– Le Figaro has been able to approach the new smartphone from Google. Here are our first observations.
The first smartphone designed by Google”. This is how it has been presented Tuesday on the Pixel Tuesday. It is not quite the first attempt of the group on the Internet in the mobile. Many Android smartphones, from the HTC G1 in 2008, have been designed in partnership with the teams. Subsequently, the series of Nexus was supposed to show what was best in this universe. Google was each time closely involved in their elaboration.
The Pixel marks a real evolution for Google. This time, only the “G”, the initial of his name, appears in the back of the device. It is he who has made the design, chose the components, programmed the software of photo. His partner HTC is reduced to a role of running, even if we find his signature in some external aspects of the device, as the edges angular, his trademark.
thicker than an iPhone, but with a jack port
That gives this smartphone “with Google”? From the outside, it appears a bit more cumbersome than an iPhone 7, with which he feeds the undeniable similarities. With 8.5 mm thickness on the square, this is not exactly what most end at this time. However, the print in hand is good. The Pixel, with her hull, mostly in aluminum, and seems to be solid and still quite light. The screen, 5 or 5.5 inches for the XL model, is protected by a glass Gorilla Glass 4, the latest generation. Most importantly, unlike Apple, Google has managed to integrate a camera that does not exceed. Another difference is elegantly emphasized during the conference, the presence of the good old jack port for headphones. It is resistant to jets of water, but not a full-immersion lasting several minutes.
For the rest, the Pixel does not show too much originality. The fingerprint reader is located on the back, as well as on many Android devices, isolated in the middle of a square of glass somewhat surprising. The ignition buttons and volume are all three on the right spine. The USB type-C for charging is reversible. The smartphone is charging for 7 hours of battery life in quarter-hour and is supposed to take 13 or 14 hours (standard or XL) for browsing the Internet by Wi-Fi or 4G, once reached 100%. It is powered by the latest generation of processors Snapdragon 821, four cores, combined with 4gb of RAM. We appreciate a few subtle details, like the slide on the fingerprint sensor that place on the menu of quick shortcuts. Or tilting the camera back and the camera on the front panel by shaking the device.
A personal assistant and excellent photos
Several software aspects are worth the detour. The Pixel embeds the latest version of Android, Nougat, without the overlays that can add to the other manufacturers. The system will be subsequently updated automatically, in the background. The smartphone is also the first to take advantage of the “Google Assistant”. The assistant staff house, would you agree artificial intelligence, knows how to analyze the elements displayed on the screen, to display the route to a restaurant we look at it, start a YouTube clip of an artist on which we get information. The wizard summons by a long press on the central button. This is one of the main development axes of the search engine, who wants to be available everywhere and all the time to its users.
C’is mostly on the side of the photo the Pixel surprising. The photographs taken on Tuesday evening, in the demonstration area of London, give vivid colours and a level of precision is remarkable for a smartphone, while the capture is extremely fast. Google explains have both worked on the hardware and the image capture software to achieve this result. This first effort already seems to be a frank success. To complete, the pictures can be stored without limit of size or the resolution in the cloud. The storage of 32 Gb or 128 Gb, depending on the versions, will be less quickly full.
Gaps in the distribution
If this smartphone turns out to be a complete and attractive, Google still has a long way to browse. Where Apple is now pretty well established to launch the iPhone 7 in a twenty-five country on the day of its release, and then in thirty other a week later, the Pixel will first be reserved to the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, while India will follow. Google “works” to output in other countries, without more of precision. Why ignore and France? The wizard, one of the centrepieces of this smartphone will fit in a couple of weeks in French, and therefore is not the cause of this impasse.
This choice of distribution is anemic, in fact, wrong type when it shows up its ambitions in the hardware, and we made sure to send a message to the world. But it also shows that Google starts almost from zero with this smartphone, and needs to strengthen its distribution network and its partnerships with the operators in each country. In the meantime, the American people will buy the Google Pixel unlocked from 649 dollars in the basic version (749 $ XL), with a storage of 32 Gb ($ 100 more 128 Gb) and in three colors (silver, black, blue), for delivery from the 20th of October.
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