While the last few weeks have seen a ton of new smartphone announcements, the latest iteration of Google Pixel smartphone line has been one of the most anticipated.

Luckily the wait is over and the tech giant revealed the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL at an event on Wednesday, October 4.

So what is the latest Google phone all about?

1. The Best Smartphone Camera?

As with the first Pixel phone, Google claims their new flagship will set a new standard for the smartphone camera industry — saying that the Pixel 2 has the best camera of all smartphones.

“Don’t just take our word for it—independent camera experts DxOMark have rated the Pixel 2 camera as the best camera of any smartphone, with an unprecedented score of 98,” Google’s Vice President and General Manager for Phones Mario Queiroz says.

While the main camera’s specs are good, the boasted picture quality is partly due to the software that comes with the camera.

“The Pixel 2 camera is powered by our computational photography and machine learning (ML) capabilities which make all these great features easy, fun and fast for you to use,” Queiroz says.

Despite more companies jumping on the dual camera bandwagon, Google hasn’t opted for a dual setup for their latest phone.

Rather, the Pixel 2 comes with a 12.2MP main camera and an 8MP front camera.

The main camera has optical and electronic image stabilization, along with dual pixel technology. It also comes with f/1.8 aperture.

The front camera has fixed focus with f/2.4 aperture. One feature that Google is touting is the ability to take portraits using the selfie camera and edit the background to create an artistic blur effect.

What’s pretty exciting though is that you can record Full HD video on the main camera at 120fps — a feat not many smartphones achieve.

 2. Powerful Tech Specs

The camera isn’t the only aspect of the Pixel 2 that Google is boasting about — rather, the phone in its entirety comes with some pretty impressive hardware specifications.

The phone comes with all the latest features that have been established as the new benchmarks for high-end devices — a Snapdragon 325 processor, a Gorilla Glass 5 display, quick charging, water resistance and an Adreno 540 GPU.

However, even smartphone users with the highest standards will be impressed with the Pixel 2 XL’s display technology.  The phone comes with a QHD+ OLED display. The Pixel 2 doesn’t come with the same resolution as its bigger sibling (at Full HD), but it’s also equipped with an OLED display that only a few manufacturers other than Samsung have implemented on their latest premium devices.

Google also promises that with the Pixel 2’s quick charge technology, you will be able to get up to 7 hours of use with only 15 minutes of charging.

Here is a summary of the specs below:

	Pixel 2	Pixel 2 XL
Display	Cinematic 5.0 in (127 mm) display FHD (1920 x 1080) AMOLED at 441ppi	Fullscreen 6.0 in (152 mm) display QHD+ (e2880 x 1440) pOLED at 538ppi
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Battery	2700 mAh	3520 mAh
Memory	4GB RAM 64GB/128GB internal storage	4GB RAM 64GB/128GB internal storage

3. The Pixel 2’s Price

You would have to have your head in the sand to not notice just how high prices have climbed with recent smartphone announcements.

The Galaxy S8 launched at a price of $750 while the S8 Plus was $850. Meanwhile the Galaxy Note 8 launched at a very high $929 earlier this month, while the iPhone X is set to be a whopping $999.

So how big a hole will the Pixel 2 leave in your wallet?

Well, surprisingly, not nearly as much as the aforementioned smartphones. Rather, Google has opted for a significantly lower starting price for the Pixel 2.

The Pixel 2 has a starting price of  $649, while the Pixel 2 XL starts from $849. It isn’t exactly anywhere near a mid-range price, but it is more in line with what premium smartphone users are used to paying for their devices.

Other Noteworthy Features

There are a few other interesting features of the Pixel 2, namely:

• The phone will come preloaded with Android Oreo
• Pixel 2 owners will be the first to preview Google Lens, an image recognition feature for Google Assistant that can give you information and recommendations based on a photo you’ve captured
• The Pixel 2 is the first phone to come with an eSIM — technology created by Google’s Project Fi which allows you to connect to a network without needing a physical SIM card.

The New Smartphone to Beat?

Looking at the specifications of the Pixel 2, the phone seems like a pretty big competitor to other premium devices on the market.

However, whether this features will be as appealing in real-life use waits to be seen.

Pre-orders for the phone have opened in certain regions.