Fans who spent years asking Google to make a true iPhone competitor finally got their wish this year. After hiding in the shadow of the Nexus name for years, the Pixel moniker has finally dethroned it and become Android’s new top dog. But does it live up to the hype?
Usually we start with a word on the design, but let’s put that on hold for a bit and mention something that is usually reserved for the end – the price. While Nexus devices were known for being affordable powerhouses, the five-inch 32 GB Pixel that we’re reviewing costs roughly Rs. 57,000 here in India. So Google has abandoned the Nexus philosophy and taken the fight straight into Apple’s camp in all departments, price included.
With that established, it’s up to the Pixel to prove that it has the goods to back up the high price. Which makes this the perfect time to come back to the design. The Pixel, though manufactured by HTC, has only Google branding on its slim, metal body, which is only disturbed by a rather unsightly glass pane on the back, where the fingerprint sensor also resides. The design is the definition of vanilla, and rather uninspired. While the build quality and materials are fine, it’s not something you’ll appreciate for it’s aesthetics. The phone comes in three colours – Very Silver, Quite Black and Really Blue – and this naming scheme is unfortunately the most creative aspect of the phone’s design.
But that’s also Google’s message. At the launch of the Pixel, the company unveiled a bunch of other devices, like the virtual assistant-powered Google Home speaker. The main thing stressed on at the event was that these devices were designed to blend into the background, and let the amazingly intuitive software come to the fore. The same philosophy applies to the Pixel, which might be the trailblazer for the drab, hyper-intelligent devices of our future.
Pixel’s hyper-intelligence comes from Assistant, which is what you get when you take all the Google Now features the company has been working on and give them to Professor X to make a sassy modern-day Powerpuff Girl. Assistant is fun, quirky and extremely impressive. From setting alarms, calling and messaging people, to making sure your grocery list is updated on the fly, Assistant is just a long press away, and does the job without much fuss. Assistant also has enough personality and helpful follow-ups that it is entirely possible for you to have short conversations that are weirdly reminiscent of Spike Jonze’s Her .
Other than the improved AI helper, the software is not much different from the Nexus days. The Pixel runs a new launcher, with a redesigned search bar and some nifty tweaks, like being able to bring down the notification shade by swiping on the fingerprint sensor, but elsewhere most things remain the same. The major difference is that the Pixel is quite a fluid phone, and while recent Androids have advanced to the point where the UI is almost completely lag-free, the Pixel does keep things moving along with hardly any hiccups.
So far, the phone comes across as an impressive combination of hardware and software, but for something this expensive, what makes it stand out? It lacks water-proofing, has a sealed battery, no wireless charging, dual cameras or any other highlight. Well, one of the things the company made a lot of noise about at the event was that the Pixel’s camera achieved the highest DxOMark rating of any smartphone, and on this count, it does deliver. It is not that the phone completely destroys the iPhones and Galaxies of the world, but the ease with which it takes a fabulous shot sets it apart. This is the kind of camera you can whip out in any condition and snap with the knowledge that you’ll get a good shot; no pro mode tinkering required. The same goes for video as well, and though the lens flare issue that has done the rounds online is present to some extent, it is by no means a dealbreaker in this department. Even in low light, and in the middle of the flashing lights of a concert, the Pixel’s processing held things together well enough to get decent results.
On the battery front, the 2770 mAH battery on the phone consistently returned over 4 hours of screen on time, which is a respectable number for the kind of use it was subjected to. The regular Pixel comes with a full HD screen instead of the quad HD resolution of the larger Pixel XL, which has definitely helped battery life. The fast charging via USB Type-C tops up the phone fairly quickly, though it’s not quite at OnePlus’ Dash Charge levels.
So it’s a good phone, but who is it for? When you consider the asking price, the only logical explanation is that it is Android’s answer to someone in the market for an iPhone and open to alternatives. For anyone else, there will be a cheaper phone that does everything the Pixel does as well, or better, with the exception of timely sof0tware updates. For a first stab at making a phone, Google has done a great job. One just wishes they’d kept the Nexus around as a mid-range offering.
