Google Pixel 3

Pixel 3 was released in November 2018.

Compared to Pixel 3a, Pixel 3 stands out for having an excellent camera setup. However, get the Pixel 3 if you don’t care much about that aspect as the 3a has pretty much the same hardware, minus water resistant ability and wireless charging.

Display

Pixel 3’s OLED screen measures 5.5 inches and it is big and expansive enough to be relevant in modern time.

The phone’s size is 145.6 x 68.2 x 7.9mm and its weight is 148g, a similar size to the Pixel 2, which has a smaller screen size of 5 inches.

Apart from being a little bigger, the display of Pixel 3 is richer than that of Pixel 2. Thanks to the 18:9 aspect ratio, the phone bezels look really thin, fixing exactly the issue with Pixel 2XL.

There is still bezel visible to house the dual-camera setup on the front and speakers at the bottom and top of the phone. However, the design is clever not to make the phone looks ugly with a notch cut out.

Chipset

Pixel 3 runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and RAM of 4GB. However, that much RAM is a little bit small as the phone’s rivals all have at least 6GB, some even have 8GB.

However, in tests, Pixel 3 shows no slowdown. Google owns both the hardware and software of the device should bring users some benefits.

Pixel 3 scores 8,336 in Geekbench 4 benchmarking tests, ranking below the Samsung Galaxy S9.

RAM

4GB of RAM is a bit low compared to other handsets having the same price on the market.

While for now, users have not yet noticed any issue but in the future, frame rate drop is to be expected, especially when you play games in 3D.

Battery

Pixel 3 draws power from a 2,915mAh battery, however, this is still an improvement compared to the Pixel 2’s 2,700mAh power cell.

The battery life of this phone is disappointed as the only way it can last for a whole day is for you to use it very little. Even moderate use will force you to plug it in before day ends.

With a competent camera setup, users will be compelled to take lots of photos, but not for long as the battery will take a big hit.

The software does help a little with preserving the battery life, like features that restrict the power of apps you don’t use.

Users will have the 18W charger for a faster charging speed and with Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, you will also have fast wireless charging. The glass back provides the phone with the ability to regain power with most Qi chargers.

The Pixel Stand can double as a display for users to see notifications and use Google Assistant, similar to a small Google Home Hub.

While the Stand is not for travelling, it does offer you 10W charging, which top up a phone from 0% to 80% in 1 hour and 39 minutes.

Camera

Google Pixel 3, at the time of launch, carries one of the best camera setups availbel on the market.

The 12.2MP camera is consistent and users will be able to shoot more detailed, brighter, and shaper shots than what taken by Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and iPhone XS.

Compared to Pixel 2, its predecessor, photos taken by the Pixel 3 has less noise and aren’t over-sharpened like what taken by Huawei P20 Pro.

Most of what makes the cameras work so wonderfully happen behind the scene. There is nothing much to talk about the f/1.8 aperture, what makes a difference is the Pixel Visual Core chip and the phone’s machine learning software. So Pixel 3 has only one camera but it doesn’t mean the photo quality cannot rival those of competitors with more camera counts.

Some of other software highlights are Top Shots, which help you avoid taking pictures with someone closed their eyes by picking out the best one. Night Sight works so well for low light condition that Pixel 3 is arguably your best bet if you want to take pictures in unfavorable light often.

Super Res Room makes up for the lack of telephoto lens, which takes advantage of backend software to enhance digital zoom.

With Pixel 4 launched, Google announced the key improvement for the latest device will come to Pixel 3 too. What we are talking about is astrophotography. With this feature in place, users can point the phone to the night sky and have stunning pictures of the stars and galaxies.

The consistency in photo quality also expands to the selfie camera, with less noise and better HDR. One of the two cameras have field of view of 75 degree while that of the other is 97 degree.

Google called this secondary lens Group Selfie Camera, and there is a reason for this. With the lens in place, the photos will include more of where you are and also people around you.

The first brand to introduce this idea is the LG V10, next we have LG V40 and now Pixel 3. There are some drawbacks though. The most noticeable one is barrel distortion on the edges of the photos.

Holding the phone in the right way can help you squeeze in more of the surrounding into the pictures.

However, if you hold it in the wrong way, your face will look distorted. The extra lens allows you to take in more of what above you but look down, when your shirt looks fanned out, it appears like you have gained some unexpected kilograms.

When this happens to you, holding the phone farther away or put it at a different angle usually help easing the unwanted effect. Not many people can take the perfect selfies but if you manage to take wide-angle selfies with Pixel 3, you are at a different level to everyone else out there.

With a combination of electronic software stabilization and optical image stabilization, 4K videos on Pixel 3 looks impressive. Videos look smooth enough so there is no need to invest in a gimbal. However, the letdown here is the maximum you can get with 4K is 30FPS, not 60FPS.