Do you like notches? I hope you like notches. Because if you’re considering the XL-sized version of Google’s upcoming Pixel 3, prepare yourselves.
Four pictures of the Pixel 3 XL’s white edition have popped up on the XDA Developers forum, although the phone reportedly won’t boot “because it was remotely erased by Google”. Still, the images off some interesting details that give us some points of speculation before Google’s next flagship drops later this year.
First off: this is a leak. There’s a good chance it’s one of the final prototypes, but far from the final production model itself. So the final render could have a much smaller notch than what’s displayed here.
Mind you, things are starting to add up. Earlier this year some shots of upcoming screen protectors for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL offered some insight into the potential designs of both phones.
The design and placement seem to largely match up with what was shown there, such as the dual-front cameras. The shot of the fastboot mode also reveals 4GB of Samsung LPDDR4X RAM. A previous leak also showed that the Pixel 3 had 4GB of Micron LPDDR4X RAM (with 128GB internal storage).
Let’s check out the back:
Image: XDA-developers / dr.guru
There’s just one lens on the back along with the fingerprint sensor, which all seems standard given the tech Google has rolled out in previous Pixel devices.
The question is really whether Google rolls out this general design, though. The notch isn’t as wide as what’s on the iPhone X, which covers most of the top of the screen. It is, however, taller. That in and of itself isn’t a big issue, but having a notch with a chin is a bit of a disappointment. But the speaker position at the bottom lines up with the speaker position for the shots of leaked screen protectors, and from a design standpoint having the speaker on the front would stop issues with your hand blocking the speaker.
Another feature to expect later this year will be the Pixel Stand, according to 9to5Google. A recent update to the Google app included a bunch of strings that contained the followed “trusted_dock_message”:
Your Assistant can use your personal info to make suggestions, answer questions, and take actions for you when your phone is locked and on your Pixel Stand
Get personalized help when your phone is on your Pixel Stand
A teardown of the APK also revealed some updates to Google Lens functionality, which includes the ability to answer a couple of short questions about a photo to help train Google to recognise what’s being shown.
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