On 15 October, Google announces several new devices during the Made By Google event in New York City. On 16 October, the media are invited to a local event to experience the devices through demo and presentation.
The products to launch in Singapore are:
- Pixel 4 and 4XL. The Pixel 4 retails from S$1,119 (64GB) and the Pixel 4 XL starts from S$1,319 (64GB). Pre-orders are available now from StarHub, Courts, Challenger, and Google Store, and will commence retail sales from 24 October.
- Nest Mini, the 2nd generation Google Home Mini. Priced at S$79, it will be available from 23 October at Courts and Challenger.
- Nest Wifi system, the 2nd generation Google Wifi. It comprises of the New Wifi router (S$229) and the Nest Wifi point (S$199). This will be launched later this year.
Google Pixel 4 and 4XL
The new Google Pixel 4 series is made the Google way. It does not appear to be too bothered with chasing the latest technology like other smartphone makers do. As such, this latest upgrade will continue to serve the supporters, and should also win some more new fans with its latest capabilities.
Google Pixel 4 series focuses on the following key features:
Motion Sense
Mr. Martin Geh, who is the Managing Director, Devices and Service Partnerships of Google Asia Pacific, presented during the event that it took 5 years of research on Project Soli to miniaturise the hardware into the Pixel 4 series, becoming the first smartphone ever to have a radar sensor. This sensor will enable users to interact with the phone without ever touching it. For instance, it will sense that you are reaching for your phone and would have activated face unlock before you even pick up the phone, and this translates to faster phone unlock sequence. You can also navigate music player, snooze alarm, and reject calls just by swiping.
Dual Camera
The Pixel 4 series will have an additional camera unit at the rear. This 16MP, 1.8X telephoto lens, combined with all the Google camera technology, is touted to deliver quality images that in the words of Mr. Geh, makes it very hard to take a bad picture on Pixel phones.
The Pixel 4 series has also enhanced the Night Sight mode and now it is possible to take a picture of the stars with one tap. This is achieved by taking bursts of images in 4 minutes. As clarified with Google, there is no option to manually adjust the length of exposure. On a positive note, taking astrophotography is now within the reach of the masses: just tap and let the camera do the rest!
The updated camera app will allow user to quickly adjust brightness and contrast while shooting. This will help balance between background light and subject lighting easily.
Faster Google Assistant
The Pixel 4 series now comes with faster responses for Google Assistant, thanks to a deeper integration into the phone. Improved speech processing means more requests can happen on the phone without sending the requests to the cloud. It also considers the context of your previous query to do a better job answering and taking actions.
And that brings us to the next product announcement.
New Google Nest Mini
The new Nest Mini is identical in shape as the Google Home Mini, with the following enhancements:
- smarter and faster with dedicated machine learning chip, which allows off-line processing of commands instead of using cloud
- improved bass response
- built-in wall mount
- additional volume control LED indicator on the sides of the device
Pre-Order Promotion
The following pre-order promotion is for Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL:
Get $200Google Storepromotional code with a pre-order of Google Pixel 4/4XL. Offer ends 24 October 2019 11:59pm (SGT).For pre-orders at Challenger andHachi.tech, first 100 redemptions get a freeGoogle Nest Hub(worth S$189) and a pair of GV Gold Class movie tickets (worth S$54).First 250 consumers who pre-order from COURTS store orCOURTS onlinewill get a free Google Nest Hub, a S$100 Google Store voucher, a pair of free true wireless earphones (valued at S$129), and a complimentary three-month extended warranty from GURU by COURTS (total 15-month warranty).
Full review for the Nest Mini is at this link.
Full review of Google Pixel 4 XL is at this link.