How Google is using the Pixel 2 and Oreo to take Android back from its partners

ith the Pixel 2, Google’s message is clear: For the best Android experience, come to us. Call it the Google stamp of approval. Where the Nexus phones were born of partnerships with the likes of HTC, Huawei, and LG, Google’s name was purposefully absent. They were “pure” Android phones. Even though the Pixel 2 and 2 XL are manufactured by HTC and LG, respectively, the ‘G’ logo on the back is there to remind us that it’s Google through and through. As Mario Queiroz recalled at the October 4 event: “We set out to design a phone ourselves because we believed we could make the smartphone