The Best Smartphone - iPhone X vs Pixel 2

One of the most important question you can ask yourself when you have come out of your holiday season break , would be, whether or not if I share my photos taken on my Pixel 2 to an iPhone X user, will it retain the same quality? Will Apple mute photos taken on a Google phone (#creepy)?

Before we answer that, the iPhone X is no doubt Apple's flagship phone of 2017 whilst Pixel 2 is Google's very own flagship phone for 2017. The views shared here are very personal and that I do love both Apple and Android phones equally and have neither have preference to either or.

2017, has been the year of tall phones, less bezel and more display. There has been tons of reviews online comparing the two flagship phones and I don’t think there is a clear winner but its more of a personal thing on what works well for you. What happens to be your deal breaker? Mine particularly was the design, display, camera and the great shots I can get from it. Though for some of you, it could be the operating system (iOS user vs Android user) or the display etc. (typically Design, Camera, Display, Performance and other stuffs).

 Lets start of with

1. Design -

• iPhone X is really a beautiful looking device devoid of any physical button on the front screen and all glass back design. The edge to edge is display is truly impressive (first OLED on an iPhone), and oh yes, did I say they "notched up" the design?!(#developerfurstration) After a while you barely notice it being there and also the nuances around the swipe actions, needs a bit of getting used to(#learningcurve). A lot of design choice by Apple has gone into this phone and I am not sure of the camera hump though. But all said, it’s a very beautifully crafted premium device with a hefty price tag and my favourite iPhone.
• Pixel 2 XL (I am not a fan of smaller phones) straightaway feels like a premium phone if you migrated from the original Pixel (i.e. Pixel 1). It isn't bezel-less but the design choice was to accommodate front facing stereo speakers (really rocks for a smart phone). Holding the phone is feels a lot more secure than a iPhone X with its aluminium powder back finish. I really like this feel. Oh, did I say no headphone jack (#disappointed) and ports one of the fastest finger print scanner plus a new squeeze feature. Yes, its lot less impressive in design comparison to the iPhone X, but its packed with a lot of useful features.

2. Camera - Hands down Pixel 2 wins here both front (selfie/portrait) and back but…

• iPhone X holds not one but two, 12MP camera system, one for wide angle and one for telephoto but in a different orientation to the earlier iPhones. Yes, it packs the usual "portrait mode" with the additional portrait lighting.
• You expect iPhone X to be superior to the Pixel XL with the additional camera which Pixel lacks, but Pixel with its machine learning, it has raised the bar. When there is a low light, bright light, potrait or shadows the photos look incredible. Its closer to a DSLR quality.

To answer the all important question, in my personal test, I did find some photos shared from Pixel 2 XL being stripped down (i.e. washed down) when viewed on the iPhone X. But looks like when done the other way around too, there is some tricky done by both devices (Pixel XL made it look a lot more lush).

3. Display -

• iPhone X as mentioned before is the first OLED iPhone (super retina). They got it right too. It’s a 5.8'', 458 PPI display. Colour saturation is great and blue shift is not noticeable but from a certain angle it still can be seen. It supports the all important P3 colour gamut and a true tone colour profile. Well done Apple or should it be Samsung who made these display (albeit Samsung Phone still reigns as the number one phone when it comes to display).
• Pixel 2 XL was a bit of a let down for me. The display is an awesome 6", 538 PPI but it did get a lot of bad press. Is it an issue and has it affected me? Namely "muted colour" and the "blue shift". You typically don’t expect this from a 800￡ phone. The latter, has not affected me that much as I pretty much watch my phone on axis and not at angle and it is an hardware issue. The former is a change from sRGB (smaller range of colours) to P3 (wider range of colours) colour gamut. Think of it showing the colours toned down (natural looking) whilst the other being more vivid or saturated. Ok LG sucked in comparison to Samsung display panels.

Though that said, it has not deterred me much in saying Pixel 2 XL is my primary phone :)