Google has unveiled its own smartphone, Pixel

2 months ago

Google has revealed its new own-built smartphone, Pixel, which the tech giant says has been built with artificial intelligence at its centre.

The Pixel has Google Assistant built into its software, the firm’s AI program that is designed to understand context and help with tasks.

The new phone was unveiled at an event in San Francisco, and comes in both a 5in and 5.5in size. It has been billed by Google as housing the “best smartphone camera ever made”, and is the first device to be built to work with Google’s new Daydream virtual reality platform.

Users will be able to access the Assistant AI program from any screen on the device, and it will be able to understand context. When demonstrated on-stage, Pixel was able to find details on a restaurant that was mentioned in a text message conversation – offering contact details, photos and directions.

Google chief Sundar Pichai said the Pixel marked the beginning of a new era in computing and smartphones.

“We’re at a seminal moment in computing,” he said.

“We’ve always had big shifts in computing in every 10 years or so. It began in the 1980s with personal computers. In the 90s the web arrived and it was the biggest platform shift ever.

“10 years later in the mid 2000s, we had the smartphone revolution. Now the shift continues. We are evolving from a mobile first to AI first world.”

As you can probably imagine, people are already pretty keen to get their hands on the new smartphone.