Google Pixel 3 event: all of the latest news

If you want to buy the Google Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL without paying full price, trading in your old Pixel is a smart way to do that. But to get the most value out of your phone, you should trade it in sooner rather than later. Once Google’s next phone is in the wild, the value of your older Google Pixel 1, 2, or 3 will greatly diminish.

Now that the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL have been announced, many will decide whether they’ll go for the latest model or buy a lightly used phone from an older generation that will suit their needs without breaking the bank. If you’ve got an older Pixel model and are ready for an upgrade, here are a few steps to take in order to get your device ready to sell, followed by how much cash you can expect to earn back.

The Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL are both now available. As far as where you’ll be able to get Google’s 2018 flagship smartphone, availability is much more limited compared to the likes of Samsung or Apple’s products. That’s because Verizon, for the third year running, is Google’s exclusive carrier partner for the Pixel 3 series. And it’s celebrating the occasion in a strange way: by charging customers $30 more for the Pixel 3 XL than other retailers.

Verizon has a lock on selling Google’s phone, so if you were hoping for the usual battle between US carriers to secure the best upfront offer for customers, that won’t be happening. However, the device itself will be unlocked to work with other major carriers like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and most MVNOs. Additionally, Google, Target and Best Buy will be selling the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. So here’s more information on how much the new Pixel device will cost you at the stores you can buy from.

When Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh introduced the Pixel 3 last week, he didn’t utter the word “Android” a single time. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are Google phones. They swim in a sea of Google data and promise to use Google’s machine learning to make everything better: photos, annoying spam calls, even your “digital wellbeing.”

Google’s hardware division isn’t three years old yet, but the Pixel 3 is the third revision of its own smartphone. Google making its own hardware is no longer a novelty, and at this point, there’s been enough time for us to get a sense of its priorities and design.

Google’s Pixel Slate is the company’s first Chrome OS tablet, offered as an alternative to the more expensive Pixelbook. Like the Surface Pro 6 and iPad Pro, the Pixel Slate has more than enough power to help you do a multitude of things, both work and play. And like its competitors, it doesn’t come with a keyboard included.

For those looking for a versatile tablet with a pixel-dense display, your decision just got a bit tougher. Microsoft’s latest machine is the undisputed champion when it comes to including loads of ports, while the iPad Pro is a powerful tablet that meshes well with your other iOS or macOS devices. The newly announced Pixel Slate also has a few standout features from the rest, including front-facing speakers and a 3:2 aspect ratio display.

Like a flock of migrating birds, smartphone makers tend to move from one new trend to the next in groups. One moment, you have an aluminum iPhone 6S with a headphone jack and no notch, and the next, you’re watching the phone market become overrun with iPhone X clones that omit the jack, embrace the notch, and ditch the metal. The last major name still standing by aluminum as its construction material of choice was Google, and that laggard behavior was corrected yesterday with the launch of the all-glass Pixel 3 and 3 XL. Now, the aluminum flagship phone is well and truly dead.

The very first aluminum smartphones to make their way onto the market came almost a decade ago. They were the HTC Legend and Nokia N8 in 2010. HTC was especially bold in crafting a literal unibody shell for its phone, emulating Apple’s celebrated MacBook Pro design of that time. It left only a couple of small rubber sections on the back of the device to let wireless radios work and to give users access to the battery, SIM card tray, and memory card slot. Yes, we used to have all these things. The Legend also had some features we no longer miss, such as an optical trackpad, a set of awkward physical buttons, and a massive “chin” at the bottom. As to Nokia, its anodized-aluminum N8 and E7 phones from that era still stand as iconic designs, the latter of which also had a physical keyboard that popped out with a violent mechanical snap.

Google’s new Home Hub is the latest smart display to hit the market, but it’s not quite like the rest. One of the key differences with Google’s product is that it lacks a camera, removing any possibility of engaging in a video call with friends or family. (I think I just heard Lenovo and JBL collectively sigh in relief that Google isn’t about to totally eat their lunch.)

Putting aside the Home Hub’s lack of a camera, its closest competitor is the Amazon Echo Show. Powered by Alexa, Amazon’s smart display aims to answer all of your queries, connect your streaming services, and seamlessly corral all of your smart home technology. Much of the decision comes down to the services that you’re embedded in. Do you love Prime Video and absolutely need to video chat? Or, well, do you want YouTube access? (The good kind, not the roundabout mobile site version of YouTube.)

With a price of $799, Google’s Pixel 3 is $150 more expensive than the Pixel 2 was at launch. The 3 XL, at $899, is $50 pricier than last year’s bigger model. These aren’t the most expensive smartphones out there — Apple and Samsung go way higher — but it’s a price bump that many people are disappointed by, particularly when some Android phone makers like OnePlus are offering several pieces of the Pixel 3’s core hardware in products that cost significantly less.

Now, specs aren’t everything. The Pixel 3 will feature a spectacular camera and, like its predecessors, will get Android updates first. Google will support it with updates for three years after release, which is a longer commitment to new features and security patches than many of its Android partners will manage. (Hi, Samsung.)

Now that the October Pixel event has wrapped up, we’ve seen all the new flagship phones coming out from Google, Apple, and Samsung this year. The much-leaked Google Pixel 3 still had some surprises, like Google spam call screening transcription and improved AI photo capabilities on top of an already great camera. Some of the new features Google introduced today are completely exclusive to the Pixel line, while others are features we’ve seen before on other phones.

Take for example, Top Shot, a new Pixel 3 feature that uses AI to automatically pick out the best frame from the moment a photo was taken. Apple’s Live Photos does a similar thing, saving the moments a photo is taken and letting you manually choose which frame you want to keep. The iPhone’s photo burst mode does this as well when you hold down the shutter to take multiple photos, but the AI will choose what it thinks is the best photo for you.

Months of leaks were finally confirmed at the Pixel 3 event today in New York City where Google just unveiled its newest flagship Android phone and a few new devices, including the Pixel Slate and Google Home Hub. Unlike a typical Google event, the company announced its new lineup at the top of the hour and made the products immediately available for preorder before the event even concluded. Here’s all the biggest news that was announced today.

The Pixel 3 and 3 XL are pretty much what we expected: the 3 is a 5.5-inch device, and the 3 XL is a 6.3-inch device. Unlike other smartphones on the market, the Pixel 3 and 3 XL retain only a single camera in the rear; instead, they have dual front-facing cameras for wide angle selfies.

It seems to be smart display season: Amazon just updated the Echo Show, Facebook showed off its new Portal system yesterday, and now Google has just announced that it’s getting in on the game with the Google Assistant-powered Home Hub.

I just spent some time with the Home Hub, and it’s much smaller than you would expect from the 7-inch display size. It looks like nothing more than a tiny floating tablet on a cloth-covered stand. That display has something called Ambient EQ, which automatically adjusts to the light in the room to look more natural. In a quick demo under color-changing Hue lights, it worked well, quickly changing to look like a print photo under the same conditions.

Google announced a rebranding of its augmented reality stickers feature today, with the name changing officially to Playground as part of the Pixel 3 hardware event that just wrapped in New York City. Playground will now exist as a special mode within the Pixel camera, and it will algorithmically suggest new AR animations to fit the scene you’re in, regardless of whether you’re using the front- or rear-facing lenses. In addition to the rebranding, Google is launching four new packs of these AR animations and fittingly calling them “Playmoji.”

Initially announced last fall as AR Stickers, these virtual animations were similar to the lenses and filters that Snapchat popularized a few years back. But a key difference is that these are entirely in 3D and are deployed with a much smarter sense of spatial and object recognition, thanks to Google’s advances in artificial intelligence. Google launched Strangers Things stickers, as well as a pack for Star Wars during The Last Jedi theatrical run late last year.

It’s been three years since Google last refreshed the Chromecast, and today the tried-and-true streaming dongle is finally getting an update. The new, third-generation Chromecast has an updated design, trading in the glossy colors and Chrome logo for a matte black finish and Google’s trademark G. But more importantly, it’s also getting some small tech and feature improvements.

Google says the new Chromecast is 15 percent faster, which isn’t much, but is apparently enough to add support for streaming 60fps video at 1080p, instead of 720p like last generation. This Chromecast is also getting the ability to act like a Chromecast Audio and let you play music in sync with other speakers connected to Google’s smart devices; that feature won’t launch until later this year, however.

Google just got done announcing its Pixel 3 and 3 XL smartphones, and although we’ve seen them leaked repeatedly over the last couple months, we’re finally getting an up-close look and the chance to try them firsthand. Just how much does that notch on the XL stand out? Have the screens improved? How does the matte glass on the back feel compared to the aluminum on the older Pixels?

These phones feel significantly more premium than last year’s Pixel 2. Moving to a glass front and back gives them a much higher-quality look and feel overall. The glass on the rear is a single pane, with the matte finish sort of sanded in the bottom half. It does mean, however, that these phones are slightly heavier than the previous generation.

Google is taking a more global approach to the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL launch, announcing that it will now offer its new phones in 13 countries, including Japan, Ireland, Taiwan, and France. This builds on the rather small list of countries where Google’s Pixel 2 saw official release, which comprised of US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, and Singapore.

Now in its third generation, Google has been quite slow to bring its flagship smartphones to a wider audience, especially considering how easy it is to find a competing devices practically anywhere you live. For example, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max launched in more than 25 countries. Still, Google’s spread to more countries will give Android users more choice than before.

Google didn’t mention its Pixel Buds at its annual hardware event, but it did announce a new pair of USB-C headphones. The company also didn’t mention these, but it did update its product page. The earbuds will cost $30 and are available to buy now. They’re only available in white.

The earbuds feature the same fit mechanism as the Pixel Buds. They include fabric loops that can be adjusted to fit in each ear. The earbuds also include a button that can be activated to access the Google Assistant, hear notifications, or try real-time Google Translate translations.

Google’s not the only one introducing products today. Xiaomi introduced the Mi Box S, an updated version of its streaming player during Google’s annual hardware event today. The streaming device will be available in the US through Walmart.com, with preorders starting on October 9th and shipping on October 19th for $59.99. It’ll come with both the player and a battery-operated remote.

Of course, because this announcement comes during Google’s event, the Mi Box features lots of Google’s products, including built-in Google Assistant and Chromecast features, so you can cast through your device while also using voice commands. It supports 4K HDR at 60fps, as well as Dolby DTS audio. Specs-wise it comes with a quad-core CPU with a multi-core GPU, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.2, one HDMI 2.0A port, one audio out port, a USB 2.0 port, and a power interface. Like prior versions, it runs the latest version of Android TV.

The big selling point for the Pixel phones has always been the camera, and Google knows it. At the unveiling of the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL today, the search giant showed off a bunch of new photography features and one big get: a partnership with Annie Leibovitz.

Google noted during its presentation that it’s the first time Leibovitz, a legendary portrait photographer, has teamed up with any specific camera (or phone). But it isn’t the first time she’s endorsed one. Back in 2011, Leibovitz said the iPhone 4s was her “snapshot camera” of choice, praising it as “so accessible and easy.”

Google has announced that Duplex — the incredible AI system that allows Google Assistant to make real world calls on users’ behalf for things like restaurant reservations — will be available starting next month on a city-by-city basis for Google Pixel users, with Wired reporting that the service is planned to hit New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Francisco by the end of this year.

First announced at Google I/O earlier this year, Duplex uses an incredibly, almost uncannily natural-sounding human voice, complete with with “umms” and “ahhs,” to intelligently handle real-world tasks for you that Google Assistant otherwise couldn’t manage through the internet.

Google’s third-generation of Pixel phones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, are now available for preorder. The span of time between preorder and shipment date is short and sweet, with Google aiming to get the new gear into hands shortly after October 18th when preorders ship.

The thing is, whether it can stick to that date is anyone’s guess — especially considering the Pixel 2’s dismal stock situation in 2017. Just three hours following their announcement in 2017, much of the stock faced delays from two weeks up to six or seven weeks on certain models, while others were completely out of stock for weeks at a time.

iGoogle is finally ready to get back into tablets, only this time it’s with an operating system that’s up to the task. The Google Pixel Slate it announced today will run Chrome OS, which has matured enough over the past few years to work better on tablets. This won’t be the first Chrome OS tablet, but it will be the first one that can legitimately attempt to compete with the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro.

The Pixel Slate starts at $599, runs up to $1,699, and asks you to pay extra for a keyboard. It’s more expensive than most tablets because it essentially has the guts of a computer, including an Intel processor.

The Pixel 3 will be able to screen spam calls and provide real-time transcriptions, Google announced during its Pixel 3 event today. The new feature will allow Google Assistant to answer a suspected spam call and then transcribe the response in real time, letting users decide whether to answer the call, end it early, or block the number entirely and report it as spam.

When you tap the “screen call” button, Google Assistant will alert the caller that you are “using a screening service from Google” and that you will get a copy of this conversation. It will ask them to state their name and reason for calling, which will then be relayed to you in real time.

Google’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones were just unveiled this morning at an event in New York City. As expected, both phones are coming with a near-identical set of front-facing and rear-facing cameras that are powered by artificial intelligence. That allows them to do all sorts of algorithmic work behind the scenes, all powered by what Google calls its new Pixel Visual Core chip.

Among the new AI features built into the Pixel 3 camera are two new shooting modes called Top Shot and Photobooth. Top Shot uses Google’s work in image and object recognition and computer vision to analyze photos and pick the best shots in a given batch. With Top Shot, you’ll be able to capture a number of photos before and after the moment you press the virtual shutter button, while the software will pick out the best shot.

Google’s new Pixel Stand will let you charge your phone wirelessly while it stands in portrait or landscape mode. The company announced the product today at its annual fall hardware event in New York City. It’ll cost $79 and is available to preorder now. The Pixel 3 phone will be released on October 18th; it’s unclear whether the Stand will ship then, too. The dock is powered over USB-C, supports fast charging, and can charge any Qi-compatible device.

It automatically adjusts the phone’s UI and switches the phone into Do Not Disturb mode when it’s docked at night. Generally, it’s designed to be placed next to Pixel phone owners’ beds to serve as a do-it-all-device, providing weather, traffic, and calendar info, as well as a special alarm that mimics sunlight.

Google is taking another shot at a Pixel tablet, with a high-end detachable meant to rival the iPad Pro and Surface Pro. The Pixel Slate is a Chrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboard cover that turns it into something very closely resembling a laptop. It can get fairly high-end, too, with 8th Gen Intel processors on the inside that go up to a Core i7 paired with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

The tablet has front-firing stereo speakers, 8-megapixel front and rear cameras, and a 12.3-inch screen that Google says is faster and more efficient than a traditional LCD. It also includes a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, which is a first for a Chromebook. Google product director Trond Wuellner said the Pixel Slate will deliver “a modern computing experience.”