Competition has become pretty stiff over the past couple of months, largely in part due to Google’s rebranding to Pixel from Nexus.

The biggest difference between Pixel and Nexus is that Pixel is Google’s first smartphone “designed and built by Google”, whereas Nexus was known for showcasing various Android manufacturers’ designs each year (for example, the Nexus 4 was created by LG and featured LG branding; the Galaxy Nexus was designed by Samsung and featured Samsung branding). And while it’s true that the Pixel was manufactured by HTC, the reason it doesn’t feature the HTC branding was because Google was the sole designer and overseer of the process; HTC simply manufactured it. With Nexus, the manufacturers were a part of the design process as well.

So the main change is that Google basically took over everything regarding Pixel, therefore granting the company the ability to take sole ownership. Pixel is Google’s first Google-branded foray into the smartphone market, and with a name as big as Google and a price as premium as Pixel’s, Google is giving off the impression that they are ready to compete with Apple head-on.

But how does the Pixel truly measure up to Apple’s titan, the iPhone? Is the premium price tag on the newcomer Pixel worth considering over the iPhone 7, a brand that has been the very definition of “premium” in the smartphone industry for nearly the past decade?

In my subjective opinion, yes, the Pixel is worth the premium price, but if you’re trying to compare it directly with the iPhone 7 you’re going to see a lot of “give and take” between the two’s features and specs that ultimately put them on equal footing. Let’s take a quick look at some of the differences between the two:

• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus feature less RAM than the Pixel. However, iOS is more memory-efficient than Android, and doesn’t need as much RAM as Android would.
• Pixel kept the beloved 3.5mm headphone jack; the iPhone didn’t.
• iPhone 7 features OIS; Pixel does not.
• Apple’s 3.2GHz A10 Fusion processor appears to be faster and more powerful than the Pixel’s 2.15GHz Snapdragon 821, but both are blazing fast and most people wouldn’t notice the difference.
• Google Assistant allows for a more natural conversation, which utilizes context clues from your prior queries to come up with an answer. Siri also does this occasionally, but it isn’t as common for Siri as it is for Google Assistant currently. With that in mind, Siri has its own strengths against Google Assistant, and both are quite advanced.
• Neither phone have a microSD card slot, and both offer 32 and 128GB of internal storage, but the iPhone 7 offers an additional tier of 256GB of internal storage.
• Pixel is VR-ready, while the iPhone 7 is not.
• Both are universally carrier-friendly, but Verizon is Pixel’s only carrier partner.
• Pixel utilizes fast-charging, gaining 7 hours of usage after just 15 minutes of charging. The iPhone 7 does not charge as quickly.
• Pixel uses Android; iPhone uses iOS.

Those are most of the major differences I found. Pixel may be a new brand, but Google is no stranger to the smartphone industry. I think it will take a couple of years for people to put Pixel at the same rank as the iPhone or Galaxy (well, Galaxy may be easier to tackle now), but overall I think the Google Pixel is a good, solid rival to Apple’s iPhone. Both are worth considering for those who are in the market for a flagship device and aren’t partial to one operating system.

Readers, what are your thoughts on both devices? Do you think one is significantly better than the other? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!