Android has been round for therefore lengthy, and in so many types, that the open-source working system has advanced on a number of fronts due to the frantic competitors among the many many distributors utilizing the platform.
For all of the bells and whistles of Samsung, LG and HTC, there’s all the time been a marketplace for one thing a little bit purer – a ‘inventory’ OS that strips away all of the third-party bloat for an expertise that’s as near Google’s imaginative and prescient of Android because it’s potential to get.
From the evolution of Google’s Nexus smartphone vary (and their successors, the enhancing Google Pixel telephones) to the simultaneous innovation of Android One, pure Android gadgets have carved out multiple area of interest for themselves. It’s been fairly the journey, and the story isn’t over but…
The Nexus genesis
The ‘pure Android’ challenge started in 2009 when Google confirmed it had begun inside testing on a brand new machine it envisioned as providing a real Android expertise. Soon after, Google revealed a partnership with HTC. The product of that union? The Nexus One.
With a handful of litigation lawsuits to cope with off the bat (one for specs filed by Apple and the opposite, of all sources, got here from the property of the late sci-fi author Philip K Dick), the Nexus One launched on January 5 2010, and set a blueprint for Google’s streamlined method to each its personal OS and software program options.
However, regardless of a handful of enticing utilities, comparable to voice-to-text transcription, it didn’t provide sufficient improvements to match the stylized kind issue that had given the iPhone such a substantial fan base.
Never an organization to be accused of twiddling its fingers, Google adopted it up by the top of that 12 months with the Nexus S.
Trading HTC for Samsung (the carousel of companions would change into a calling card for the vary), this new handset boasted an structure much like that used within the Galaxy S vary, and was the primary machine to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
The Nexus S was a step forwards by way of innovation, that includes the earliest Android use of NFC know-how, sowing the seeds for Android Pay and Apple Pay within the course of. It was additionally, oddly enough, the first commercial handset to be certified for use in missions by NASA.
In 2011, the third entry within the vary, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, continued the partnership with the Korean large with a dual-core processor, the flexibility to shoot video in 1080p and the very first use of Google Wallet.
In 2012, Google parted methods with Samsung on its cellular entrance and joined forces with LG to supply the Nexus 4.
Like the Nexus S, this subsequent entry within the collection was properly obtained by critics, providing comparatively high-end specs – comparable to a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and an 8-megapixel rear digicam – at an reasonably priced worth level. It proved to be one of the well-liked entries within the vary.
The finish for Nexus, and the start of Android One
The following 12 months, Google saved its partnership with LG going to supply the following iteration within the Nexus line: the Nexus 5.
As one of many first handsets to ship with Android 4.4 KitKat (this was additionally the primary time Android had used a bit of branded confectionery to call its OS iterations), the Nexus 5 noticed Google trying to revert to the pure ideology of its earlier fashions with the inclusion of the Google Now Launcher, providing simpler entry to its good assistant.
Like the entire Nexus gadgets earlier than it, it wasn’t good – shortcomings included a dim display screen and a digicam that didn’t match as much as the ability of different ‘less pure’ Android telephones – but it surely was nonetheless a standard Android person’s perfect handset.
Having fulfilled its two-device dedication with LG, in 2014 Google determined to work with Motorola (which it had just lately offered to Lenovo) for the following handset in its inventory vary: the Nexus 6.
Phablets have been the brand new in factor, with large screens turning into vastly well-liked, so Google went all-in with a 2560 x 1440 AMOLED show, one of many earliest examples of this high-end display screen spec.
Based largely on the Moto X, Google used the Nexus 6 as the primary handset to help Project Fi, the agency’s personal cellular operator service.
It was additionally in 2014 new method to the inventory Android expertise was born: Android One. The brainchild of Sundar Pichai, product chief and designated CEO of Google, it was designed as a streamlined and unmodified model of Android, particularly for reasonably priced entry-level gadgets in rising markets.
India served because the testbed for this OS variant, and within the 4 years since its launch Android One has helped form the event of Android in Google’s personal gadgets. The ethos of a cleaner UI, with excessive safety and sooner updates, could be seen within the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL right this moment.
2015 marked the ultimate 12 months for the Nexus line, and whereas Google would ultimately start work on what would change into the primary Pixel handset, it went all out for its Nexus swansong.
Google teamed up with Huawei to supply arguably one of the best Nexus telephone, the 6P
With Motorola now offered on, Google broke its traditional sample on a number of fronts by returning to LG for the Nexus 5X and Chinese producer Huawei for the Nexus 6P. Needlessly complicated naming conventions apart, these two gadgets have been testbeds for a few of Android’s newest options.
The Android Sensor Hub (for detecting when the telephone has been picked up) and Google Now on Tap helped the 5X stand aside, whereas the 6P noticed the Nexus vary out in type as arguably its finest entry, with a thinner aluminum physique, an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip and extra.
Pixel good
In October 2016, Google’s choice to go away the Nexus vary behind, however construct on its legacy with a brand new vary of stock-focused handsets, noticed the arrival of the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.
The even-thinner aluminum chassis and glass rear panel represented a transfer in direction of a extra premium construct high quality than the Nexus telephones, but it surely was the brand new Android options that basically made the Pixel stand aside.
Google Assistant was initially unique to the primary technology of Pixels, whereas entry to limitless, full-resolution Google Photos backup actually offered the exclusivity of the Android 7.1 Nougat replace that got here with this telephone.
It wasn’t good – the dearth of waterproofing and a litany of points butted heads with the upper worth level – however as the primary real pure-Android telephone designed, developed and marketed largely by Google (HTC was technically concerned), it was sending a transparent message to Samsung and Apple.
For the launch of the Pixel 2 in 2017, Google labored with each HTC and LG to supply its common and XL handsets, however made a degree of saying that there wouldn’t be a ‘cheaper’ model to match some manufacturers’ ‘lite’ fashions.
These have been extra premium handsets, and their cameras have been the centerpiece of the design. Finally residing up the Pixel branding, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL featured a surprising 12.2-megapixel rear digicam that would seize Full HD video, and HDR+ processing.
The Pixel 2 XL boasted extra premium options, and did make the common model look a little bit low cost by comparability, however Google was clearly getting nearer to discovering its ‘perfect’ pure Android mannequin.
Pixel current – and future?
So we come to the latest chapter in Google’s pure Android journey: the Pixel 3. While not an unlimited enchancment on the earlier technology of telephones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL sum up Google’s homegrown method to telephone improvement.
They tick simply sufficient bins on the entrance – one other spectacular suite of cameras, and an total design that’s simpler on the attention – whereas inserting an emphasis on the power of Android working at its cleanest.
Debuting in 2018 with Android Pie through the Pixel Launcher, the Pixel 3 telephones provide the easiest way but to expertise Android in its pure kind.
A clear UI, using Duplex AI to reply spam calls, and the Digital Wellbeing device have proved that, whereas Google remains to be understanding the kinks by way of , it’s displaying the path by which Google hopes to take its OS innovation.