The Google Pixel 2 XL has been receiving negative press about its display. Many are complaining about a blue tint and dull colors. As many of you guys know, my unit arrived early so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the Pixel 2 XL’s display to see just how bat it really is.
For starters, it features a 6-inch P-OLED display with a 2880x1440 resolution. Since we’re dealing with an 18:9 aspect ratio, the display is taller than most traditional smartphone panels. You’ll see Google has made the bezels considerably thinner than last year’s Pixel XL. That’s all fine and dandy but there are three main concerns that I want to address.
First of all, the blue tint. If you hold the phone directly in front of your face, nothing will appear out of the ordinary. But when you tilt it to the side in any direction, a blue tint will appear. It is very noticeable if you’re looking for it. You really have to be looking at the phone dead on to not notice the tint.
Another concern is with the dull colors. Google has calibrated the display to align with the SRGB color standard that aims to make colors appear as natural and as life-like as possible. This is turned on by default and the only option you have to change the display colors is via the vivid colors slider that will improve vibrancy by 10%, which is just barely noticeable.
Now I completely agree that colors do appear to be more muted than some other high-end smartphone displays, even last year’s Pixel XL. But I don’t really find it taking away from the overall experience of this smartphone. I mean there’s no question Samsung’s Note 8 AMOLED display is better. And this display certainly could be better and I expect Google to issue a software update that will address this issue and allow users to improve the colors at least making it a little more competitive with Samsung’s offerings.
The last of the three main issues raised has to do with the noise. When at low brightness, you will start to notice some more noise associated with the display when compared to a higher quality display from Samsung. And by noise, I mean blotchiness or kind of a paper-like texture to the display. And you’ll see this when at a lower brightness and when you are viewing specifically like a white screen. You definitely don’t notice this as much with the top of the line display like from the Galaxy Note 8. And it’s one of those things where it’s a little bit noticeable when you really look for it but you really shouldn’t notice it in daily use.
I do want to point out that the Pixel launcher tends to wash out the bottom portion of the display. You’ll see that colors are especially dull and washed out near the Google Search bar and bottom row of apps. Something Google’s doing to the launcher is causing this. It is, thankfully, not the display itself. It’s possible Google added a gradient for aesthetics but I don’t think it looks that gray. It can easily be fixed in a software update though.
Now how does this affect my view of the Pixel 2 XL? In all honesty, it doesn’t affect it too much. The Pixel 2 XL still strongly appeals to me in other areas like software, speakers, waterproofing, and fantastic camera. The display is fine and, yes, it could definitely be better but these issues don’t significantly ruin the overall experience for me. If you want the best smartphone display, definitely buy the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Its display is phenomenal and of higher quality than the LG OLED display we have here and in the LG V30.
LG’s OLED display technology is probably a few years behind Samsung’s. The way I like to think about it is it’s like the difference between a Snapdragon 835 processor (which is the processor being used in all of the high-end Android flagships on the market today) and a Snapdragon 810 or 820 processor (which is two or three years old). You’re still going to get a capable processor that will do just about all the same things as the newest model. It just won’t perform as well as some of the processors on the market.
As I’m making this video, there is another concern that just popped up. It has to do with burn-ins. Some of the users are reporting burn-in in their display after only around 7 days of usage. That is definitely more of a serious concern and I’ll have to look into that more over the next couple of days and weeks. I’ll include that in my full review so make sure to subscribe so you know when that video is live.
My question for you is what do you think of the Pixel 2 XL’s display? And how much do you weigh the display when compared to other features? How important is the display compared to say the processor performance or software or camera? I’m curious to hear your thoughts in a comment down below.
