Pixel 2 and 2 XL review—The best Android phone you can buy
Welcome to year two of Google Hardware. In 2016, Google jumped into the Android hardware space with its first self-branded device, the Google Pixel. Google's software prowess shined on the Pixel 1, offering up exclusive features like the Google Assistant, the best Android camera thanks to advanced software processing, fast day-one OS updates and betas, and the smoothest, best-performing overall build of Android. The killer software package made it the best Android phone of the previous generation.
The Pixel still represented Google's first foray into smartphone hardware, though, and it didn't offer anything special in the hardware department. It was a bland-looking iPhone clone. It had the same specs and basic design as everything else. The Pixel even skipped water resistance, which had become an expected feature at that price point. Google said it wanted to make its own hardware, but it didn't actually build special hardware.
Google had an excuse, however: the original Pixel was a rush job. All the evidence we have points to it being blasted out the door in about 9 months, approximately half the usual development time for a smartphone. This year Google's second-generation smartphones—the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL—arrive after a development timeframe much closer to the usual smartphone schedule. Expectations are rightfully a lot higher.
