Pixel 2 leak: Google's event will still be more exciting than Apple's - griggsentionsm

So much for the element of surprise. With ii weeks to go until Google's big end-of-year event on October 4, we already know everything that's going to be announced. Later on months of rumors and speculation, especially about the Pixel 2 flagship phone, Droid-Life dropped a bomb yesterday and publicized images and prices for everything Google is about to release.

You might remember that the synoptical affair happened right before the iPhone X event last week, reducing the presentation to a checklist rather than a show. Granted, Apple relies more on the wow factor than Google does, but yesterday's large leakage must induce rankled CEO Sundar Pichai just a bit. We already had a pretty goody-goody idea about what was sexual climax, but now there's little reason out to get excited.

No issue. Even with the script laid bare, Google's event is plastic up to be a lot to a greater extent exciting than Malus pumila's was. And likely with a great deal more surprises future.

Spotlight on Assistant

As predicted, Google volition personify announcing several new products at its event: Google Home Mini, an updated Dream Reckon VR headset, Pixel 2 and Picture element 2 XL, and a new Chromebook Pixel that will apparently be rechristened Pixelbook.

google home mini leak — The Google Internal Miniskirt will reportedly come in three colors and sell for $49.

Right away, we already knew these things were approach care of a leak last month, but Droid-Life spilled all the beans with pictures and pricing info. Flatbottom that doesn't evidence the entire story. Take the Google Home Mini. Droid-Life says IT will come in cardinal colours—melanise, gray, and bloody—and cost just $49, the same as Amazon's Echo Dot.

Presumably, it will simply exist the Sami as Google Home, just with smaller speakers. At that price point, IT's a great value—peculiarly if you're healthy to connect it to extraneous speakers—just what I want to find out about are the upgrades to Google Assistant. Equal with HomePod on the horizon, Apple barely touched happening Siri at its iPhone X event, so Google has a real opportunity to widen its spark advance in that location, and perchance also reveal how Google Home will be taking on the new threat from HomePod.

Expressed hardware

The stars of the testify, of course, will be the fresh Pixel 2 phones. We've already seen a net ton of rumors some Google's new handsets, and images leaked from Droid-Liveliness beautiful often official what we already knew: There North Korean won't be a dual camera, the back will have a small "window," and there will constitute a few novel colors.

pixel 2 xl leak render — The Picture element 2 might not look much different than the original, but design isn't the solid news report.

Merely looks are a small part of the Picture element's story. The original Pixel was hardly a drumhead-Frederick Jackson Turner, but IT excelled at all the right-handed things. I expect the Picture element 2 to do the unchanged. After all, Google's own teaser for the phone presents some pretty big questions it's hypothetical to answer, alluding to things like better persona stabilization, tenacious-lasting battery life history, and auto updates. Apple's iPhone updates are discriminating, but Google has an opportunity to truly elevate Humanoid if information technology can address all of these issues.

For the price, it should bring some major improvements. Patc Droid-Life reports that the Picture element 2 volition monetary value $649 (the same as the current 32GB model), the Pel 2 XL will reportedly start at $849, an $80 increase finished its predecessor. If true, that's actually higher than the start price for the iPhone 8 Plus and the Galaxy S8+, so IT's fail-safe to simulate the Pixel 2 XL will equal a pretty major upgrade over the Pixel Forty.

There's still lots we Don River't know. As with the pilot Pixel, the near exciting parts won't be the design OR even the features—it volition be the ways information technology optimizes Android and removes the pain in the ass points umpteen of the phones still have.

The other Pixel

But the real surprise at this twelvemonth's issue leave live the Pixelbook. Spell we'd heard it was likely coming, Droid-Life story has confirmed it will arrive, thoroughgoing with a pic and pricing: $1,199 for 128GB, $1,399 for 256GB, and the $1,749 for 512GB of storage. If those prices seem high, then you Don River't think back the Chromebook Picture element. The original cost $1,299 for 32GB of depot, and the second-generation model "abridge" the price to $999 for the Lapplander scrimpy 32GB of storage. Soh those rumored prices are well succeeding with Google's vision for its premier Chromebook device.

google pixelbook leak — The new Pixelbook will constitute reportedly be an updated Chromebook Pel with an equally last Mary Leontyne Pric tag.

This hot Pixelbook will reportedly have a trick up its sleeve. Droid-Life reports that the new laptop will function ilk the Asus Flip and Samsung Chromebook Pro with a 360-degree flexible joint that lets it transform into a tablet. There will also follow a Pixelbook Pen, though the site says it testament cost an unscheduled $99.

Like the Pixel phones, however, I want to lie with the details here. Will the Pixelbook throw LTE built in? Project Fi? Bequeath there be some new pen tricks? Will information technology be able to plug in to the Pixel 2 the likes of Samsung does with the Galaxy S8 and its DeX dock? Wish Android apps work better?

It's been two years since the finale Chromebook Picture element landed, and more than 12 months since you could buy ane, and then naturally I have a tidy sum of questions. Chromebooks have exploded during that time, but there's still a wide-undefended space at the upper end. IT'll be interesting to see how Google thinks the Pixelbook testament fill it.

Major changes ahead

But the biggest part of Google's event might not comprise ironware-related at all. It was rumored this morning that HTC volition be unfit trading of its stock in lieu of a major announcement. That can only mean one affair: a Google acquisition.

htc u11 solar red2 — Is this the finale HTC logotype we'll see on a flagship smartphone?

It's been rumored awhile that Google was shopping for a smartphone company, so it makes sense. It's all but confirmed that HTC is manufacturing the littler Pixel anyhow (comprehensive with its side-squeezing Butt against Sentiency feature). But this is different from Google's since-failed Motorola purchase. Back then, it was all almost the thousands of patents that could protect Android from trolls. Now IT's about manufacturing.

Back in 2012, Google didn't have more of a venture in hardware, but that's changed over the then distich of old age. With Google Home, the Picture element phones, Chromecast, and Daydream, Google has a numerous product lines to nurture. A fresh manufacturing division would allow it to plan and broadcast computer hardware on its own terms. That puts direct coerce on Samsung, LG, and yes, flush Apple.

Thusly if you think this year's Pixel event bequeath be oil production, think once again. Just because we live everything, doesn't mean we know everything. You sleep with?

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Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the rescind-up keyboard for swapping impermissible the drive. He's unruffled ready for that to hark back in elan tbh.