Last year, Google decided to drop their Nexus line of phones to start making a new set – The Google Pixel. The tech community received the news with mixed feelings. But despite varying opinions from tech enthusiasts, The Google Pixel offers the best Android experience on smartphones, and the camera technology on the Pixel and Pixel XL blew other OEMs away with its amazing image processing capabilities.
Google announced this year’s Pixel devices at an event that held earlier this month. Both devices tick all the boxes in the standard flagship device spec sheet – Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, 64GB/128GB of internal storage, water resistance, and USB-C. Both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have the same specs asides from the screen size and resolution. Google teased at their event, that they don’t reserve the better specs for the bigger phone, unlike some other manufacturers (a la Apple).
Also, in the spirit of doing things differently, Google put a single 12 MP rear camera on both Pixel devices. However, the camera now has both Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS). At the event, Google announced that DxoMark already named the Pixel 2 camera the best smartphone camera of the year. There’s also a front-facing 8 MP selfie snapper.
The Pixel 2 XL has a bigger battery and a 6-inch Quad HD display, while the Pixel 2 has a 5-inch 1080p OLED display. On the downside, they do not offer wireless charging and they have finally lost the 3.5mm headphone jack. Google offers wireless headphones – Pixel buds, as a replacement for your wired headset, but at a hefty price (over $100).
Software-wise, The phones ship with Android 8.0 on-board. The sides of the Pixel phones are pressure sensitive, so, you can now squeeze your Pixel phone and it’d activate the Google Assistant instantly. Both phones also have embedded eSIM to connect to Google’s Project Fi even without a SIM card. eSIMs may be the new SIM card technology to expect in phones in a few years.
Both phones will be available on October 19
th, the Pixel 2 64GB for $649, and Pixel 2 XL 64GB, $849. The 128GB variant will cost $749 and $949, respectively.
