In many conversations, Google is often a verb because it is related to searching the web for information. However, Google as a noun has offered tech fans some of the most interesting, though often not long-lived, hardware creations for more than a decade. Today, it makes some of the best Android phones. Google’s software services are a big part of what has drawn me to its hardware. But it’s also the interesting and sometimes quirky approach to the physical design of these products that I am such a fan of.
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It only makes sense that Google would have its hand in many hardware categories, given the number of areas in our daily lives where the company’s services are intertwined. While not all the Mountain View-based tech conglomerate creations have been a hit, some have impacted my life in one way or another.
6 Google Pixel
Things really took off here
Google is coming up on 10 years of Pixel phones. October 2016 is when we got the first Google Pixel. Even though it hasn’t been smooth sailing for the product, it changed smartphones for the better. It wasn’t that Google did something amazing with the hardware that changed the game. It was software for the camera system that did it. However, the hardware had some of the quirkiness we’ve come to expect from Google in its design.
For starters, when the phone was announced, I knew I had to get the blue model of the Pixel XL. If you don’t remember this one, it wasn’t just blue. It was given the most appropriate name, Really Blue, because it was blue. Aside from the color, the design was clean, with a great choice to offer a dual texture on the phone’s back glass, giving the beautiful blue a dual-tone look. My second favorite dual-tone Google phone was the “Panda” Pixel 2 XL.
Outside the color choice, the name indicated that Google was going heavy on the camera, and the original Pixel showed that. It didn’t take the most amazing photos, but it was blazing fast. The pictures were good, and it set the stage for where we are today with the Pixel 9 series and the rest of the smartphone camera landscape with computational photography.
5 Google Chromecast
It seemed magical
This tiny dongle was released in July 2013 and lost support in May 2023. It lasted nearly ten years. That’s a major accomplishment in the world of consumer tech. New models have been released, and updates have come, but making it as long as the original Chromecast shows that simple works.
I remember the first time I encountered a Chromecast during a meeting at the sportswear sales job I had. When I saw the Chromecast logo on the TV and my boss tapped the Cast button on his Motorola Xoom tablet to send his presentation to the big screen, I smiled. It seemed magical and simple. Casting became a part of many conversations and was the smart TV before smart TVs.
While sending content to the TV is mainly relegated to things like work presentations and photos, a dedicated device for this purpose is less needed. Now, the feature is rolled into streaming devices, like the new Google TV Streamer and Google TV with Chromecast. With digital content evolving and hardware doing the same, getting content to the biggest screen in the room is easier than ever, and in many ways, the Chromecast should get a lot of credit.
Read our review
The Google TV Streamer is a better Chromecast, but not much more
At twice the price of Google’s last 4K streamer, I expected better
4 Google Glass
We weren’t ready
Smart glasses are a hot topic in the tech world as companies work to find new ways to expand into new areas of our lives. I’m still not 100% sold on the devices as the use of current hardware and software isn’t solidified, and I haven’t found a comfortable set for long periods of time. There is a lot of promise, and many of the best smart glasses today are quickly improving. Many may not know that Google had a product over ten years ago that did what many are trying to do now, but better in many ways.
That device was the Google Glass, and it easily falls into the “way ahead of its time” category. Even today, the headset’s design would be considered nerdy. Looks aside, the hardware was lightweight and offered things that made the device useful. It didn’t provide a 120-inch display for watching movies or productivity. But it acted as a heads-up display for directions, translation, notifications, and more. The $1,500 price tag, privacy concerns, and a public that wasn’t ready for this kind of device doomed it.
3 Google Pixelbook
Still loving it
I’ve said how much I enjoy using Chromebooks and my concerns about a possible Android merger with ChromeOS. Much of the joy for the platform started when I bought a two-year-old used Google Pixelbook in 2019. While the software is largely the same regardless of the device you use it on, great hardware can elevate the experience, and that is what the Pixelbook did.
This thin, premium laptop form factor felt incredible to hold and use. I love the keyboard, the display, and how quickly everything runs. Google gave it a premium build and, for the time, packed it with great internal hardware, with three spec options, offering an Intel Core i5 paired with 8GB RAM and 128 or 256GB storage or a Core i7 and 16GB RAM with 512GB storage. I still have over two years of automatic updates and support. This is another reason why this premium Chromebook is on this list.
2 Google Home
Underappreciated
Google Home was the first smart speaker from Google. It was released in 2016, and its design starkly contrasted with the monolithic style of the cylindrical Amazon Echo. The short, slant-topped Google Home allowed users to customize the Google Assistant device with interchangeable speaker grills in different colors and materials. Aside from this unique approach, I also feel like this smart speaker’s audio quality was better than what Google has released since then. Aside from the Google Home Max, the Google Home had a great balance between high, low, and mid-tones, given the small size.
1 Google Pixel Watch
I waited so long for this
I have long been a fan of smartwatches. While we’ve had a lot of great smartwatches through the years, I had always wanted one from the company making the operating system. When Google released the original Pixel Watch in 2022, I was stoked. The watch looked different from every other device on the market, and we saw how Google envisioned its software and hardware working together.
While the first iteration of the wearable wasn’t a smash hit, with older internals, terrible battery life, and a single-size option, the company learned and kept going. Now, with the Pixel Watch 3, we have two sizes: a battery that lasts longer (at least 45mm) and a much more fluid experience. Of all the parts of the original smartwatch that I wanted to see Google change, the design was never one of them. Instead, Google kept the core design intact and made slight improvements to make the Pixel Watch 3 one that I enjoy using and recommend, if you’re alright with charging it daily.
Many more could be on this list
I could add other Google products to this list: Nexus 6p, Nexus 7, Nest Thermostat, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and others. However, it would be a long list, and there would be plenty of arguments around the first three items not truly being Google products. It would be wrong to say that Google has been an expert in its own hardware, as there have been plenty of issues in that space.
However, the company continues finding ways to bring out products that leverage the software services that so many use and rely on in our daily lives. Generally, its hardware attempts to reduce the friction when using these services and get them to work for us. Lately, to its own fault, Google has leaned too heavily on its software chops to try and give us what it thinks we want rather than allowing us to choose what we want. The home screen customization on Pixel phones is going down that path. I still look forward to what Google does next and hope to see it continue being quirky in its hardware design.
