A high end smartphone made by Google, designed to compete with the iPhone.
Unfortunately, Google seems to be doing this by copying whatever "courageous" thing Apple did but a year or two later. iPhone removes the
headphone jack in 2016, Pixel in '18. iPhone adds Face ID in '17, Pixel might have it in '19. As you might expect, most people aren't going to buy an iPhone copy when they could buy an actual iPhone for the same price.
Google pushes for two main advantages that it has over it's
competitors:
* The Pixel's camera (Legitimate advantage, but most people the Pixel targets will put filters on their photos or have them compressed to hell regardless of how good the camera is).
* The fact that it uses stock Android (Not applicable to about 95% of the people Google is targeting).
Design and feature wise, the Pixel is behind most of it's
competitors. Put a Galaxy Note or a high end OnePlus or Huawei next to the Pixel, and you'll see the latter looks objectively blander and less premium than the more ostentatious competitors. When it comes to software, the Pixels often lack features that the competitors have had already (facial recognition, dark mode, SD card slot, dual/triple cameras).
All of this being said, the Pixels could have sold decently if they were marketed towards the tech enthusiasts rather than a mainstream audience. Google's old Nexus phone managed to have some appeal with that crowd. But with the Pixel, they're stuck in an
uncomfortable middle ground.
Person A: I have a Galaxy S10
Person B: I have an
iPhone X
Pixel owner: I have a Google Pixel.
Person A & B: Dude, wtf is that thing? Looks like an iPhone copy.
Pixel owner: My Pixel is
better than your rubbish Samsung.
Tech head: That thing doesn't even have expandable storage,a wideangle or telephoto camera, or dark mode. The gesture
navigation it forces you to use is also dog shit, and it's got a ton of software bugs as well. And it costs $900?
Pixel owner: bUt mUh uPdAtEs
