Long boring bit about my recent phone history
Firstly forgive the corny title but its purely for the sake of SEO and it has been a really long time since I added a new device to my collection, my main phone is an iPhone 13 Pro Max which I came from via an iPhone X … I miss my iPhone X/10, although I do have feelers out in the event the person who now has It wants to sell it back to me 👅 anyway another about my love for the old iPhone I have always wanted to get my hands on a Pixel.
I have a Nexus 5 which is a fine phone but comes from the older realm of smartphones now and while it’s fun to pickup and play with and actually has decent battery life it is no way a daily driver anymore, even if it is being used in conjunction another device (a secondary daily driver) I had been rocking the P9 which I proudly did some repairs on when I first got it (fixed the fingerprint scanner as well as headphones jack)
That phone however has shown its age in terms of battery life and I have opted not to pull it open to put in a third party battery that may or may not help. The option to grab a Pixel 2 XL came up thanks to a small bit of a Christmas bonus at work which opened up my funds a little to make a purchase and today… finally I received the device.
How much, what you get ?
The device cost in the region of 100 USD and came with a 10 day pre-order on the purchase, the device itself was advertised as being 95% smooth .. which in my opinion means just a few scratches, from daily usage, scuffs, dents and marks would be an absolute no no in terms of meeting that advertised 95%
The screen does have a fairly deep scratch that you cannot feel but you can see with the naked eye but when using macro mode on the camera of my iPhone you can see the device has a few micro scratches but all in all it’s not that bad. I can post photos for anyone thats interesting in picking up a Pixel 2 from china like myself but you generally expect the device to have some quirks as in many cases the devices are usually put back together with varied degrees of ability - I have an LG G3 - one of my favourite phones ever which I rarely touch because the thing is put together incredibly poorly.
The Goodies
The device came with:
- a screen protector
- a phone case
- plug
- cable
- sim ejector, documentation & box
- and finally a usb-c - 3.5mm dongle
The box I’m really unsure if it is the legitimate box or not looks real but the weird band colour the original box has looks more like a colour fade to it but the quality of the box is quite good, possibly original.
The cable and charger do appear to be original or they are of a much higher quality than the usual fake ones sent on, I do think these are the original ones that came with the device. The dongle works, clearly is not the original and while the audio quality remains it does result in a massive drop in volume - I tested with some bluetooth headphones ( Sony WF… etc..MX3’s ) and those played at a good volume with no real issues so the dongle isn’t of decent quality at all.
The phone case is cheap and nasty but appreciated I have ordered a phone case that I want but until that arrives I am grateful for a cheap one that will protect the phone from scratches in the meantime… the screen protector did not grip to the device very well at all while it applied great for the most part it looks like around the edges the adhesive had given out .. I suspect due to age .. so it’s already been removed.
The Device
SO here is what I have tested so far, WIFI seems to work fine and I used this for setup, bluetooth also works great as does NFC - used that with the headphones in my previously noted dongle test. App updates appear to work, the screen looks pretty good and seems to have some nice colours too it - not sure the screen has been swapped out… I have heard horror stories of Oppo Find X’s with inferior LCD screen replacements.
The camera which is something everyone wants to know “how good is it” on Pixel devices seems to be fine so far I have as yet not taken it out to play but I will at some point soon and might put up a few photos to see if people can spot the pixel vs the much more modern phone (pixel 2 is old)
Anyway any questions are welcome, in regards to this device that is but it is time for myself to go pickup. a pizza and while devouring it .. take some pics of it 😎