[Google Pixel XL Guides, News, & Discussion] jhs39:
I got rid of my Google Pixel XL and replaced it with the OnePlus 5. In case anyone is considering doing the same I wanted to post my personal impressions/comparisons of the two phones. I'm not going to recommend one phone over the other because different people have different needs and expectations.

Display:

Both phones have the same size displays but the Pixel XL screen is higher resolution--1440 x 2560 pixels (~534 ppi pixel density) for the Pixel XL compared to 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density) for the OnePlus 5. While the OnePlus 5 display looks fine to me there's still no getting around the fact that OnePlus used a less powerful screen to keep the price of their phone down. Winner: Pixel XL

Speed and Responsiveness: On paper, the OnePlus 5 wins this hands down since it has a more powerful processor and twice as much ram. However, the Pixel XL was optimized for stock Android in a way that no other phone has been able to match so far. If you are running pure stock on each phone the Pixel XL feels smoother and more responsive than the OnePlus 5 but not by much. Also, if you are running stock on the OnePlus 5 and install OTA's automatically people have complained about problems like battery drain or hits to the phone's responsiveness that can usually be fixed by wiping the system cache. On stock, the Pixel XL stays fast, smooth and responsive even after months and months of OTA updates. Winner: Pixel XL

Camera: This is another area where the OnePlus 5 wins big on paper. The OnePlus 5 has much more powerful and fancier camera hardware than the Pixel XL but the Pixel XL has a far superior camera app to such an extent that a lot of OnePlus 5 owners actually use a ported Pixel camera app rather than the stock one. The OnePlus 5 can take very good pictures under the right conditions--but there has to be a lot of available light and you need to be able to hold the phone steady. Shots with the OnePlus 5 can blur easily and using the stock camera app the OnePlus 5 has almost no ability to take low light pictures.--although the quality of low light pictures improves immensely if you use the Pixel camera app instead of the official one. If photography is an important element in your use of a smartphone then the fact that you get free original quality photo storage with the Pixel also has to be a plus. Winner: Pixel XL

Development: If you were a Nexus owner it's likely that you will be much happier with a OnePlus 5 than the Pixel XL. The OnePlus 5 is extremely easy to flash on and root. Official Oxygen OTA's automatically come in zip form that can be flashed within TWRP. Official Magisk and its modules work on the OnePlus 5. Even though it has only been out for a couple months the development community for the OnePlus 5 blows away the one for the Pixel XL. There are simply more custom ROMs, kernels, and mods for the OnePlus 5 than there are for the Pixel XL. If you flash a custom kernel there are also a lot more options to customized performance and features than there are on Pixel XL custom kernels. Winner: OnePlus 5

External Build Quality: When it came out the Pixel XL felt like a $600 phone with an inflated $1000 price tag. The external build quality didn't even come close to approaching what you would find on high-end phones from Apple, Samsung or Sony and anyone who says otherwise either never owned a high-end phone before or is deluding themselves. Even at the current Google Store price of $749, the Pixel XL feels overpriced. A OnePlus 5 with 128G of storage and 8G of ram sells for $539 at the OnePlus Store and feels like a more solid and premium built device. Winner: OnePlus 5

Internal Build Quality: The Pixel has build problems but you won't read anything about that on XDA, Android Authority, Android Central, Android Police or Cnet. How do I know the Pixel XL has build problems? If you do a search for Google Pixel Support and look through the official support thread well over 80% of the issues reported involve significant hardware problems with the phone. Issues commonly reported include the phone becoming completely unresponsive/dying either without warning or immediately after an update; faulty displays; problems with the microphone, speaker or both; battery and charging issues; overheating and general phone instability (random reboots, freezing or crashing). These are all hardware issues because customers do a factory reset which doesn't resolve the issue and then are told to RMA their phone. The problem of Pixel phones dying without warning was treated as a known issue on the Google support site from the end of November 2016 through the beginning of August 2017 then the thread dedicated to the issue was taken down and support suddenly pretended it wasn't a known issue even though multiple Pixel owners report it happening to them daily.

While this could certainly change since the phone has only been out for a couple months on the official OnePlus 5 Support thread less than 5% of the issues reported involve hardware problems. The closest thing to a commonly reported hardware problem would be faulty displays but I've only seen a handful of people report that. I'm not counting the controversial "jelly effect" which seems to drive a small number of people crazy while others like myself don't notice it at all. Even if you throw in the jelly effect as a hardware problem more than 90% of the issues reported on the OnePlus 5 support site are still software related. Winner: OnePlus 5

EAS (Energy Aware Scheduling): This is supposed to improve battery life by making the CPU act in a smarter and more efficient manner. The Pixel XL has it and the OnePlus 5 does not. If you buy the hype surrounding EAS or are one of those people who must have the latest and greatest innovations then you probably want EAS. The OnePlus 5 without EAS has a smaller battery than the Pixel XL with EAS but I get better battery life with the OnePlus 5 running the exact same apps. Actually, that's not entirely true--I always turned the location settings to battery saving on the Pixel XL unless I was using the GPS but leave location settings on high accuracy on the OnePlus 5--and I get better battery life on the OnePlus 5. Also, the OnePlus 5 without EAS has a more powerful processor than the Pixel XL with EAS but the OnePlus 5 easily runs 20F cooler than the Pixel XL. Winner: ? (This one really depends on your personal priorities).

Some final observations:

--Dash charging on the OnePlus 5 is faster than the Fast Charging on the Pixel XL.

--The thicker Pixel XL is more comfortable to hold than the slimmer OnePlus 5.

--The Pixel XL fingerprint scanner is probably more secure than the OnePlus 5 fingerprint scanner which reads a much smaller sample of the fingerprint.

--The OnePlus 5 won't officially be updated to Android Oreo until the end of the year at the earliest.

--The OnePlus 5 will probably only receive one more official Android version update after Oreo. The Pixel XL is guaranteed at least one more official Android version update after Oreo but Google is far more likely to support their phone beyond that than OnePlus is.

--There are a much better variety of cases available for the Pixel XL than the OnePlus 5. I'm currently stuck using a holster I purchased for the Pixel XL with my OnePlus 5 even though it isn't a perfect fit because the OnePlus phone is slimmer. Other people have reported using a holster made for the Note 4 which provides a similar fit based on the pictures I've seen.

Hopefully, someone will find this post useful. :)