There was no evangelistic whooping. An A-list band didn't appear on stage to play everyone out. There was a distinct lack of turtle necks.
Yet amidst the low key atmosphere of last night's "major" Google event, the all-consuming tech company released two Nexus phones on a par with Apple's latest slithers of smart.
Here's everything you need to know about the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.
Nexus 5X
- 5.2-inch screen
- Type C USB charger, with 10 minutes of charge getting you four hours of battery life
- 12 megapixel camera, with an impressive light sensor
- £339 for 16GB, £379 for 32GB
- Arrives 16 October
The "budget" option, if only in price. An LG-made Nexus phone, the 5X doesn't feel cheap: the screen is rich with colour, showing off the best of Android Marshmallow (the new OS) slick animations.
There's a rear fingerprint scanner, 4K video recording, 2GB RAM - all the stuff you'd want as standard on a modern smartphone. What makes the 5X impressive is a new trick inside its black box: the Android Sensor Hub is a low-power processor, that'll drag the background, battery-consuming functions of your phone off the main processor to ensure you're not plugging your phone in for a charge by 3pm. If it works, it's going to be a battery game-changer.
Nexus 6P
- 5.7-inch screen
- Type C charging
- Same strong rear camera as the 5X, 8MP front camera
- £449 for 32GB, £499 for 64GB and £579 for 128GB
The big one. Literally. Made by Chinese company Huawei, round the back of that 5.7-inch screen is a hand-filling all-metal case. Inside are a set of iPhone 6S-rivalling stats: a vast 3450 mAh battery, 64-bit processor, the same Android Sensor Hub of the 5X that'll push the juice of your battery further.
If you're an Android fan wanting a large phone, this is your new favourite handset.
