I'm not an enemy of anything, but damn it, this Pixel 3 XL



[ad_1]

I am not an enemy of the hack. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that this is a phrase that can be said in 2018 and that it is related to a real controversy in the world of technology, but no one said that this year would make sense. Anyway, I do not feel any immediate repulsion for the display notches of the phone, but I must say that I do not feel the screen of Pixel 3 XL for the moment.

After the debacle of the Pixel 2 XL screen last year, when Google had to face criticisms (legitimate, I think) about the quality of its OLED panel and the strange blue hue of which it suffered, I was extremely happy to see the screen of Pixel 3 XL not suffer the same complaints. Richly colored, it looks much more like an iPhone XS panel, but does not achieve the supersaturation that many associate with Samsung's Super AMOLED.

It was the good surprise. Something I did not expect to be so bothered by, however, was the notch. This is the cutout in the top center of the screen of the Pixel 3 XL and it is undoubtedly the most controversial element of the design of the smartphone since the beginning of the first leaks, several months ago.

As I have always seen, the notch on the screen is a necessary evil. We ask a lot of the design of smartphones, and physics sometimes prevents us. If you want a) a big screen, this b) occupies as much as possible the front of your camera, but c) you're not ready to give up the selfie camera and the various sensors provided with modern phones, then you & # 39; More than likely will get a notch.

Some people – and companies – are unwilling to compromise to take these three factors into account. So you get a rectangular screen with at least one thicker bezel at the top. The Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 are excellent examples this year. No notch, but their upper and lower frames are also not as thin as those of other handsets.

The iPhone XS, meanwhile, has well embraced the notch. Of course, Apple is installing its network of smart cameras TrueDepth and, from its 2018 range, there will be no new iPhone without choice. Do you want the latest material? Get used to cutting.

In particular, Apple is not following the path of other smartphone manufacturers with dimpled displays. LG, for example, has had notches on some of its phones since last year. The LG V40 ThinQ is the latest addition. You can dive into the menu settings if you find the cutout really annoying and turn on an option to hide it. Applications actually treat the rest of the screen as a normal rectangle, even if you probably end up with less usable space than if LG had just used a no-nonsense design.

Apple does not have such a setting. This is the way to the notch or the highway. Yesterday, Google announced that it would offer the choice to owners of Pixel 3 XL, although it was not obvious to do so for the examination devices they have distributed so far.

Instead, you need to explore the development settings to return it, which few people will likely do, in my opinion. They should not either because it is a mediocre workaround. Even though this option is enabled, for example, you still do not receive notification icons that represent a complete status bar. They always cut when they arrive at the section where a nick would start.

A combination of understanding that constitutes the necessary evil behind the choice we make and knowing that I can probably get used to most things unless they cause me a legitimate pain, helped me overcome any real embarrassment. I do not really see it day-to-day because I use the iPhone XS Max. While I spent time with the LG V40 ThinQ, my eyes usually learned to ignore it.

The notch of the Pixel 3 XL is however a little different. For starters, it's more intrusive: deeper, maybe twice as much, as the V40 screen cut. The fact that it is not as wide as the notch of the iPhone XS Max only underscores the depth, at least to me. Frankly, it seems out of place.

Google's argument is the same as that of Apple, LG and other adoptees. He has placed two front-facing cameras, as well as the headset and other sensors, so that he can offer both regular and wide-angle shots. If they did not interfere in the screen, the upper frame would be wider than the Pixel 3.

Why, however, should not the Pixel 3 XL notch be so big? The V40 ThinQ is also equipped with two front cameras, designed for similar classic and wide-angle selfies, but does not suffer the same kind of notch. Apple may have only one front-end camera for users, but the TrueDepth array uses a variety of sensors and projectors that it uses, all of which are important. Even in this case, his rating is less obvious than that of Google. The Pixel 3 XL does not even have a 3D Face ID type mapping system similar to the security one.

"The notch allows us to provide the best cameras (two including a wide angle) and audio experience," Google argued with a posting review on Twitter this week. "Pixel 3 also has smaller front and front speakers to provide optimal sound quality. Our footprint-display ratio is actually lower than that of many leading competitors. "

The latter factoid may be correct, but if there is one thing, this whole saga has shown that the reaction is primarily an emotional reaction, not rational. If you not only see the notch but get furious by its presence is not just a factor in the amount of encoding to display that you have touched. Instead, it's about how cutting fits into the overall style of the device.

There, I'm not sure that Google has the right balance. I'll admit, however, that this is my second full day of using Pixel 3 XL: it's quite possible that after a little more time, my eyes give up their objections. Something legitimate, such as Face ID on the notched iPhones, might have helped facilitate this process.

Instead, Google was its worst enemy and provided us with the perfect example of how the Pixel 3 XL could have been better. This is of course the Pixel 3, a much more balanced device with respect to the width of its upper and lower edges. The 5 inch Pixel 2 left me feeling that it was just a bit too small to be my everyday device last year. This 5.5 inch pixel 3, however, is nestled in an ideal area.

Consistency speaks volumes. Samsung stands out by its no-notch design on its flagship products: its attitude to the form of the display is clear (even if it feels compelled to push a snark in the direction of Google, to double its shoot). Apple, meanwhile, goes from big to notches: his attitude is not to be missed.

Does Google embrace notch or is it just suffering or is it not clear anyway? I'm not sure and, looking at the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, I do not think anyone can be. For 2019, Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL – if, in fact, we call them that, and if there are still two phone sizes – will there be a notch, or no guts, or will it be he half / half?

This is an issue that is reinforced by the fact that Google does not just make phones, it makes phones that give clues – heavy or otherwise – to other Android device builders about how it's consider the future of the operating system. The native support for non-rectangular screens in Android was the first sign that Google recognized this new world of screen shapes, but if you try to guess exactly what it thinks is the "right" screen for the platform, none of these news The pixels are of great help there.

Maybe I read too much in all this. Perhaps Android builders are not following Google's footsteps so closely and are happier to follow their own design journey. The inherent choice of the ecosystem has always been part of the value of Android: if you do not like the look of the Google phone, you can buy an LG, a Samsung, a Huawei or other.

Therefore, the Pixel 3 XL could only be a clumsy looking phone in a sea of ​​options. No big mistake in the legacy of Android, but a more difficult decision for those who expected to buy the biggest pixel of the current year, but now ask questions about its aesthetics. Maybe the weather will temper how weird it looks. All I know now is that the Pixel 3 XL seemed at first glance obvious, but even to my agnostic eyes, this flagship Android product makes me think of something else.

[ad_2]
Source link