Google’s latest Pixel vs iPhone ad is equal parts heartwarming and cringeworthy (video)

Even though Google has been (more or less) involved in the mobile hardware manufacturing business for over a decade, it’s definitely no secret that the replacement of the Nexus family with the Pixel smartphone line brought with it a major increase in the search giant’s resources invested in this industry.

Although the unlikely friendship between the two rivals certainly represents a nice change of pace from Samsung’s ultra-aggressive anti-Apple commercials of years past, the undertones of the ad campaign are obviously meant to highlight the Pixel’s superiority over the competition in various fields.

To its credit, Big G manages to tone down the iPhone mockery for this sixth installment in the “Best Phones Forever” series, clearly spreading more love than hate… while also finding the time to promote the Pixel 7’s Gorilla Glass coating (on both sides) and very neat Live Translate functionality.

Acknowledging the cringiness of these ads right off the bat is definitely a nice touch too, even if that doesn’t completely negate the point of commenters making the complaint. If anything, this is probably the most cringeworthy video in the series, at least so far, combining that with a heartwarming angle that you never see in commercials of this type and a solid dad joke towards the end revolving around the act of “shipping.”