I don't know how you guys seem so happy with this. I'm utterly disappointed. Yes they got water proofing and dual front speakers but God, the front forehead and chin bezels on the 2 are just appalling for current gen. The 2 XL is certainly better in that regard. First they mock apple regarding the headphone jack. Then they go ahead and do the same thing that apple did. Such a big fail.
Initially they mentioned that they don't differentiate their smaller and bigger phones. Then you notice that the 2 is 1080p while the 2XL is QHD. Now I admit its not much of an issue when you compare screen sizes, but come on.
Also, why do they want to be apple so bad? Live pictures? Those horrible gifs that apple passed as moving pictures a couple years back? I remember commenting that Google would never do that.
And the squeeze bezels for Google assistant. If that's the reason why they had to thicken up the bezels then I have no words with how disappointed I am.
I've always been an android fan (still using the Nexus 6P), considering value for money when compared to iphones. But since that line is clearly very think now, it's making me think. I'm just waiting for the LGV30 now so that I can see a proper review and not the pre release ones. Even that has an appalling front camera and horrible speakers though. So I don't really know what phone to buy now.
If you upgrade every year then yea this won't seem like an upgrade. I've been using my 6p since the day it came out. I can tell you I never factory reset it and it's still smooth until this day. The battery is an issue for me though and my GPS started tapping out. The battery life though dropped a lot and I got bored with it by now.
My only other option was the LG v30 or iPhone X. I don't mind the iPhone design either.. 2XL still has some bezels and the X has a notch but more screen real estate it looks like. But this would mean going back to iOS, using itunes, buying apple specific accessories. Plus I always felt so locked in when using an apple device.
It's smooth sure and it's super intuitive but I get bored like that. So the pixel 2 wasn't a hard choice for me when I've been using the same phone over 2 years.
But I do agree, google shouldn't thrive to be like apple. I don't think they ever will be but at the same time if you look at their line up of devices from way back, they were never known to have the sexiest looking device or the most feature packed. They are a software tech company so that's always their selling point with pure Android.
Also the bezels on the 2 XL could have been smaller on the sides. The reason for them is the squeeze feature the HTC u11 has which could have been omitted completely. It would make sense if HTC built the phone but this year LG made the XL so I have no clue why they added it.
None of those really answered the question. I'm assuming then it uses the internal DAC and outputs on the USB C analog audio pins.
I think it's just usb c to analog as it doesn't say anything related to DAC on the specs page.