It’s official. Google has launched the Pixel and the Pixel XL phones, at an event in San Francisco. This also marks the end of the Nexus line up of devices.
The Pixel phones are “Made by Google”, and come in two sizes, a 5.0 inch and a 5.5 inch (display sizes).
Pixel is a combination of hardware and software technologies. It is the first phone to integrate Google Assistant out of the box. The Assistant has a lot of cool features including machine learing to work better with use. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, said that Assistant , will respond with text to speech, using a voice as naturally as possible. In the future, it may even recognise emotions of the speaker’s voice.
The Pixel phones come with the new Pixel Launcher, with round icons, and a swipe up gesture to access the app drawer. The phones come with the new white navbar buttons, which are filled-in. Long pressing the home button will let the user ask Assistant for information, or help with tasks. You can use Voice Search for this, and the results will include relevant information. It even recognises which app the user prefers, for eg: YouTube for listening to music, and so on. You can use the long press gesture on the home button and swipe up to get relevant information, with contextual results based on the content on the screen.
The Pixel phones sport an aluminium unibody and glass design, and an AMOLED display. The devices are powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor, with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The fingerprint scanner has been renamed from Nexus Imprint, to Pixel Imprint, and have been placed on the back panel of the phones. The camera department of the Pixel phones comprise of a 12.3 megapixel rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture and an LED Flash.
The camera uses Smartburst, which lets the user hold down the shutter button to capture a series of images to selct the best photo possible. It also supports HDR+ for colorful photos in any light conditions. The camera has zero shutter lag, and supports video stabilization for shake free recording. The phones comes with Google Photos built in, and free unlimited storage for photos and videos shot in full resolution, i.e., 4K images and 4K videos.
The devices support Quick Charging, and can deliver upto 7 hours of use, with a 15 minute charge. Pixel phones are among the fisrt devices, to support Android Nougat’s seamless updates, which allows system updates to be installed silently in the background, and ready to use after a reboot.
Pixel Technical Specifications
- Display: 5.0 inch Full HD (1920 x 1080p) AMOLED, 441 ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 4
- Operating system: Android Nougat 7.1
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 Quad Core 2.15 GHz
- RAM: 4GB
- Battery: 2770 mAh, Quick charging
- Security: Fingerprint scanner
- Rear camera: 12 megapixels, f/2.0 aperture, Optical image stabilisation
- Front camera: 8 megapixels
- Connectivity: NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, 4G LTE, 3.5mm audio jack
- SIM Card: Nano
- Dimensions: 143.8 x 69.5 x 8.6 mm
- Weight 143 g
Pixel XL Technical Specifications
- Display: 5.5 inch Quad HD (1440 x 2560p) AMOLED, 534 ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 4
- Operating system: Android Nougat 7.1
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 Quad Core 2.15 GHz
- RAM: 4GB
- Battery: 3450 mAh, Quick charging
- Security: Fingerprint scanner
- Rear camera: 12 megapixels, f/2.0 aperture, Optical image stabilisation
- Front camera: 8 megapixels
- Connectivity: NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, 4G LTE, 3.5mm audio jack
- SIM Card: Nano
- Dimensions 154.7 x 75.7 x 8.6 mm
- Weight 168 g
Here is the first video ad for the Google Pixel phone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rykmwn0SMWU
The Pixel phones come in three colours: Quite Black, Very Silver and Really Blue. The latter is a limited edition.
The Pixel phones will be available on Verizon Wireless in the U.S, and other stores in unlocked form, starting at $649.
Pixel prices:
- 32GB – $649
- 128GB – $749
Pixel XL prices:
- 32GB – $769
- 128GB – $869
The Pixel phones are available for pre-order from today in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia.
The phones will be available for pre-order from October 13th in India, via Flipkart.
In addition to this, the Pixel phones will also be sold via Reliance Digital and Tata Croma retail stores.
Google is offering a free Quick Switch cable in the box, with every Pixel phone, which can be used by users to migrate all of their contacts, messages.,calendar events, music, videos, and photos from iPhones.
There are a variety of new art cover Live cases available for the Pixel phones.
