I cannot believe that is has already been exactly one year since the 2016 #MadeByGoogle event, and now we have another. Google was expanding it's hardware at this event today, similar to last year, but this time more in Google style.
First of all, let's start small with the brand new Google Home Mini. This device is a smaller and more flat version of the original Google Home. Although it definitely looks different, it shares the same design as the base of the original Home. This is made to be used for all sorts of activities, such as replacing your TV remote oralarm clock. It will retail for a lot less than the original, at $49.99 at all major retailers. This is putting it to compete with similar devices, like the Amazon Echo Dot.
To max things up, we have the Google Home Max. These act more like high quality stereo speakers than the smart speakers you're used to seeing. It definitely resembles the original Home, and matches the smaller Home Mini. Like the others in the Home family, it has Google Assistant built right in. You can still ask it to do stuff, such as turn off the lights, but it is meant to be your one-stop device for your audio needs. Similar the Apple HomePod, it can measure out your room to better match you. Google Cast is finally built in, so you don't need to buy a separate Chromecast Audio for it.
Like to travel? The Google Pixel Buds got your back, or should I say ears. These are Google Assistant enabled wireless Bluetooth ear buds. These allow you to ask the Assistant to do tasks, just like you would normally do on your device, just by holding down. As simple as that, and they work. Of course, you can still listen to your music, as always. I nicely designed case comes with it to charge up your ear buds as well. It is very impressive, with how much complex technology is put into these simplistic devices. For Pixel owners, these even allow you to translate in real time! This means they can listen to what others have to say, and translate it for you, then you can have it respond back. Google is really investing in audio this year.
Looking back at photos in your photobooks at old memories really makes you remember old times. Although a big issue is that the person taking the picture isn't seen, and it is almost pure luck to take a picture at the right time. Well, both of those issues are resolved with the Google Clips. This is a dedicated camera, with built in artificial intelligence to take the shots for you, literally. You just clip it onto an object, and it will watch the scene for you, and take pictures or videos at the appropriate times. Then from your phone, you can see pictures or video clips from Google Photos, just like that. It is a miniature device with humongous potential. Google has outdone themselves on this one.
Remember when we first saw the Pixel branding, on the Chromebook Pixel in 2013, then in 2015 with the second generation, before discontinuing the series last year? Well, now the Google Pixelbook is the Chromebook of the future. Like its predecessors, it is very premium in design, and contains some of the highest specs you ever need to have on a Chromebook. This version is a huge revision of the the Chromebook Pixel line, and although it got rid of features we love, like the lightbar, it makes up it by having a unique device fit to current Google hardware. Google Assistant is now coming to Chromebooks, at least this one, and even has a dedicated key for it on the physical keyboard. The way Google is describing it's innovation, it is either a laptop or tablet, whichever one you feel the most comfortable with. The device definitely turns a new page on what Google can do. In a way, you can call this a a successor to both the Chromebook Pixel and the Pixel C tablet, in a marriage with the current Google design.
No tablet is set without it's pen, and the same can be said with the Pixelbook and the Pixelbook Pen. The Pen is what you would expect an interactive pen to be on a tablet or laptop. It allows you to take notes on the device while it is in tablet mode, and also gives you a nice stylus for when you want to just tap the screen. However, there's also a button, and whatever you circle, Google Assistant can help out with. It corresponds to the touchscreen smoothly, as it it pressure sensitive, and allows you to tilt the pen to make more natural markings on your screen.
The Daydream just got better. The Daydream View of last year now has been modified for this year. Not only does it work with the Pixel series, it also works with other wonderful devices like the LG V30 and Samsung Galaxy S8. Support for IMAX is now included, so you can watch videos just like you would in the theater. Now it has a more wider screen than before, and your experience can also be casted to your Chromecast as well, so others can see what you do. The colors and fabrics have also been updated to match other Google hardware better, and be more comfortable.
Now, what has been waited for since last year, the all-new phones. These include the premium smartphone, Google Pixel 2, and the ultra premium phablet, the Google Pixel 2 XL. Last year, Google's big selling feature was it had the highest rated camera, by DxOMark, at 89. This device topped it, as well as the HTC U11 which also topped the original Pixel, making the highest ever score at 96! Everyone has been moving to adding dual cameras over the last year or so, usually to add portrait mode functionality. So that's what Google did, without the dual camera part. Google used it's smarts to implement the portrait mode feature into it's device's rear camera, without a secondary telefoto lens. Both devices brought back the signature front facing speakers found on HTC and later Google Nexus devices. The Pixel 2 is similar to the original as far as design goes, while the Pixel 2 XL incorporates the almost bezeless display. The contract manufacturer of the standard Pixel 2 is HTC Corporation, once more, while the XL variant is from LG Electronics. Edge Sense may be another one of those great innovations from HTC which becomes a revolutionary standard, as Smart Edge is now a feature in both of the Pixels.
Google has been taking it's hardware to the next level lately, and it is just getting better and better. We have gone from the collaboration-born HTC Dream, to the partner-based Nexus line, and now the Made By Google Pixel series. Also, early next year Google is completing it's acquisition of a chunk of HTC for $1.1 billion, to create a dedicated hardware division of Google. Only time can tell what Google has in store for it's future in consumer hardware.
