When Google announced its Pixel, at $649 it was met with severe criticism over a phone that was running stock Android and a virtual assistant that would eventually make its way to other devices in foreseeable future.

Bottom line was that in our opinion, it was unnecessarily competing with the iPhone but it still brought mild levels of success for the company so it appears that pricing the Pixel at a premium range was a formula that has worked in the company’s favor. Now according to an interview, a Google executive who led the hardware team in making the Pixel states that the upcoming Pixel 2 is going to remain at that premium price point, but we should anticipate a hefty amount of improvements from the device.

Google’s Rick Osterloh Claims That as far as Pricing Goes, the Pixel 2 Is Going to Remain at the Higher-End of the Chain

In an interview with Google’s Rick Osterloh, the head of the hardware team that was responsible for the Pixel coming into this world, AndroidPit asked him a few questions, but the one that really caught our attention what the pricing range of the Pixel 2, to which Osterloh replied as follows:

“Pixel stays premium”

This could mean one of two things. Either Google is going to price the Pixel 2 at a price of $649 for the base model, or the starting price of the phone is going to be much higher than that of the original. If the latter is going to be the case then at least we can expect a large number of improvements from the device. First off, the original Pixel lineup came with a fair amount of top and bottom bezels, and we do not have an idea as to why this was being done because both smartphones have interactive soft buttons present on the display.

In short, we are expecting Google to take the same approach that LG took with its G6 and what Samsung is going to be taking with its upcoming Galaxy S8. Looks like our dream of witnessing the launch of an affordable Pixel 2 have been shattered completely, but somehow we still linger onto some hope.