Google’s Pixel 5 and Chromecast event: all of the latest news

Google’s $799 Pixel 4 had built-in radar. The new $699 Pixel 5 does not — it ditches the sensor-laden forehead of its predecessor entirely in favor of thinner bezels and a hole-punch camera, like the $349 Pixel 4A before it. The result is more screen, but Google’s “Motion Sense” gestures and its answer to Apple’s Face ID are totally gone.

But Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh tells The Verge that the Project Soli radar and gestures will return. “They’ll be used in the future,” he says. They were just too expensive for the phone that Google wanted to build this time.

Verizon is getting an exclusive model of the Pixel 4A 5G: it comes in white, it supports Verizon-specific 5G bands, and it’s $100 more expensive. Verizon has dubbed this model the “Google Pixel 4A 5G UW” to highlight its support for the carrier’s “ultra wideband” 5G network.

If you’re on any other carrier, you’re not missing out. And if you’re on Verizon, this is probably a worse option than buying a standard Pixel 4A 5G at the regular price of $499, rather than spending $599.99 on Verizon’s model.

At today’s Google event, the company announced that its Recorder app, which is available for Pixel 2 or newer phones, is getting a nice update that should make it a lot easier to search through audio files. The update will allow you to select a snippet of audio from a recorded clip, which you can then either share or remove from the larger audio file.

Additionally, you can search for specific words in a recorded transcript and delete them. So if you’re someone like me who tends to say “uh,” “um,” or any other crutch word during interviews, you can theoretically find and remove them with this new update.

Google announced a bunch of products at its big hardware event. As expected, we saw the Google Pixel 5, its new $699 flagship 5G-ready phone. We also saw a more affordable Pixel 4A with 5G support that costs $499.

In the US, only the Pixel 5 is available for preorder with a release date of October 29th. The Pixel 4A 5G is coming to most countries in November and you can join a waitlist through the link below (it’s coming to Japan first on October 15th).

Google just wrapped up its fall hardware event where it debuted the Pixel 5, the less expensive Pixel 4A 5G, the oft-rumored Chromecast with Google TV software built in, as well as the Nest Audio smart speaker. It’s a lot of good news for people who like new hardware. All said, the quick half-hour event contained mostly announcements we expected, but there were a few unexpected surprises. Here’s everything you might have missed at Google’s event.

In the case of specs, the Pixel 5 isn’t trying to go up against the most powerful phones in the world. Instead of beating them when it comes to raw speed (it has a midrange Snapdragon 765G processor, but the 8GB of RAM should deliver some snappiness), Google is focused on delivering some unique features along with — for the first time — 5G support.

Along with the launch of the new Chromecast with Google TV, which we’ve just reviewed, Google is changing the name of the Google Play Movies & TV app to Google TV. The rename is happening on Android phones to start, though you can expect it to change on other platforms eventually as well.

The app is Google’s store for renting and buying movies and TV, and in truth Google is following Apple’s lead here. Apple uses its Apple TV app as the hub for all its video offerings as well, whether they are TV shows or not. Apple also uses the Apple TV branding in multiple ways — as hardware, app, and its own streaming video service.

Google’s new $50 Chromecast with Google TV will support a lot of the streaming services most people would want, although Apple TV Plus appears to be a notable holdout. Those sorts of gaps are fairly normal for a new platform, but the new Chromecast does have one very strange omission: Google’s own game streaming service, Stadia. At launch, the new Chromecast with Google TV won’t support it. Google says support will come sometime in the first half of 2021.

That said, we were able to get Stadia running on the Chromecast using sideloading, which means it’s unclear why Stadia isn’t supported on the new Chromecast. To get to a place where we can speculate, we need to explain the different layers of operating systems and services at play on the Chromecast with Google TV.

After seven years on the market, Google is finally giving the Chromecast its most-requested feature: a remote control. Today, the company is announcing the launch of a new Chromecast that also runs new software. And its official name is the somewhat awkward “Chromecast with Google TV.” The company is resurrecting the Google TV as an interface layer that runs on top of the actual OS powering the new Chromecast, Android TV.

The Chromecast with Google TV will cost $49.99 and is available in the US beginning today. Actually, it was available a couple days ago if you happened to visit the right Home Depot, and Chris Welch has already posted his review which you can go look at right now. It comes in three colors: gray, pink, and blue (or as Google calls them, “snow, sunrise, and sky”). It’s available for preorder in a few other countries as well, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

Google today announced the Pixel 4A with 5G, a variant of the budget phone it released back in August that supports 5G networks, during its “Launch Night In” fall hardware event. The device costs $499, a $150 jump over the standard 4A, but the 5G variant comes with a few notable hardware differences beyond its upgraded cellular modem. The phone is launching on October 15th in Japan, with eight more countries to follow in November, including the US.

The Pixel 4A 5G’s OLED screen is larger, for one, at 6.2 inches over the standard 4A’s 5.8-inch display. The device also carries a slightly faster processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, compared with the standard 4A’s Snapdragon 730G. That’s the same inside the newly announced Pixel 5, which also supports 5G networks and costs $699.

Google has officially taken the wraps off of the $699 Pixel 5, its latest Android flagship. Compared to last year’s Pixel 4, Google is focusing less on dramatic new technology — like the much-hyped Motion Sense gestures on last year’s model — and emphasizing instead the unique features that already help set the Pixel apart, like its stand-out camera software.

The Pixel 5 will feature a Snapdragon 765G processor — notably not the top-tier Snapdragon 865 or 865 Plus — complete with Qualcomm’s integrated X52 modem for 5G support (a benefit of the slightly less powerful chipset.) It’s a break from the usual Pixel strategy, which has sought to offer comparable flagship specs to other top Android devices from companies like Samsung or OnePlus — but it also means Google can offer the new phone at a lower price.

Google has officially announced the new Nest Audio smart speaker, the latest in its line of smart speakers powered by the Google Assistant. The Nest Audio replaces the original Google Home from 2016 as Google’s midrange smart speaker, slotting above the Nest Mini and below the Nest Max in the lineup. It costs $99.99 and will be available starting October 5th in 21 countries. You can preorder it right now.

Unlike the Google Home’s air freshener aesthetic, the Nest Audio’s soft rounded corners and vaguely rectangular shape make it more reminiscent of a loaf of bread standing on its end. Like the Nest Mini, it’s completely wrapped in fabric, which you can get in a few different colors. Also like the other Nest speakers, there are four colored LEDs embedded in the fabric that light up when the speaker hears or responds to a voice command. You can choose between dark gray, light gray, green, pink, or blue color options.

It’s time for Google to formally announce the products it’s already teased and that have, honestly, leaked a ton. We are expecting the new Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, a new Chromecast, and a new Nest speaker. Google is calling it “Launch Night In” even though in the US it will be happening in the middle of the day, as a kind of light joke.

Leaks are nothing new for Google, but what does feel new is seeing the company announce its products in late September ahead of new iPhones instead of in October, after them. Another unusual thing is that these Pixel phones aren’t expected to be fully flagship-level phones. The Pixel 4A 5G is clearly a big version of the already-released Pixel 4A, while the Pixel 5 won’t have the fastest processor available.

Google isn’t known for keeping secrets, especially about the phones they plan to introduce. In the case of Google’s upcoming Launch Night In event, we’re looking forward to two new Pixel phones: the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4A 5G. But who knows? It’s possible that Google may be keeping some surprises up its corporate sleeve.

There have, of course, been the usual leaks. For the 5.8-inch Pixel 4A 5G, the follow-up to Google’s popular mid-priced Pixel 4A, there is talk about a Snapdragon 765G processor, a dual-camera system with a 12.2MP main lens and a 16MP ultrawide lens, and an 8MP front camera — all similar to what is being said about the Pixel 5. The latter will (possibly) add wireless charging, more RAM, and a higher IP rating among other things.

All indications point to Google announcing its latest Chromecast during tomorrow’s hardware event. And I managed to buy one yesterday even before the “official” unveiling. So I can now confirm that, as the rumors and leaks have made clear over the last few weeks, this isn’t the Chromecast that most consumers are familiar with.

Instead of a no-frills TV dongle that plays content sent over from the apps on your phone or computer, the new Chromecast finally has a proper menu system and familiar user interface — and now it comes with an actual remote control.

Yesterday, we bought the new Google Chromecast, even though it hasn’t yet been announced. Weirdly, it didn’t come with Google Stadia — of the 12 streaming services prominently pictured on the front of the box, Google’s own cloud gaming service wasn’t one of them. We didn’t find it pre-installed on the device, either.

But we can confirm that Stadia absolutely does work on the new “Google TV” device. When The Verge’s Chris Welch sideloaded the Stadia Android app onto his new Chromecast, it fired up our existing cloud games quite nicely. That suggests Google shouldn’t have much issue bringing official support to the Chromecast, assuming it isn’t already doing so at the Google hardware event tomorrow.

Fall hardware season is in full swing, and tomorrow, Google will be showing off some new products at its “Launch Night In” event. The company has already officially announced some of what we’ll see: Google will be telling us more about new Pixel smartphones (the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G), as well as a new Chromecast and a new Nest smart speaker.

We already know a lot about each of those products, partly because of the typical pre-event leaks, rumors, and renders — and partly because people have already bought some of these unannounced products off store shelves. (That includes The Verge; we bought the new Chromecast at Home Depot on Monday.)

Google’s Pixel 5 event is scheduled for this Wednesday, but some of the company’s other new gadgets are already appearing on store shelves. That includes its all-new Chromecast, which some savvy buyers have been able to purchase directly in-store from retailers like Walmart and The Home Depot over the course of the last week.

The Verge has purchased one such device from The Home Depot and can confirm the retailer is not stopping customers from checking out and taking the pre-release product home.

Google’s new Chromecast device has leaked once again, giving us a detailed look at the TV dongle’s hardware and user interface. The leak comes after Redditor u/fuzztub07 was able to buy the unannounced “Chromecast with Google TV” dongle early from a local Walmart. They’ve since published a series of photographs of the included hardware and its manual, as well as a video of its user interface.

We already had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the device thanks to a series of leaks that have emerged throughout the course of this year. At its core it’s an Android TV streaming device (now rebranded to Google TV), which you can control with an included remote, but it also supports Chromecast streaming from compatible apps. The new photos and videos, combined with the fact that u/fuzztub07 has been actively responding to dozens of questions about the device, provide lots of details about its functionality. 

The Google Pixel 5 is rumored to launch in a new green color (green-ish? green-like?) in addition to black, but you don’t have to wait until later this month to see what that will look like. That very configuration of Google’s upcoming flagship phone seems to be laid bare in a leaked marketing shot, spotted by WinFuture (via 9to5Google). The phone is face-down on its screen, leaving its rear fingerprint sensor and all-plastic back visible, and both details line up with the rumors so far.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, given how much Google tech tends to leak, this image also serves up yet another look at Google’s Nest Audio smart speaker and its new Chromecast running the refreshed Google TV interface. Both products were recently spotted at retail stores in the US, so not only does this leak seem to be legitimate, but their release is likely imminent. Nice job, Google!

Two of Google’s products that will almost certainly be announced next week have seen their packaging leak. There’s an upcoming Nest Audio smart speaker, spotted on Walmart’s shelves and online at Lowe’s. Meanwhile, someone else got their hands on a new TV dongle called the Chromecast with Google TV.

The smart speaker was photographed at Walmart and posted to Twitter, where it was spotted by 9to5Google. The images don’t give many new hints about the device beyond what’s already leaked and been announced by Google, but it confirms the name, and that it will come equipped with Google Assistant (obviously). The Lowe’s listing, which was spotted by WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, says the smart speaker will support the “smart sound” room-tuning feature first seen on the Google Home Max. Quandt reports that the speaker will retail for $99.99. 

UK retailer John Lewis has accidentally posted images of Google’s Pixel 4A 5G a little early, giving us a detailed look at the new mid-range phone’s design. The images, fist spotted by 9to5Google, are accidentally on display on the retailer’s Pixel 4A 4G LTE listing, where they show a 5G logo in the phone’s status bar and a rear camera layout that doesn’t match the Pixel 4A’s. The images confirm several of the Pixel 4A 5G specs that leaked yesterday, including a second rear camera and the headphone jack that carries over from the Pixel 4A.

The Pixel 4A 5G is one of the two phones Google pre-announced for this fall, the other one being the Pixel 5. Recent leaks for the two devices claim the Pixel 4A 5G’s specs will position it somewhere between the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4A in Google’s 2020 smartphone lineup. The specs match the Pixel 5 in some areas, the 4A in others, and split the difference across the rest.

Just yesterday, WinFuture shared leaked specs for the Pixel 5, which reportedly has a a Snapdragon 765G CPU, a six-inch 2340 x 1080 OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4,080mAh battery, and more. Today, WinFuture is back with another set of leaks, this time revealing potential specs for the upcoming Pixel 4A 5G, and there will apparently be a lot of similarities between the two devices.

For one thing, the Pixel 4A 5G’s resolution is supposed to be the same as the Pixel 5’s, at 2340 x 1080 pixels, but on a larger 6.2-inch screen (which is also larger than the Pixel 4A’s 5.8-inch screen). And both phones are rumored to have the Snapdragon 765G, a dual-camera system with a 12.2MP main lens and a 16MP ultra-wide lens, and an 8MP front camera. Those similar specs mean you probably won’t be picking which phone is right for you based on the processor or the cameras.

Google has already announced an event for its upcoming Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G smartphones on September 30th, and it has even teased the phones themselves. But a new leak from WinFuture has revealed the best look yet at Google’s new flagship Pixel 5, along with nearly all of its specs.

As rumored, the Pixel 5 will reportedly feature a Snapdragon 765G processor, complete with Qualcomm’s integrated X52 modem for 5G support, although WinFuture says that it’ll only support sub-6GHz 5G. That’s surprising, given that Verizon (which has historically sold Google’s flagship smartphones) requires mmWave 5G support for its network, although it’s possible that — similar to other recent Android phones — there are plans for a unique Verizon-exclusive variant with the extra support.

Since 2017, the Google Pixelbook has maintained a spot on our list of the very best Chromebooks you can buy, with tasteful design and processing headroom that keep it competitive three years later. Yet you can’t buy it from Google anymore — it’s out of stock, and the company is strongly suggesting it’s been discontinued for good.

Here’s Google’s full statement: