For years, Google has employed other mobile brands – LG, Motorola and HTC to name but three – to help design and manufacture its Nexus smartphones and tablets.

Debuts latest Android Nougat OS; Clean; slick and efficiently stripped-back interface; Google Assistant is impressive; Sharp; punchy and detailed screen; Comprehensive; high-quality camera

Sound quality is uncompetitive; Not fully waterproof

Google is finally taking the smartphone fight seriously, launching two new handsets with one simple message: Pixel, Phone by Google. That might sound like a slightly gawky message, but it's laced with potency.

Great build quality and design; great camera; good battery life; uncluttered pure Android experience - with extras; unlimited photo storage

No microSD card slot; price; camera has some white balance issues

The downside, for me, is I often want to check the time or unlock the phone while it's lying on the table.

Eye-catching design; Fast camera – and no camera bump; Clever Google Assistant

Not waterproof; Average battery life; Not the bargain Nexus was

If you're going to switch to a Pixel phone, the Pixel XL with Google Assistant is worth the extra money

Brilliant battery life; excellent Google Assistant and lightweight

Hardware feels cheaper than it is

With such a big price difference, it's hard to recommend buying the Google Pixel XL here. For a lot less money you get the same Snapdragon 821 processor, premium design and large battery. Add in that OnePlus gets your more storage and RAM and you have a flagship killer.

Google, mighty overseer of the internet, has made a smartphone. The Nexus-brand notwithstanding, this time around the firm has done the design, engineering and testing wholly in-house.

Display - XL The first major difference that we find on the Google Pixel XL is a larger 5.5" AMOLED displayed. This gives the user an extra half inch of screen to enjoy and its inclusion only adds 11mm to its height and 6mm to its width.

The Google Pixel is a very good smartphone, but it's also very expensive. It starts at ￡719 for the 32GB Pixel and runs up to ￡819 for the 128GB Pixel XL. Those are iPhone 7 and 7 Plus prices for a phone whose predecessors from the Nexus range were best known for their unbeatable bang-for-buck.

The new Google Pixel phone and its supersized cousin, the Google Pixel XL, represent a paradigm shift in the smartphone world. Although this isn't the first time the search giant has sold smartphones under its own name, it's the first time it has marketed them under the Pixel brand.

Before we jump into a discussion about the Pixel XL, we wanted to set out our review methodology. We've had the Pixel XL in our office since Friday last week, and this is going out at 12.01 am on Thursday morning.