Google's hardware chief has said its new flagship smartphone was designed to go on sale during an economic downturn.
As a result, the Pixel 5 has abandoned some of its predecessor's headline features and runs on a slower chip in order to be sold at a lower price.
However, it does gain 5G connectivity and some new photography capabilities.
Experts say it will face tough competition from other mid-range Android handsets, but the included bundle of Google services could help.
"To not bring to market a true flagship demonstrates Google is now thinking about the market in a very different way than it was last year," commented Ben Stanton from the tech consultancy Canalys.
"And on a price-specs basis alone, Google will probably lose to Samsung and Chinese competitors.
"Its key selling point, however, remains that it offers a stock Android experience with superfast updates."
This is a reference to the fact that many other Android device-makers layer their own proprietary user interfaces on top of Google's operating system, and typically take longer to offer software updates.
The device does benefit from some improvements, including being able to produce a shallow-focus effect in "super low-light conditions".
One of its rear cameras now has a wider angle lens than before. And there are a choice of new video stabilisation modes.
In addition, the RAM memory has been boosted to 8GB, which should help the phone switch from task-to-task more quickly.
And Google is bundling some of its subscription services including three months of its games-streaming platform Stadia and 100 gigabytes of online storage.
"Bundling three months of Stadia Pro cloud gaming with 5G Pixel phones is smart, because gamers benefit in particular from the 5G experience," commented Ian Fogg from OpenSignal.
