The fourth quarter of 2017 has been busy in the smartphone segment. We have been subjected to some of the best smartphone technologies from some of the biggest names. Out of all these, the two American titans — Google and Apple, have unveiled their best efforts at a smartphone, each one trying to change the course of smartphone design for the next year.
The iPhone X and the Pixel 2 are out there in the market, ready for sale. If you are willing to shed some serious amount of money for one of these, you might wonder which one of these is a better bet for you. Until both of these smartphones come to us for a proper review, you can check out how they fare against each other on paper.
Design:
The iPhone X embraces a design language from the future. With a fullscreen display surrounded by substantially thin bezels, the iPhone X is certainly a looker, even with its FaceID housing on top. The rear gains a glass back with the vertically positioned dual-camera sensor, which adds to a very premium and sophisticated design.
The Pixel 2, on the other hand, adorns a look that will appeal to the younger generations and be practical at the same time. You have these eye-catching contrasting colours with a two-tone rear panel. Even though the smaller Pixel 2 with its fat bezels looks old, it still manages to look smart. The bigger Pixel 2 XL with its LG V30-inspired display looks more modern but retains a practical form factor. You even get a fingerprint sensor on this one.
Winner: Tie
Innovation:
Both of these are filled to the brim with the latest technologies. The iPhone X is highlighted with its bezel-less OLED panel and the FaceID. Apple is so confident of its FaceID that it has completely eliminated the TouchID from the iPhone X. We haven’t seen camera shots of the iPhone X but we expect it to trump the iPhone 8 Plus’ camera results with its dual camera.
The Pixel 2 takes a different route in terms of features. It is waterproof just like the iPhone X and has a stereo speaker setup on both the models. You also get an ‘Active Edge’ enabled frame, just like the HTC U11’s Edge Sense. Google has made the Pixel 2 heavily dependent on the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The software is responsible for shooting great photos and even snap portraits without the need of a dual camera setup. It will manage to adapt to the user’s need on the basis of machine learning. It is, therefore, no surprise that the new Pixel 2 gets a DxOMark of 98, which is four more than that of the iPhone 8 Plus.
Winner: Google Pixel 2 for its AI-based feature setup.
Software:
This is where it gets tricky. Apple’s iOS 11 has been tuned and modified especially for the iPhone X’s button-less hardware. There’s a gesture-based navigation that has yet to prove its practicality in the real world usage scenarios. Rest apart, iOS has always been about simplicity and rich content, and the latest iOS 11 packs a lot of under-the-hood improvements, which should make for a fairly great experience on the iPhone X. You even have Augmented Reality support built into the OS for enjoying AR-based apps and games.
The Pixel 2 is based on the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. It runs Android 8.0 Oreo with a revamped Pixel launcher on top. There are a lot of clever features such as Google Lens, which will identify contents of a picture and show information. Pixel 2 will be the first Android phone with Google’s new ARCore that won’t need additional AR hardware. Rest apart, it’s usual Android stuff here — no fancy gesture-based navigation.
Winner: Apple iPhone X for an intuitive software
Cameras:
We haven’t tested these phones yet but they have a lot going on in the optics department. The iPhone X is expected to fair as good as the iPhone 8 Plus as it has a dual camera sensor at the back and will carry all those fancy portrait mode features. We have seen how great the camera performs in the iPhone 8 Plus (Check it out here) and we expect the iPhone X to improve upon that.
The Pixel 2 with its single lens camera has claimed the highest DxOMark of 98, which automatically puts it ahead of the brilliant iPhone 8 Plus. Google’s clever algorithms along with the camera hardware capture a greater dynamic range and can do portrait photos on both the front and rear cameras. Unless DxOMark tests the iPhone X, the Pixel 2 takes the title here.
Winner: Google Pixel 2
Security
The iPhone X has attracted limelight with its FaceID authentication that Apple promises to work in any light conditions. That’s due to some extremely sophisticated technology working in real-time. Google didn’t mention the presence of any sophisticated facial recognition feature on the Pixel 2. This means that you still have your good old fingerprint sensor to prevent others checking out your data. However, Android is a platform that is more susceptible to vulnerabilities than iOS — thanks to its open source nature. Therefore, iPhone X clearly comes out as a more secure phone than the Pixel 2.
Winner: Apple iPhone X
Price:
The base 64GB Apple iPhone X will start at Rs 89,990 in India whereas the Google Pixel 2 with the smaller 5-inch display and 64GB storage will retail for Rs 61,000 whereas the 64GB Pixel 2 XL will cost you Rs 73,000. Even with the top-spec Pixel 2 XL costing Rs 82,000, it will be more affordable than the base variant iPhone X.
Winner: Google Pixel 2
Overall Winner: Google Pixel 2
Note that this comparison was purely made on the basis of specifications and we are yet to test these smartphones. This was a subjective decision and it is possible that readers can point out other features that may reverse the results. Let us know in the comments below about your favourite.
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