JOIN USEverything Google unveiled at 'Launch Night In' event
As expected, the rumours of Pixel 5, 4a 5G, and the new gadgets Nest Audio and Chromecast with Google TV came true at the Google's 'Launch Night In' event on Wednesday (September 30).
New Chromecast with Google TV
The new Chromecast has a similar design form as the predecessor. The curvaceous dongle comes with a built-in HDMI plug. Users just have to connect it to their TV and a power source.
For the first time, the company is offering a snow-white smart remote with Google Assistant support to browse for content on the television.
The all-new Android TV interface is rebranded as Google TV. With the revamped interface, it offers easy search for the users to find favourite movies, TV series, and more in a quick time.
Also, it can intelligently curate the best contents from several Over-The-Top(OTT) apps on the home screen. It supports all the native applications such as Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, and Peacock, and more.
If you happen to be a YouTube TV subscriber, you can easily find all the movies and TV shows from Google Play Store and Google Play Movies & TV library in one place.
It supports 4K content with HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. It can also offer content with Dolby Atmos, DTS, and Dolby Digital+ surround sound, but only if your TV has some specific hardware. New Chromecast is powered by Amlogic S905D3 processor backed by 2GB RAM and 4GB storage.
The new remote comes with D-Pad for navigation, back and home buttons, and dedicated keys for YouTube and Netflix. YouTube button comes with an option to remap to open any of three channels-- YouTube TV, YouTube Kids, and YouTube Music. It also comes with a mute, volume, power, input control buttons, and needs AAA batteries to power it. The new Chromecast costs $49 in the US.
Nest Audio
Google's new Nest Audio smart speaker features fabric mesh, 19mm tweeter for consistent high-frequency coverage and clear vocals, and a 75mm mid-woofer to deliver the enhanced bass effect.
Google's new smart speaker completed more than 500 hours of tuning to ensure balanced lows, mids and highs. The company says that the bass is significant and the vocals have depth, which makes Nest Audio sound good on most of the music genres such as classical, R&B, pop and more. With the custom-designed tweeter and optimised grill, fabric and materials, Nest Audio promises high-quality audio output without distortion.
"Our Media EQ feature enables Nest Audio to automatically tune itself to whatever you’re listening to: music, podcasts, audiobooks or even a response from Google Assistant. And Ambient IQ lets Nest Audio also adjust the volume of Assistant, news, podcasts, and audiobooks based on the background noise in your home, so you can hear the weather forecast over a noisy dishwasher," the company said.
Under the gorgeous fabric mesh, it houses a 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 quad-core processor with a high-performance Machine Learning hardware engine. It has a built-in Chromecast, supports Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz), and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connectivity.
Nest Audio comes in five colors: Chalk, Charcoal, Sand, Sky and the all-new Sage for $99.99 this month. It is coming to India as well on Flipkart from October 5 onwards, and the price is likely to be revealed soon.
Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5
The new Pixel 5 and the 4a 5G share certain features including the camera but differ in terms of screen, RAM and battery capacity.
The new Pixel 5 sports a 6.0-inch full HD+ (2340 x 1080) OLED screen with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, support 90Hz display refresh rate, pixel density of 432 ppi (pixels per inch), HDR support, and an Always-on display feature. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6 cover glass for the display and 100% recycled aluminum enclosure on the back. Also, it comes with the IP68 rating, meaning the device can sustain up to 1.5 meters (around five feet) underwater for close to 30 minutes.
On the back, it is said to flaunt a metallic case with a fingerprint sensor in the middle and a big curve square block in the top-left corner will house a dual-camera module.
Inside, Pixel 5 comes Android 11 OS powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G octa-core processor (1 x 2.4GHz + 1 x 2.2GHz + 6 x 1.8GHz Kryo 475 CPU cores + X52 modem for 5G) backed by Adreno 620 GPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage, and a 4,000mAh battery with 18W USB-C fast charging cable in the retail box and also supports wireless charging. It comes in two colours-- Just Black and Sorta Sage.
On the other hand, Pixel 4a 5G features a 6.2-inch full HD (1080 x 2340p) OLED screen, pixel density of 413 ppi, 60Hz display refresh rate, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 shield, Soft-touch Polycarbonate unibody, fingerprint sensor on the back, Snapdragon 765G chipset (1 x 2.4GHz + 1 x 2.2GHz + 6 x 1.8GHz Kryo 475 CPU cores + X52 modem for 5G), Adreno 620 graphics engine, 3.5mm audio jack, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage and a 3,885mAh battery with 18W fast charger (lacks wireless charging). It comes in Just Black and Clearly White colours.
Both the Pixel 5 and the 4a 5G model come with the same camera hardware-- main 12.2MP wide sensor (1.4 μm pixel width, Autofocus with dual pixel phase detection, Optical + electronic image stabilization, ƒ/1.7 aperture & 77-degree field of view) backed by 16MP ultra-wide (1.0 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.2 aperture & 107-degree field of view) and LED flash. It can record full HD 1080p videos at 30 Frames Per Second (FPS), 60 FPS, 120 FPS and 240 FPS and 4K at 30 FPS & 60 FPS. Also, they support Live HDR+, Cinematic Pan, Night Sight on Portrait Mode, new Google Photos editor offers studio-quality light to the portraits of people with Portrait Light.
On the front, They boast an 8MP with 1.12 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.0 aperture, fixed focus, and 83-degree field of view.
Google is promising that the batteries of the Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 will last all day and when put on Extreme Battery Saver mode, they can function with bare minimum functionalities on for up to 48 hours. Yes, both the devices come with the Titan M security chip to save all the sensitive data under the Google-protected Pixel Imprint enclosure within the phone.
The Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4a 5G cost $699 and $499, respectively. Prospective buyers can avail free access to Stadia gaming platform and YouTube Premium subscription for three months, 100 GB of storage with Google One for three months and Google Play Pass and Gold/Silver Status on Play Points.
Google's Pixel 5 is slated to hit stores select global regions including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States from October 15 onwards.
Google Pixel 4a 5G will be initially available in Japan from October 15 onwards and later in November, it is set to be released in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States.
However, both the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5 will not be released in India. But, the Pixel 4a will be available later this month on Flipkart. The price of the device is expected to be revealed soon.
Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks