I like it. Google being in the hardware game is only a good thing. I’m not a fan of Samsung and what they do with their phones, so having a phone completely designed and controlled by Google is good for consumers and the Android platform. It’s also good for Apple. Improvements to Android and also Android software only push Apple and iOS forward, and vice-versa. It’s an interesting decision to position it directly as an iPhone competitor - something Google haven’t done before. Samsung have done this previously but only with their high-end phones. This might be their biggest problem though: it’s the same price as the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 is a far more attractive phone. We’ll see how it sells once it’s release, but Google sure are expecting this phone to sell well based off of their huge marketing push over the last ~30 hours since the announcement.
— My response when asked to comment on the new Google Pixel smartphone announced yesterday. Tl;dr I like it more than anything Samsung have ever done.