Google’s Pixel smartphone series has become something of an anomaly in the smartphone market. When it comes to hype, Google’s Pixel phones are always among the most talked-about Android phones when they begin to leak ahead of launch. Pre-launch buzz is par for the course for any unreleased smartphone when leaks start picking up steam, of course. But what’s interesting about Google phones like the upcoming Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL is the amount of chatter they stir up.
There is so much hype surrounding the Pixel 4 series but when it comes to sales, Google’s Pixel smartphones are barely a blip on the radar. Apple’s iPhones, Samsung’s Galaxy flagships, and Huawei’s high-end handsets sell by the millions all over the world. Meanwhile, Google’s Pixel phones have always been a big disappointment when it comes to sales, and things are actually getting worse, not better. “Hardware results reflect lower year-on-year sales of Pixel, reflecting in part heavy promotional activity industry-wide given some of the recent pressures in the premium smartphone market,” Google CFO Ruth Porat said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call back in April. That’s right, the Pixel 3 series is actually selling worse than the Pixel 2 series, which itself didn’t sell very well according to estimates.
Will the Pixel 4 be the big break Google is looking for?
The short answer to that last question is… probably not. There’s just too much competition out there right now, and Google’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL won’t have anywhere near as much support from retail sales associates as iPhones and Galaxy phones. On top of that, they won’t be available in nearly as many markets as Apple and Samsung’s smartphone lineups, and they also won’t have billions of marketing and advertising dollars behind them.
Yes, the odds are indeed stacked against Google’s new Pixel 4 series, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we can look forward to a big upgrade this year. Heck, Google already confirmed as much when it posted this image on one of its official Twitter accounts:
The image above confirms that the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will have a new square camera array that packs two sensors instead of one. These will be the first Pixel phones ever to have a dual-lens rear camera, and it’s still unclear exactly what purpose the second camera sensor will serve. Also unclear, at least based on this official teaser image, is pretty much everything else there is to know about the phone.
There are obviously plenty of rumors out there right now, but BGR’s reliable inside sources have been able to confirm a few key specs for both the Pixel 4 and the Pixel 4 XL.
First, we can confirm that the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will have slightly larger displays than the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. The Pixel 4’s display resolution is 2280 x 1080, while the Pixel 3 had a 2160 x 1080 screen. Meanwhile, the larger Pixel 4 XL has a 3040 x 1440-pixel display, which is an upgrade from the 2960 x 1440-pixel screen on the Pixel 3 XL.
On top of that, we can confirm that the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will both come with 6GB of RAM, which is an upgrade compared to the 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM in the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. We also know conclusively that there will be a 128GB storage option on both the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, though it’s still unclear what other capacities will be available. It’s also not clear if higher-end Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL models might come with additional RAM, but that’s not something Google has done in the past.
Google isn’t expected to announce the new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL until sometime in October, so there’s still plenty of time to learn more ahead of their release in just over three months.
