As its 4 October special event, Google has launched two new smartphones under the Pixel brand as per rumours. We were invited along to the London event where we were able to see the handsets in the flesh. Here's our Google Pixel hands-on review.
Although the new Pixel and Pixel XL are being touted as Google's first own-brand smartphones, and they are 'designed and built by us' despite rumours of HTC being behind them. They are sort of a continuation of the Nexus brand which you may well be familiar with. LG and Huawei made the Nexus 5X
Where to buy your iPhone 7? Find out how to get the best price on an iPhone 7 today. .
This is the first time Google has used the Pixel brand for phones which includes the Pixel C tablet and Chromebook Pixel. Google also gave details on Google Home and the new Chromecast Ultra.
"Through Nexus, the goal was to work with these various partners to push the boundaries of what’s possible with a smartphone. We’ve now decided to take the next step and provide our take on the best Google experience, by bringing hardware and software design together under one roof," said Google.
A year on and the Pixel costs £599/$649 which is quite an increase! It's available for pre-order today ahead of the 20 October release date. In the UK the phones will be exclusively available from EE, Carphone Warhouse and the Google Store.
Google Pixel review: Specs and hardware
Google has gone with a 5in AMOLED screen and a Full HD resolution for
the Pixel, which is a little smaller compared to the 5.2in Nexus 5X.
Those wanting something larger can opt for the 5.5in Pixel XL which,
incidentally, has a higher Quad HD resolution.
There's 32GB of storage as standard but you can also jump to 128GB if you're happy to pay more (+£100). Theres no Micro-SD card slot but the Pixel comes with unlimted online storage for full resolution photos - only ones take on the phone itself, though.
Moving on and the other key specs (camera details below) are the 'Pixel Imprint' fingerprint scanner on the back – which is a handy placement unless the phone is on a flat surface -, a USB Type-C port, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi. It's also the first Daydream VR-ready compatible phone with the freshly announced Daydream View headset.
The Pixel Imprint is not just a fingerprint sensor, you can swipe on it to access notifications in a similar way to Huawei phones. Sadly you can't swipe upwards to access to the new app draw (see the software section below), but you can double tap to access the camera and use it to take photos.
Camera tech on the back hasn't changed much (comparing to the Nexus 5X again) with a 12.3Mp sensor, the same f/2.0 aperture and dual-tone LED flash. The camera doesn't stick out the back and the front camera has been upgraded to 8Mp from 5Mp which is nice.
As usual it's hard to get a good idea of camera quality at a launch event but they have potential and we'll update this section once we've tested the phone properly. Google thinks it's the best camera made for a phone ever based on its DxO score of 89, one point more than the HTC 10, Galaxy S7 and Sony Xperia X Performance.
Google Pixel review: Software
Take a look at the photos and you can see that the launcher has a new look. This includes new navigation buttons at the bottom, a new app dock and the Google search bar is now a tab on the left.
To explain the latter two, you now have to swipe up to access your app draw rather than tap an icon - it will take some getting used to and not everyone will like the new round icons. The Google tab at the top will simply take you to the Google Now section with a swipe to the right (pretty much the same as Nexus phones).
One of the big features which Google is touting is that the Google Assistant is built-in and you can access it easily by long pressing the home button. It's not the biggest deal ever since Google Now has been great at speech for a while.
Otherwise the software is pretty much the same in terms of the notification bar and recent apps menu. Of course, you'll get the usual selection of Google apps pre-installed. A nice new feature is that you can blur your wallpaper to different degrees.
Where to buy your iPhone 7? Find out how to get the best price on an iPhone 7 today. .
OUR VERDICT
The Google Pixel is certainly a nice phone will decent specs and an
attractive design. It's also great to see Google making its own
handsets, as much as we love the Nexus range. However, as nice as the
Pixel is, not all of the specs warrant a price matching the iPhone 7,
which means it's more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S7. Not ideal,
Google.
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