The Google Pixel 3 Review: The Ultimate Camera Test
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 2, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- camera
- Mobile
- Pixel
- Snapdragon 845
- Pixel 3
Battery Life
In terms of battery life, we should be expecting the Pixel 3 to do better than the Pixel 2, as we have an 8% larger battery coming at 2915mAh compared to last year’s 2700mAh unit. On the other hand, we also have to consider the Pixel 3 has a larger screen that needs to be powered, and the SoC efficiency can go either way. For our battery tests, we set the device brightness to 200 nits using our colorimeter tools.
Unfortunately, the Pixel 3 sees a regression in terms of battery life, ending up 18% or 1.5 hours behind the Pixel 2 in the web browsing battery test. I did some quick power characterisation, and the Pixel 3 uses about 90mW more power when idling at minimum brightness in airplane mode. Stretched over a 9-10 hour period, this is about 8% of the total battery capacity. On top of this, the phone has to power a bigger screen, and we have a much more performant SoC. Overall the Pixel 3’s battery life doesn’t end up as particularly surprising.
In PCMark, the Pixel 3 sees better performance, as the SoC is able to counter-act the phone general less efficiency. Here the Pixel 3 lands just slightly ahead of the Pixel 2, landing in the middle of the pack in terms of battery life.
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saleri6251 - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
Hello Andrei,Thanks for the review as always. Just curious do you have any thoughts on the Titan M Security Chip?
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
I didn't have much time to get into it, we covered Google Hot Chips presentation: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13248/hot-chips-201...cha0z_ - Monday, November 5, 2018 - link
Hey, as we speak about chips - can you include/test the note 9 exynos? It's bigger body compared to the s9 and also has a lot better coolling. We all read your articles about the exynos 9810 + a lot about in @ xda, but it will be really nice to see where the more popular note 9 exynos stands with it's bigger coolling and body compared to the competition and s9/s9+.If you have the time and the desire, otherwise it's also cool - you do a lot of great reviews about phones/mobile SOCs. Keep it up and cheers!
cha0z_ - Monday, November 5, 2018 - link
No edit here: I am aiming primary at the sustained performance of the system/GPU tests. I am sure you already guessed it, but for the other members of the community.jordanclock - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
As a P3XL owner, I can say this review completely matches my experiences.Also, that camera comparison is insane and Andrei is a mad-man for taking that many pictures AND THEN REVIEWING THEM ALL.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
Thanks! The camera was a lot of work.This should also serve as a good comparison between all important phones over the last year or two. It's something I hope I won't have to do again till the S10.
jordanclock - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
That last night shot is pretty similar to a comparison I showed my friends when they thought that it was just a gimmick.Have you also found that using the night shot for every shot seems to be a good default? I found that in general the night shot results are "good enough" compared to HDR+, but obviously has the benefit of better low-light results.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link
I've posted night mode pictures in daylight scenes as well, just to answer this question.There's no obvious difference and you can stay in night mode all the time, the only negative is that it'll be slower in terms of capture.
melgross - Sunday, November 4, 2018 - link
I’ve read that night mode is done after capture, not during, as Google, and other manufactures do their auto modes. So likely that’s why it’s slower.s.yu - Sunday, November 11, 2018 - link
Thank you for again the best set of samples on the net!This night mode just doesn't cease to amaze me, it preserves DR and enough(I'd say over 80%) resolution while accurately suppressing noise that it surpasses auto often enough even in daytime!
This is two notches above Huawei's night mode implementation, while Pixel's auto was better in the first place.