Google Pixel Smartphones to Launch Soon, Invite Hints at Oct 4 Release

Rendered photo of Google Pixel Android smartphone

If you have any plans to buy a high-end smartphone, hold that thought until October 4. Google today sent out invites as part of an announcement that it will be unveiling some “made by Google” hardware that we assume are the two much-awaited smartphone variants Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL.

Google Pixel Smartphone Launch – Oct 4 Invite Sent

Rumor has it that Google will be launching the next generation “Nexus” brand at the event in San Francisco, but several reliable sources believe that they will drop the old brand name for the new “Pixel” one. Google also posted a YouTube video of their iconic search bar slowly morphing into a rectangular shape that looks like a smartphone outline, with the date “Oct. 4” then appearing on the left and the Google “G” logo appearing on the right. The video then points to madeby.google.com, but the site shows 5 Oct., as you can see from the image below:

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So it’s not clear whether they will be launching the Pixel smartphone on the 4th of the 5th, but everything points to October 4 at 9 am at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. The 5 Oct. date on the site could be a bug of some sort, but we’re not sure. Unfortunately, the events section of the Ghirardelli Square website is of no help because there’s no listing for either the 4th or the 5th.

Google Pixel will likely be offered at a starting price of $649 so this is a premium smartphone in the same category as the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7. In our earlier article on Google Pixel (see below) we covered some of the features you can expect to see on these devices, touted to be the fastest Android phones ever.

New Google Pixels Could be Fastest Android Phones Ever

Those following Google’s device history will know that the company has already released a tablet as well as a Chromebook under the “Pixel” branding, and with the launch of the phones under the same umbrella Google could be looking to bring its entire family of devices under one banner.

Other Products that May be Launched at the Oct 4 Event

Google will also likely use the opportunity to announce updates to the Google Home devices that are direct rivals to Amazon Echo and its voice-enabled virtual assistant Alexa. Although the company unveiled the product at their I/O conference this year, there’s no firm data on product availability. We could see some new announcements around Google Home at the Oct. 4 event as well. According to Raymond Wong of Mashable, Google Home boasts “rich highs and deep bass, streams music from your fav music service & works like Chromecast Audio.”

Google Home - a smart home device to rival Amazon Echo with Alexa
Google Home 1, introduced in early 2016 at Google’s annual I/O Conference
Google Home with speaker in view
Google Home with speaker in view

It’s also possible that we will see the new 7-inch tablet from Huawei at the event next month. The Google Pixel C they launched last year was a major hit, and Google could well be doing an encore this year in collaboration with Huawei – the Pixel C show below.

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Google Chromecast’s latest 4K-capable version may also see the light of day on October 4 if the rumors are true. Google is going to leverage every inch of PR it possibly can from this event – you can be sure of that.

So next month is going to be an exciting one for tech fans, with Google now popping this surprise a mere two weeks before the event and Microsoft Surface fans expecting the company to launch the eagerly-awaiting Surface Pro 5 hybrid laptop-tablet later in October.

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