‘Shush mode' and camera the highlights of Google phones

Google’s new phones will make it easier to take group selfies, comes with an automatic ‘shush mode’, and will be available for the first time in Ireland since 2016.

‘Shush mode' and camera the highlights of Google phones

By Noel Campion

Google’s new phones will make it easier to take group selfies, comes with an automatic ‘shush mode’, and will be available for the first time in Ireland since 2016.

The Pixel 3, with a 5.5-inch screen, will be €899 (64GB) and €959 (128GB). The Pixel 3 XL, with a 6.3in screen, will cost €999 (64GB) and €1,099 (128GB).

Both sizes come in Just Black, Clearly White, and in Not Pink from the Google Store exclusively.

The biggest features come in the camera software. Like the Pixel 2, there’s a single rear 12MP camera, but at the launch in London, Google said all of the magic happens as a result of machine-learning and AI.

Among the improvements is portrait mode, which uses machine-learning and AI to isolate the subject by blurring the background. You can now also change the amount of blur after you take the photo. Traditionally, this is one of the main things that separates more expensive cameras such as DSLRs from smartphone cameras.

Night Sight mode is another new feature that works a lot like HDR — it takes several photos at once with different exposures and then in real time it will merge the images together and produce a properly exposed photo in dark scenes.

Group selfies are a thing nowadays and using the second wide-angle camera on the front of the Pixel 3, you can get more people and more of the scene into your selfies.

Photo Booth mode works on the front-facing camera by automatically capturing photos of people goofing off or smiling. This feature is ideal for capturing selfies with kids.

The new Top Shot feature is where the camera is continually taking photos while the app is open. When you press the shutter, it saves 1.5 seconds before and 1.5 after you pressed the shutter. This is a little like Live Photo on the iPhone and allows you to pick the best photo.

What Google is calling Digital Wellbeing is similar to Apple’s Screen Time. It shows how much time you are spending on your phone and on each app, how many notifications you get, and how many times you unlock your phone. You can restrict the amount of time you feel you should spend on apps.

Facing the phone down on a table puts it into Flip to Shush mode which is a ‘do not disturb’ feature of sorts. Picking the phone up again will automatically take the phone out of shush mode again.

Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are available for pre-order now and go on sale from November 1 from the Google Store and Vodafone Ireland.

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