Google has now officially announced their brand-new Pixel smartphone and will be offering the device in the near future. Prior rumors had pegged the phone as being available starting at $649, and today’s announcements have confirmed that the cost will be set at this price for the base model, which will include 32GB of internal storage. Just as with Google’s Nexus devices the past few years, Google will be selling the Pixel directly through the Google Store where they also sell the rest of their devices. Although the phone will not be launching today, Google is making pre-orders available today now that the announcement is official.
In addition to selling the Pixel on the Google Store, rumors had suggested this year that Sprint would be selling the phone as well, although at the time the Pixel was still being referred to by its codename (Sailfish) and was still thought to be a Nexus device. More recent rumors had suggested that Verizon may be the exclusive carrier for the Pixel and Pixel XL, and following today’s announcement as well as a leak from over the weekend that Bell customers would be able to order the device, it’s now known that Google will be selling the phones through the Google Store unlocked, and will also be partnering with various international carriers to sell the phones in retail stores, and when it comes to US carrier you’ll be able to buy it exclusively from Verizon, or through Project Fi, as well as at retailers like Best Buy.
This is a bit different from the way that Google has done things with last year’s Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, both of which were not available at any carriers. The Pixel will come equipped with a 5-inch Full HD display as well as a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor, paired with 4GB of RAM, and either 32GB or 128GB of storage. The Pixel will also have a 12.3MP rear-facing camera as well as an 8MP front-facing camera for selfies and video chat, a fingerprint sensor on the back, and it comes running on Android 7.1 Nougat. It will also come in three colors, which includes Quite Black, Very Silver, and the limited edition Really Blue.