Hello,
Long time lurker, first time poster here. I'm upgrading from my 2 year old HTC 10, which, despite its flaws, is the best phone I've owned to date. The battery degradation had become unbearable, however, with less than an hour of screen on time and the much reported boot loop issue anytime the battery dropped below 50%. I thought about just taking it somewhere to get the battery replaced, but after getting a couple quotes of $100+, screen deposits, etc, and after reading a few horror stories of people who took their HTC 10 in for battery replacement, only to get it back with broken screens, fingerprint scanners, or even completely bricked, I opted to upgrade instead.
After much research, I went with the Pixel 2 XL, despite several personal compromises I would have to make with this choice (I had told myself I'd never buy a phone without a headphone jack or sub-par audio, never buy a phone this big, and never buy a phone without expandable storage, etc). I almost went with the LG V35 when Amazon had it's prime day special. For $600, it ticked almost all of my boxes, especially on the audio side, but I wasn't convinced by it's gimmicky-seeming AI camera, and ultimately I was lured by the Pixel's glowing camera reviews, unlimited photo storage, and the promise of a buttery smooth, pure Android experience (even more pure than my almost-pure HTC 10) and timely updates. Furthermore, more recent reviews had assuaged my fears about the 2 XL's display problems...it seemed like Google had addressed the dreaded blue shift issues with more recent hardware builds and software updates. During Google's $100 off sale last week, I pulled the trigger.
Well, I unboxed my new Pixel today, and I'm here to tell you that my brand new Pixel 2 XL (unlocked 128g Panda version purchased directly from Google) still has a VERY noticeable blue shift when held even at slight angles, not just "extreme" angles as Google would have us believe. Thinking maybe they shipped me an old device, I checked the build date, and lo and behold it is April 10th, 2018. Installing all updates and changing the display mode to "saturated" did little to improve the problem.
So I'm having a bit of buyer's remorse. My question is, should I return it? Should I exchange it for another one and roll the dice? Should I just try to ignore it and get used to it? The rest of the phone seems great. Maybe I'm only hyper-aware of the issue because I read so much about it? I know that to some extent this is a common characteristic of most OLED displays, and all my previous phones have had LCD displays. Maybe I'll just get used to it over time if I ignore it? I've never been someone who particularly cared much about display quality. The HTC 10 didn't exactly get glowing reviews for its LCD display, but it always seemed fine to me. I REALLY notice this blue shift thing though, and at least right now on day one, it bugs me. I feel that for the price, I shouldn't have to "get used to" a bad display. Is it really still just a hardware crapshoot 9 months later? Or am I just more sensitive to the blue shift than other people? Anyone else with a more recent hardware build have this issue? Am I overreacting?
One other question I have pertains to security updates. I've installed all updates, and my phone now says my system is up to date, but the security patch level is May 5, 2018. Haven't there been more recent security updates? I'm on Verizon, if that matters.
I appreciate any and all constructive input!
Cheers,
-Phil
Long time lurker, first time poster here. I'm upgrading from my 2 year old HTC 10, which, despite its flaws, is the best phone I've owned to date. The battery degradation had become unbearable, however, with less than an hour of screen on time and the much reported boot loop issue anytime the battery dropped below 50%. I thought about just taking it somewhere to get the battery replaced, but after getting a couple quotes of $100+, screen deposits, etc, and after reading a few horror stories of people who took their HTC 10 in for battery replacement, only to get it back with broken screens, fingerprint scanners, or even completely bricked, I opted to upgrade instead.
After much research, I went with the Pixel 2 XL, despite several personal compromises I would have to make with this choice (I had told myself I'd never buy a phone without a headphone jack or sub-par audio, never buy a phone this big, and never buy a phone without expandable storage, etc). I almost went with the LG V35 when Amazon had it's prime day special. For $600, it ticked almost all of my boxes, especially on the audio side, but I wasn't convinced by it's gimmicky-seeming AI camera, and ultimately I was lured by the Pixel's glowing camera reviews, unlimited photo storage, and the promise of a buttery smooth, pure Android experience (even more pure than my almost-pure HTC 10) and timely updates. Furthermore, more recent reviews had assuaged my fears about the 2 XL's display problems...it seemed like Google had addressed the dreaded blue shift issues with more recent hardware builds and software updates. During Google's $100 off sale last week, I pulled the trigger.
Well, I unboxed my new Pixel today, and I'm here to tell you that my brand new Pixel 2 XL (unlocked 128g Panda version purchased directly from Google) still has a VERY noticeable blue shift when held even at slight angles, not just "extreme" angles as Google would have us believe. Thinking maybe they shipped me an old device, I checked the build date, and lo and behold it is April 10th, 2018. Installing all updates and changing the display mode to "saturated" did little to improve the problem.
So I'm having a bit of buyer's remorse. My question is, should I return it? Should I exchange it for another one and roll the dice? Should I just try to ignore it and get used to it? The rest of the phone seems great. Maybe I'm only hyper-aware of the issue because I read so much about it? I know that to some extent this is a common characteristic of most OLED displays, and all my previous phones have had LCD displays. Maybe I'll just get used to it over time if I ignore it? I've never been someone who particularly cared much about display quality. The HTC 10 didn't exactly get glowing reviews for its LCD display, but it always seemed fine to me. I REALLY notice this blue shift thing though, and at least right now on day one, it bugs me. I feel that for the price, I shouldn't have to "get used to" a bad display. Is it really still just a hardware crapshoot 9 months later? Or am I just more sensitive to the blue shift than other people? Anyone else with a more recent hardware build have this issue? Am I overreacting?
One other question I have pertains to security updates. I've installed all updates, and my phone now says my system is up to date, but the security patch level is May 5, 2018. Haven't there been more recent security updates? I'm on Verizon, if that matters.
I appreciate any and all constructive input!
Cheers,
-Phil