After weeks of incessant leaks and confusing marketing by Google, the Pixel and Pixel XL were finally announced. A few years back the Mountain View, Calif. -based company partnered with hardware manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Motorola and Huawei to incorporate its software into other devices in an attempt to showcase the viability of Android as the leading OS choice for smartphone users. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy an unlocked version of the phone, but it did raise some questions about how the updates for Pixel will be handled for those that do decide on the Verizon version of the phone.
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Sidenote: Although ads show the phones are “exclusive to Verizon”, which is the only United States carrier who will sell the phones, the Google Store will sell Pixel phones unlocked for all USA carriers.
The Pixal phone was approved by Google’s boss Sundar Pichai in 2015 after realizing it can no longer be “dipping a toe” in the smartphone hardware business.
Google, the tech giant and the proud owner of the Android OS seems to be very much towards the side of it’s newly launched smartphones Pixel and Pixel XL. However, when a new security patch comes out, you’ll get it immediately just like everyone else. The Sprint Nexus S, Verizon and Sprint Galaxy Nexus, T-Mobile Nexus 4, 5, and 6 all had their update process meddled with in at least some capacity, resulting in users getting updates a bit after their unlocked brethren. As Google tries to get its footing in the increasingly competitive U.S. smartphone market, it may have made some deals with the devil that ruin the user experience for many people who end up buying the phones. Obviously, many of you probably won’t listen, but take it into consideration nonetheless.
Both the Pixel and the OnePlus 3 are bang on trend with smartphones’ recent tendency to eschew expandable storage.
The disappointing part of this all is that some of these features are exclusive to the Pixel, and will not be available on the regular Android Nougat phones.
There’s really no reason to not buy directly from Google, unless you want bloatware and don’t want fast Android updates.
Google will still distribute system updates for all unlocked devices, but this won’t be the case with units with Verizon-locked bootloaders.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has recently come up with Pixel and Pixel XL Android phones but its selling strategy ensures that security factor remains in its hand.
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The 32GB Google PIxel is available for £599, and the 128GB version is available for £699.
