Mar 04, 2017 12:56 PM EST By Donna Mills, UniversityHerald Reporter

There are claims that a budget-friendly Pixel smartphone is being prepped by Google. Prepare to be disappointed for those of you who are looking forward to this, though, because the tech giant confirmed that a cheaper Pixel handset will not see the light of day.

Rick Osterloh, Google's head of hardware, recently told AndroidPit that Pixel smartphones will remain premium and that there will be no budget-friendly models for the brand. He added that Google is staying away from the low-priced smartphone market and they are letting other companies take over that specific area.

Osterloh confirmed that a new Pixel phone is coming this year, though he didn't provide any details about an exact release date. The Pixel 2 is already making waves in the rumor mill. The smartphone is expected to ditch bezels on its display, and is said to be equipped with dust and water resistance, TechnoBuffalo reported.

Google is making a huge effort on the Pixel 2's camera, so expect the phone to have excellent low-light photography but without the addition of megapixels. It's possible that Google will use machine learning to improve picture quality instead of equipping the handset with a faster lens and better image sensor.

The Pixel 2 is expected to be powered by Intel chips and Qualcomm's so-called Snapdragon 83X processor, which could be a better version of the Snapdragon 835. If it ships with Snapdragon 835 under its hood, the smartphone will have the Quick Charge 4.0 feature. Battery life will get beefed up, too, and there will be wireless charging and expandable internal storage.

Google is facing huge expectations for the Pixel 2's design. The company's biggest rivals, Apple and Samsung, are reportedly working on edge-to-edge displays for their upcoming smartphones, but there are no reports about Google following in their footsteps.

The original Pixel, which launched in 2016, didn't exactly showcase a stunning design. It remains to be seen whether the Pixel 2's design would wow everyone or it will eat dust left behind by the highly anticipated iPhone 8 and Samsung Galaxy S8.

The Pixel 2 will likely ship in two models: a version with a 5-inch screen and another at 5.7 inches. The device is expected to either have 4 GB or 6 GB RAM.

The Google Pixel 2 is expected to start selling at $700 for the standard 32 GB variant, Mashable reported. That's a $50 price bump from the current Pixel's $650 cost for the same model.

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