Google Pixel 3 release – as it happened: Price, release date and features revealed for new Android phones and more
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Your support makes all the difference.Google has launched the latest version of its flagship Pixel phone – and plenty more besides.
The two new phones includes vastly upgraded specs, new selfie features, and a completely re-designed look. As well as the two phones – the smaller and bigger version – there was a new version of the Google Home voice assistant that has a screen, as well as a new tablet.
Most of the new devices had already been leaked ahead of the official unveiling, but Google still managed a few surprises, especially with its exceptional camera.
A full round-up of the event can be found below.
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The UK networks are also sending their deals through for the Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL. Here's Three's:
Google Pixel 3 is available on a 24 month contract for an upfront cost of £99
All you can eat data, minutes and calls for £48 per month
Google Pixel 3 XL is available on a 24 month contract for an upfront cost of £99
All you can eat data, minutes and calls for £54 per month
Available here.
Some quick and sketched thoughts from the demo and hands on area:
- The phone looks beautiful. The screen is beautiful and the bits that aren't the screen – with which Google has had some mixed success – are equally beautiful. And the camera looks beautiful, too. (Google mentioned at the start of the keynote that beautiful is one of the most searched words on Google Translate, and I think successfully lodged it in my head.)
- That camera is very much the story. Google stressed other things both in the hands-on and the keynote – digital wellbeing tools like the ability to quieten your phone by turning it over, and the smarts of Google Assistant – but the camera is going to be the thing you'll marvel at, and the first one you'll want to try. Beyond pictures that also means the magic of Google Lens, which uses the camera to see what you're pointing it at, and works incredibly quickly.
- The Google Home Hub is... small? Yes, it's nicely designed, just like everything Google put out this year. But the screen is more comparable to a phone than a tablet, and it's hard to see how you'll get much done on it at a distance. This might be the unique mis-step of the event: it's really hard to tell what it's actually for, and the much bigger and not much more expensive Amazon Echo Show feels like a much better fit.
- The Pixel Slate is stupendously, almost boringly capable. It is a tablet, and almost all of it is made up of a really nice-looking screen. It's a capable ChromeOS computer on the inside, and a big Pixel on the outside. It's all so beautifully constructed – and not much more.
- There are no surprises. Google made fun of the fact that so much had leaked, but it didn't prove it wrong. There were some unknowns, like the ridiculously good performance of the camera, but that was more about the details than the shape – the Pixel was always going to have a fantastic camera. There was no one more thing. There wasn't very much fun. But maybe that just means Google's growing up.
And phone deals from EE:
Pixel 3 is just £10 upfront on a £58 per month, 24 month 4GEE Max plan – this includes unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 60GB of data for the normal price of 20GB, plus a range of other benefits such as free access to BT Sport.
Pixel 3 XL is available with the same benefits and allowances for just £20 upfront on a £63 per month plan.
Oh and another non-hands-on area thought: the two best things about this phone aren't hardware things at all. They're the call screening and the special mode the phone goes into when it's charging. Both are just classically Google: arranging information and using AI in a way that feels almost supernaturally smart. Google's very clear that the Pixel 3 is a phone made for making your life healthier and happier, and they're both features that are absolutely focused on that: avoiding you having to chat to spam and robot callers by answering for you, taking a transcription, and allowing you to send them straight to spam; and making the phone into a useful assistant when it's sat in its charging stand. A phone whose central genius is avoiding you ever having to use it as a phone.
More phone deals, this time from O2:
Prices start from £40.81 per month on Google Pixel 3 64GB
£100 upfront then £40.81 a month for 1GB of data
Extra data offer starts from £49.20 a month, £50 upfront for 20GB of data (20GB for the price of 15GB)
Prices start from £43.45 per month on Google Pixel XL 64GB
£100 upfront then £43.45 a month for 1GB
Extra data offer starts from £51.84 a month, £50 upfront for 20GB of data (20GB for the price of 15GB)
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