Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by msmash on from the google-pixel dept.

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.

10 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. #madebygoogle by sexconker · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  2. Re:End of AOSP? by known_coward_69 · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  3. do people really talk to their phones? by known_coward_69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

  4. Price... by Espectr0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

    --
    Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
    1. Re:Price... by wbr1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    2. Re:Price... by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  5. 89 by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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."

    1. Re:89 by Albanach · · Score: 4, Informative

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

      Strange, since they gave it an 86.

  6. This is why Pixels will fail by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.

    1. Re:This is why Pixels will fail by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 5, Informative
      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