In this week's blog, we take a brief, but detailed look at the as yet unconfirmed Google Pixel 3 XL, as well as give some thoughts on the recently rumored 3rd Google smartphone that may be showing up on October 9th.
Loose Lips Sink Ships
So let's talk about the elephant in the room.
Roughly a month and change away from what will allegedly be the official announcement of the new Pixel lineup, there has been a veritable deluge of leaks surrounding the Google Pixel 3 XL (I'll be using GP3XL for the rest of this post). Although we aren't really certain if all the news trickling out of Russia regarding the upcoming flagship can be trusted (there's that whole misspelling thing to consider), there is a considerable amount of corroborating information that has, at least in part, confirmed most of what we suspect.
"Known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns..." - Donald Rumsfeld
There is so, so much we don't yet know about the upcoming lineup. And although the leaks about the GP3XL are coming in hot and heavy, we know virtually nothing about the presumably smaller GP3. So let's go with what we think we know about the Google Pixel 3 XL.
The Google Pixel 3 XL
Now I should preface this by saying that I don't tend to invest too much into rumors (I know, I know, the irony), so when the first alleged spottings of the GP3XL in the wild started blowing up the tech blogs, I didn't really think too much of it. I mean I, like many, thought this was just another case of a careless developer and that despite the tease, we shouldn't hope for much in the way of seeing the device before its fall launch.
But then MobileSyrup spotted one in the wild and took a pic of it in action. And that was the beginning of the flood. In the past couple of weeks (as of the time of this post), leaks started with a trickle out of Russia and then conjecture turned into semi-tangible posts with photos. Photos then turned into black market sales and now here we are. So what do we think we know about the GP3XL?
Here's the TL;DR rundown of what we are expecting to hear from Google this October:
- There's gonna be a big ol' honking notch
- The notch will likely "hide" two cameras and a variety of sensors
- The two front cameras are rumored to be 8MP+8MP setup (f2.2)
- Rear camera is rumored to be an updated 12MP version of the current one found on the GP2XL
- Both are rumored to support HDR and other shooting modes
- The notch will only partially obscure the rumored 1440x2960 display
- The rumored display will land somewhere between 6.2 and 6.7 inches in size
- Many analysts believe the display will come in at 6.2 inches
- The GP3XL may have a P-OLED display with Corning's Gorilla Glass v5
- In addition to the notch-cameras, we believe that the GP3XL will also come with two front facing speakers
- If annoying your neighbors with your terrible music sounds unsavory, Google is rumored to also be including an updated, wired version of their Pixel Buds
- Rumored physical dimensions are 158mm x 76.6mm x 7.9mm
- Octa core processor (likely the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845)
- 6GB of RAM, though some believe multiple RAM options will be likely
- Powering all of that will be a 3600 mAh battery (up from 3520 mAh on GP2XL)
- Internal storage is rumored to start at 64GB and progress to 512GB
- May have the option for dual-SIM use
- Is rumored to be IPX67 water resistant
- The GP3XL is also supposed to include quick charging as an option
- Inside of the box, we expect to see the wired Pixel Buds, USB-C to USB-C charging cable, wall plug, USB-C to USB-A adapter, as well as a USB-C headphone adapter
- Google has confirmed that the GP3XL will be running Android Pie right out of the box
Digging Deeper
It's kind of a shame not to have more info about the Google Pixel 3 at this time. I know that despite the features, I'm not a huge fan of the notch. That said, it does look like there will be at least a few neat new tricks for both devices when they launch this October.
One of which may be some additional shooting modes for all your pics and selfies. An improved portrait mode with beauty retouching, as well as the cryptically named "Natural" and "Soft" modes, join the usual suspects and are now neatly housed in an easy-to-one-finger-navigate menu that is meant to be swiped when you are shooting.
Speaking of cameras, there's still no word yet about the function of the second front-facing camera. Rumors abound about how these cameras will be used; everything from facial unlock to super-wide selfies seems to have been suggested in recent weeks, but we're hoping that now that some users have gotten their hands on the GP3XL, some of those mysteries will be resolved in the coming days.
Smoke and Mirrors
I've purposely tap-danced around one seemingly crazy rumor that has, so far, not produced any tangible evidence to support it. That would be the rumored phantom phone the big G may also be releasing.
According to the Economic Times, Google may also be launching a third device aimed squarely at Apple products. Which Apple products remain to be seen, but the general discussion seems to center around either a top-tier device that can compete directly with the iPhone X or a lower-end phone for the rapidly growing Asian market (read: India and China). If rumors are to be believed, I would stake money on the latter, mostly because the information surrounding an iPhone SE competitor seems a little more plausible for a company that has been making great strides in recent years overseas.
In summary, we likely won't need to wait much longer to find out the answers to these and many other questions. If the October 9th release seems to be too far away, however, you can always sate your appetite with this alleged GP3XL unboxing and camera demo that popped up earlier this week on YouTube.
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