It wasn't a very happy ending for the Galaxy Note 7, but Android still has better days. The Google Pixel XL vs. LG V20 battle is still pretty strong and undeniably, these two are the best android devices around. Both are quite similar in some ways, but given how picky people can be, pointing out differences is somehow a requirement.
A month ago, Google released their range of devices for 2016: the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL. Both smartphones are based around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 but recently, Google underclocked both to a maximum clock speed of 2.15 GHz, which is pretty similar to the 820's maximum clock speed. This just means that although the LG V20 is powered by the Snapdragon 820, it's nothing inferior to the Google Pixel XL, performance-wise.
The running speed differences in the Google Pixel XL and the LG V20 is associated with each gadget's memory management and operating system optimization - not on its respective processors. This is perfectly summarized on the YouTube video below, which highlights two laps of both the Google Pixel XL and the LG V20 launching some apps and performing a process in a number of them.
Google Pixel XL outperformed the LG V20 in the first lap by six seconds, with the former finishing at 1:36 and the latter at 1:43. However, it's interesting to note that the Photoshop and video encoding tasks showed no difference, which leads us back to both phones basically having the same clock speed and processor architecture.
By second lap, the Google Pixel XL started to lose. The LG V20 continued to run the games while the Pixel XL needed time to reload them. In the end, the LG V20 outperformed the Google Pixel XL by 30 seconds.
The conclusion of the performance test seems to point out how aggressive Google's Android 7.1 Nougat in terms of clearing RAM. Either Google Pixel XL needs more optimization in their OS or maybe, they are keeping the conservative approach to RAM management in order to save the device's power.
In the end, it is a buyer's prerogative as to which phone is remarked more user-friendly. In the meantime, the Google Pixel XL vs. LG V20 battle still continues. Let's see how sales on both companies go.