Today is the day you’ve been waiting for, Android fans. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and several of his fellow executives will take the stage Tuesday morning to host what is shaping up to be one of the biggest Google product announcements in history. We all know Google plans to unveil two new smartphones called the Pixel and Pixel XL during its press conference on Tuesday, and we’ve seen leaks covering just about everything there is to know about them. These new phones are nothing like Google’s earlier Nexus-brand devices though, and they’ll combine with several other products unveiled on Tuesday to give the world a preview of a major strategic shift Google is making right now.
Google’s huge event is about to begin, and you can watch all the action unfold live right here in this post.
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Apple’s big iPhone 7 unveiling took place last month, and the phones are still in short supply nearly three weeks after their release. There is indeed still plenty of hype surrounding Apple’s latest and greatest, but Google will look to steal as much of Apple’s thunder as it can with two sleek new smartphones of its own.
As we’ve learned from countless leaks, the new Pixel phone and Pixel XL phablet are going to be premium flagship smartphones with high-end specs. A last-minute leak suggests they’re going to sport hefty price tags as well. According to rumors, the new Google phones will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB or 128GB of storage, a 12-megapixel rear camera with OIS, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and Android 7.1 Nougat. The phones will also pack “Google Magic,” though we don’t yet know what that is.
The smaller Pixel is expected to feature a 5-inch 1080p display while the larger model will likely be equipped with a 5.5-inch 2K display.
Beyond its new Pixel phones, Google is expected to make several other hardware announcements as well as a big software announcement. On the hardware side of things, we’re expecting more details such as pricing and a release date for Google’s Amazon Echo competitor called Google Home. Google is also expected to announce a next-generation Wi-Fi router to replace the OnHub, a new Chromecast dongle with 4K video streaming support, new low-cost VR hardware based on the Google Daydream platform, and maybe even a new Nexus tablet.
On the software side, Google is expected to preview new software codenamed Andromeda, which is expected to be some kind of combination between Google’s Chrome OS and the Android operating system. Rumors suggest the new platform won’t arrive on devices until sometime next year.
Does Google have any surprises in store that haven’t already been spoiled? The big Google event is scheduled to begin at 12:00PM ET / 9:00AM PT, and you’ll find live streaming video from the show embedded in this post below.
