Pixel 10 launch event was game-changing but Google is sticking with the same design

Google Pixel 10 launch felt real, which was a live event in New York city. It didn't feel like it was acted up and there were playful hiccups that added more colors and characters to the experience in a good way from viewers point of view. You don't want a live event to feel like acting. So, the Pixel 10 series just got launched along with other products like Pixel Buds 2A, Pixel Watch 4, AI updates and accessories like Pixelsnap. In this article, I will write about the launch event describing how it was a game-changer while Google is sticking with the same-old Pixel 9's design - not an exciting design.

For the launch event and also for marketing, Google has been working with a lot of celebrities, musicians, online stars, photographers, athletes and more that I don't know about. Especially this Pixel 10 launch even was way different than previous ones. This is kind of an approach you need to take if you wanna compete with Apple and iPhones. So, it was like a live show in Brooklyn, New York - a little bit like Jimmy Fallon's show. Haha! I started watching from the middle and after the end of the live, I started watching from the start and realized that Jimmy Fallon was the host of the Pixel 10 launch. I was kinda surprised because Jimmy Fallon from the "Tonight Show" is a pro for hosting these kinda live events with audience.

I liked the fact that Google chose Jimmy Fallon because he sounds real and his expressions are more real than others who most of the time act over-exaggerated and unnecessarily dramatic. You will see him carrying the show without being too camera-optimized but being funny and confused like a normal human. He was seen confused, like he was thinking about something in his mind at many instances when the vice president of marketing Adrienne Lofton was telling him about the modern features of the new products. There were clearly some comedy actors but you can see the host Jimmy being more real than Alex Cooper who was acting more camera-optimized.

A bunch of famous people were using the Pixel 10s, and it started with them recording a "selfie video" clip introducing them and passing the phone virtually to the next person and finally Jimmy has the Pixel 10 and he comes to the stage. There were Alex Cooper, Cody Rigsby, Lando Norris, Bryson DeChambeau, Stephen Curry, Trinity Rodman, the Jonas Brothers, Giannis Antetokounmpo, A'ja Wilson, Jeremy Lin, Rick Osterloh and at last Jimmy Fallon - in the opening monologue. It was done really well and felt pretty refreshing and exciting. Some of them appeared later on the live show. There were Call Her Daddy podcast-host Alex Cooper, Nick Jonas, Cody Rigsby and more for different segments of the show. Also, some appeared on pre-recorded videos.

Did you take a look at the comments on youtube ..? Feel free to check the comments of the video - it's marketing genius. Because of the marketing approach the show felt like a game-changing event. The comments are like "the marketing team should say sorry to the engineering team" and "Google Advertisement Team - how many celebrities should we have on our show" - pretty real. So, if you want your products to reach to a massive number of people, that was a good way of reaching to many many iPhone users.

When something is very professional and perfect, it starts to lose characters and dynamics that kinda makes it boring long term. Viewers want a smooth show but they also want twist, playfulness, little hiccups and little dramas, not acted-up exaggerated acting. However, the company may not want those little hiccups. In the segment where Alex Cooper was taking Jimmy Fallon's photo to show the "Camera Coach" feature, she accidentally swiped past couple of photos showing other photos she took before. And the screen casting was ongoing, I saw the other photos on the left side of the screen.

But unfortunately, they removed that little 2-seconds portion from the video. It wasn't necessary, but whatever - most people will never know now. Jimmy Fallon was funny, laughing, thinking, asking real questions and doing real activities. The flow was real good. On top of these, there were some live demos demonstrating some new exciting and helpful features. The new "magic cue", "camera coach" and "real-time voice translation" features were shown live. 100 times zoom and some other features were shown pre-recorded. Those demos happened live there with some minor hiccups that added meaningful drama to the experience - that's what makes you keep watching.

I liked the Pixel 8's design better because it had a unique camera design. The camera housing looked like it blended nicely to the sides of the frame. But with the last year's Google Pixel 9 series, Google wanted the frame to look more boxy like the iPhones. For that they made the camera bump look more boxy, which makes the bump look even bigger. The camera housing doesn't need to look boxy like the frame. I think the boxy frame would look fine with the Pixel 8's old but unique camera design. I think the boxy camera design of Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 9 is fine, but it is not cool or attractive looking to me. It's rather very flat looking than unique.

Even though I liked the old Pixel 8's camera design, I still like the iPhone 15's uniglass-back camera design. The iPhone 15 features a uniglass back with a single, continuous piece of color-infused glass that also forms the base of the camera bump. If Google does a similar back glass but with their unique camera-visor type look like the Pixel 8 not the 9, that will be so cool and unique of a design. So anyway, I don't really like the new Pixel 10's design, which is the same design as the last year's Pixel 9, but I also don't dislike - just fine.

Check out those articles from above, you can click on those linked images to read the articles. A while ago I published a review of the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G smartphone, check that out if you are into budget phones. In case you are interested in portable speakers, I compared 3 Boombox type speakers from 3 different brands such as Soundcore, Tribit and JBL. So don't forget to also check out that detailed comparison article about the JBL Boombox 3 vs Tribit Stormbox Blast vs Soundcore Boom 2 Plus.

At the end, I just wanna say that if you don't get excited for the Pixel 10's design - like me, you might get hooked-on to the crazy AI features on the new Google Pixel 10. A lot of mind blowing AI features will come in the future that we don't know but kinda can imagine. This article is not about telling you the AI features but I only mentioned before about the magic cue, real-time voice translation, 100 times crazy zoom and more are there for you to discover from the official page of Google Pixel 10 smartphone.

Also, please check out the JBL Flip 7 vs JBL Flip 6 story for highlights.
IF you're interested in portable small speakers, check my Soundcore Motion 300 vs Bose Soundlink Flex article. Both speakers did well in a head-to-head comparison.