Google Pixel 2 XL Review: The AI-first smartphone

From giving you flight reminders and airport maps, to tracking traffic on your usual commute, to keeping an eye on weather conditions, the Pixel 2 XL is constantly working in the background to ensure you're seeing what you want to see without you needing to ask for it. While this might sound creepy on many levels, I've long gotten used to the idea of having the big companies crunch my data into meaningful material that helps me. I quite enjoy the thrill of having my phone work for me without my needing to tell it what to do, and the Google Pixel 2 XL is quite possibly the best phone on Android that will do that. There are plenty of other subtle touches in the software that I found incredibly useful. One of these is the ability to unlock the phone with a simple'OK Google' command that recognizes your voice specifically, and won't unlock the phone if it's anyone else's voice. And just like the squeezable functionality on the HTC U11, the Google Pixel 2 XL also brings up Google Assistant with a quick squeeze, a feature it calls the'Active Edge'. Additionally, if you turn on the'Now Playing' feature, the phone can identify songs playing in the background and show them right on your lock screen. The function works offline on a small set of pre-programmed tracks, so it won't always work.