Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsLike looking through a smoky window
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2021
I once bought my next door neighbor's car. They were heavy smokers and sold it to me because something was wrong with the glass in the back. They couldn't see through it. Turns out that years of cigarette smoke builds up - I had a hell of a time cleaning those windows! The screen of this phone reminds me so much of that car. I can see images. But everything has a hazy, yellow, dingy tint to it, like it desperately needs a good scrubbing.
This is only the second smartphone I've ever owned, so I figured I had turned something on. Or failed to turn something off. Maybe the night light. I even did a factory reset. Twice. Nothing helped. Finally I called Amazon. I explained what was happening, that the phone was obviously broken, and I needed a replacement as quickly as it could be shipped, considering I'm leaving to attend a funeral in a few days. To their credit they not only leapt into action, the phone arrived two days before schedule! Way to go, Amazon team! I'm sincerely grateful for your effort! Unfortunately... the replacement phone is worse than the original. The poor beast has jaundice.
FWIW, users can go into settings for the display. There are three options to choose from - natural, boosted and adaptive. Adaptive makes everything ever so slightly more pink. Nothing you'd really notice, but the sample photo they provide has a pink flower in it. It becomes a tiny bit larger - like a few more pixels - when Adaptive is selected. Natural and boosted remove that pink tint, but otherwise there's no difference between them. And none of them make a dent in the cigarette smoke colored screen. Turning on nightlight is really impressive. Everything kind of goes into a cinnamon colored sepia tone.
I'm not the only person this has happened to. There are lots of side-by-side photos showing a normal phone vs the Pixel 3 xl. And before you say "You're just used to a screen with more blue in it..." no. Seriously. I know some screens are more blue or less blue. THIS screen is dingy, muted... right out of the box it looks like it was used hard by a Kirkland brand Meeseeks. (That's for all you Rick and Morty fans out there).
Oh, FWIW, the rest of the functions seem pretty run of the mill. It has good storage but I'm disappointed the battery drains so quickly. It would be an adequate phone for the price if it weren't for the murky display. As it is, using a phone with no camera is better than pictures of a green sky. This thing is going back.
