Google Pixel 2 XL: A Visual Catastrophe

[vanished]

Updates since this was created:

• It's possible The Verge has exaggerated their results to make it look worse than it is
• Differences in the colour profile chosen in the settings can make a big difference - keep this in mind
• Linus did not mention these issues and it was not visible in the footage of his in the review
• The list of issues doesn't end here.  There have also been burn-in problems reported (thanks to @redteam4ever for this): https://www.androidcentral.com/google-pixel-2-xl-screen-burn

 

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Source: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/18/16489756/google-pixel-2xl-awful-lg-oled-screen

 

 

So it would seem there are some very unusual and very serious issues with the screen on the Google Pixel 2 XL.  Here you can see how wrong the colours look just peering directly at it, but it's all downhill from here.

 

 

That New York Times logo?  Yeah, that's supposed to be white.

 

Quote

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, I’m seeing a haze of green in the middle of the gothic “T”, which then blooms into a red that eventually transitions into the white that the icon is supposed to be. But the fun isn’t over; when you get up real close, you’ll see the edges of the icon are all fringed by a sort of purply-red and, again, green. The neighboring heart icon, which is also supposed to be white, presents us with a crosshatch of red and green and white micropixels.

 

And we're not done yet!  On top of sub-par on-axis performance, apparently viewing angles are not good either.

 

Quote

Another big chunk of the “why” is in the blue cast that befalls the screen if you ever hold it at an angle that’s less than perfectly in front of you. You’ll know this issue from the year 2011, when Samsung was just getting started with its mobile OLED technology and phones like the Galaxy S II looked gorgeous up front but had the weakness of looking blue from almost any oblique angle. The OLED panel on Pixel 2 XL doesn’t even have the decency to look stunning when viewed under perfect circumstances. But it does have that aggravating blue cast that we thought we’d left in the past.

 

Finally, Google's colour calibration seems to have been a bit too inspired by Fallout 3

 

(iPhone on the left, Pixel on the right.  There's a live slider version on their site if you want to have a play)

 

And the articles goes on and on about even more issues like poor solids uniformity, etc.

 

Is this a deal breaker?  Does anyone have this device and notice these issues?

[Max_Settings]

The Pixel 2 was already a deal breaker with no dual lens camera and not a good enough bezelless design. This screen also a deal breaker, and since the Pixel 2 also has no headphone jack, I don't feel bad at all about getting an iPhone X.

[Kobathor]

LG's OLEDs are terrible and you shouldn't buy them. The LG V30 has the exact same problems (well, it IS the exact same panel). The Pixel 2 XL is why Google should really consider making their own products instead of having other companies manufacture them.

This screen also a deal breaker, and since the Pixel 2 also has no headphone jack, I don't feel bad at all about getting an iPhone X.

Yes, the iPhone X uses a Samsung OLED panel. It will look so much better.

 

[Max_Settings]

2 minutes ago, Kobathor said:

LG's OLEDs are terrible and you shouldn't buy them. The LG V30 has the exact same problems (well, it IS the exact same panel).

TBH they are more or less the same phone with just a different shell and a few less internal pieces than the V30.

[Anjelllo]

The pixel 2 design just looks ugly imo. Maybe they were afraid of being called “iphone copycats” like litterally any android phone is called that remotely resembles an iphone. 

[Himommies]

6 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

dual lens camera

Why is this a issue?If it can take good pictures then who cares

[Skanky Sylveon]

I see the removal of the headphone jack didn't translate to a better screen...

How much are we supposed to pay for this?

[Max_Settings]

6 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Why is this a issue?If it can take good pictures then who cares

For zoom and the effects. Plus it is just part of the design of phones now, like the bezelless design, a lot of phones are going to that, if you don't have it, it looks dated IMO.

[Sauron]

Overpriced, no headphone jack and now this... why would anyone buy it? People buy android phones because they don't like apple's bullshit, if they take everything bad about iphones and none of the good it defeats the purpose...

10 minutes ago, Anjelllo said:

The pixel 2 design just looks ugly imo. Maybe they were afraid of being called “iphone copycats” like litterally any android phone is called that remotely resembles an iphone. 

Honestly, considering the looks are one of the best things iphones have to offer, I'd much rather have them copy those, instead of the ridiculous price or lack of otherwise ubiquitous features.

[WereCat]

Does this really go past the QC with such a price tag? I mean, they sure have to know that this is an issue. This is not 1st gen OLED and competition already has really nice displays.

[S w a t s o n]

This is why Samsung can demand the price it does for the iPhone X OLED panels, LG can't compete...YET.

[vanished]

4 minutes ago, WereCat said:

Does this really go past the QC with such a price tag? I mean, they sure have to know that this is an issue. This is not 1st gen OLED and competition already has really nice displays.

I was thinking about this and I guess they see it as a design choice rather than a flaw.  For example, if you buy that 240 Hz gaming TN, you expect it will have terrible viewing angles, so that wouldn't be a basis on which you could call it defective.  I guess this is the same.  If it really was a defect I can see them recalling it, or just catching it before people found out, but they seem to have chosen to install this display, so that's just how it is.

[mynameisjuan]

15 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

For zoom and the effects. Plus it is just part of the design of phones now

Do that many people really zoom out? I almost never see anyone zoom in or why they would want to. LG is the only one who has it right with a wide angle lens. But this is not a deal breaker for a phone. 

[WereCat]

7 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I was thinking about this and I guess they see it as a design choice rather than a flaw.  For example, if you buy that 240 Hz gaming TN, you expect it will have terrible viewing angles, so that wouldn't be a basis on which you could call it defective.  I guess this is the same.  If it really was a defect I can see them recalling it, or just catching it before people found out, but they seem to have chosen to install this display, so that's just how it is.

I also immediately thought of AUO AH-IPS displays with the orange glow. But the excuse here is that you get high resolution and refresh rate with IPS and the orange glow is "acceptable defect" as these displays are the only choice if you seek those features.

 

But in this case, you already have competition with far better displays so their choice of "acceptable defect" should translate in a lower price tag at least. But I am sure the marketing department "justified" the price with the other things the phone features... not that it does matter because once people learn about this issue they will mostly avoid this phone as (I think) the screen is the single most important thing besides specs that people seek on a phone.

[RagnarokDel]

40 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Source: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/18/16489756/google-pixel-2xl-awful-lg-oled-screen

 

 

So it would seem there are some very unusual and very serious issues with the screen on the Google Pixel 2 XL.  Here you can see how wrong the colours look just peering directly at it, but it's all downhill from here.

 

 

That New York Times logo?  Yeah, that's supposed to be white.

 

 

And we're not done yet!  On top of sub-par on-axis performance, apparently viewing angles are not good either.

 

 

Finally, Google's colour calibration seems to have been a bit too inspired by Fallout 3

 

(iPhone on the left, Pixel on the right.  There's a live slider version on their site if you want to have a play)

 

And the articles goes on and on about even more issues like poor solids uniformity, etc.

 

Is this a deal breaker?  Does anyone have this device and notice these issues?

might be a dud?

[vanished]

Just now, RagnarokDel said:

might be a dud?

The one they tested?  Probably not, apparently many reviewers have noticed this.

[PlayStation 2]

Think I found the conclusive answer to all of the Pixel 2 XL's bullshit: get some other Android phone like the Galaxy S8+ or the iPhone 8 Plus.

[Suika]

$850 price tag xDDD

 

Sure, Google made some compromises on an $850 premium device (which I already didn’t like), but the one compromise they made that singlehandly ruined the device is what brings the entire device together: the god damned display.

 

Just going to hold out and buy a Galaxy S8+ later.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Google lost their touch after the original nexus 5 and 6. The 5x and 6p had issues, the pixels were not as dev friendly, and the pixel 2's are just a joke, like the iphone...

 

I've been a google phone enthusiast but their retarded path has forced me to look elsewhere.

[DocSwag]

LG just can't seem to make a good OLED screen  

[Sniperfox47]

The things in the Verge article are more than a little overstated.

 

The blueshift is because of the polarizer (so you can use it with your glasses) and is waaaaaaaay less noticable in the final product than in the preview units (review units and Verizon demos).

 

The rainbow artifacts at obscure angles I haven't seen verified elsewhere but could also be due to the polarizer.

 

The faded and less warm colours are because it's an HDR panel calibrated for the sRGB space. A number of reviewers, including one the Verge article mentions, have specifically said it looks pretty much like what you'd expect from a professional monitor, rather than a phone. And no, it's nowhere near as green as that picture makes it out to be >.>

 

The hazing is an issue, but you have to specifically look for it, is hard to spot with any ambient lighting, and only happens at really low screen brightnesses. It looks to be an issue with voltage control in the panel matrix, and is due to LG's pOLED panel.

 

Not defending them, the polarizer was a dumb idea, the calibration was dumb on a consumer device and "Vivid mode" is nowhere near intense enough -it's just a 10% bump in colour intensity-, and they should have made different compromises on their panel even if pOLED gives them more flexibility. Just saying there are legitimate reasons for a lot of this, and for most of these things, most people would have to be explicitly looking for to even notice.

 

32 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Google lost their touch after the original nexus 5 and 6. The 5x and 6p had issues, the pixels were not as dev friendly, and the pixel 2's are just a joke, like the iphone...

 

I've been a google phone enthusiast but their retarded path has forced me to look elsewhere.

You mean like how the 6 had constant storage performance issues due to forced encryption with no hardware acceleration and pretty much locked up while doing updates?

 

Or how the Nexus 4 couldn't handle OTG because it switched to host mode but didn't output any power?

 

Or how the Nexus 7s (both versions) would frequently fail to charge back up if you let the battery run too low, unless you held a specific button combo while plugging it in to force the chipset to reboot?

 

Nexus 5 was the only Nexus device that wasn't *very clearly* a developer device. Pixel has gone too far the opposite direction I fear, as being *very clearly* a mass consumer device.

[Mooshi]

The Verge is bearly a rung above BuzzFeed. 

 

I have a V30 and while I do notice a color temperature difference towards the bottom, I have to be actively looking for it. I also don't have a weird green tinge to icons in the top left either.

 

Pixel 2 already turned me off with the flagship price without the flagship features. Seriously, worst water/dust resistance, V30 gives a quad dac as an F U to those removing the headphone jack, no expandable storage or wireless charging either. 

 

No doubt Samsung has the better displays, their phone dimensions are too awkward for me to consider and the finger print scanner being in an awful position...and Bixby button...

 

If Samsung we're to move the scanner to the middle back where it should be, offered better wired audio to match LG, make their phones less tall/thin and make the Bixby button reprogrammable, I would highly consider.

[mynameisjuan]

5 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

No doubt Samsung has the better displays, their phone dimensions are too awkward for me to consider and the finger print scanner being in an awful position...and Bixby button...

First, try the FP placement. So many people complain about it but people who actually have them found out quickly that its not bad at all. I actually prefer it over my 6P. And you can now disable bixby. I havent but have yet to accidentally hit it since release.  

[Mooshi]

4 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

First, try the FP placement. So many people complain about it but people who actually have them found out quickly that its not bad at all. I actually prefer it over my 6P. And you can now disable bixby. I havent but have yet to accidentally hit it since release.  

When I hold my phone, my finger naturally rests where the V30 has the sensor--same as the 6P. I've also had first hand experience with the S8, wasn't a fan of the dimensions or placement.

 

When you disabled, it's just a pointless button and that's the problem. It should have been programmable, there is no possible way to justify a useless button on any device.

[3 Lions]

It's funny that my XZ Premium's IPS LCD display looks better