On the 4th October in San Francisco, Google introduced its new smartphones, Google Pixel and Pixel XL. The message coming from this presentation is that Google stops the commercialisation of the Nexus device and replaces it by Google Pixel. With Nexus, Google launched its good-value-for-money devices but since then, the company has changed its philosophy. Now the new devices are much more expensive but their quality is a little bit higher, like the last flagship Samsung galaxy S7 or Apple 7. Pixel is the first ever smartphone with hardware and software made by Google.

Main characteristics and prices

To summarise the characteristics of this hardware, it’s a 5-inch phone for the Pixel and a 5,5-inch phone for the Pixel XL with the latest 821 Snapdragon processor and a fingerprint on the back. The new smartphones will be the first that embed an OS Android 7.1 Nougat. Pixel’s users were impressed by the great quality of the photographs and videos. Moreover, the hardware encloses a 2770 mAhgg_pixel_1 and 3450 mAh battery respectively for Pixel and Pixel XL. The company claims that Pixels have the advantage to include a quick charging feature with 7 hours of use through only 15 minutes of charge.
They will respectively cost $649 and $769 in the United States and €759 and €869 in Europe. The company will first sell the phones in the markets of the US, Canada, Australia, Germany and UK.
 

Google Assistant

At the conference the company presented a better version of “Google Now”, which is named “Google Assistant” and is integrated in the Pixels. Its performance is impressive because it is simple to use, better and smarter than Google Now. It’s like a daily personal assistant who interacts with you as if you were speaking to a person, unlike other functionalities (Google Now, Samsung Voice or Siri) which are rather impersonal.
As a conclusion, Google wants to compete the two giants, Samsung and Apple, because their high-end smartphones are comparable to the Pixels in terms of quality and price.

A propos de Geoffrey PFIRSCH