Pixel 3a XL

[TeaLeaf]

Seeing as Toby and I have one (and others may have one too) I thought a thread was in order.  Mine should be delivered tomorrow, so I'll post up some initial impressions after it has arrived.  

In the meantime please look out for Toby's detailed review...... :getmecoat:

[TeaLeaf]

Only got this wee beastie this afternoon, but I am already very impressed.  

I like the new 'transfer settings from old phone' which I have not used before.  It was literally plug the two phones together and let the software take over.   Everything moved across in about 10 minutes (and I had a lot of stuff on my phone).  They even include a USB to USB-C adapter to help, but for me it was not needed as both the U_Pro and the 3a XL are USB-C.

3a XL is slightly larger than the elephone which was interesting as the screen size is meant ot differ by just 0.01", but the 3a XL including the bezel was probably 5-6mm longer and 2-3mm taller.  Most of this is probably bezel as the U pro is a waterfall screen whilst the 3a XL is not.

This is my first experience with Android 9.0 and the Pie is tasting damn good.  Very nippy OS and I am loving some of the usability features in it which customise your home screen and responses to various cues.  Fingerprint reader is very fast compared to the U Pro.  It's going to take a couple of days to get used to the changed gestures in Pie compared to Oreo.

I also picked up the Pixel 3a XL case, which is a nice material texture and a good fit.  It does not interfere at all with the fingerprint sensor operation which still seems to work almost before you touch it.

Final bonus - the Pixel USB-C earbuds.   I've only used them for the last 15 minutes or so but they are very good for the price and at this point seem the most comfortable earbuds I have used to date.  They have a really nice open sound, good bass and when you crank the volume up I have yet to encounter any distortion.  Well worth the £30.

[BrotherTobious]

I love it and find more and more stuff about it. The interface is a pita at first but you get there.  

Also you can get Android 10 now if you want to or are brave enough

[TeaLeaf]

I went to Android 10 on the day of release. Super smooth install, no problems at all. Currently investigating new features.  Mmmmm, dark mode!

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

[smilodon]

After a not inconsiderable amount of dithering I went for the Pixel 3 XL.
I'm a sucker for the gorilla 5 glass, wireless charging and the dedicated photo processor.

Other than that it was a dumb idea and I should have gone for the Pixel 3a XL

[BrotherTobious]

Also now on Android 10 very smooth and quick.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I am using a 3a xl Smilo

[smilodon]

I turned the phone on got some security patches and immediately got the Android Queen Cake :eyebrow: update. The dark mode is a welcome addition, not for everyone but I do like the darker vibe, especially as Google's material design uses a lot of (bright) white spaces. I find making those spaces black to be easier on the eye.

The new buttonless gesture control set up is interesting. I think it's going to take some getting used to but once I have mastered it I don't see myself going back to buttons.
What I really do like and am using to convince myself that the 3 XL was worth the extra money over the 3aXL is the dedicated visual core and beefy CPU.
I'm not sure which does the heavy lifting but the photosphere camera, HDR+ and other photo effects really whizz on the 3XL. It's a huge improvement on the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5x I owned before. Apparently it also uses far, far less battery than it would utilising the main Snapdragon CPU. As I bought this phone mostly for the camera that's no bad thing.

After the slightly odd UI that came with the Honor 8X (EMUI) pure Android is a delight. I can understand why phone manufacturers don't want to assume that all their customers will be using just dedicated Google Apps. Sure add in an alternative email app, music player etc. But why do Huawei, Samsung etc have to install a clearly inferior UI on their phones. Stock android 9 and 10 are the best mobile phone UI's available (sorry Apple it's true) so why shove some substandard version onto their phones?

Earbuds due on Sunday.

[DiseasedBunny]

Must admit I love using the MIUI interface, on my Redmi Note 7, so if android has moved onto 10, then MIUI must be due to go onto 11...

[smilodon]

To be honest I only have first hand experience of the Ui's from Huawei, Samsung, Motorolla, Wiley Fox and Apple.

[albert]

You know... Pixel products are not even on the Dutch Google Store. I had to switch to UK to even see the spec!

I'm looking for a phone for my Mum that will last her a decent amount of time. Her iPhone 5s is s little small and she always used to like Android. She had a few low end andoid phones which lost their performance fast as new OS versions were released, I opted to try Apple for her which lasted 3 years. She uses an iPad mostly hence the familiarity with the larger screen and ease of touch control. But iPhones are expensive.

Comparing the 3a with the 3aXL all I see in difference is:


Full-screen 5.6" display vs 6.0" (XL)
FHD+ OLED at 441 ppi vs 402 ppi (XL)
18.5:9
3000 vs 3700 mAh (XL)

Are ther any other under the hood specs you may have considered that made the XL your choice or was is purely these?

[TeaLeaf]

For me the battery was one of the drivers for opting for the XL. It's a big difference in usable time.  I also did not want to go back to a smaller screen so XL we a good fit and one I'm very happy with.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

[smilodon]

As far as I am aware those are the only differences between the 3a and the 3a XL

[BrotherTobious]

I went with it due to price and the screen also there wasn't any 3rd partry Bloatware

[albert]

Ta matey. I can see the value in the extra real estate of the XL. Our 2 year old LGs are still 6.5" and wide things not possible to use with one hand.

[TeaLeaf]

I went with it due to price and the screen also there wasn't any 3rd partry Bloatware

Yes this too, obviously!

Re Albert's 6.5" being a problem for one hand......I couldn't possibly comment!

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk