Google held a massive event yesterday at its Mountain View headquarters. Essentially, it was all about its latest gen Nexus flagships – the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. Apart from these flagships, Google also unveiled two versions of Chromecast along with its first ever laptop-cum-tablet convertible, Pixel C. Hence, there weren’t many surprises in store as most of these devices have already been covered in previous weeks.
Nevertheless, here’s a look at the five devices unveiled at the event, a few among them being a complete surprise.
Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X
Deemed as Google’s ‘most premium phone ever’, the Huawei-made Nexus flagship comes with several upgrades from its previous iteration. It sports an all aluminum metal clad body giving it that premium flagship feel that comes in white, gray and graphite finishes. It also features the new integrated fingerprint sensor on the back called as Nexus Imprint.
The smartphone gets a 5.7 inch AMOLED display with a QHD resolution. Powering the smartphone is a Snapdragon 810 octa-core chipset bundled with 3GB of RAM. The flagship Nexus 6P will be available in three storage variants i.e. 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB, which have been priced at $499, $549 and $649 respectively.
Optics on the smartphone include 12.3 MP rear camera with a 1.55-micron sensor and dual-LED flash along with an 8MP front facing cam, making it highest resolution selfie cam ever seen on a Nexus device. Other notable features include USB Type C connectivity that the company claims can charge the device twice as quickly as the new iPhone, while juicing up the smartphone would be a 3450 mAh battery.
While the successor to highly acclaimed Nexus 5, Google claims that the new Nexus 5X from LG “offers top line performance” at an affordable price point. It gets a 5.2 inch Full HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and runs on the 64-bit Snapdragon 808 hexa-core chipset with 2GB of RAM. The device is now available for pre-order via the Play Store, and has been priced at $379 for the 16GB variant and $429 for the 32GB variant.
Optics include 12.3MP rear camera that also sports a 1.55-micron sensor and also features laser autofocus, along with a 5MP selfie cam is also housed on the front. And just like its larger sibling, the Nexus 5X also gets a fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, along with USB-Type C connectivity.
The Nexus 5X will be available black, white and blue color options.
Chromecast 2
It’s the time to meet the second-gen Chromecast, which sports an entirely revamped design language. The company has ditched the old USB-stick design as it now features a circular body and also comes in multiple color options.
Google claims that the new Chromecast streams high-res content much faster than its previous model, with substantially less buffering. It’ll cast videos in 1080p by default and has new features like universal search in apps, along with improved content discovery and better Wi-Fi strength.
Chromecast Audio
Now this was a surprise that Google had in store for us; a music streaming device called Chromecast Audio. It essentially allows users to stream audio on their speakers via Wi-Fi networks. It can detect devices on the same network and then casts audio from them to speakers. Moreover, the best part is that Spotify has added support for the device, allowing users to stream songs directly via the Spotify app.
Pixel C
And finally the company unveiled its first ever laptop-cum-tablet convertible called the ‘Pixel C,’ which seems to be no slouch either. It gets a 10.2 inch 2560x1800p resolution along with a quad-core Tegra X1 processor bundled with 3GB RAM under the hood. Just like the new Nexus smartphones, the company has used the USB Type-C port in the convertible.
Notably, the device will run on Android and not Chrome OS. The Pixel C has been priced at $499 for the 32GB model while its 64 GB version has been priced at $599. A standalone keyboard will also be available for $149. However, Google has not announced any official release date for the device, though did mention it’ll be available in time for the holiday season.
