Recap: Here’s all the new hardware Google announced this week

Google’s yearly hardware event launch is now over and Google’s Pixel brand of devices has now expanded. There have been a couple of big announcements. In case you have missed these, here’s a quick recap about all the releases this week.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

The most anticipated release in the event was of these two phones. The Pixel 2 is a flagship device in all aspects. It features the Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and a base 64GB storage option. As far as the camera goes, both the devices have the same sensor and have a 12.2MP, single-lens rear camera with a f/1.8 aperture.

Pixel 2 (left) and Pixel 2 XL (right)

While Google says that they “don’t save any features for the bigger phone,” there are a few differences. The smaller Pixel has an FHD OLED display, whereas the larger one sports QHD with a P-OLED display. When it comes to color choices, the smaller one has more options—kinda blue, just black, and clearly white. The 2 XL has curved glass and an 18:9 aspect ratio. It comes in two colors—just black, and black and white.

There is no headphone jack on either of these two devices. Both the phones are rated at IP67 which means that they are water and dirt resistant. Both of these come with a redesigned Google launcher, with the search bat at the bottom. There is also always-on music detection. Google has also added a “smart squeeze” feature in order to trigger the Google assistant.

While there is only one camera lens on the back, Google uses computational photography to create portrait mode shots from both the front and back cameras of these devices. DxoMark even rated the Pixel an “unprecedented score of 98,” the highest score given, but that’s that if you choose to believe it or not from them.

Google Pixel 2 starts at $649 while the Google Pixel 2 XL starts at $849. You can purchase them both from the Google Store here.

https://youtu.be/zpLVsR8cSFo

Google Home Mini

The Google Home Mini is the prime competitor of Amazon’s Alexa Dot. It is priced at a pretty reasonable $49, the same as it’s rival. Made of fabric, there is a very slight amount of light that passes through it. It comes in three colors—coral, chalk, and charcoal.

The primary aim of such a device is to ensure the presence of an assistant device in every room of your house. One of the greatest features of this device is that you can ask it to find your phone, and it triggers an alarm on your Android device or calls you up on your iPhone.

You can purchase it from the Google Store here.

Google Home Max

An enthusiast level speaker, the Google Home Max is one of the first speakers that uses Machine Learning and AI to predict the surrounding region of the speaker and change accordingly. This is in direct competition to Apple’s unreleased Homepod speaker. The Home Max features the same fabric that is found on the Google Mini. When it comes to the insides of this device, there are dual 4.5-inch high-excursion woofers, custom 0.7-inch tweeters, and an acoustic brace on it.

One of the great things about the Home Max is that unlike the Apple ones, which are only compatible with Apple Music, these will be compatible with a variety of streaming services such as Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, and others.

Max retails for $399 and you can purchase it from the Google Store here when it goes live.

Google Pixelbook

At 10.3 mm thin, Google claims that the Pixelbook is the thinnest as well as the lightest laptop in the world. The Pixelbook sports Chrome OS, a web-browser based OS which is popular in schools and is generally meant to run on low-end hardware.

The Pixelbook starts at $999 for a 12.3-inch 2400×1600 3:2 display with an Intel Kaby Lake Core i5, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a backlit keyboard. You can upgrade to a 256GB SSD for $1,199, or you can jump up all the way to a Core i7, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD for a whopping $1,699. The hinge folds all the way around, allowing the Pixelbook to work in “laptop,” “tent,” and “tablet” modes.

You can purchase it from the Google Store here.

Google Pixel Buds

The Google Pixel Buds are the SF-based company’s attempt to build an AirPod like device for the Google Pixel 2. These are connected by a cord, unlike the AirPods. They also boast Google smarts such as the Google Assistant and can live translate for you in over 40 different languages.

These are expected to last you 5 hours on a single charge, which is standard for devices like this.

They are priced at $159 and you can purchase them from the Google Store here.

Google Clips

Priced at $249, this smart camera can help you capture events that occur spontaneously. This camera is supposed to make you not worry about capturing the precious moments in your life but actually enjoying them.

Of course, this devices are also equipped with the same machine learning technology present on the other devices that Google announced. It can detect faces, things, and places. These are compatible with phones having Android 7/0+ only. The Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8 are the only ones listed as compatible for now.

The camera has a wide, 130-degree field of view, records video at 15fps, and has 16GB of internal storage. It will last for three hours on a single charge.

When live, they will be available on the Google Store here.

https://youtu.be/JXh1yyvXpwo

New Daydream View

Also announced, but lightly brushed on at the event, was the new Daydream View: Google’s own in-house VR headset for its Daydream platform. Not a whole lot has changed since last year’s model, but it now has a wider field of view and a slightly revamped design.

They also got a price bump up to $99 and are sold on the Google Store here.

https://youtu.be/PNBL2DpB1YE

Google has the stream of the full event on YouTube if you missed it, but if you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, they also published a short, 3-minute video touching on the highlights of the event. Both videos are linked below.