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How to get a Google Pixel for Christmas

The (Pixel) art of the deal

How to get a Google Pixel for Christmas
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One of the hottest items for the tech-savvy person about town this Christmas will be the Google Pixel phone. It's arguably the best Android phone ever built - and it doesn't come cheap.

With prices matching Apple's latest iPhone 7 it'll be a generous, amorous, or just plain rich person that buys one of these bad boys as a gift this festive period.

To obtain one might require a little persuasion. Here's the best way to obtain Google's new uberphone - starting with selling the whole idea to someone in the first place.

What's a Pixel?

The first thing you will probably need to do is explain to the potential gift buyer what a Google Pixel is in terms they understand. If they're not a tech-savvy person about town, they might just wonder why you want such an expensive phone.

Here's what to tell them: the Google Pixel is essentially Google's answer to the iPhone. "Yes, we know about Android, that's been around for years" they might say. "This one here costs £160 and my mate Dave says it's really good. Can't I buy you that instead?"

Patiently explain to this person that Android is just an operating system, much in the same way that the iPhone runs on iOS. There are multiple types of Android phone that run this OS, and the Pixel is unique.

The point is that there has never been an Android phone built in the same holistic way that Apple constructs its iPhones. To do so would require Google to take control of the hardware design process as well as the software, which it has never been inclined to do - until now, with the Google Pixel.

Because hardware and software are so tightly connected, the Google Pixel is, by all accounts, smoother and more responsive than any other Android phone. iPhone-smooth, in fact.

Buy up front

It's tempting to buy expensive new phones with a contract, as this tends to spread the cost over a number of months, lessening the impact on your wallet.

But here's the thing: it's the most expensive way to buy a phone by far when you tot up the full amount of what you've agreed to spend over two years. Also, if we're talking about a gift, few people want to be responsible for another's phone contract for the next two years. Good luck selling that one to them.

Instead, point out to the gift giver that buying the Google Pixel up front will be hundreds of pounds cheaper than a contract. Then, all you need to do is sign up for a low cost SIM-only contract from any of the operators.

Even with the cost of this contract added on, your Pixel will come much cheaper than an all-inclusive contract, and your own monthly contract payments won't be that big at all.

Where to buy

You'll do well to find the entry-level Google Pixel for less than the £599 that Google sells it for online, but at the time of writing Carphone Warehouse was still throwing in a Daydream VR headset for free on top of that.

Daydream VR is Google's new VR platform that only works with the Pixel an a couple more new handsets (though more are set to be added over time). Very slick it is too. More to the point, it will cost you £69 to buy on its own.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.