India, Sept. 28 -- Smartphone upgrades used to be easy to explain. A faster chip, a better camera, a brighter screen or noticeably longer battery life was usually enough to make a new generation feel different. That rhythm has slowed, and the gap between one flagship generation and the next is often much smaller now.

Pixel phones have always taken a slightly different route. Google has generally relied more on software, computational photography and how tightly Android works with its own services, rather than trying to dominate every hardware specification on paper.

That is what makes a new Pixel worth examining. The point is not just to list what has changed, but to see whether those changes actually matter after living with the phone ...