The best and the worst of the Google Pixel 2 smartphones

Google recently launched its second iteration of Pixel smartphones- Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL meant to compete with Apple's iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and Samsung's Galaxy Note 8. Both the devices look sharp and sport one of the best smartphone cameras in the market. If you are confused as to which device to buy, we have listed down the best and worst qualities of both the phones. The good aspects are listed first:

a) Both the phones have great cameras- The phones have a single-lens setup. They also give you the background blurring bokeh effect on both the front-facing and rear-facing camera. DxO has rated the Pixel 2 camera as the best one with a record-breaking score of 98, much higher than last year's Pixel phones(89).

b) The displays are always-on- Google has brought the always-on displays with the Pixel 2 phones. Also, another great aspect of the Pixel 2 phones is that it will listen to any ambient music playing and identify it in real time. That is a great relief for Shazam lovers, as the biggest pain in using the software is the time constraint to deploy the music in the app as soon as it is played.

c) Pixel 2 phones are IP67 rated- Both the smartphones are IP67 rated (which means they are water and dust resistant). Google has also made the process of copying contacts, apps, photos, and messages from your old phone fast and painless.

d) Google Lens and Assistant Squeeze are promising- Googe Lens lets you look up landmarks, books, music albums, movies, and artwork, right from Google Photos on your Pixel 2. You can also ask Google Lens to copy URLs and contact information from a picture of a poster or business card. The Google Assistant Squueze is a unique function that enables you to activate Google's voice-based AI companion just by applying pressure on the sides of the smartphone.

Now coming to the bad aspects of the Pixel 2 smartphones:

a) Both the phones do not have a headphone jack- Following Apple, Google too decided to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack in the Pixel 2 smartphones. This comes after the search engine company spent half the last year ridiculing Apple's move. Anyways, no headphone jack means you will have to play the music via a Bluetooth headset.

b) The display screens are not edge-to-edge- Pixel 2 XL's screen is not quite edge-to-edge compared to the Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone X and contains hefty bezels at the top, bottom, and sides of the device. If you are a fan of the edge-to-edge design, then the Pixel 2 XL might disappoint you.