The doors are finally off, and we have our first real look at the Google Pixel XL. Android Police obtained some renders of the larger of the two upcoming Pixel devices, the Pixel XL. It’s a design that’s a clear step up from last year’s phone, while still giving a nod to much of Google’s original design.
On the back, we have a half-textured finish and what looks like the same fingerprint sensor as last year’s phone — no under-display fingerprint sensor here, so it looks like Apple’s iPhone 8 thunder is well and truly safe.
The leak shows a device in a black/grey finish, but David Ruddock, the Android Police editor with the story, earlier confirmed that Google is thinking about some “interesting” color options for the second-gen Pixel.
https://twitter.com/RDR0b11/status/884501680024240132
Ruddock’s report says that LG is the manufacturer, and you can see some inspiration leaking in from the LG G6. As is the trend for 2017, the bezel has been shrunk down to as thin as possible, and the glass curves over towards the edge of the display — although the display itself is flat, not curved.
The screen is a 6-inch AMOLED with a 2:1 aspect ratio (unusually) and rounded corners. It should be a clean, minimalist design that looks a lot like all the other Android phones to have launched this year, truth be told.
The only major surprise is that Google is believed to have chosen a squeezable frame, much like this year’s HTC flagship. The feature wasn’t of all that much use on the HTC U11, but it’s easy to see Google coming up with a way to make the interaction more useful, especially given the resources it has to throw at software development.
Pricing, release date and internal specs are all up in the air currently, but we’d expect to see the Pixel 2XL and a revamped Pixel 2 launch sometime this fall for somewhere around $700.
