Google Pixel 3: Killer Camera, Screens Calls Too

Pixel remains one of my favorite smartphones. I review a lot of them, and I always say it's a boring phone, but in this case, it works. It doesn't have all the content creation features I enjoy on the iPhone, or the apps, or the slick integration of I Message, Apple Watch in FaceTime, but the Pixel definitely has the superior camera technology and mobile operating system. The Pixel three cranks

everything up a notch. The design is very similar to what you had before, but you can hold these devices better in your hand. There's also wireless charging built in the screen seems to be better, and there is even a pair of USBC headphones in the box, a l E Luja. Now there are just two sizes the five point five inch and the six point three inch, and three colors clearly white, just black and not pink. Yeah, those are the names, and the not pink, by the way,

looks pretty pink to me. The main difference is that the bigger model has a notch and the speakers on these devices are forty percent louder. Now many of the improvements with the Pixel three have to do with the camera. There are so many fun little camera tricks on this device. For starters, there's something called top Shot. This is sort

of the live photo features on iPhone. Basically, they've had motion capture before on the Pixel but you couldn't really do anything with it except watch a little video of before and after you captured your photo. Now this new feature, top Shot, puts it.

on a shot and still get a clear image. Google again is using a burst of photos and runs them through an algorithm.

a selfie in a bar, any dimly lit place. This feature is actually coming soon, it's not on the phone just yet. I rarely use a flash when I'm taking pictures on my Pixel, and to be honest, the only time it's ever turned on is when I hand my phone to someone to take a picture and they immediately turn it on like they found a big mistake on

my device because it was turned off. I usually just smile and pretend it was my oversight, but in reality, you rarely need a flash on the pixel right now, So with this new night site feature, I think it's going to be really cool when it comes to taking pictures at night. Google also mentioned how Pixel users are often designated the official photographer at any event they attend, and I can definitely vouch for this.

are easier thanks to a new group selfie care. There are actually two lenses on the front of the Pixel three one is your typical one is a wider angle, and while you're taking a selfie, you can pop out to get a wider angle view and fit many more friends into the picture. I tried this out at the Pixel event. It's very substantial how much wider you can get on the front facing camera. There's also a new photo booth mode. This automatically takes pictures as you pose

for the camera. Kind of reminds me of what Samsung has where you can hold your hand wide open in front of the phone and it will start taking a picture. This is very similar, except all you have to do is smile or make sort of any gesture that looks like you want to take a picture, and the photo booth kind of recognizes that and it will snap your

pictures as many as you want. Now, in portrait mode, you can also edit the depth of field after the fact, or you can even pick what you want in your photo to be blurry and what you want to be in focus, and again you can change this after the fact, and you're no longer limited to Google Photos creating those color pops for you. You can now tap on any photo to make the subject in color and the background

in black and white. If you had a previous picturel you knew about the augmented reality stickers, the AR stickers, well that was two techy for most people. They now call this playground. These are little animated objects that you can drop into your pictures. There's a bunch of new characters that actually interact with you on screen. For instance, I played with a cloud over my head. When I smiled, the cloud smiled. When I frowned, he started to rain.

That was pretty cute. Then when iron Man was dropped into my selfie apparently Google has some new deal with Marvel. He would literally reposition himself to get into the camera frame and pose depending on my facial expressions. This is really cool stuff, again, all powered by AI, and it's not something that's going to make you purchase the phone, but it's kind of like the animojis on the iPhone.

It's just an added benefit and you'll have a lot of phone with it, especially when you show your friends. One feature that parents and animal lovers will appreciate motion auto focus. You can now tap on a moving object in a photo and it will stay in focus. And since this is good Google and they're leaning heavily on artificial intelligence, you know that this feature is going to work really well. And as usual, all the pictures you take on the pixel will get you free unlimited storage

in Google Photos for everything. You upload before February first, twenty twenty two. And yes, I know that everyone gets free unlimited storage in Google Photos, but this is for all of your pictures and videos at original resolution, which means yes, including four K.

to the website, and search for more info. This is awesome and I think a lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised at just how useful this can be. For instance, let's say you want to send someone an email. Instead of trying to type in their email address and making a bunch of mistakes, all you have to do is aim your phone at their business card, tap their email address, that pops up, and you are composing an email in seconds. I try this with my own business card.

It is amazing. It is fast, it is accurate, and I really hope that people start to use these features more often. Speaking of email, Gmail Smart Composed feature is now on the Pixel three first. It will come to other mobile devices in Gmail, but they're giving it a little headstart on the Pixel three. This is the feature where Google uses artificial intelligence to help you write or finish sentences in Gmail. I use it a ton on my desktop Gmail, which by the way, is different from

smart Replies. Those are just the three little replies you get at the bottom of your email when you reply to someone. This actually completes your sentences, and it's going to be interesting to see just how useful it is on mobile, Probably more useful than on the desktop because no one really wants to type on their mobile phone. It has gotten really good at helping me complete my thoughts and has definitely learned the way that I write

and how I say things. So I'm looking forward to using the smart Composed feature more on my pixel now. Another new feature on pixel is called This is where you can just flip your pixel over and it goes into do not disturb mode. So this can be handy at a restaurant or a meeting where you don't want to have to fumble with the volume or vibrate or silent mode. All you gotta do is flip your phone over on the table and that's it.

on the stand. You get all the album Martin stuff on the screen, and it will even show an ever changing array of photos while your phone is charging, sort of turning your phone into a digital photo frame.

class camera with cutting edge smarts built right in. The Pixel three is in stores October eighteenth for seven hundred ninety nine dollars. The Pixel XL starts at eight hundred ninety nine dollars. Again Verizon is the exclusive carrier, although all Pixels are sold unlocked for use on any carrier. You can also purchase the device from the Google Store online.

This strange arrangement with Verizon is just one of the things holding back this device because there's a lot of confusion in the real world about the purchase process and also whether this device will work on various carriers. But overall, I think if you get a Pixel three, you're going to be very happy with this device if you're primarily interested in taking the best pictures and having sort of an effortless Android experience, which offers all the customization you can want in a smartphone.