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Google’s Pixel – There’s a New Android in Town

October 4, 2016

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Google Announces the Pixel – Will this make you forget about Samsung and Apple?

As Samsung struggles to find solutions for the new Note 7, and iPhone users continue to lose interest in Apple’s flagship product, today Google brought forth a fresh new smartphone named Pixel. Many of you have probably already watched the live stream directly from San Francisco at 9am PST today, those in the United Kingdom will have to wait until 5pm. On stage, Google’s head of hardware, Rick Osterloh introduces Pixel from #madebygoogle.

“For us,” he says, the name Pixel “has always represented the best of
hardware and software designed by Google. I really love how this phone looks and feels.”

Both the Pixel and Pixel XL are represented to be the most unified Android phones ever. Oddly enough, it looks remarkably like HTC assisted in the design, mirroring some qualities of the iPhone 6, “there’s no unsightly camera bump” of course, Google comments. While Apple’s flagship may just be the very device Google is striving for.

This is Google’s third attempt to get their niche in the smartphone market. At first glance, we see that Pixel is a metal body with an upper rear section made of glass AMOLED design, Gorilla Glass 4 display, with a choice of 5” or 5.5”, a 12.3 megapixel camera, and a large capacity battery, that within fifteen minutes, can charge the device for seven hours of useage potential. Much improved is the energy-efficient Qualcomm® Snapdragon 821 2.15Ghz processor, 4Gb ram, display choice of immersive 5.0″ AMOLED Full HD (1920×1080) 441ppi display or a 5.5” AMOLED QHD (2560 x 1440) 534ppi display. The rear camera has an aperture of f/2.0 and engineered to allow fast autofocus in any light condition with Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) and Laser Detection Autofocus (LDAF).

The latest Android operating system, Nougat 7.0 released in August, comes pre installed. A system preference also now downloads and installs updates in the background. A few tweaks include Google’s own applications, sporting round images, vertically scrolling app list, and now Data Saver. With Data Saver turned on, apps in the background won’t be able to access cell data. Both of the latest smartphones named Pixels are the first phones to feature Google Assistant.

Brian Rakowski stepped on stage next, demonstrating the functionality of Google Assistant. He went on to discuss how the camera’s latest video stabilization feature works by showing a user walking down the street. Filming while the person is walking, the video shows the motion (jerkily) down the street when the stabilization is turned off, yet the stabilized version was quite smooth. Sony’s latest sensor IMX378 adds autofocus technology thus lock focus is also faster. This is a game changer for Google’s Pixel XL.The Pixel also comes with Google Duo, a one-to-one video calling application designed for call to cross platform Android or iOS devices.

The clock starts today, October 4th 2016 for pre-ordering at Google’s online store and the wireless carrier Verizon. Prices starting at $649 for a 32Gb 5” Pixel model,and $ 749 for the 128Gb one. The 5.5” Pixel XL models cost $769 and $869. The Pixel comes in three colors, Very Silver, Quite Black, and a limited edition Really Blue. And as a special bonus for Pixel owners, Google has included free unlimited storage for all of the original quality photos and videos at full resolution in Google Photos.Gone are the days of running out of storage space or paying for cloud storage. In my view, Google is creating the best possible experience by integrating its software and hardware into enhancing the possible.

So, What do you think? Could this be the game changer that Google thinks it is?