Google Unveils Pixel and Pixel XL, the First Phones It 'Designed Inside and Out' (www.bgr.in)

At an event on Tuesday, Google unveiled the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, the first phones "designed inside and out by Google." Focusing less on the hardware, the company says the biggest selling point of the phones is Google Assistant, which will be available to users wherever they go. Both Pixels have a quad-core 2.15GHz 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB or 128GB of storage, a 12.3MP rear camera, an 8MP front camera, a fingerprint scanner on the back, and a USB-C port on the bottom. The major differences between the two are in size, display (5-inch vs 5.5-inch), and battery (2770mAh vs 3450mAh). The company says the rear camera on both phones is top-notch as well, scoring 89 on DxO, the highest ever for a smartphone. Both phones also come with "endless cloud storage," the company said. It will let users backup unlimited storage in full-resolution images and videos shot with the Pixel. Pricing starts at $649 for the smaller 5-inch Pixel, available for preorder today. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg shares the inside story of how these phones were conceived.

Comments

#madebygoogle

[sexconker]

It's not made by Google, it's made by HTC. And they just rejiggered the HTC 10. http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_10...

Re:#madebygoogle

[Austerity Empowers]

Sounds like HTC did the design:

Managed by Google Marketing Dolts in California, USA
Designed by HTC in Taiwan
Built by slaves in Foxconn

Re:#madebygoogle

[wbr1]

And apple phones are made by Foxconn. If by rejiggered HTC 10 you mean similar case with different cpu, different screen size, different screen technology, different camera, different camera software, etc, then you may as well say the LG G5 is a rejiggered Note 7

Re:#madebygoogle

[reanjr]

Apple phones are made by Samsung and other mobile manufacturers. Qualcomm is one of the biggest mobile processor makers in the world, even though they are fabless. That's just the reality of modern, global industry.

Re:End of AOSP?

[known_coward_69]

AOSP has been dead since Google Play Services became the good part of android

Re:End of AOSP?

[Higaran]

This sucks, the whole point of buying the google is they didn't have anything on top of the stock android. Looks like I'm keeping my 5x for a good while.

do people really talk to their phones?

[known_coward_69]

because i never see it and don't know anyone who does. other than doing it for safety reasons while driving this sounds like the most stupid thing ever. and i've tried Siri and Google Now and hate both

Re:do people really talk to their phones?

[bano]

Everyone I know who does it, does it for stupid trivial shit and it still fails. It seems to be ineffective and greatly annoys those around them, but they don't seem to care when people are angrily looking at them for yelling "set timer for 10 minutes" 7 times.
Happens to android and iOS users

Re:do people really talk to their phones?

[blind biker]

How the fuck is that possible? "Everyone"? Really? I am not a native English speaker - in fact, I have a Hungarian accent, and yet my phone understands nearly every single thing I tell it, including isotropic, peristalsis, tandem mass spec(trometry), atmospheric pressure photoionizatin, ICP plasma....

Fuck me, if I can get my phone to recognize ICP plasma, and NONE of your friends get to be understood at all... I am at a lack of words. Unless you're full of shit. Are you? Because that would be the simplest explanation.

Price...

[Espectr0]

Let's see what happens when sales remain flat. Nexus had good prices (except for the nexus 6) with decent hardware. Selling the pixels starting at 649$ seems arrogant at best. For that price most people will choose the iPhone and get a faster phone to boot (1 year old iPhone 6S even beats the Note 7)

I just hope the Nexus program lives on. If android is about choice, we should be able to have a phone with google-provided updates for 350$. I don't want to switch to Samsung, LG, or even custom roms

Re:Price...

[AmiMoJo]

The price is very disappointing, as is the spec really. Doesn't seem to have optical image stabilization, the Achilles' heel of the 5X and 6P. No wireless charging, no SD card slot... Might as well wait for the 6P to go on sale as it is discontinued.

Re:Price...

[wbr1]

The video showed stabilization. They said the software sampled the gyros and the position of the rolling shutter to compensate for movement. They showed video with two cameras mounted side by side with stabilization off and on. It seemed very effective.

Re:Price...

[CastrTroy]

I don't know who's paying $600+ for their phones, but it seems that there's a lot of people doing it. Because manufacturers keep producing phones at this price. The most I've ever spent on a phone was $300, and my last one was $200. For $200 I think I'm getting a pretty good experience from my phone. Certainly things couldn't really be 3 times better with a $600 phone. I only see myself spending less and less in the future as low end phones become more powerful. I paid $600 for my last desktop computer, and it sure does a lot more than my phone. No only that, but it's easily repairable, so I'll probably have the majority of the components for a decade. I'm currently replacing cell phones about every 2 years. At that rate, who can afford $600 phones. Even if it lasts 3 years it still isn't worth it to me.

Re:Price...

[painandgreed]

The most I've ever spent on a phone was $300... I'm currently replacing cell phones about every 2 years. At that rate, who can afford $600 phones.

People like you that buy a new phone every 4 years.

Don't understand justfication for Pixel

[JoeyRox]

The live stream started with a Google rep talking about how important it is for Google to be involved in both the hardware and software of the phone. I suppose the parallel being how Apple benefits from having control over both hardware and software. Yet everything in the stream after that was all about software that can run on any Android device, not just Pixel.

89

[ThatsNotPudding]

The company says the rear camera on both phones is top-notch as well, scoring 89, the highest ever for a smartphone.

"89? 89 what?"
"I don't know, but you have to admit, it sounds like a lot of them."

Re:89

[Albanach]

who has mysteriously NOT reviewed the iPhone 7 yet, even though it has been released.

Strange, since they gave it an 86.

This is why Pixels will fail

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

The features you'll get:

• The biggest bezel to dollar ratio in the industry
• Insane prices only rivaled by Apple which actually has a premium status
• Very strange nerdy names, much much worse than Nexus
• Look too much like iPhone 5(s)

Now at the same price bracket as Note 7/SGS7 here's the list of features you will not get:

• Wireless charging
• Dual front speakers
• Dual lens cameras
• Optical image stabilization
• Rapid laser focus/Dual Pixel autofocus
• Hardware HDR
• Dual SIM slot
• SD card slot
• Meaningful support of any kind: a phone line, brick and mortar stores to examine the device before buying, etc.

Updates to new major Android versions will be ceased just 24 months after the release. Google is out of their minds.

Re:This is why Pixels will fail

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

Here's an incomplete list of devices which our-Androided Google who used to say, "Nexus is the benchmark for Android at an affordable price". Nope, this is not a benchmark, this is pure greed which will fail just like Nexus 6 failed (it was introduced for $650 and proved to be wildly meh for people who wanted to buy a pure Android phablet).

• OnePlus 3, $400
• ZTE Axon 7, $400
• Lenovo ZUK Z2 Pro, $389

Re:Project Fi

[wbr1]

Yes it supports Fi.

Re:End of AOSP?

[thegarbz]

the whole point of buying the google is they didn't have anything on top of the stock android.

What is "stock android" if not the version that Google put out? Don't kid yourself, the "vanilla" version of Android has always been exactly what Google wanted it to be. The only difference is that now instead of other vendors saying "Ha I know better, I won't use feature x" they now longer have the choice.

Re:Google Page?

[nmb3000]

Where's the Google page for this? I don't see it in the store or at /pixel.

It's at the adorable madeby.google subdomain. Because of course that makes sense.

I'd also like to know why it's so difficult for Slashdot editors to include a link to the Google page. Shitty link farms like BGR obviously don't link back to Google but it would be nice if Slashdot would hold itself to a higher standard.

Re:Nope.

[chihowa]

If the non-AOSP parts aren't excessively intrusive and destroying the experience

The non-AOSP parts are the parts that define the Google "experience" of being excessively intrusive and datamining the shit out of you. Seriously, how do you think that this "assistant" works without being excessively intrusive?

...the company says the biggest selling point of the phones is Google Assistant, which will be available to users wherever they go.

Re:Nope.

[AvitarX]

I love that there's 3 different whole points to buying from google.

Clearly everyone had different reasons.

For me it was:
1) Stock Android
2) Price
3) root for the early versions, but adding screenshot to the OS reduced that for me
4) Custom ROMs

In that order.

Re:End of AOSP?

[ColdWetDog]

I am altering the deal.

Pray I do not alter it any further.