Google Pixel 3 vs Pixel 2 – What’s New [Comparison]

Back in 2016, Google has forayed into the vast smartphone segment with its Pixel and Pixel XL devices. These were the flagship phones with top-notch specs of that year. Since it was the start for the search giant into the smartphone segment, the phones were impressive especially with the cameras and Google’s stock Android. After the successful launch of its smartphones that year, Google has introduced the new variants of the Pixel line-up – the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2XL.

With the upgraded specs and added water-resistant capabilities, these were the most successful smartphones in 2017 on par with the Apple’s iPhones and the camera along with Google’s machine learning and AI capabilities is still believed to be the best camera on a smartphone till date. Having said that, Google this year came up with the new Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL smartphones.

Since the initial launch, the XL variant is supposed to be the larger version of the standard variant and the standard variant is categorized to be the best option for a compact sized smartphone. Now, let’s compare the last year’s Google Pixel 2 with the new Pixel 3.

Display

The Pixel 2 featured a 5.0-inch 16:9 AMOLED display with a pixel density of 441 ppi and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The new Pixel 3 comes with the same Gorilla Glass protection and it features a larger 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a new 18:9 aspect ratio, which is pretty much the standard resolution for this year’s premium smartphone segment. The new Pixel 3 display features HDR capabilities along with a screen-to-body ratio of 77.2%. On the whole, this new improved display on the Pixel 3 might cope up with the premium contraries.

Performance

Pixel devices usually tend to perform well with the Google’s stock Android paired up with the industry’s latest specs and Pixel 2 is no exception and the Pixel 3 neither would be. Every year, the specs bump on the new smartphones is a norm, the new Pixel 3 features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. The Pixel 2 featured the last-gen Snapdragon 835 SoC paired with Adreno 540 GPU. In terms of performance, the latest 10nm chipset on the Pixel 3 is certainly a greater improvement compared to the one that powers the last year’s Pixel 2.

Camera

Camera is the area where Google excels with its Pixel devices. The new Pixel 3 boasts a 12.2MP rear camera, which is same as the Pixel 2 but, the company says the former device boasts a new camera sensor and comes with new camera modes and features. One of the modes is the Top Shot – which when activated recommends the best photo after the photo is being taken by capturing multiple shots of the same photo. This mode uses the new Google’s machine learning capabilities to recommend the best moment after capturing the photo.

The other new mode is the Night Sight mode on the Pixel 3 which also utilizes Google’s AI and machine learning algorithms to get a better low light shot. The selfie camera is where the both Pixel devices differ the most. Google has come up with dual selfie cameras on the Pixel 3 with 8MP sensors each, while the Pixel 2 had a single 8MP front-facing camera. Google has added dual cameras on the front, where one sensor is used as for standard photo capturing while the other camera is utilized for wide-angle photography.

Battery

Google Pixel 2 featured a non-removable 2700mAh battery, which was satisfactory and gets through a day quite easily. However, the company has come up with a 2915mAh battery with the new Pixel 3. The company is offering the 9V/2A (18W) fast charging power adapter for wired charging. With the Pixel 3, Google is also introducing wireless charging with 10W fast charging. The new Android 9.0 Pie brings the Adaptive battery feature which improves the battery life by learning the usage of apps over time.

Lastly, in terms of connectivity, I/O and storage both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 devices share the identical features including the Bluetooth 5.0, USB 3.1 Type-C and 4GB of RAM and 64/128GB storage variants. However, the Pixel 3 comes with Google’s Android 9.0 Pie out-of-the-box, the company has already rolled out Android Pie update to older Pixel devices as well. Furthermore, the Pixel 3 comes with an IP68 rating while the predecessor had an IP67 rating for water and dust resistant protection. Having said that, we would like to know your thoughts on this.

Let us know, would you be interested in upgrading from Pixel 2 to Pixel 3. Share your opinion with us by commenting down below or tweet us at @PhoneRadarBlog.