Tuesday 16-10-04 Pixel

Here it is then, the Google Pixel phone. It looks quite nice, but it does look like an iPhone in my humble opinion.



I watched the presentation live on the way home, and I was very impressed with the Assistant feature. It seemed very intuitive, but I am wondering the extent to which it can be replicated using Google Now on existing phones. I expect that there would be certain capabilities that could not be reproduced elsewhere, but if it is only a matter of degree, then the question has to be: is it worth it?
The camera certainly looks to be something special, and perhaps that would be the feature that might prompt people to buy it. Apparently the camera achieved the highest score by any smartphone ever, according to the DxOMark system.
I like the white version, and if this had been priced similarly to the Nexus 4 or the 5X, I would have been on it like a car bonnet. My OnePlus One is two years old now and I am looking for a replacement. It is still a good phone, but if I am using it in the evening I do have to recharge the battery. I expect I will update it to Nougat shortly; the Marshmallow nightly updates seem to be thinning out. That may give the battery a boost, since Nougat Doze is supposed to be better. We'll see, I guess. I think I spent about £280 on the OPO, and I would be willing to spend up to £330 on a new off-contract phone. The OnePlus Three is looking as though it fits the bill nicely; I need to seriously think about it. I also have to pay back the Bank of Mum and Dad for the car loan that they recently extended to us, and I am thinking about getting a second car just to get me in and out of work. So I don't have money to burn on a new phone.
I certainly don't have £600 to spend on a phone with a 5" screen and 32gb of memory, even if that screen is Amoled, and it comes with a fingerprint sensor. The family laptop, which is a 15" job with an i3 processor was less than £250, so unfortunately there is no way I can justify spending £600. And if I were to buy the version I actually wanted, that would be the 5.5" screen with 128gb of memory which would set me back £819. Even the offer of a £50 Play Store voucher wouldn't ease the pain of that hitting my bank balance.

So, I guess I won't be at the cutting edge of Google tech this year. The gizmos and widgets that I do have are enough for me, really, and it's always nice to have something to aim for, somewhere down the line. So if you do see me carrying around a white Pixel XL, and there hasn't been a massive price drop, it'll be more than likely that I've won the lottery or come into an inheritance.