Google launches new products, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, Pixel Slate, and Google Home Hub

Yesterday, Google announced a series of consumer hardware products. This included two new variants of their flagship Pixel smartphones—Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Also launched was a high-performance tablet, the Pixel Slate and the Google Home Hub.

Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

The new smartphones from Google, Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL come with artificial intelligence features. They can automatically answer calls, click powerful photos, and provide an enhanced visual and audio experience while charging, powered by the Google Assistant.

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Source: Google Blog

With an integration of Google Lens, Pixel 3, can scan and translate text, find similar styles of clothing, or identify popular plants and animals. It also supports Google’s Smart Compose which suggests phrases in emails to help them draft faster. Pixel 3’s on-device AI can also screen phone calls and avoid spam calls. This feature is first, starting out in English in the U.S.

Pixel users in the U.S. will also get a taste of an experimental new Google Assistant feature, powered by Duplex technology. This feature will initially be available later this year in New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area and will roll out to other U.S. cities in the future.

Pixel 3 also supports Digital Wellbeing, which is a suite of tools to help users limit the time they spent on their phones. Users can monitor the time spend time on phones and set time limits on specific apps. Digital Wellbeing also comes with a new Wind Down mode to transition display to a grayscale screen in the night.

Google Pixel Slate

The Google Pixel Slate is a new high-performance tablet in the likes of Google’s popular Pixelbook.

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Source: Google Blog

This tablet is 7mm thin and weighs 1.6 lbs with rounded edges and curved 2.5D glass. It’s Molecular Display packs 293 pixels per inch for the sharpest picture.

Pixel Slate includes 8MP cameras on both the rear and front and dual front-firing speakers.

It comes with three months of YouTube TV subscription and up to 12 hours of battery life.

It’s Pixel Imprint power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor.

Pixel Slate is compatible with the Pixel Slate Keyboard, and the Pixelbook Pen.

Pixel Slate starts at $599 with several configurations available. Pixel Slate Keyboard is $199, and Pixelbook Pen is $99.

Google Home Hub

Another addition to their Home series is the Google Home Hub. This home automation device has built-in Google Assistant to traverse Google’s products —Search, YouTube, Google Photos, Calendar, Maps and more. It’s 7” screen features a floating display to naturally fit on any surface. Purposely, Google didn’t put a camera for privacy.

Other features include:

An Ambient EQ light sensor which allows the screen to automatically adjust to match the lighting in the room.

Connection with 10,000+ types of smart home devices from 1,000+ popular brands.

With live albums, a new feature from Google Photos, users can view their recent photos even while Google Home Hub is not in use.

Google Hub is available for $149 for pre-order from the Google Store. Google Home Hub will also be available by October 22 at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and other retailers.

In the light of their recent Google+ data breach, Google has also mentioned their guiding principle. Per their website,

“We respect our users and put them first. We feel a deep responsibility to provide you with a helpful, personal Google experience, and that guides the work we do in three very specific ways:

First, we want to provide you with an experience that is unique to you. Just like Google is organizing the world’s information, the combination of AI, software, and hardware can organize your information—and help out with the things you want to get done. The Google Assistant is the best expression of this, and it’s always available when, where, and however you need it.

Second, we’re committed to the security of our users. We need to offer simple, powerful ways to safeguard your devices. We’ve integrated Titan™ Security, the system we built for Google, into our new mobile devices. Titan™ Security protects your most sensitive on-device data by securing your lock screen and strengthening disk encryption.

Third, we want to make sure you’re in control of your digital wellbeing. From our research, 72 percent of our users are concerned about the amount of time people spend using tech. We take this very seriously and have developed new tools that make people’s lives easier and cut back on distractions.”