The pricing is disappointing indeed. I was really hoping they'd continue having a midrange phone(5X) and highend phone(6P) in the same generation. At $650 they can forget about it.
Anyone know where to get a new US version of the 5X? The Google store has been sold out for a week and Amazon seems to have nothing but the international version(which is minus some Verizon bands that I need).
Yep, in the UK the Pixel is priced the same as the iPhone 7. They're not going to sell any. Here, at least, people who spend that much on phones are too fashion-conscious to buy anything but Apple.
I mean, an S6 direct from Samsung is £469. There's no comparison. Google have completely missed the mark.
Which is precisely the reason that injection molded plastic is a better alternative for phones. The milling process does what for performance? I would rather have another phone like the N5 for half of what this will sell for. Screw aluminum if it's going to double the price.
much better heat dissipation, rigid, and durable, doesn't scratch or chip easily, feels premium. Plus you get a Daydream Vr for free if you pre-order. This is meant to be a flagship product, and for years people have asked google for a premium device, but they are unwilling to pay for it.
It's not like you don't have other choices. there are several other phones to meet whatever price point you want. who know's
The HTC 10 is currently on sale for $550... So that's at least one current sub-$600 option. :P That being said, I couldn't care less about metal builds (not on phones nor camera lenses where it's also become a fetish), and oddly I'm still attracted to the Pixel.
Does the OnePlus 3 not have a aluminium unibody? In the UK, it is around £300, which is around half the price of the Pixel phone. It is also a better looking phone. Or the Xiaomi Mi 5s, which will probably be released around the same time as the Pixel and have the same specs, for under £300. It is completely baffling to me what Google is trying to achieve.
This works for me at least. I bought a 5x because I liked the size, but I really would have preferred to buy a phone with the 5x's size and the 6p's specs.
Priced exactly like the iPhone here in Germany. While that is really steep I really like that they do a no compromise phone. I was disapointed by the Nexus 5x build quality and I am always envyous about the size of my girlfriends Nexus 5. So this is the phone for me.
P.S.: And at 128GB I gladly trade expandable storage for more polish.
Hard to say as Samsung isn't selling the Note 7 in the UK right now while they sort their mess out. But the S7 is £569, as a comparison. I'm not sure spending another £30 for inferior hardware and Google Assistant is good value.
I would be interested to see how Home compares to Echo. I already preordered Echo Dot to control music and lights I already have installed. At $50, thought I would give it a go.
Sorry, no offence to Google but I don't trust them to build HW from scratch. Unless the thing was designed by a real HW company, i.e. LG/HTC/Samsung/ASUS I don't think I'll risk my money on a beta product.
I like the cool new features though, great to see the envelope still getting pushed.
Liked when the guy dropped the remote... "those little things. And there well made too." Also the voice recognition demo was great when the assistant wrote "went" instead of "want" when he was asking his wife if she wanted to see the Luminaries. I sure the presenter cringed during that.
The camera looks nice but the price is pretty steep. I did like the Nexus approach better, but it remains to be seen if they can play in this luxury market. The unlimited cloud storage seems like a nice value-add, except that is just more data for them to mine. Also the new Chromecast Ultra seems nice, the other stuff doesn't really interest me too much.
Okay, just saw them up for pre-order. That is not cheap, but is interesting. I'm actually intrigued by the battery on the 5.5. Could be compelling move from the 5X. Then I could hand off my 5X to someone else ready to jump to Fi.
Feels like Google+. Too little too late. This isn't enough to become a player alongside Samsung and Apple. The hardware is in no way comparable to the iPhone.
Price aside, why not? There's at least one independent reviewer placing the camera higher than the iPhone. Snapdragon 821 is certainly slower single threaded, but multi threaded is similar and the best you can get on Android. The Battery is pretty hefty on the 5.5" and respectable enough on the 5". The displays have what's necessary to be class leading. What exactly with the hardware is totally outclassed?
On the iPhone, by the quality and the aesthetic. I'd never buy an iPhone, but they are extremely well designed and engineered.
It either had to be the same price and far better (unlikely, it feels like we're at 'peak phone', at least until someone builds a flat phone with no bezel), or as as good as, and cheaper.
Because otherwise why would you *not* buy an iPhone 7 or a Note 7? They're excellent phones with massive user-bases. People who are brand new to the expensive phone market are unlikely to gamble on a newcomer, especially when Apple and Samsung are so fashionable.
Google+ came far too late in the day and offered nothing over Facebook; look what happened.
The iPhone might be a better phone, but people don't typically cross shop. I don't see how the galaxy phones are better (positives: ois, ip67, sdcard slot; negatives: software, made of glass, updates lag and uncertain, no seamless upgrades), or why one would prefer a galaxy if they were equal. That's not the point, though. I'm questioning why a Google phone would have to be "the same price and far better" in order to justify the purchase.
To be fair, Samsung also has water resistance and Qi charging in their favor... Software is a big enough factor for me that I'd take a Pixel or even an HTC 10 over a Galaxy S7 tho, despite how much I'd like to keep using the wireless chargers I'm currently using with my N5.
Depending on taste you might also prefer the capacitive buttons and slightly larger screens of the Samsung/HTC alternatives... I've kinda gotten used to on screen buttons myself and prefer that rear fingerprint reader.
I think that kinda subjective thing goes a long way even tho it may seem like a small factor to the spec driven enthusiast.
Um, what? Did you not read my post? The entire post? Also, it's not clear that there galaxies have better hardware, let alone much better, AND hardware isnt the only issue, as I said.
I would disagree. What google has is hardware that is comparable to s7, note 7 and iphone 7. What they have over the iphone 7 is android, for those that prefer the os over ios. What google has over Samsung is that like Apple, they control the software and hardware of their device. It will get the updates quicker than other phones and pure android is cleaner, faster performing and more simple to use than samsung's software. I for sure think there is room for a third player but it will take marketing. Quickest way to get attention is throw it out there against the iphone, make comparisons in commercials. Play up that we are the people behind android itself and this is our phone.
Essentially this. While any of the other android oems could perform similar modifications aosp for their platform, most don't, at least not extensively. The reason is simply that most of them release too many damn phones (so less time to actually perform this work), and the drivers they rely on aren't open source (google has been making some progress in this area with the pixel c using the nouveau drm driver, but it still uses nvidia's api implementations) which means if there are bugs in the drivers (there are), they have to work around them...which just adds even more time to the whole process. The big advantage google has over everyone else is that they are upstream (mostly---they still pull from master for the kernel, and probably other areas), so they know the platform better than anyone else. Given that, and now a specific device to work towards, they can add the device to their CI (they've got automated touchscreen handling so, presumably, they could even loop that in).
:) This is an absurd - why would an Apple user buy into non-Apple phone and ecosystem that costs the same !!! but "looks and feels and performs like Apple" ?!?!
Apple did a killer move with iPhone SE - high end camera and price starting $400, with refurbs as little as $250 - most of apps are social interactions based on pictures and video sharing, great cameras are a MUST on a smartphone for the entire ecosystem to make sense. Then high end media streaming is a must to use the phone for music/video consumption. Apple covered the music business for a long time, they still lack on the video - this is the only diversification that Google tries to explore with the VR initiative, large high def amoled screen; but Samsung is there already.
To me, this entire introduction is just a way to not disturb Samsung's phone sales...And this will all fall apart if ever Apple replaces the phone screens with OLED and does 4k streaming to AppleTV. So, at best Google introduced unsellable product that has probably 6 months ahead of the competition to transform into sellable, which I have never seen in the retail history.
Well, I will be buying the pixel. I have an HTC One M7 and haven't found a compelling upgrade until now. Last year's nexus 5x was not high-end build quality (but it was perfect for my son), and the 6p was too big. This year, I really tried to buy the HTC 10, but black wasn't available on Verizon.
I never have liked iOS, and I don't want Samsung bloat. Just preordered my black Pixel.
Assuming the reviews don't find anything wrong (like cheap nand), this is my next phone. I really don't understand all the whinging. For Android, everything looks to be completely top of the line. Assuming that's the case, then you shouldn't expect it to be cheap.
to my understanding it has ufs storage. so glad of that because I was disappointed with slow nand of the 6p..still pretty quick but boot times and app opening could be faster so the sd821 soc and ufs storage of pixel are welcome.
I don't think it's grossly overpriced for what's on tap, even tho I'm disappointed they've messed around with a split design back and still didn't bother to squeeze in a Qi wireless charging coil...
I do think it's mildly overpriced, since the larger storage tier pushes the price $50-150 than an HTC 10 or S7 (granted the former is currently on sale, kinda sneaky on HTC's part).
I think there's a lot of little things not necessarily obvious at first blush that might make someone choose this over either of the aforementioned phones, and then there's software (which would already make me favor a 10 over S7).
They're basically the high end phone a lot of people always wished Google would build, and it's presented as such, not as a 'Nexus'. Then that's subjective things like on screen vs capacitive, rear vs front fingerprint readers, etc.
I'm willing to give them a shot, but if they come out with screens with shoddy calibration, poor efficiency, or some other unforeseen snafu they'll really be screwed, the margin for error is pretty small now days.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the glass on back either, but it does seem to be an extension of the 6p's visor, and it serves purpose.... which wouldn't be necessary had they used plastic!!!! You touched on something that I think it's quite interesting. People have been asking Google to make a no compromise phone. An Android iPhone:) They do this, and are surprised, even angry, that it costs as much as the other flagship android phones did when they are first launched. People luuuuuv to complain. That said, if there are issues like you mentioned, i won't touch it.
exactly, you're thinking the same as me, in terms of not liking ios. That and not willing to settle for samsung's software support and lower performance of their bloated software. The Pixel phones could be whats good about ios, the software support from the os developer and its still android on high end hardware. This could be the fastest android phones around when it releases. For me though I want the XL model, probably black as well
Well, it comes down to features. Apple's phones aren't made for VR. They don't have the non-persistent screens and their Bluetooth LE has the worst latency out of the phones. If you are buying for VR, like me, then the Google (or Samsung) is the way to go.
The iphone 7 isn't much faster than a $400 one plus 3 that keeps pace with iphone 7 pretty well except opening heavy games. I'm very interested in speed test between pixel and iphone 7. Guessing iphone might be slightly faster in real world use but probably not much.
Excellent job Matt, you really covered this event extremely well. As for the content, screw Google and their $649 phones. They developed a following by being as good as the best while being 60% of the price. I haven't bought a non-Nexus phone in 4 years, It's going to be a sad day when my N5 dies.
New tablets seem to have slipped to next year, rumor is Huwaei is making their next '7'... I was kinda hoping they'd do 8" but I'm looking forward to it either way.
As to the headphone jack, they took a small jab at Apple in the introductory promo that touted all the 'new' (so 'new' it doesn't have a version number! har) by quipping mid way "3.5mm jack satisfyingly not new"... I chuckled.
It seems that a huge company doesn't need a huge room for it's presentation. Having look other, much smaller companies I was expecting a ....football stadium.
There aren't enough tech journalists in existence to fill a football stadium. Too bad there isn't an edit button so you could go back and delete your asinine comment.
In what way is your reply justified? I too noted the small scale of the launch. But when I loaded the stream, just before it started, YouTube told me there were 122,000 people watching.
My reply is justified because his comment made zero sense whatsoever. Large company = large room for a press release? Seriously? You are going to take the number of viewers on Youtube and somehow correlate that to the size of the room? My word.....
He just wanted to express his higher (failing) brain functions, so first he took my comment and insulted me because it didn't compute for him in his absolute and very strict world and now he insults you, not directly in this case, because you go and correlate the size of the room, with the number of Youtube viewers.
The point was it is another example of Google directly attacking Apple to differentiate. They chose a small, brightly lit and unremarkable venue because Apple doesn't.
:'( Phone is about $100-150 too much. I get that they're letting you offload most of the storage hog stuff to photos with unlimited storage at full resolution, but dropping the SD card and charging as much as every other flagship, when every other flagship (Android) phone includes an SD slot... that's no bueno. Hopefully this does well enough, but not too well, and they rethink their 'let's price it like Samsung, LG, HTC, Apple' without giving what Samsung, LG, HTC, and Apple give (better specs for the price from the 3 Android, and well, Apple is Apple so it doesn't matter what they have (whether better or not, not the point of this at all))... lower res screen, larger bezel for no reason, no wireless charging (but a metal/glass back?)... too little for too much.
Their specs are basically the same as the other flagship phones. Remember, samsung only just brought back the usd slot, but I don't recall them dropping the price of those phones when they dropped the slot. What you get with the google phone is something you won't get from any other device except the iphone: hardware/software synergy. Granted, it's not a huge difference b/c of the framework. For me, the biggest draw is the guaranteed updates and openness of the device.
they are working on a new os for chromebooks and tablets andromeda I think. it was said that it would be previewed at the keynote but wasn't. I think they have big plans in the works for tablets and netbook/laptop like devices
Google works on the basis of experimenting (because they can afford to do so) and seeing what sticks. Gmail did Wave didn't. Chrome did Picasa didn't. Google+ and its predecessor (began with an O I think) really didn't, but cost a fortune.
I personally don't see their OS plans going anywhere; Android is embedded now. It will be interesting to see where they go with Chrome OS though. Dart and Flutter look promising too.
Don`t forget the same goog overloading things that stuck with crap to the point of being unusable. Gmail circa 2007 was good, gmail today is a horrorshow.
Don't misunderstand - Google Home has ONE "speaker". Passive radiators are not the same as driven cones. Much cheaper and not as loud or potentially as hi-fidelity 3 speakers.
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That Harry Potter VR looks amazing. I just watched the movie last night after reading Arcane https://severbronny.com/tag/coming-of-age-fantasy/ and I think a new Harry Potter VR game would steal my life away, ahah. Thanks for revealing it.
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Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
You were rather late starting to blog! I've been reading elsewhere :(.Pricing on Pixel is disappointing. I'm guessing it will be £600 in the UK. That's just too much.
Mr Perfect - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
The pricing is disappointing indeed. I was really hoping they'd continue having a midrange phone(5X) and highend phone(6P) in the same generation. At $650 they can forget about it.Anyone know where to get a new US version of the 5X? The Google store has been sold out for a week and Amazon seems to have nothing but the international version(which is minus some Verizon bands that I need).
Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Yep, in the UK the Pixel is priced the same as the iPhone 7. They're not going to sell any. Here, at least, people who spend that much on phones are too fashion-conscious to buy anything but Apple.I mean, an S6 direct from Samsung is £469. There's no comparison. Google have completely missed the mark.
Morawka - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
good lucky finding a newly released aluminum unibody phone for under $600. the milling process is expensive.fanofanand - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Which is precisely the reason that injection molded plastic is a better alternative for phones. The milling process does what for performance? I would rather have another phone like the N5 for half of what this will sell for. Screw aluminum if it's going to double the price.tuxRoller - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
The rigidity is useful for preventing damage to the internals, but the same can be achieved with a good skeleton.Morawka - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
much better heat dissipation, rigid, and durable, doesn't scratch or chip easily, feels premium. Plus you get a Daydream Vr for free if you pre-order. This is meant to be a flagship product, and for years people have asked google for a premium device, but they are unwilling to pay for it.It's not like you don't have other choices. there are several other phones to meet whatever price point you want. who know's
Impulses - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
The HTC 10 is currently on sale for $550... So that's at least one current sub-$600 option. :P That being said, I couldn't care less about metal builds (not on phones nor camera lenses where it's also become a fetish), and oddly I'm still attracted to the Pixel.marty_himself - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Does the OnePlus 3 not have a aluminium unibody? In the UK, it is around £300, which is around half the price of the Pixel phone. It is also a better looking phone. Or the Xiaomi Mi 5s, which will probably be released around the same time as the Pixel and have the same specs, for under £300. It is completely baffling to me what Google is trying to achieve.[-Stash-] - Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - link
The OnePlus 3 is £330, at the current exchange rate, $405.mrochester - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
And demand a better operating system than Android at that price point.MooseMuffin - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
This works for me at least. I bought a 5x because I liked the size, but I really would have preferred to buy a phone with the 5x's size and the 6p's specs.asfletch - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Unfortunately, you're still getting 1080p, so can't imagine Daydream will be much more pleasant than on the 5X (just a little lower latency).Meteor2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
This. I tried my 5X with Cardboard and the grainy, pixelated display was disappointing. I suspect a 4K screen is needed for immersive phone VR.Mikuni - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
$850 in Europe ;) are they mad?Ian Cutress - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
from 599 GBP, going up to 819 for XL at 128GB and no special edition blue :(Badelhas - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
Yeah, prices are outrageous. I am not buying any of them, the HTC 10 is a much better value at 550€, in my opinion.simonpschmitt - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Priced exactly like the iPhone here in Germany.While that is really steep I really like that they do a no compromise phone. I was disapointed by the Nexus 5x build quality and I am always envyous about the size of my girlfriends Nexus 5.
So this is the phone for me.
P.S.: And at 128GB I gladly trade expandable storage for more polish.
fanofanand - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
The N5 screen is a hair less than 5 inches. You need not spend $700 to get a phone larger than 5".tuxRoller - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Is it more than the galaxy note?Meteor2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Hard to say as Samsung isn't selling the Note 7 in the UK right now while they sort their mess out. But the S7 is £569, as a comparison. I'm not sure spending another £30 for inferior hardware and Google Assistant is good value.tuxRoller - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
First one thing, is not at all clear that the hardware is inferior.For another, it's also about the software and updates.
Chaitanya - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Dont really like non expandable storage of these phones as always.crimson117 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
> 4K content coming to Google Play Movies in NovemberI hope it's either free for HD movie owners, or at least an incremental upgrade fee, rather than rebuying content for 4K...
mooninite - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
You think movie studios are going to let you have something for free? LOL!!!Dug - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
I would be interested to see how Home compares to Echo.I already preordered Echo Dot to control music and lights I already have installed.
At $50, thought I would give it a go.
negusp - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
What about that Google Magic rumor that was circulating?Meteor2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
If you're referring to Andromeda/Fuchsia/any other new OS code names, this was more or less a hardware launch.webdoctors - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Sorry, no offence to Google but I don't trust them to build HW from scratch. Unless the thing was designed by a real HW company, i.e. LG/HTC/Samsung/ASUS I don't think I'll risk my money on a beta product.I like the cool new features though, great to see the envelope still getting pushed.
Azune - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
HTC built it. That fact was leaked like a year ago.soliloquist - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Liked when the guy dropped the remote... "those little things. And there well made too." Also the voice recognition demo was great when the assistant wrote "went" instead of "want" when he was asking his wife if she wanted to see the Luminaries. I sure the presenter cringed during that.The camera looks nice but the price is pretty steep. I did like the Nexus approach better, but it remains to be seen if they can play in this luxury market. The unlimited cloud storage seems like a nice value-add, except that is just more data for them to mine. Also the new Chromecast Ultra seems nice, the other stuff doesn't really interest me too much.
jackstar7 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
When the Pixel hits Google Fi, I plan to take a long look at the 5" version.jackstar7 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Okay, just saw them up for pre-order. That is not cheap, but is interesting. I'm actually intrigued by the battery on the 5.5. Could be compelling move from the 5X. Then I could hand off my 5X to someone else ready to jump to Fi.Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Feels like Google+. Too little too late. This isn't enough to become a player alongside Samsung and Apple. The hardware is in no way comparable to the iPhone.Drumsticks - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Price aside, why not? There's at least one independent reviewer placing the camera higher than the iPhone. Snapdragon 821 is certainly slower single threaded, but multi threaded is similar and the best you can get on Android. The Battery is pretty hefty on the 5.5" and respectable enough on the 5". The displays have what's necessary to be class leading. What exactly with the hardware is totally outclassed?Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
On the iPhone, by the quality and the aesthetic. I'd never buy an iPhone, but they are extremely well designed and engineered.It either had to be the same price and far better (unlikely, it feels like we're at 'peak phone', at least until someone builds a flat phone with no bezel), or as as good as, and cheaper.
tuxRoller - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Wait. What? Why "the same price and far better"?Perhaps it's because I don't know what you mean by"better".
Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Because otherwise why would you *not* buy an iPhone 7 or a Note 7? They're excellent phones with massive user-bases. People who are brand new to the expensive phone market are unlikely to gamble on a newcomer, especially when Apple and Samsung are so fashionable.Google+ came far too late in the day and offered nothing over Facebook; look what happened.
tuxRoller - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
The iPhone might be a better phone, but people don't typically cross shop.I don't see how the galaxy phones are better (positives: ois, ip67, sdcard slot; negatives: software, made of glass, updates lag and uncertain, no seamless upgrades), or why one would prefer a galaxy if they were equal.
That's not the point, though. I'm questioning why a Google phone would have to be "the same price and far better" in order to justify the purchase.
Impulses - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
To be fair, Samsung also has water resistance and Qi charging in their favor... Software is a big enough factor for me that I'd take a Pixel or even an HTC 10 over a Galaxy S7 tho, despite how much I'd like to keep using the wireless chargers I'm currently using with my N5.Depending on taste you might also prefer the capacitive buttons and slightly larger screens of the Samsung/HTC alternatives... I've kinda gotten used to on screen buttons myself and prefer that rear fingerprint reader.
I think that kinda subjective thing goes a long way even tho it may seem like a small factor to the spec driven enthusiast.
Meteor2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
You've answered your own question. People don't typically cross-shop, and Samsung has better hardware.tuxRoller - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Um, what? Did you not read my post? The entire post?Also, it's not clear that there galaxies have better hardware, let alone much better, AND hardware isnt the only issue, as I said.
tuxRoller - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Turns out the pixel is rated ip53.cjpp78 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
I would disagree. What google has is hardware that is comparable to s7, note 7 and iphone 7. What they have over the iphone 7 is android, for those that prefer the os over ios. What google has over Samsung is that like Apple, they control the software and hardware of their device. It will get the updates quicker than other phones and pure android is cleaner, faster performing and more simple to use than samsung's software. I for sure think there is room for a third player but it will take marketing. Quickest way to get attention is throw it out there against the iphone, make comparisons in commercials. Play up that we are the people behind android itself and this is our phone.tuxRoller - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
Essentially this.While any of the other android oems could perform similar modifications aosp for their platform, most don't, at least not extensively. The reason is simply that most of them release too many damn phones (so less time to actually perform this work), and the drivers they rely on aren't open source (google has been making some progress in this area with the pixel c using the nouveau drm driver, but it still uses nvidia's api implementations) which means if there are bugs in the drivers (there are), they have to work around them...which just adds even more time to the whole process.
The big advantage google has over everyone else is that they are upstream (mostly---they still pull from master for the kernel, and probably other areas), so they know the platform better than anyone else. Given that, and now a specific device to work towards, they can add the device to their CI (they've got automated touchscreen handling so, presumably, they could even loop that in).
osxandwindows - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
water proof and stereo speakers are 2…evilpaul666 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
So what are the likely specs on the new Chromecast? 4x 1.2Ghz A53, 1GB RAM, and...I'm not sure which Mali/Adreno core?ImSpartacus - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Love that it's on Verizon, but I won't even think about it until it's water proof, dust proof, etc.Michael Bay - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
So, remarkably unremarkable.Ananke - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
:) This is an absurd - why would an Apple user buy into non-Apple phone and ecosystem that costs the same !!! but "looks and feels and performs like Apple" ?!?!
Apple did a killer move with iPhone SE - high end camera and price starting $400, with refurbs as little as $250 - most of apps are social interactions based on pictures and video sharing, great cameras are a MUST on a smartphone for the entire ecosystem to make sense. Then high end media streaming is a must to use the phone for music/video consumption. Apple covered the music business for a long time, they still lack on the video - this is the only diversification that Google tries to explore with the VR initiative, large high def amoled screen; but Samsung is there already.
To me, this entire introduction is just a way to not disturb Samsung's phone sales...And this will all fall apart if ever Apple replaces the phone screens with OLED and does 4k streaming to AppleTV. So, at best Google introduced unsellable product that has probably 6 months ahead of the competition to transform into sellable, which I have never seen in the retail history.
JBVertexx - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Well, I will be buying the pixel. I have an HTC One M7 and haven't found a compelling upgrade until now. Last year's nexus 5x was not high-end build quality (but it was perfect for my son), and the 6p was too big. This year, I really tried to buy the HTC 10, but black wasn't available on Verizon.I never have liked iOS, and I don't want Samsung bloat. Just preordered my black Pixel.
I'm sure I won't be the only one.
tuxRoller - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Assuming the reviews don't find anything wrong (like cheap nand), this is my next phone.I really don't understand all the whinging.
For Android, everything looks to be completely top of the line. Assuming that's the case, then you shouldn't expect it to be cheap.
cjpp78 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
to my understanding it has ufs storage. so glad of that because I was disappointed with slow nand of the 6p..still pretty quick but boot times and app opening could be faster so the sd821 soc and ufs storage of pixel are welcome.Impulses - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
I don't think it's grossly overpriced for what's on tap, even tho I'm disappointed they've messed around with a split design back and still didn't bother to squeeze in a Qi wireless charging coil...I do think it's mildly overpriced, since the larger storage tier pushes the price $50-150 than an HTC 10 or S7 (granted the former is currently on sale, kinda sneaky on HTC's part).
I think there's a lot of little things not necessarily obvious at first blush that might make someone choose this over either of the aforementioned phones, and then there's software (which would already make me favor a 10 over S7).
They're basically the high end phone a lot of people always wished Google would build, and it's presented as such, not as a 'Nexus'. Then that's subjective things like on screen vs capacitive, rear vs front fingerprint readers, etc.
I'm willing to give them a shot, but if they come out with screens with shoddy calibration, poor efficiency, or some other unforeseen snafu they'll really be screwed, the margin for error is pretty small now days.
tuxRoller - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the glass on back either, but it does seem to be an extension of the 6p's visor, and it serves purpose.... which wouldn't be necessary had they used plastic!!!!You touched on something that I think it's quite interesting. People have been asking Google to make a no compromise phone. An Android iPhone:) They do this, and are surprised, even angry, that it costs as much as the other flagship android phones did when they are first launched.
People luuuuuv to complain.
That said, if there are issues like you mentioned, i won't touch it.
cjpp78 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
exactly, you're thinking the same as me, in terms of not liking ios. That and not willing to settle for samsung's software support and lower performance of their bloated software. The Pixel phones could be whats good about ios, the software support from the os developer and its still android on high end hardware. This could be the fastest android phones around when it releases. For me though I want the XL model, probably black as wellhano - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Well, it comes down to features. Apple's phones aren't made for VR. They don't have the non-persistent screens and their Bluetooth LE has the worst latency out of the phones. If you are buying for VR, like me, then the Google (or Samsung) is the way to go.KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
The SE is also faster than the latest, most expensive Android flagships. Between that and its software ecosystem its a really terrific option.cjpp78 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
The iphone 7 isn't much faster than a $400 one plus 3 that keeps pace with iphone 7 pretty well except opening heavy games. I'm very interested in speed test between pixel and iphone 7. Guessing iphone might be slightly faster in real world use but probably not much.fanofanand - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Excellent job Matt, you really covered this event extremely well. As for the content, screw Google and their $649 phones. They developed a following by being as good as the best while being 60% of the price. I haven't bought a non-Nexus phone in 4 years, It's going to be a sad day when my N5 dies.anandreader106 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
In the Pixel's hardware specs it lists a 3.5mm headphone jack. That's a win these days....Also, no new tablet to replace my 2013 Nexus 7? DAMN IT!
Impulses - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
New tablets seem to have slipped to next year, rumor is Huwaei is making their next '7'... I was kinda hoping they'd do 8" but I'm looking forward to it either way.As to the headphone jack, they took a small jab at Apple in the introductory promo that touted all the 'new' (so 'new' it doesn't have a version number! har) by quipping mid way "3.5mm jack satisfyingly not new"... I chuckled.
yannigr2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
It seems that a huge company doesn't need a huge room for it's presentation. Having look other, much smaller companies I was expecting a ....football stadium.fanofanand - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
There aren't enough tech journalists in existence to fill a football stadium. Too bad there isn't an edit button so you could go back and delete your asinine comment.Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
In what way is your reply justified? I too noted the small scale of the launch. But when I loaded the stream, just before it started, YouTube told me there were 122,000 people watching.fanofanand - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
My reply is justified because his comment made zero sense whatsoever. Large company = large room for a press release? Seriously? You are going to take the number of viewers on Youtube and somehow correlate that to the size of the room? My word.....Meteor2 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
You've lost me!yannigr2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
He just wanted to express his higher (failing) brain functions, so first he took my comment and insulted me because it didn't compute for him in his absolute and very strict world and now he insults you, not directly in this case, because you go and correlate the size of the room, with the number of Youtube viewers.Meteor2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
The point was it is another example of Google directly attacking Apple to differentiate. They chose a small, brightly lit and unremarkable venue because Apple doesn't.yannigr2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
You are so proud for your rudeness, your arrogance and your stupidity, that it is definitely funny to read your comment.Michael Bay - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
But just enough for a gas chamber.Badelhas - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
I suggest a warm bubble bath, it should calm you down ;)seamonkey79 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
:'( Phone is about $100-150 too much. I get that they're letting you offload most of the storage hog stuff to photos with unlimited storage at full resolution, but dropping the SD card and charging as much as every other flagship, when every other flagship (Android) phone includes an SD slot... that's no bueno. Hopefully this does well enough, but not too well, and they rethink their 'let's price it like Samsung, LG, HTC, Apple' without giving what Samsung, LG, HTC, and Apple give (better specs for the price from the 3 Android, and well, Apple is Apple so it doesn't matter what they have (whether better or not, not the point of this at all))... lower res screen, larger bezel for no reason, no wireless charging (but a metal/glass back?)... too little for too much.tuxRoller - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
Their specs are basically the same as the other flagship phones. Remember, samsung only just brought back the usd slot, but I don't recall them dropping the price of those phones when they dropped the slot.What you get with the google phone is something you won't get from any other device except the iphone: hardware/software synergy. Granted, it's not a huge difference b/c of the framework. For me, the biggest draw is the guaranteed updates and openness of the device.
jwcalla - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Seems like these days Google is intent on getting themselves involved in all kinds of projects and products that nobody is interested in.And in the meantime they leave Chromebooks to die on the vine, which is about their only successful consumer product.
cjpp78 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
they are working on a new os for chromebooks and tablets andromeda I think. it was said that it would be previewed at the keynote but wasn't. I think they have big plans in the works for tablets and netbook/laptop like devicesMeteor2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Google works on the basis of experimenting (because they can afford to do so) and seeing what sticks. Gmail did Wave didn't. Chrome did Picasa didn't. Google+ and its predecessor (began with an O I think) really didn't, but cost a fortune.I personally don't see their OS plans going anywhere; Android is embedded now. It will be interesting to see where they go with Chrome OS though. Dart and Flutter look promising too.
Michael Bay - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Don`t forget the same goog overloading things that stuck with crap to the point of being unusable.Gmail circa 2007 was good, gmail today is a horrorshow.
lefenzy - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Lol verizon. Hope google keeps it away from verizon's bloatware.bigboxes - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Why are they taking away the copy from one app to another?marty_himself - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
It's a phone with an ugly back, it is way overpriced at £600 and what idiot is going to attach his phone to a VR helmet?jayfang - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Don't misunderstand - Google Home has ONE "speaker". Passive radiators are not the same as driven cones. Much cheaper and not as loud or potentially as hi-fidelity 3 speakers.Mikuni - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
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JasonMason - Saturday, October 17, 2020 - link
That Harry Potter VR looks amazing. I just watched the movie last night after reading Arcane https://severbronny.com/tag/coming-of-age-fantasy/ and I think a new Harry Potter VR game would steal my life away, ahah. Thanks for revealing it.