Why 2021 could finally be the year of the Google Pixel

This time final yr I wrote a column titled, “If you got a Pixel 4 for Christmas, you should probably return it.” I didn’t need to write it. Ever for the reason that Pixel launched in 2016, I’ve rooted for Google’s telephone to succeed. No different firm is in such a place to carry an iPhone-like stage of {hardware}/software program integration and an expertise unsurpassed on every other Android telephone.

Unfortunately Google by no means fairly nailed it. The items had been all there—flagship processor, unbelievable digital camera, common Android updates—however the design at all times left a lot to be desired, the options had been gimmicky, and the battery was merely good-enough. On the Pixel 4, the compromises turned an excessive amount of to bear.

But issues is perhaps wanting up. In 2020 Google switched up its technique with the Pixel 4a and 5, and the outcomes had been shockingly good. For one, the design was unbelievable, with a light-weight body, slim bezels, and a textured non-glass again. But the extra attention-grabbing strikes had been contained in the telephone: Google opted for the midrange Snapdragon 765G fairly than the 865, and the Pixel didn’t lose a step. It nonetheless feels speedy, nonetheless delivers the purest Android expertise, and nonetheless takes higher pictures than telephones costing a whole lot of {dollars} extra. It additionally opens up the Pixel to a brand new world of prospects.

Lower-end, higher-class

The Pixel may need been only a gleam in Google’s eye when Android One launched back in 2014, however the two initiatives are reduce from the identical fabric. The imaginative and prescient of Android One was to carry a pure Android expertise to decrease finish telephones that had been usually full of bloatware. The Pixel telephones are principally high-end Android One telephones. Even with higher elements and shows, the main target—and promoting level—is on software program.

Michael Simon/IDG

That software program emphasis, nonetheless, is essentially why the early Pixel telephones didn’t make a lot of an affect. The designs didn’t match the excessive value, particularly when in comparison with equally priced handsets from Apple and Samsung. That’s why the Pixel 3a and 4a have fared better in terms of sales: The decrease costs simply make extra sense.

With the Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and 5, Google is creating a greater steadiness between the {hardware} folks need and the software program they want. With Android One, Google was “working closely with phone and silicon chip makers… to build phones that are not just great to use, but also affordable,” a mantra that has discovered its manner into the 2020 Pixel lineup. It’s greater than only a lower cost level or slower chip. For what looks as if the primary time in a Google telephone, the Pixel 5 is telephone constructed solely to leverage the ability of Android with out worrying about high-end elements and high-priced rivals.

The Pixel 6 may take it even additional. The lineup this yr was a bit of complicated with the $499 Pixel 4a 5G and $699 Pixel 5, particularly as a result of the 4a 5G had an even bigger display than the 5. Google has much more room to develop now that it has established the Pixel as a mid-range machine.

It begins with the processor. While Qualcomm has but to announce the successor to the 765G that powers the Pixel 4a and 5, there have been rumors that Google is working by itself processor. Axios reported earlier this yr that “Google received its first working versions of the chip” and might be prepared by subsequent yr. Axios stories that the chip will “include hardware optimized for Google’s machine-learning technology,” with a part of the chip targeted on “improving the performance and always-on capabilities of Google Assistant.”