Google Pixel review: an iPhone beater but not quite an Android king

First smartphone designed by Google from scratch ticks many boxes, but isn't quite the stellar world beater some might expect

Google has finally launched an own-brand smartphone, the Pixel, to challenge Apple head on and provide a premium Android experience with the hardware tailored to the software by the people who actually make it..

The new smartphone succeeds Google's Nexus line of devices and the company claims that the Pixel is now 100% Google, unlike the Nexus devices where Google provided the software and had some input into the devices but not total control. The Pixel phone joins the Pixel C Android tablet and Chromebook Pixel as Google's first in-house devices.