This week’s top stories: Pixel event roundup, Xiaomi’s new Android TV box, Google+ dies, more

Ben Schoon | Oct 13 2018 - 9:54 am PT

In this week’s top stories: We bring together all of our recent Pixel coverage in a convenient Google event roundup, Xiaomi launches a new Android TV box, Razer unveils a new smartphone, and more.

Our biggest stories this week revolved around Google’s big Pixel event. The company unveiled its new Pixel 3 smartphones, the Google Home Hub, the Pixel Slate, and more this past Tuesday. Before we get to that, though, our top story of the week actually came from our own Stephen Hall who points out that the word “Android” wasn’t mentioned a single time at Google’s event.

“Android” wasn’t said a single time during the Made by Google 2018 keynote. It marks the first time ever that Google has held a public-facing hardware event like this — since the introduction of the operating system in 2008 — without at least mentioning it by name.

As for the event itself, it brought a whole lot of big reveals. We’ve gathered up all of Google’s announcements below.

Furthering our Pixel coverage, we’ve gone hands-on with each of Google’s new products as well.

Another top story this week that quietly launched during Google’s event was a brand new Android TV streaming box. The Xiaomi Mi Box S follows up on a previous version which launched in 2016. It delivers 4K HDR and the latest version of Android TV, all while costing just $59.

Pre-order Xiaomi Mi Box S at Walmart

…the Mi Box S packs the redesigned interface that Google first showed off last year. It’s based on Android 8.1 Oreo and will likely eventually get an update to Pie. The included remote now includes a Netflix shortcut, Assistant button, app shortcut, and the same volume and directional controls as before. Pre-orders for the Xiaomi Mi Box S are open now exclusively through Walmart. Pricing lands at just $59 which is actually $10 lower than the original.

Google’s event brought a ton of information to its big event this week, so it’d be pretty easy to miss some key details. In our ongoing “tidbits” series, we take a closer look at some of the interesting details about Google’s new phones, as well as their cameras specifically.

Just a day after Google’s event, Razer took to the stage to unveil its latest smartphone with the Razer Phone 2. This new piece of hardware updates the specs, brings an improved design with water resistance and louder speakers, and much more. Plus, it all costs $799 and has RGB backlighting. Check out our full coverage for more information.

During Razer’s presentation, the focus for the company was bringing a flagship phone and a gaming phone together… With the Razer Phone 2, though, the company is trying to make its device better for someone who still wants to use their device as a daily driver smartphone.

One of the more exciting details that arrived around Google’s big event was the revalation that Google’s displays this year are vastly improved. DisplayMate actually awarded these OLED panels a “Best Smartphone Display” award and gave an A+ rating.

Apparently, the Pixel 3 XL has been given an “A+ rating” for its display and also a “Best Smartphone Display” award. For context, both of those have also been given to the Galaxy S9, Galaxy Note 9, and iPhone XS Max in the past year.

Our own in-house Fuchsia expert, Kyle Bradshaw, also came to the revelation that Google’s new Home Hub is also a known test device for Google’s up and coming operating system.

Amidst the announcements from yesterday’s Made by Google Event, we got a variety of details on the hardware for each of Google’s upcoming products. One of those, the Google Home Hub, may have outed itself as the latest Fuchsia OS device.

Early in the week, Google also revealed that its social network, Google+, would be “sunsetting” over the next year following a data breach. In other words, the consumer version of the platform is dead. RIP G+.

Google is shutting down the consumer aspect of the social network. It will remain available for enterprise clients that need an internal social network, but the regular app will be unavailable starting in August after a 10-month wind down period.