Make way for the sequel: Google on Wednesday announced the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones, its follow-up devices to last year’s well-received but poor selling Pixel smartphones.

The search giant — which jumped into making a range of consumer electronics under the 'Made by Google' moniker a year ago — is hoping for a better result with these successor devices, especially as it takes on Apple and its $1,000 upcoming iPhone X. 

As with the first Pixel phones, Google is leveraging the capabilities of the artificial-intelligence-infused Google Assistant, which the company claims is even brainier than before. Indeed, Google CEO Sundar Pichai pumped up Google’s mission as being a AI-first, rather than mobile first, company.