 There have been a lot of Android phones made by a lot of manufacturers, but never one made by Google. Until now, this is the Pixel. And I'm just going to say it right at the top, it is the best Android phone that has ever been made. Okay, but what does it mean that Google is making a phone now? Well, it means that we finally get to see what Google wants when it makes some hardware. And what does Google want? It wants to make a phone that's really simple and approachable. Every phone these days is made out of just metal and glass, but Google's take is really simple and utilitarian. It comes in two sizes, five inches and 5.5 inches. And they feel pretty good to use, even though they're a little bit thicker than you might expect. There's also this glass shade on the back, which I don't know, it's there for maybe antenna reception and to help you know which way is up. It's fine. There's also a fingerprint sensor on the back, which is where I prefer a fingerprint sensor to be, it's way more comfortable to use, except when it's sitting on a table. Now there's only one speaker, but it's really loud. It's here on the bottom. And also on the bottom, of course, you'll find a USB-C jack and of course, there's a headphone jack on the top. Overall, the Pixel just doesn't feel techie like a Samsung phone. It just feels like a smartphone. And it feels a lot like that smartphone, the iPhone. Like I said, Google wants the Pixel to feel familiar. Inside, it's powerful. Google really wanted this thing to be a top tier phone. So there's a fast Snapdragon 821 processor, four gigs of RAM, and two storage options, 32 or 128 gigs. And I love the screens. They're OLED, which means they have really good color and super deep blacks. They look stupendous. And the Pixels are faster and way more responsive than any Android phone I've ever used. I also really like that the small one is just as powerful as the big one. Now, because Google can control both the hardware and the software, it can optimize a bunch of stuff like battery life. The battery life is stupendous. I'm getting about two hours more on the Pixel than I ever got on an iPhone or a Nexus phone. But you pay for all that power and design. It starts at 649 for the small one, and it goes all the way up to 869 for the Pixel XL with 128 gigs. But my main takeaway for this is that it is a top tier phone. But it's not like some precious piece of jewelry. It's a phone, and you're meant to use it. So Google made it feel normal. Really, my only problem with the hardware is that it's not waterproof. The other super important reason that Google had for wanting to make its own phone was being able to fully control the integration between the hardware and the software. And there's no more important piece of software on this phone than the Google Assistant. The idea is simple. Like Siri on the iPhone, you hold your finger down on the home button, and you start talking. And it looks like a chat interface because Google wants it to be a conversation. You can ask it all the usual stuff, whether you can send texts, you can make appointments, and so on. But it's smarter about follow-up questions. It remembers what you're talking about. When do the Vikings play next? The Minnesota Vikings will play the Philadelphia Eagles on October 23rd at 1 p.m. Who is their quarterback? Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford, and others are quarterbacks for the Minnesota Vikings. It even knows what you have on the screen. Who's the cast for this TV show? The cast of Halton Ketch Fire includes Lee Pace, Mackenzie... Show me pictures of him. Check out these pictures of Lee Pace. It can open some apps like Spotify and Open Table, but it doesn't work with a lot yet. That's not coming until later this year. And like all assistants, this assistant sometimes is kind of dumb. When is the next presidential debate? The third presidential debate is on Wednesday, October 9th. Put that on my calendar. When is the event? When you just told me. Sorry, what's the day and time? You're not very smart, are you? The assistant still has a ways to go, but it's probably the best that's out there right now. That just doesn't mean that it's amazing. There are some other custom software bits to talk about. The launcher is new. It's got round icons and you swipe up to see your apps like this. You can also long press on icons for shortcuts like this. And it comes with 24-7 phone or chat support, including screen sharing if you want to have extra help. But the clearest example of software integration is actually in the camera. Google says that this is the best camera ever put in a smartphone. And it's really good, but I don't know about the best. There is a lot of technology in here though. It's a 12 megapixel shooter in the back and the pixels are really big for good low light images. And there's also phase detect autofocus and lasers for autofocus. The one thing it doesn't have is optical image stabilization, which for people like me with really bad vision, I don't know if it's going to work. It's not going to work. It's going to work. It's going to work. It's going to work. But the proof is in the pictures and I got to say, I'm pretty impressed. First of all, this camera is really, really fast. It shoots in HDR auto mode by default. And usually that slows the camera down on Android, but here it's fine. And the pictures that come out are pretty good. They're ready to post. They're not quite as true to life as the iPhone 7, but you know what? Maybe that's okay. At this point, it's more about your photographic preferences than it is about any one camera being the best. This camera is in the same ballpark as the Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 7. And that's really impressive. Oh, and one more thing. The video camera has electronic stabilization because it's tied to the gyroscope. So if I'm shooting a video and I'm kind of shaky, the end result still is pretty stable. But maybe the best part is that everything that you shoot on the pixel gets stored in the cloud for free at full resolution forever. Okay, so this is what it means that Google is finally making its first ever phone. Good hardware, a pretty smart assistant, and a really good camera. It means that this is the best Android phone that you can buy, period. But what it really means is that Google is getting in the ring. They're ready to fight. Hell, this thing is going to be sold in Verizon stores and they're going to market the hell out of it. We've never seen Google take on Apple this directly before. And they're going toe to toe. Google will tell you that this is going to be a really long fight and it's only the first round. And they're right. There's no knockout punch here, but not on either side. The pixel goes head to head with the iPhone and doesn't fall down. And for a first try, that's really exciting. Now because Google Google Google Google Google Google Google Google Google because Google Google.