life could be worse still because the battery is already worn down. The battery is non-replaceable the last flag ship to come with a replaceable battery was the LG V20 in 2016 so if you want to get a new battery then you will need to take it into a repair shop or Open up the phone and replace it yourself. Of course you could just find a new phone which would give you better battery life although as I previously mentioned this could be difficult. The battery send have degraded two months in just two years although if it is in a place where it gets really hot or really cold and is he is outside then the battery could be very damaged and may need to be replaced. When buying a used phone it is always a good idea to look for a place where returns are excepted. However the battery may be the main weakness of buying this phone or really any other flags it from 2017 because since then battery capacity is having trees drastically and you can get a much bigger battery on a budget from from today which will also benefit from A more efficient chipset and a lower resolution display.
The pixel two XL is overall still a good phone to buy in 2017 particularly if you were looking for a good camera at a low price you can find a pixel two XL for only around $130 used and the camera can still compete with flagships from today. You’ll still be getting current software at least for the next six months although this can also be a disadvantage since you will be receiving your last security patch certainly after you buy the device in October even though you will be getting it an Android 11 on day one. In addition to the current software and great camera you also get one of the best speaker set ups on any smart phone and performance that in day-to-day usage is into different from a modern day flagship although it will be lacking if you are using more intensive apps. The main weaknesses of the phone are the battery which applies to any use phone because of battery where in the increase of battery sizes and the display which was an issue when the phone was released. If you were looking for the best display that you can get on a smart phone for this price I recommend that you look for a different use smart phone and if you were looking for a phone with reliable and long battery life then I recommend that you get a new phone as opposed to an all these flags it.