Google is on the verge of unveiling follow ups to its well-received Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. The upcoming handsets have already found their way onto the internet a few times in the past in the form of leaks and rumors.
Features and other details
If recently leaked renders are anything to go by, the larger of the two smartphones, codenamed Taimen could have smaller top and bottom bezels as compared to Pixel XL, its precursor.
Furthermore, an image of the upcoming Pixel smartphone (via VentureBeat) confirms it won't employ this seemingly common design element.
The report suggests Taimen, as well as Walleye, will not come with a dual rear camera setup. While the choice looked quite odd back in 2016, it appears completely off the wall especially in the face of the industry trend to deviate from singular cameras by popular handset manufacturers such as Samsung (for the Note 8), Apple (for the (iPhone 7 Plus), LG (for the G8), and Huawei (for P10).
On the contrary, it looks like the search giant has instructed HTC, which has been roped in to manufacture this year's Pixel smartphones, to make iterative design changes to the smaller of Google branded smartphones.
It can be recalled that last year Google assigned HTC the task of manufacturing the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphone.
Things have dramatically changed this time around with LG making the larger device.
It's worth noting that none of the HTC branded phones feature a radically scaled down forehead and chin; however, LG, on the other hand, has built the G6 and Q6, which features FullVision displays, with it's 18:9 screens covering the greater part of the devices' area.
With its Galaxy S8 and Note 8 flagship smartphones, Samsung is in favor of minimizing bezels this year. Aside from the popular South Korean handset manufacturer, Apple is also likely to adopt bezel minimization with its 10th anniversary iPhone.
Other features
HTC will be employing its expertise to bring in a couple of other features for Google’s 2017 Pixel smartphones including:
- Squeeze-sensitive frames, included in the Edge Sense feature found on 2017's U11 flagship
- Front-facing stereo speakers with BoomSound branding
While Google is following in the footsteps of other handset manufacturers in terms of flagship feature sets, it involves the exclusion, instead of addition of a once-standard element.
The report claims Google has decided to oust the 3.5mm headphone jacks on its upcoming devices just like Lenovo, HTC, and Apple.
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