Google's hardware lineup gets a major update! There are as many flaws as highlights

The annual Google hardware launch event is over.

There was no suspense about anything. After all, apart from the specific hardware configuration, almost all the appearance, form and functions of the new product had been leaked two months before the launch. However, Google is Google, from machine learning acceleration chips, to speech-to-text using neural network technology, and ultrasonic sensing technology... there are still many surprising details in the new product.

Before we talk about the press conference, let’s take a look at what updates the Google family has.

"Futures" wireless headphones Pixel Buds

The conference was hosted by Rick Osterloh, the current head of Google's hardware business and former president of Motorola Mobility. He first announced that the cloud gaming service Stadia will be officially launched on November 19.

Then, Osterloh announced the first new product of the conference - Google's pure wireless Bluetooth headset, Pixel Buds 2nd generation.

The second generation of Pixel Buds has abandoned the design of the previous generation of Pixel Buds with two independent earphones with a wire in the middle, and finally showed its intention to catch up with similar products such as Apple AirPods, Powerbeats Pro, Sony WF-1000XM3 and Microsoft Surface Buds which were just released a few days ago.

When worn, the second generation of Pixel Buds looks the same as the previous generation, still showing a round, recognizable round body, and supporting click and swipe touch on the right ear. The silicone ear wings help to fix the earphones in place, and compared with the previous generation's "weird" design extending from the earphone cable (right in the picture below), it is closer to the design of mainstream Bluetooth earphones.

It is indeed difficult to do active noise reduction on split and in-ear headphones, but Google has added some new ideas:

On the Pixel Buds 2nd generation, a spatial vent is opened under the earphones to allow enough ambient sound to enter the sound cavity. This design is to ensure that the wearer maintains the necessary auditory perception of the surrounding environment, while eliminating the feeling of obstruction and foreign body when wearing many in-ear headphones.

At the same time, the second generation of Pixel Buds has a built-in machine learning acceleration chip developed by Google. It can make many new features and experiences possible, but currently only one known feature is "adaptive volume".

The principle is that the earphones analyze the level of ambient noise through the aforementioned opening and adjust the volume intelligently - provided that the earphones are paired with an Android phone.

The earphones can last for 5 hours when fully charged, and up to 24 hours with the charging case, which is enough for most people to use within two or three days. The design of the charging case (right in the picture below) is also closer to similar products such as AirPods (left in the picture below).

Google claims that the performance of Bluetooth connection is much stronger than the previous generation. It can maintain connection three rooms indoors and a football field outdoors without affecting battery life.

Another slightly more interesting feature, but one that also poses a privacy risk, is that the earphones can sense when the user is speaking through the vibrations of the wearer's jawbone, instantly turning on the voice recognition/Google Assistant feature.

Just when I thought the conference was getting better, a promotional video played by Google brought me back to reality:

In the video, the wearer described the pair of Bluetooth headphones as a "floating computer in your head" - as far as I can remember, Google has never produced such exaggerated and out-of-focus marketing copy.

Although this $179 headset appears to have the same design, functionality, and experience as similar products, it has not actually caught up with its competitors.

Even those who attended the conference could not experience all the functions mentioned above, because all the "earplugs" demonstrated by Google on site were unable to be turned on and could not work properly...

Moreover, the Pixel Buds 2nd generation has not been reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States and other relevant agencies in the regions where it is listed. Its release date has not yet been determined, and Google claims that it will be next spring.

Since when did Google start playing with the "PPT+futures" product approach?

The Pixelbook Go can't move

After the second generation of Pixel Buds, the next new hardware product released by Google continued the "unfinished" feeling to a certain extent.

It is the Pixelbook Go, a Chromebook that is not very innovative, that is, a laptop running Chrome OS developed by Google.

Without the 360-degree folding function of the previous generation Pixelbook and the tablet mode that not many people use, the Pixelbook Go is no different in form and function from most Chromebooks you have seen in the past five years.

Although the Pixelbook Go has Google's Titan C Security Chip built in, which theoretically supports more secure biometric authentication methods, it does not have fingerprint, face, and iris unlocking functions, which means you still need to enter the Google or local account password every time to unlock the computer (unless you have a Pixel phone and can unlock it on the phone.)

The folded Pixelbook Go is 1.3 cm thick and weighs about two pounds (907 grams). This relatively light Chromebook computer has a wavy industrial design on the bottom plate, which is designed to make it easier for users to hold and improve mobility.

Pixelbook Go is available in two colors: Just Black and Not Pink, with a 13.3-inch screen size. There are four versions of hardware configuration from low to high, of which the first three have a screen resolution of 1080p and prices range from $649 to $999; the highest resolution is 4K, but it is not yet available for pre-order and is priced at $1,399.

Here comes the question: This laptop, named Pixelbook Go, claims in the official copy that it is a laptop that focuses on mobility (Made to move)...

No support for mobile data

None of the four configurations have LTE support, and Google has not indicated plans to add LTE versions in the future. Some netizens immediately made up a joke:

• Pixelbook Go, where is Go? Is Go offline?
• Go find a coffeeshop.
• Twitter

Smart speakers get a makeover

After the first two products brought the launch event to a peak of embarrassment, the next product finally brought back a little bit of Google's reputation.

As one of the company's best-selling hardware products, the small smart speaker Google Home mini has finally been updated two years after its release. Prior to this, Google's renaming department decided to put all smart home products under the Nest brand, so the speaker was named Nest Mini (the previous generation was also renamed accordingly.)

In addition to the new indigo-blue color "Sky", the Nest Mini 2nd Generation, which is priced at the same $49 as its predecessor, has the following new highlights:

1. Built-in Google machine learning acceleration chip, so that voice recognition, search and other Google Assistant functions can run locally. Not only improve the recognition speed and experience, but also greatly improve privacy, because the speaker no longer needs to upload voice data to the server;
2. Additional functions for use with other Google products. For example, home intercom is suitable for users who live in large houses with many people and often need to call their children downstairs for dinner; home alarm, users who have installed Nest cameras can receive voice alarms on Nest Mini when abnormalities occur; home phone, based on Google Duo video phone service, can make free Internet calls with users who use Nest smart speakers in any corner of the world.
3. Many users are still used to adjusting the volume of speakers by touch, but the previous generation of products was not very convenient in this regard. The second generation of Nest Mini uses ultrasonic proximity sensing. When the user approaches, the touch area on the surface of the body will light up, making it easy to increase or decrease the volume and change songs.
4. Can be hung on the wall.

As for the large-sized smart speaker Google Home, Google had a new idea this year and turned it into a two-in-one product of router node + smart speaker, called Nest Wifi point.

Although we introduce this product in this way, it is actually not a "speaker with a router" but a "router with a speaker". The product family comes from Google Wifi.

As for why it was designed this way, Google explained that they believe the router performs better when placed in a more open area in the home, but most people put it in corners, so they decided to add speaker function to the router to encourage people to put it on the table.

If you are interested, there is one thing I need to remind you: the Nest Wifi point is not an independent router, but an extension node that needs to be used with a genuine Google router.

Nest Wifi Point can be used with the previous generation Google Wifi, or the Nest Wifi released by Google today (without the speaker function but with a similar appearance). If you don't have Google Wifi at home, buying a Nest Wifi point alone is equivalent to buying a more expensive smart speaker, which doesn't make much sense.

So to be precise, the Nest Wifi point is more like a "Wi-Fi amplifier with a speaker."

For the new generation of router products, Google adopted a bundling approach, with the following pricing:

One thing to consider is that neither the Nest Wifi nor the Nest Wifi point supports the newest, faster and better Wi-Fi 6 standard, also known as 802.11ax. Currently available Wi-Fi 6 routers are priced around $300.

Another thing to note is that today Google announced that from now on, the Google Home app will directly take over the function of router management (the problem is that the Google Home app itself is not very easy to use, especially when adding/pairing devices, friends who have used it should know...)

The surprise is finally here: Pixel 4 phone

After unveiling the above products that have received mixed reviews, Google did not disappoint everyone at least in terms of mobile phones.

Although the heater-like lens module reminds people of the iPhone in terms of appearance, in general, the Pixel 4 smartphone still deserves the status of a flagship in most indicators (such as photography and screen). Some of the new features and unique experiences it has added have also brought a touch of novelty to the Android industry.

The 5.7-inch Pixel 4 and 6.3-inch Pixel 4XL finally got this year's standard 90Hz OLED screen (refreshing 90 times per second) before the end of 2019. A higher refresh rate can make many user interface operations appear smoother, and OnePlus's new generation of mobile phones have adopted it (Razer phones have previously made 120Hz); however, when not needed, the Pixel 4 will automatically reduce the screen frequency to the usual 60Hz to save power.

Although the screen refresh rate has been improved, Google still did not adopt a full-screen design this year. This is because several new sensors need to be placed on the top of the front of the phone, and Google hopes you can understand its intentions.

In 2015, we saw Project Soli, a near-field ultra-high frequency (millimeter wave band) radar chip that the company was developing, at the Google I/O Developer Conference. Four years later, it finally entered Google's hardware products for the first time: Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL; and got an official name: Motion Sense.

Motion Sense can realize several new functions on these two new phones. First of all, you can use Motion Sense to complete some common operations that you need to pick up the phone, unlock it, and touch the screen in the past, such as switching songs, turning off alarms, muting and hanging up, etc.

When in locked state, Pixel 4 can also sense your approach, light up the screen, and activate the unlocking process - yes, Pixel 4 finally supports native face unlocking function with data protected by Titan M security chip.

Google Assistant virtual assistant has also undergone major changes on Pixel 4. Compared with previous versions, its user interface no longer covers the current screen when it is awakened; and the Pixel 4 phone has a built-in dedicated neural network computing accelerator Pixel Neural Core, coupled with Google's powerful ability to minimize neural network models, so that Google Assistant can process most voice commands locally, most of the time without the need for an Internet connection, which improves privacy.

This neural network accelerator can also activate some functions that have never been thought of before.

1) Google has built a new Voice Memos app into the Pixel 4, which can perform neural network-based speech-to-text conversion while recording, providing real-time shorthand. Currently, it only supports English, but more mainstream languages ​​will be added in the future.

2) Friends who have used Pixel phones know that its photography, especially post-processing capabilities, are powerful, but in the past, you couldn't see the final image before taking the photo. On Pixel 4, you can now preview the final image after HDR+ post-processing in real time directly in the viewfinder (screen). Google calls this feature Live HDR+.

Speaking of photography, although the Pixel 4's photography function has not made a leap forward compared to its predecessor, the improvement is still obvious enough. In addition to Live HDR+, users can now adjust the exposure of highlights and shadows separately.

From the evolution from a single camera to a dual camera, what was added was not the ultra-wide-angle lens that many users expected, but a telephoto lens that is less than twice the size. In fact, the change it brings is not as big as imagined.

1) The Super Zoom feature first added on the Pixel 3, which uses the shaking when taking pictures to obtain additional local details and finally synthesize a photo - on the Pixel 4, it uses two cameras to obtain data at the same time;

2) Portrait mode. Previously, Google used multiple pixels on a camera sensor to synthesize a depth data that was closer to the real situation using limited data, and then added blur effect with software. Pixel 4 also adds data from a second camera, the depth information is more accurate, and the blur effect is closer to that of a SLR (but still not comparable;)

3) Combined with the functions mentioned above, Dark Shooting has been greatly upgraded and can now be used as an astronomical photography camera.

To understand the key points of this function, you can look at the picture below: On a mobile phone, the essence of dark shooting is long-term, multiple exposures + Smart HDR. If it is the following framing, the previous dark shooting function will definitely overexpose the trees, and the starry sky will be basically unclear due to underexposure; now, after entering the astrophotography mode, the algorithm will automatically balance.

In terms of hardware configuration, Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL have three colors: "Pure Black", "Just White" and "Oh So Orange". The black one has a mirrored back, while the latter two have a matte back. They are equipped with 6GB RAM and 64 or 128GB storage space. The starting price is $799, and the highest-end Pixel 4X is priced at less than a thousand dollars excluding tax.

However, even for a phone that seems to be perfect, there are still some flaws that can be missed if you don't pay close attention.

For example, Motion Sense, and the functions it enables, are not available in India at all due to frequency band restrictions imposed by regulators;

For example, Google Photos's unlimited free original-size backup, which has always been an important selling point for Google, is no longer available this year;

Finally, what many people don’t understand is that no matter which model or configuration you choose, you won’t find headphones or headphone jack converters in the box…

(Profit margins are often derived from such minor details)

The most embarrassing product: the press conference itself

In fact, as a Google fan, Silicon Star is actually very disappointed with the launch of new Google hardware products this time.

Even though all the details of the new products have been leaked by sellers and technology media around the world before, Google should really put more thought into the press conference. After all, there will still be many fans around the world watching the press conference in reverse time difference...

In just one hour and five minutes, the executives on stage finished talking about four series and five new products at lightning speed. However, after listening for a while, I still found a helpless situation: I didn't feel any excitement from the speakers about the new products they released.

It should be clarified that these new products are not without innovation and great improvement in functional experience. For example, the recording-to-text function mentioned earlier, and; for another example, the new Nest Home series Wi-Fi router integrates the function of a smart speaker, which can use ultrasound to sense the user's approach and light up the touch area on the body as a visual prompt.

Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, new product launches have been treated as important as new products by technology companies and their trained audiences. However, Google's 2019 hardware launch undoubtedly played a negative role: it completely recounted all the previously leaked content (whether it was released by Google as a marketing tool or because it had no idea what confidentiality was) in an awkward and unoriginal manner in the form of a launch event.

Someone on the social network joked: If Google can't even keep confidential information about its new product launch, how can we trust it to protect the privacy of its users?

As for the products themselves: For some new products, you don’t need to be too picky, you can find the designs and even defects mentioned in this article that puzzle consumers, making these products look not like the ultimate tricks that have been held back, but more like semi-finished products hastily produced after failing to fight the deadline.

In the end, the entire press conference was both "dry" and "awkward". The "dry" part was the rhythm and style of the speech, and the "awkward" part was the fact that such a press conference had to be held even though everything had been leaked.

As a heavy user of Google's software and hardware products, I recognize and appreciate the hard work of Google employees. But unfortunately, perhaps Google's executives should rethink their ideas about hardware products and the way they release new products.