Google Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL goes official

The Pixel phones were Google's first devices built-in house and offered a premium design, powerful processor, best camera of that time and more. Now one year later Google is back with their successors - Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Similar to their predecessors, one is a smaller device, and other bigger.

While last years Pixel phones were manufactured by HTC, this time there are two separate manufactures. The smaller Pixel 2 is manufactured by HTC, and the bigger Pixel 2 XL is manufactured by LG. Both phones offer almost similar design and specs sheet, but there are some differentiating factors. 

The smaller Pixel 2 has the same design as its predecessor, with thick bezels and features 5-inch Full HD AMOLED 16:9 display and packs 2700mAh battery. It is 7.8mm thick and weighs 143g, and comes in Kinda Blue, Just Black and Clearly White colors. 

The Pixel 2 XL on the other hand follows the trend of near bezel-less screen and a full screen display with 18:9 aspect ratio. It features a bigger 6-inch QHD+ pOLED display and is fueled by 3520mAh battey. It measures 7.9mm around the waist and weighs 175g, and comes in Just Black and Black & White colors. Apart from these changes, the rest of the features are same.

Speaking of the similarities, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL comes with Gorilla Glass 5 display, Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform, 4GB RAM, 64GB/128GB internal storage, fingerprint scanner, and boasts IP67 water and dust resistance. They run Android Oreo out of the box.

For photography there's 12.2MP f/1.8 rear camera with Dual- Pixel autofocus, dual-tone LED flash and OIS. On the front there's 8MP selfie camera with f/2.4 aperture. The front and rear camera comes with Portrait mode for depth of field effect.

The Pixel 2 phone also features HTC U11 like Edge Sense feature called Active Edge, that lets you trigger various actions including summon Google Assistant, by squeezing the touch sensitive frame.

Other features include Always-on screen, 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Quick Charge 3.0 and E-SIM slot. The E-SIM slot allows you to connect to different carriers without the need of replacing the SIM card. The phone also has regular SIM card slot.

Unfortunately there's no 3.5mm audio and microSD card slot. The absence of 3.5mm audio jack will be taken care of USB Type-C port and stereo speakers to deliver audio. And you get unlimited high-quality photo and video cloud backup via Google Photos.

Coming to the pricing, the Pixel 2 64GB and 128GB storage variants are priced at $649 (Rs. 42,000) and $749 (Rs. 49,000) respectively. The Google Pixel 2 XL 64GB and 128GB storage model will cost  $849 (Rs. 55,000) and $949 (Rs. 62,000) respectively. They will be up for pre-order today, and will be first available in Australia, Germany, Canada, India, UK and US,in the coming weeks followed by Italy, Singapore and Spain later this year.