Google Pixel as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
926 words · ~4 min read
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Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably noticed that Google
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seems to be trying its hardest to be a company that does seemingly everything.
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I mean, they're working on a space elevator. But closer to home, they've
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recently rolled out their first ever smartphones, the Pixel and the Pixel XL.
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Whoa, hold on a second. What about that Google Nexus sitting in my pocket right
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now? Well, although Nexus devices carried Google's branding, they weren't
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designed by Google. Rather, Google intended for them to be a reference for
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what the vanilla Android experience should be like. But phones themselves
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weren't all that different from other devices available from the manufacturers
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contracted to produce a Nexus. Companies like LG or Motorola. But this time is
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different, man. Google designed the Pixels in-house, intending for them to
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be the first smartphones they could truly call their own. Even if it is
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contract manufactured by HTC and looks suspiciously iPhone like from the front,
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the hardware, while upper tier, mostly isn't anything we haven't seen before.
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1080p AMOLED screen or 1440p if you opt
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for the larger Pixel XL. Quad core Snapdragon 821, either 32 or 128 GB of
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internal UFS 2.0based O based storage, but no micro SD slot and USB type-C. It
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does however come with some really next level stuff like a non-exloding battery
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and a headphone jack. All joking aside, there is at
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least one hardware feature that does legitimately set the Pixel apart. Google
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has hyped the Pixel's camera quite hard, even going so far as to call it the best
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smartphone camera ever. And while Google might not be the most unbiased source of
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such a statement, most independent reviewers have already had high praise
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for the Pixel's wide dynamic range, solid lowlight performance, and accurate
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color. It also packs 4K video, 240 FPS
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slow-mo, and image stabilization to round out its feature set. And there's
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more. The fingerprint sensor is on the back of the phone, which is supposed to
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make it easier to access when you're holding the phone in your hand. and it
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also comes with full support for Google's upcoming Daydream VR headset.
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Aesthetically, the pixels are a little polarizing. The upper third of the rear
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is covered with Gorilla Glass, which Google claims helps with cell reception.
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And the phones are available not only in the more traditional black and white,
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but also in a very intense shade of blue
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that Google literally calls really blue.
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They got that right. But color choices aside, where Google has really tried to
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set the Pixel apart from its competitors is its software. The Pixel does, as you
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might expect, run Android 7, but there are some interesting touches that are,
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as of now, Pixel exclusive, something
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that we never saw with Nexus devices. The most prominent of these is the new
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Google Assistant, a competitor to Siri and Cortana that is based more around
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having conversations with the user instead of just spitting out search
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results. Google even went as far as to hire writers from the Onion to give the
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assistant some personality. And while the Pixel doesn't come with an iPhone
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like pressure sensitive screen, you can learn more about this up here, it does
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feature app shortcuts, which are quick context menus that show up when you long
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press on an app icon. Then another big selling point is support for what Google
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calls seamless updates, where a separate partition of your phone's storage is
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updated in the background, and the Pixel just boots from that partition the next
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time you turn it on, meaning no more absurdly long wait times just to use
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your phone after a system update, which is pretty cool in my opinion. So, with a
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focus on solid usability rather than possibly extraneous bells and whistles,
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it'll be interesting to see how Google's first real foray into smartphones
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