Google announced the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones earlier this month at their fall hardware event in San Francisco, along with a few other devices – Google Home, Google WiFi, Daydream View, to name a few. Today, a number of Pixel and Pixel XL reviews went live, and just about everyone loved the devices that are “Made by Google”. Investors love to see glowing reviews of a company’s new smartphone – or really any product – and thus Alphabet’s stock has skyrocketed. Actually, it hit an all-time high.
At the time of writing this, Alphabet’s stock was at $821 per share. In after hours trading, it may fluctuate a bit more. With the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones due to start hitting doorsteps as soon as Thursday, we could see Alphabet’s stock price skyrocket again as users begin to see just how amazing these new smartphones from Google really are. By contrast, Nexus smartphones that were made by Google’s partners with Google’s own software on-board, never generated this kind of effect on Alphabet (or Google, before Alphabet was established last year), nor did they get unanimous glowing reviews. This means that Google’s new smartphones really are the real deal and may just be worth the extra cash.
The Pixel and Pixel XL are essentially the same smartphone, spec-wise. The only different being the display and battery size. The Pixel sports a 5-inch 1920×1080 resolution display with a 2770mAh battery inside. While the larger Pixel XL has a 5.5-inch 2560×1440 resolution display and a larger 3450mAh battery inside. Otherwise, specs are a Snapdragon 821 processor inside, with 4GB of RAM, the choice of either 32GB or 128GB of storage, along with a 12-megapixel camera on the back and a 8-megapixel front-facing sensor. They both have USB Type-C and also support Quick Charge 3.0. If you didn’t pre-order the Pixel or Pixel XL, there’s still time to do so and get a free Daydream View (which will retail at $79). Currently, the Google Store is showing about 4-5 week wait for both smartphones. It is unlocked, and will work on Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, and any GSM carrier outside of the US.