Top Five Things You Should Know About Google's Pixel and Pixel XL

Yesterday, Google unleashed an avalanche of new information about its first-ever smartphone. The Pixel and Pixel XL are just the next step in Google's in-house hardware development. Google markets the phones as a strictly in-house operation, despite HTC constructing the phones.

[Image Courtesy of Google]

What do you need to know before you preorder a Pixel?

1) Pixel costs just as much as other new media.

The Pixel starts at $649, the same as a new iPhone 7. The Pixel runs slightly cheaper than the Galaxy S7 at $670, however, and it shows no signs of spontaneous combustion.

2) It has the best camera of any smartphone.

Google proudly touted this fact in most of the Pixel's marketing. DxOMark gave the camera a score of 89, the highest in the industry. Apple's iPhone 7 scores at 86. The camera boasts blur reduction, stabilizers, fisheye panoramas, and "photosphere" capabilities. The Pixel Smartburst feature allows users to take photos in rapid succession so as to not miss any of the action.

3) Google Assistant keeps your life together.

Pixel is the first phone to feature Google Assistant built into the programming (duh, since it's a Google phone). The Assistant can access photos from both personal storage and the internet. The Assistant translates across devices and into the Google Home system. Holding the Pixel's home button activates the assistant. With the entire power of Google's search engine, the assistant can access pretty much everything users need.

4) It offers unlimited photo and video storage for its devices.

Included with the phone is free unlimited storage for high-resolution images and video. The storage even takes off size limitations and compression issues users currently experience uploading to Google Photos.

5) It still has a headphone jack.

Given all the novelty Google released during the launch, this bit of information felt surprisingly comfortable. Google even called the 3.5 mm headphone jack "satisfyingly not new," a clear jab at Apple's removal of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7.

You can watch the full announcement below.