Rumor time is over as Google has finally unveiled their latest lineup of smartphones, carrying the new Pixel branding and putting the old Nexus branding to bed once and for all. After countless rumors from months ago till earlier today, the new Pixel and Pixel XL handsets have finally gone official. Let’s dive in and take a look at what Google has to offer us in this year’s product refresh.
Both Pixel phones are the first ever Android phones to have Google Assistant integrated in them. Designed via a partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, the Pixel features an aluminium unibody design combined with polished glass, taking a couple of design cues from Apple’s iPhones, plus following up from last year’s Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X. The glass panel covers up the top half of the rear panel, coming from the Nexus 6P’s smaller and slightly more protruding rear glass panel.
Let’s begin with what’s the same between the Pixel and Pixel XL, which is pretty much almost everything apart from their sizes so let’s just talk both phones as one Pixel. The Pixel is powered by a Snapdragon 821 clocked at 2.15 GHz and 4GB of RAM. The phone will be offered in two memory configurations – 32GB and 128GB of storage. The 12.3MP rear camera of the Pixel is theoretically the best of its class right now, having scored 89 in DxOMark. Google has also claimed the camera to feature the shortest capture of any smartphone camera out in the market right now. The company also boasts the Pixel’s gyroscope based stabilization when capturing video. On top of that, as rumored earlier, Google is offering unlimited cloud storage for full-sized images and videos captured on the Pixel instead of only “High Quality” copies of them. This includes 4K footage as well, so storage will be one of the least of your worries with the Pixel.
Other specs include the USB Type-C port, Pixel Imprint rear fingerprint sensor, and a 3.5mm headphone jack which Google specifically highlighted. The differences of the Pixel and Pixel XL start with their displays. Both are AMOLED screens, but in different sizes and resolutions – 5-inches at 1080p on the Pixel and 5.5-inches at QHD resolution on the larger Pixel XL. Battery wise, the Pixel and Pixel XL sport 2,770mAh and 3,440mAh capacities respectively. With fast charging support, Google claims up 7 hours of power from only 15 minutes of charging time.
The Pixel starts at $649 (RM2,695.98) for the 32GB model and $749 (RM3,111.38) for the 128GB model while the larger Pixel XL will cost $769 (RM3,194.46) and $869 (RM3,609.87) for both memory configurations respectively. Both Pixels will be available for pre-order in the US, UK, Germany and Australia and will be made available worldwide soon.
