The best Google phone of 2017 gets a new flagship

The LG G6 had the smarts, the style and the room for Google Assistant to shine. But last year, the iPhone 7 Plus handily edged it out in many areas. With its latest phone,…

The best Google phone of 2017 gets a new flagship

The LG G6 had the smarts, the style and the room for Google Assistant to shine. But last year, the iPhone 7 Plus handily edged it out in many areas. With its latest phone, LG is up to the challenge, giving Google’s smarts a great showcase in an Android phone that’s also a premium device.

At first glance, the Pixel 3 looks like the last Google phone. Many more leaks and rumors have pointed to a redesign. The new phone’s bigger 5.5-inch screen isn’t a deviation from Google’s typical size and shape. The new home button is revealed in a gold-colored outline on the back of the phone. At first glance, the phone is reminiscent of the last design, only with a tall, almost diamond-cut display that’s a tall glass black hole compared to the Pixel’s boring solid black back.

Catch-Up-With Apple

Don’t get too fixated on the changes at first — we’re not getting any more of the notch that took away the display from the iPhone’s Edge phones.

Like its predecessor, Google’s Pixel 3 Plus includes wireless charging. It’s a nice touch — as long as you don’t want to store your power cords.

The battery remains the same as the Pixel 2, with a 6,000-mAh capacity. It provides nearly three days of battery life, plus the USB-C connector will allow for faster charging. But Google is bumping up the screen size: The company says its upgrade from a 5-inch to a 5.5-inch screen will extend battery life even more. I saw the same good results from the Pixel 2, which has a smaller, 1080-pixel display.

You’ll also find other Google Lens features on the phone, like the ability to get automatic visual translations. That’s an upgrade from the Pixel 2, which didn’t have those abilities at all. The Lens technology has been slower than expected to hit smartphones in the wild, but the Pixel 3 has almost the same feature as the latest iPhone X.

The high-res AMOLED screen, also found on the Pixel 2, isn’t another front-runner on the Pixel 3. The iPhone X and even the LG G6 have a higher resolution, at 1440 pixels per inch (PPI). The extra resolution isn’t really noticeable, but it’s nice when you do need to compare images side by side.

Tech Specs

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