Pixel XL review: The first phone Google built as Google — and a camera benchmark.
Where the Pixel story began.
The Pixel XL launched Google’s own phone brand and set an early bar for computational photography. It is a historical first — long obsolete as a device.
01Display
76/10076/100 trails the 80-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2016.
02Camera
68/10068/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2016 — 12 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
46/10046/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2016 — 24 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
62/10062/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2016 — 8 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
66/10066/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2016 — 6 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
50/10050/100 trails the 56-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2016.
- The first Google-branded Pixel — start of the line.
- Class-leading HDR+ camera for 2016.
- Unlimited original-quality Google Photos storage (launch perk).
- Clean, fast software.
- Mono speaker; only IP53.
- 32 GB base storage.
- Software ended at Android 10.
- Discontinued — a vintage device.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 9-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .