Here’s your best look so far at the Google Pixel.
At Venturebeat, Evan Blass of @evleaks fame procured what is says is an official render of Google’s next smartphone, which is widely expected to be unveiled at an Oct. 4 event in San Francisco.
The Pixel will be the smaller of a pair of phones, with the larger dubbed the Pixel XL. Google is leaving behind the Nexus line and marketing the phones as designed and built entirely by the company, according to this report and numerous other leaks.
On the spec front, the Pixel’s expected to have a five-inch, 1080p display, a quad-core 2.0GHz, a 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 2,770mAh battery, and a 12MP rear camera with an 8MP front shooter.
The larger Pixel XL will reportedly pack a 5.5-inch screen, quad-HD display, and a 3,450mAh battery while matching the other specs. Google is keeping the headphone jack and putting a fingerprint scanner on the back, just as it did with the current Nexus phones.
You probably noticed the phone pictured in the rendering has a new launcher, which we’ve seen appear out in the wild before. The Google search bar has been replaced by a pull-out tab that takes you into the Google app, while the app icons have all been rounded, which indicates Google is taking another page from iOS and attempting to smooth out the launcher’s look.
The new premium branding looks like it will come at a premium price though. Android Police reports the smaller phone will start at $649, far more expensive than the entry-level Nexus 5X that can be had for $349. And Venturebeat’s Evan Blass has said the phones will be sold through Verizon along with the usual unlocked options.
Why this matters: The picture’s rapidly coming into focus for Google’s Pixel phone plans. We’ll be at the Sept. 4 event to hear all about not only the Pixel, but the other hardware Google is rumored to show off. We may also find out more about the rumored Andromeda operating system that may first run on a Huawei-built tablet.
