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What's happening, Brian Tong here and welcome to Googlicious for everything Google you could think of.
The reviews for the Pixel 2 and 2 XL are here for its official October 19th release date and it's getting great reviews overall.
What's stands out about it?
Well in our own CNET review by Lynn La, no surprise It's deep integration with the Google Ecosystem, it's superb camera, and Google Lens, which will continue to only get better.
Now, if you love the Google Ecosystem, come on, you're going to love this phone.
And how good is that camera?
CNet's own, Lussie Savidias and Nessa Han Oryana Took it out in the field and those low light shots in the Pixel 2 are just excellent.
The portrait mode is great, it's not always as good as the iPhone 8+ is but at other times it's equally as good.
It can handle faces and even animal faces.
But it doesn't do as well with objects right now.
Now the fact that it was just as good in many cases with just a single lens, is really impressive.
Also its optical image stabilization is great as well and we'll have full break downs for its photo and video performance this week.
[SOUND] Now the biggest problem with this phone, no headphone jack.
Like, it's a stupid trend that I'm still completely against personally, and telling me to go buy wireless headphones as a solution, that's just isn't fair for everyone.
Now in fact, google themselves realized it was getting out of hand.
After they decided to flash the price of their own headphone dongle from what was originally $20 to $9.
Wow, thanks Google.
But you know what, you're still getting a boo.
Boo!.
>Yeah, that's bad.
And no, it's not the sexiest phone now on the market But, for some of you, that's all that matters in a phone, and not what the phone can actually do for you.
Alright, early hands on by Darren Glosser has revealed a hidden notification light on the Pixel 2 XL.
Last years Pixel phones had a RGB notification light placed on the right side, on the front near the earpiece.
And it looks like this years Pixels will have the same with an option to toggle it on or off in the notification settings.
Also the new Pixel 2 phones support embedded SIM cards, or eSIMs, and Project Fi is one of the first carriers to support it on Android.
It really means you no longer have to have a physical SIM card in your phone.
A new eSIM manager app is now in the Play store if you wanna check that out.
There's also a brand new power menu and a video showing it off shows the menu now appearing next to the physical power button instead of the center of the screen on the Pixel 2 with the Power off and Restart as options.
It's just a small change but just some of the new tweaks you'll see on the Pixel 2.
Okay Google, we know that's a hot word for assistance on phones and as they expand to different devices.
"Hey Google" became an option for the Google Home.
And now, it looks like they could be bringing the "Hey Google" hot word to smart phones, alongside "OK Google".
And yes, I said that slowly to deliberately set off your devices.
Now, a breakdown of the Google App by XDA developers reveals that both commands could be coming in the future.
And it makes sense, because, "Hey Google" Is lower more natural selling then.
OK Google.
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And that's the part where waited for you devices to stop listening again.
And this could be arguably the most important story of the week for Google nation.
Google Photo can now recognize your pets.
I repeat, Google Photos can now recognize your pets No face recognition for friends and family has always been important, but you will now be able to add naming support for your cats and dogs.
Unfortunately, pet turtles goldfish pigs and lemurs appear to have been left out.
Now Google Photos will now be able to recognize specific dogs or cats as long as there's a clear shot of their face and treat them as people when looking for their pictures There's also been no word if it supports the idea that people do look like their pets.
Like this guy.
Or this lady.
And definitely this guy.
All right, that's going to do it for this week's show.
You can email me.
Me at googlicious@cnet.com, or tweet me @briantong.
Thanks a lot for watching, and we'll catch you all next time for some more of that Googlicious.
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