This is the Google Pixel — Google’s new flagship smartphone

Goodbye Nexus, Hello Pixel! Google finally made its newest batch of smartphones official at its annual conference in the USA, and they now go by the name of Pixel as opposed to the usual Nexus line of smartphones.

The new Pixel smartphone features a brand new home screen UI that literally takes on the definition of an app drawer — you’d have to swipe up to see all your phone’s installed applications, emulating a drawer-like instance. On the software side, it runs on a specialized version of the newly-released Android 7.1 Nougat, and features a fully-integrated Google Assistant all throughout the device and support for Daydream, the internet search giant’s virtual reality platform.

Google also touts the 12.3-megapixel rear camera with astounding quality as it has apparently received a score of 89 from DXOMark, a leading imaging benchmarking group, topping the three-way-tied champs HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, and Sony Xperia X Performance on the list.

The Pixel sports a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip coupled with 4GB of RAM. Its fast charging capabilities, on the other hand, is said to last up to 7 hours with just a fifteen-minute charge.

Taiwanese tech giant HTC got the dibs in manufacturing both the Pixel and its larger brother, the Pixel XL, but all of the design were made by Google, thus literally announcing its own foray into the smartphone world and competing against the likes of LG, Samsung, and Huawei — makers of their Nexus devices.

Google Pixel specs:
5-inch AMOLED display @ 1080 x 1920 pixels, 441ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 4
2.15GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821
Adreno 530
4GB RAM
32GB, 128GB internal storage
12.3 MP f/2.0 PDAF rear camera with dual tone LED Flash, OIS
8 MP, f/2.0 front camera
4G LTE, 3G HSPA+
Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/a
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
Fingerprint scanner
NFC
Gyro Sensor
USB-C
Android 7.1 Nougat
2770mAh Li-Ion battery with Quick Charge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rykmwn0SMWU

As a treat, Google is offering unlimited image storage for owners of the new device via its Google Photos app. The Pixel is set to hit the US in Quite Black, Really Blue, and Very Silver colors with a US$649 (~Php31,300USD 533INR 45,216EUR 508CNY 3,884) price tag for the 32GB version and US$749 (~Php36.250USD 0.62INR 52EUR 0.59CNY 4) for the 128GB variant. We’ve yet to see if this will arrive in our shores, so stay tuned.

Note: This article originally communicated that the Pixel has microSD card expansion. This part has been corrected.