Convince me why (or why I shouldn't) buy a Pixel 3 XL

[jsarino]

With Black Friday coming, I've been thinking of getting the Pixel 3 XL to replace my Pixel 2 XL. I'm disappointed with the Pixel 4 XL that I can't justify getting that one, barring a massive discount of course. So, I want to hear from current (and former) Pixel 3 XL owners. Convince me why I should upgrade to one, or convince me why I shouldn't.

 

[eric002]

Hi there, currently have a Pixel 3 XL in white. I absolutely love my thread XL. The notch doesn't bother me. I never thought it was going to bother me. I mean with software tweaking in developer settings, you can choose to hide it, but you lose some screen real estate on the top of your screen. The software experience is the same on both phones. Android 10 is flawlessly amazing. Build quality is phenomenal. The stereo speakers on the 3 XL are nice crisp, loud, sharp. I won't even tell you how good the camera is, I'm sure you already know! I will say that the battery is very good. I don't really message too many people I just use it for a puzzle game on my phone and keep me up to date with my tech and car blogs. I get about four and a half or five hours of screen on time every day. Plus by USB charging it in the car with Android Auto, I barely ever need to use my fast wire charger at home.

 

[Morty2264]

While I've only had a Pixel 2, I have friends who have gotten the Pixel 3 recently and are truly loving it. Sometimes, "next year's iteration" is just not a justifiable upgrade from the year before. If you feel disappointed in the Pixel 4 XL, sometimes even discounts won't elevate the phone in your eyes. I'd recommend playing with both phones in the store before making that final choice.

 

[eric002]

This is very true. I have read numerous reviews, and reports that if you have a Pixel 3 it's just not justifiable to buy a Pixel 4. If you have a Pixel 2 or earlier then it's worth it to upgrade to Pixel 4.

 

[Chuck Finley69]

With Black Friday coming, I've been thinking of getting the Pixel 3 XL to replace my Pixel 2 XL. I'm disappointed with the Pixel 4 XL that I can't justify getting that one, barring a massive discount of course. So, I want to hear from current (and former) Pixel 3 XL owners. Convince me why I should upgrade to one, or convince me why I shouldn't.

How much is my cut? What do I get?

Seriously, if you haven’t convinced yourself already to buy an older phone, why not just keep the one you have. For all of us including you, it’s a hobby, so keep your money in your pocket if you’re not already feeling inspired...

 

[ImTurningViolet]

I upgraded from a 2XL to a 3XL right before the 4 came out and I couldn't be happier. It's a big enough difference to me. The screen is great, the notch doesn't bug me like I thought it would, it's faster, I think the battery is better, and the fingerprint scanner works better for me. The screen is a huge difference in my opinion. Oh, and the speakers are great. They remind me of the MotoXPE I had. I say go for it!

 

[eric002]

I upgraded from a 2XL to a 3XL right before the 4 came out and I couldn't be happier. It's a big enough difference to me. The screen is great, the notch doesn't bug me like I thought it would, it's faster, I think the battery is better, and the fingerprint scanner works better for me. The screen is a huge difference in my opinion. Oh, and the speakers are great. They remind me of the MotoXPE I had. I say go for it!

Yep yep that's the truth!

 

[jsarino]

While I've only had a Pixel 2, I have friends who have gotten the Pixel 3 recently and are truly loving it. Sometimes, "next year's iteration" is just not a justifiable upgrade from the year before. If you feel disappointed in the Pixel 4 XL, sometimes even discounts won't elevate the phone in your eyes. I'd recommend playing with both phones in the store before making that final choice.

I'm planning on doing that when I have some time this week. I've played with the Pixel 3 XL before and liked it (notch be damned ), but haven't seen the 4 XL in the flesh yet.

This is very true. I have read numerous reviews, and reports that if you have a Pixel 3 it's just not justifiable to buy a Pixel 4. If you have a Pixel 2 or earlier then it's worth it to upgrade to Pixel 4.

Sure, if I was using the original Pixel, that decision is fairly easy. The Pixel 2 however, I'm debating it because of the shortcomings of the 4 that bother me: no more free original size uploads to Google Photos (I take alot of photos, this bothers me probably the most), no more fingerprint scanner (which is blazing fast on my 2 XL still), the 90Hz doesn't really run at that speed all the time, video support hasn't evolved.

How much is my cut? What do I get?

Seriously, if you haven’t convinced yourself already to buy an older phone, why not just keep the one you have. For all of us including you, it’s a hobby, so keep your money in your pocket if you’re not already feeling inspired...

I very well could just end up holding pat for another year, which is the longest I'll stay with a phone, 3 years by fall 2020.

 

[Lepa79]

With Black Friday coming, I've been thinking of getting the Pixel 3 XL to replace my Pixel 2 XL. I'm disappointed with the Pixel 4 XL that I can't justify getting that one, barring a massive discount of course. So, I want to hear from current (and former) Pixel 3 XL owners. Convince me why I should upgrade to one, or convince me why I shouldn't.

I am currently on Note 10+. Traded it for my Pixel 3 XL back in August for $600. I had pixel 2 xl (panda 128gb) and had it over to my wife. She still have and loves it.

Pixel 3 XL is a step up from pixel 2 xl. Screen quality alone is an upgrade. Camera is also a bit better and you have wide angle camera to boost.

If I want to go back to pixel phones, I would also skip pixel 4 and get back to pixel 3 XL. The fact that you can still get free unlimited original quality storage until 2022 is alone a reason to go with pixel 3 XL.

Go for it, was very happy upgrading from pixel 2 xl.

 

[eric002]

I'm planning on doing that when I have some time this week. I've played with the Pixel 3 XL before and liked it (notch be damned ), but haven't seen the 4 XL in the flesh yet.



Sure, if I was using the original Pixel, that decision is fairly easy. The Pixel 2 however, I'm debating it because of the shortcomings of the 4 that bother me: no more free original size uploads to Google Photos (I take alot of photos, this bothers me probably the most), no more fingerprint scanner (which is blazing fast on my 2 XL still), the 90Hz doesn't really run at that speed all the time, video support hasn't evolved.



I very well could just end up holding pat for another year, which is the longest I'll stay with a phone, 3 years by fall 2020.

yeah to be honest with you, the lack of a fingerprint scanner, and the restriction of Google photos not uploading original sized pictures to the cloud are a bit annoying. I was a little taken aback by that as well. I love my fingerprint scanner: shortcut to pulling down the notification shade in whichever application I'm in no matter what it is. As far as any other Pixel 4 shortcomings, that's a little easier to get over but yeah those two issues are slightly annoying.

 

[Morty2264]

I'm planning on doing that when I have some time this week. I've played with the Pixel 3 XL before and liked it (notch be damned ), but haven't seen the 4 XL in the flesh yet.



Sure, if I was using the original Pixel, that decision is fairly easy. The Pixel 2 however, I'm debating it because of the shortcomings of the 4 that bother me: no more free original size uploads to Google Photos (I take alot of photos, this bothers me probably the most), no more fingerprint scanner (which is blazing fast on my 2 XL still), the 90Hz doesn't really run at that speed all the time, video support hasn't evolved.



I very well could just end up holding pat for another year, which is the longest I'll stay with a phone, 3 years by fall 2020.

I had my Pixel 2 for 18 months - the longest I've ever kept a smartphone. There's just something about a Pixel-series phone.

 

[FeinP1118]

The Pixel 3XL is a lovely device. absolutely no problems with mine. if I'm not going to be able to charge when traveling, etc I put it in the big clunky battery case. Also, I just came back from Central America and (Google Fi)Pixel picked up signals easily

 

[Rukbat]

Between the 2 and the 3? Just install the camera from the 4 (https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/camera/camera-7-2-010-276119300-release/) and you have the 4, except for the extra 2GB of RAM (and, as a heavy user of large apps, I've never had a problem with the 2 - yet - eventually I will, and I'll buy a Pixel 6 or 8 or whatever is out when I need more RAM).

But with the P4 camera, you get everything the 4 gets with the camera. (The difference between f/1.8 and f/1.7 is barely measurable - it's not apparent at all.)

 

[eric002]

Between the 2 and the 3? Just install the camera from the 4 (https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/camera/camera-7-2-010-276119300-release/) and you have the 4, except for the extra 2GB of RAM (and, as a heavy user of large apps, I've never had a problem with the 2 - yet - eventually I will, and I'll buy a Pixel 6 or 8 or whatever is out when I need more RAM).

But with the P4 camera, you get everything the 4 gets with the camera. (The difference between f/1.8 and f/1.7 is barely measurable - it's not apparent at all.)

I agree. I mean the beauty of pixel phones is their showcase for Google software. Now, with that being said, I sideloaded the APK file for a pixel 4 Google camera app on my 3XL and it's literally like I have a Pixel 4 XL.. I never noticed any RAM issues since day one. 4 gigs RAM is absolutely fine to me.

 

[B. Diddy]

I love my 3 XL, and have had no problems to speak of. I gave my old 2 XL to my wife -- it's hard to do a true side-by-side comparison, but my feeling is that the 3 XL is marginally but noticeably quicker. Wireless charging seems like a minor perk, but over time, I've really come to appreciate just having to place the phone on the pad, rather than poke around with the USB-C plug every time.

I was hoping the Pixel Stand would be another nice perk, but I returned mine since the software was still pretty buggy.

@Rukbat, have there been any side-by-side comparisons of processing time and image quality between the Pixel 4 and earlier Pixels when porting the GCam app? I would've thought the older phones would take longer with processing.

 

[eric002]

yeah, the only thing that I haven't bought from Google yet is The pixel stand because a I barely ever charge my phone at home. Also, because from my marketing perspective Google made it too expensive I doubt most people are not going to spend 80 bucks on a pixel stack. If it were 25 or 30 I would understand that!

 

[B. Diddy]

I got it on sale for around $60 at Best Buy and used a $5 credit towards it. If it worked correctly, I would've liked it, but the picture frame function wouldn't come on after the first time the phone went idle. I found a lot of posts about the issue in various forums, and I guess the problem hadn't been fixed yet.

 

[Rukbat]

@Rukbat, have there been any side-by-side comparisons of processing time and image quality between the Pixel 4 and earlier Pixels when porting the GCam app? I would've thought the older phones would take longer with processing.

Image quality should be about the same - I doubt they changed the glass or the sensor much, if at all. The difference between f/1.7 and f/1.8 is one of those things that's measurable, but doesn't make much difference. Time? I haven't seen any comparisons, but I'd expect that the slowly increasing CPU speed from the 2, through the 3, to the 4, would decrease the processing time a bit, but I haven't seen any direct comparisons.

 

[jo44jo]

I upgraded from a 2 XL to a an Amazon "renewed" 3 XL about 6 weeks ago for $385. Accubattery says the battery health is 100%. Feels like a better phone overall, faster and more solid. FP sensor works better and screen/CPU is more responsive. I like that the front camera now has auto-focus. Was even able to use my old Spigen case from the 2 XL with a very little dremal work around the buttons.

I have zero interest in the Pixel 4 and hope this holds out until Pixel 5 comes out or I choose a phone from another manufacturer.

 

[jsarino]

Update: so in the end, despite my misgivings, that "massive discount" (thank you, Best Buy) was too hard to pass up and went with the Pixel 4 XL anyways. Thanks for everyone's thoughts on the 3 though!