Google has launched a raft of new products including the latest generation of the Pixel phone, two additional Home speakers and a high-end Pixelbook, a laptop and tablet hybrid.

The Pixel 2 is designed to showcase the best of Google’s Android Oreo software, and boasts features such as a squeezable body that can be used to summon Google Assistant, an always-on screen that can detect any song being played within earshot, and Google Lens, a smart camera that allows users to search the real world using image recognition. The Pixel 2 also has an edge-to-edge screen, no headphone jack and a red power button. Google claimed the Pixel 2 also had the best camera of any smartphone, a significant improvement on the widely-acclaimed camera on last year’s Pixel.

The Pixel 2 phones are water resistant, feature super-fast charging, and have unlimited online photo storage.

To go with the Pixel 2 phone, Google revealed a new pair of wireless headphones called the Pixel Buds and the Clips miniature camera.

The company also unveiled two new versions of the Google Home, its voice-activated smart speaker that rivals Amazon’s Echo. The Google Home Mini is a smaller and cheaper circular speaker, while the Google Home Max is a more expensive model boasting superior sound quality.

Finally, the company unveiled the Pixelbook, a touchscreen laptop with a curved hinge that allows it to be used as a tablet.

Google said the 5-inch Pixel would cost $649 and be released on October 19, and the Pixel 2 would cost $849 and be released on November 15.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/10/04/google-pixel-2-launch-live-updates-new-phones-smart-speaker/

Pretty great improvements from the original Pixel all around but I gotta hand it to Samsung. They hit a home run with the look of the Galaxy S8. Not only does that phone look a generation ahead compared to both the Pixel XL and the iphone X but it also doesn't cost $1000 even at launch.

Hopefully for the next generation of Pixel and iPhone devices, all models will have slim Bezels cause saving that for the "premium" model is nonsense.

Oh and boo, they removed the headphone jack.

All in all, pixel 2 is looking to be a pretty good phone

Yet again I'm torn about jumping on some of these products or waiting another year. Stuff I like, stuff I don't. I'll probably at least get the Home Mini to give Google Assistant a try. Real time translation is cool as shit though, even if it's still not perfect and I don't travel abroad much anyway.

Don't necessarily care about the removal of the headphone jack. My probably is less number of ports. If you whittle it down to one port you start to lose options. What if I want to charge the phone, and listen to music on wired headphones, and maybe output video to external video?

These are somewhat powerful computing devices. Unless the Pixel 2 is capable of charging _and_ doing enough input/output through that one port to do multiple things it just doesn't seem good enough.

No outcry about the Chromebook and the wireless headphones price? The lack of a headphone jack?

With that said, the original Pixel was only popular among tech enthusiasts and I don't see the trend changing with Pixel 2. Google has to outdo Samsung to be taken seriously in the Android space. They had a shot last year when the Note 7 bombed everywhere, but this year, the much cheaper S8 is as good as the Note 8. Not to mention, even LG is offering two amazingly well-built phones.

I'm really disappointed in the Pixel 2. I wanted to go away from Samsung but it turns out they're still the only ones that can build proper smartphones these days.

I don't know how they managed to have a smaller battery in the 6" Pixel 2 than I have in my ancient 5.5" S7 Edge. And as much as I love to waste money I just can't justify paying 1000€ for a phone without wireless charging or expandable storage.