With most major smartphone companies done with revealing their flagship phones for the year, it’s now Google’s turn to take the wraps off its new smartphones, dubbed Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel XL 2. The California-based internet giant will launch the phones at an event in San Francisco, today. It will be live-streamed via the company’s official YouTube channel.
The Pixel series, which debuted in October last year, is branded as the “first phone made by Google.” The model for the series is similar to Apple’s, which controls the design, software and other key elements of the phone while the devices are manufactured by a third-party company. Last year’s Google Pixel and Pixel XL were manufactured by HTC.
Before Pixel, Google had tried to break into the smartphone category with the Nexus series, and Android One in the budget segment. While the Nexus was a partial success, the Android One project flopped. The Pixel series, however, helped Google regain its foothold in the smartphone business, and take on the likes of Samsung and Apple in the premium category.