5 reasons why the Google Pixel phone will succeed

Google has just announced the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL, which will be the first smartphones the search company has designed from top to bottom. It's a pretty big deal.

There are ample reasons for both optimism and caution concerning Google's new Pixel strategy. We've already discussed the key reasons why the Google Pixel might fail - now it's time to take a look at the reasons to be optimistic.

Don't agree with us? Spot any other advantages to Google's approach? Please do share your constructive thoughts in the comments below.

I'm confident in saying that the Pixel will be the best Android phone yet. Before Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and HTC 10 owners lynch me, I'll clarify by saying that the Pixel will be the best window onto the Android OS.

This is down to something I mentioned in the intro. The Pixel will represent the first time Google has taken a direct hand in smartphone hardware design, which means it will be the first phone that's fully and entirely in sync with the Android OS.

For example, Google claims that the touchscreen responsiveness of the Pixel will be much better than any Android phone to date - and right up there with the iPhone.

If you like Android - as millions do - then the Pixel will be the ultimate way to experience it.

This is related to that last point. If the iPhone family has always felt that bit more fluid and responsive than top Android phones, well, that's because it has been.

You can thank Apple's holistic approach for that, taking care of both software and hardware design in tandem. With the Pixel, Google has applied that same way of thinking.

For years people have talked up new flagship Android phones as being, at last, a proper challenger to the iPhone. To varying degrees, they have been - and in many ways some of them exceeded Apple's phone.

But the Google Pixel is the first Android phone that's actually been built like an iPhone. That is, designed from the ground up by a single company.

Apple's Siri personal assistant really shook things up when it was launched in 2011. But it hasn't really made as much progress as many would have liked.

That much is apparent when you look at what the Google Assistant - which takes a bow on the Pixel - can do.

Its main strength over Siri is the power of context. It takes a number of things into consideration when responding to your vocal prompts, including your location, the time, and previous questions, which means that it can surface genuinely useful stuff using natural language.

As I highlighted in the 'against' piece, the mobile VR experience hasn't exactly been what you'd call top notch to date, and most of the exciting stuff has happened with the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR.

But Google's Daydream looks set to improve the mobile VR experience to date considerably - and Pixel is where it takes its stand.

Daydream promises to offer a smoother, more intuitive mobile VR experience - not to mention a more comfortable and accessible headset. What's more, the Pixel's punchy Snapdragon 821 CPU should provide the power necessary to drive impressive VR games.

One of the most important components in any modern smartphone is its camera. Taking pictures and videos is one of the main things we do with our phones these days - even ahead of placing calls, for many people.

It matters, then, that Google says the Pixel has the best camera of any smartphone. Of course, every smartphone maker says that. But Google makes an impressive case when it points out that the Pixel scored 89 in DxOMark (a popular camera benchmark standard) tests.

That's the highest such mark ever granted to a smartphone camera. Chief among this 12-megapixel camera's abilities are the speed it can shoot at and the general quality of its shots in mixed lighting. Oh, and it manages to make video smooth even without OIS thanks to some gyroscope-aided software magic.