Here's what Google will be doing to "fix" the Pixel 2 XL's display issues.
We've been talking about the Pixel 2 XL for a while now, and over the past few days, our focus has been on the phone's display and two main issues that people have with it are dull, unsaturated colors and burn-in where the navigation bar lies. Google said that it was "actively investigating" these complaints on October 23, and now on October 26, we have a more official response from the company outlying its plans to address the recent uproar from critics and consumers alike.
New Saturated mode
First off, one of the problems that some people have with the Pixel 2 XL's display isn't a defect at all. As we've stated before, Google calibrated the phone's panel with an sRGB profile that shows more accurate colors that are truer to life than what you'll see with something such as a Galaxy S8.
Google already offers a Vivid mode that increases the saturation of the display by 10% so that colors are more vibrant, but as anyone that owns a Pixel 2 XL knows, this is an extremely marginal change that really doesn't make any discernable difference.
Saturated mode will make the Pixel 2 XL's display look more like the 2016 Pixel XL's.
However, in a software update that will soon be coming to the Pixel 2 XL and regular Pixel 2 that'll add a new "Saturated" mode. It's unclear how much of a percentage increase in vibrancy this will be, but Google says that this will make the screen look similar to that of the first-gen Pixel with more saturation at the expense of color accuracy.
This is something we were expecting to happen, but having a final word from Google itself that more saturated colors are on the way should come as good news to a lot of our readers.
Attempting to reduce burn-in
We've seen some pretty wild screen burn-in on the Pixel 2 XL over the past couple of days, and we knew that this was something that couldn't be resolved solely through software.
Google addresses the fact that all OLED panels show signs of burn-in and image retention over their lifetime, and once again, Google says it's "actively investigating" the reports of burn-in that it's received. However, this is then expanded with the following statement:
Extensive testing of the Pixel 2 XL display show that its decay characteristics are comparable to OLED panels used in other premium smartphones. The differential aging should not affect the user experience of the phone, as it's not visible under normal use of your Pixel 2 XL.
That may come as either good news or bad news depending on how badly you perceive the burn-in we've seen so far on the Pixel 2 XL, but in an attempt to remedy this as much as possible through software, Google is currently playing around with a future software update that will fade out the navigation bar after a certain amount of inactivity and reduce the maximum brightness level by 50 nits (imperceivable to the human eye). The company is also working with app developers so that a white navigation bar can be used in place of a black one to help cut down on possible burn-in even more.
It remains to be seen how these software tricks actually work in the real world, but a solution is still better than nothing at all.
More peace of mind
Following the onslought of complaints the Pixel 2 XL has received recently, Google will also now inlcude a two-year warranty with every Pixel 2 and 2 XL that's sold. Having an added year of protection is a really nice touch, especially considering that – according to Google – nothing was really wrong in the first place.
What do you think?
Now that we have an official response from Google, what do you think? If you were on the fence about the Pixel 2 XL, does this response make you more inclined to buy the phone? Let us know in the comments below!
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