HOT STUFF
HOT FOUR #1
HOW DEEP IS YOUR NOTCH?
GOOGLE PIXEL 3 & PIXEL 3 XL
Last year’s Pixel phones offered a leap in quality, but something was missing: wireless charging. So for Google’s third roll of the superphone dice it’s called in the glaziers. No, not the owners of Manchester United (that’s the Glazers), but a glass backing to facilitate battery boosts sanscable. The shinier Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are mostly identical in terms of features, but the standard Pixel 3 packs a 5.5in Full HD OLED display with a sleeker design than before, while the Pixel 3 XL has a 6.3in QHD OLED screen with a notch – and a deep one at that. Both have a pair of cameras on the front for group selfies, and pack a number of new Android software features designed to dazzle you if the rear pane doesn’t. These include the ability to screen spam calls – Google Assistant answers for you and pops a real-time transcription on your screen. Both devices have had sizeable price bumps over last year’s models and are available now in white, black or pink-ish… but not before you’ve read how the 3 XL fares in our supertest, starting on p38. As hot as…a glassblower’s crimson cheeks