Many smartphone fans and phoneographers believe that the Google Pixel phones offer the best picture results out of any of the smartphones available. In fact, many have asked why the Pixel 2 or Pixel XL are not featured in our 'Best Camera Phones For Photography' and at the time, the answer was simple: we'd not got hands-on with the smartphones but finally, a Google Pixel XL has arrived in our offices and we're currently putting it through its paces. 

The Google Pixel XL features a 12.2-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture and 8-megapixel front camera with f/2.4 aperture. The rear camera is also capable of shooting 4K video at 30 frames per second as well as 1080p at 30fps, 60fps, 120fps and 720p at 30 fps, 60 fps and 240fps. The screen is a pretty decent size, too, and there are some interesting features built into the native camera app, including a portrait mode which has produced both selfies and portraits with lovely bokeh. Plenty of digital filters are available and a panorama, as well as a circular panorama mode, are built in. 

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So far, portraits we've captured look great and so do most landscapes but some purple fringing can be seen on one of the landscape shots but this was taken directly into the sun which quite a few cameras can struggle with. Action shots don't cause the camera too much of an issue while black and white images have good tones and decent levels of saturation. Blue skies pop when captured in sunny conditions, noise is handled well in low light and the panorama mode does a brilliant job at stitching frames together. The digital zoom is disappointing but when are they not? And, the rear camera does an excellent job at focusing when you want to capture a macro-style image (when used at its widest point). 

As for video quality, take a look at the footage captured below which is good for a smartphone but wind noise is quite loud. You'll also find a sample photos gallery, examples of the digital filters in use and a few lens test images. 

You can learn more about the Google Pixel XL Smartphone from the specs table listed below and keep an eye on our review section this week when our full review of the Google Pixel XL will be going live. Will the Google Pixel XL Smartphone's camera quality be good enough to knock the Samsung Galaxy S8 off the top spot in our 'Best Camera Phones For Photography'  guide? Will soon find out. 

Google Pixel 2 XL Sample Photos

Google Pixel 2 XL Digital filters

Google Pixel 2 XL Lens test images

Google Pixel 2 XL Specifications

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