Google Pixel XL Vs. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: 6 Weeks With Android Nougat Purity

Name: Google Pixel XL
Brand: Google

by Dave Altavilla — Friday, January 20, 2017, 12:29 PM EDT

Pixel XL vs GS7 Edge Industrial Design – Beauty Is In The Eye

If my display performance comparison was hard for you to decipher, then this area isn’t going to get any easier. The Google Pixel XL has a premium look and feel with contoured, beveled edges and a unique design signature that, along with its HTC genetics, is simply gorgeous. Does it take the cake over Samsung’s curvaceous, edge-to-edge ways with double rounded front and rear faces?

That’s up for you to decide. I do like how Samsung is able to get the same 5.5-inch display real estate into a smaller, more "pocketable" device, however. There’s something about the Galaxy S7 Edge as well, that’s more “solid” (dense?) to me, though again that’s subjective. Is it enough to deter me from making the jump to the Pixel XL, no but there are other reasons for my now steadfast migration to Google's latest bauble. I will say that, again for me and my personal tastes, there aren't many phones that I think compete with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge currently, from a design standpoint. However, the Pixel XL delivers a premium look and feel about as well as any other device on the market short of a GS7 Edge. It's better built than an iPhone 7 in my opinion and makes use of its footprint relatively efficiently as well.

I do like having a volume rocker and power button placement on opposite sides, with the rocker located up on the top, left edge of the device where a righty's thumb might land. Lefties have to work things the other way around, but again, holding a GS7 allows you to make use of both your thumb and index fingers at the same time, for control of power/screen lock and volume. The Pixel XL puts everything on the right edge making for slightly more cumbersome controls. However, that fingerprint reader placement with the Pixel XL is down right magical, if you use the function.

Personally, I never used the fingerprint reader of the Galaxy S7 Edge, but I use it religiously with the Pixel XL. Just picking up the phone and plunking my index finger down on the back-mounted reader lets me into the locked device instantly, and since I have both pointer digits scanned, I'm in with either hand. I can't live without it now and it's far more convenient than my previous access method of pattern tracing on the GS7 Edge.

That said, Google's copious allotment of bottom face bezel of the Pixel XL is regrettable, especially without the addition of even capacitive Home, Back, and Active Apps controls. However, its responsive, accurate, well-placed fingerprint reader more than makes up for it in my view. Why fingerprint readers were ever located on the front home button makes no sense to me. I like to pick up my phone when I want to look at it. That said, if you're the type that just wants to flip your phone on without picking it up, I can see a front fingerprint scanner might be more convenient. Since, in that case, I can still work a quick pattern trace, I find the rear-mounted scanner more convenient when actually using the phone, especially since Google Ambient Display notifications can give you quick glance information without unlocking the device.