We’re only a day and a few hours away from Google’s next big event, where’s it’s slated to unveil a wide range of new hardware, and UK retailer Carphone Warehouse has already jumped the gun by leaking pictures and specifications for the company’s new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones.
CW’s pages reveal pretty much everything about the two new handsets, save for pricing and availability. It’s worth noting that since that these details are from a third-party retailer and not directly from Google, so they may be subject to change.
From the images, it looks like both the Pixel and Pixel XL have large bezels at the top and bottom of the screen, along with prominent antenna bands along the back and sides, and a mirror-finish panel taking up the top half of the phones’ rear where the camera and fingerprint sensor are housed.
CW highlights features made possible by Google’s cloud-based services, including its AI-powered Assistant for conversational search, Allo for messaging, Duo for FaceTime-style video calls and unlimited photo storage.
In addition, both devices are shown to support Live Cases, which were back covers that came with companion live wallpapers, previously made available for the Nexus 5X, 6 and 6P in April. However, while those featured images from Google Maps or photos you uploaded, CW mentions imagery from Google Trends and Google Earth, along with ‘striking images from around the world or top trending Google searches.’
Now for the specifications: back in June, rumors circulated about the 5-inch Pixel getting a quad-core 2.0GHz processor with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage. According to CW, those weren’t too far off the mark.
The retailer lists the Pixel as having a Snapdragon 821 2.15GHz processor, with your choice of 32GB or 128GB of space, as well as an microSD card slot for an extra 256GB.
The rear camera is a 12-megapixel shooter with an f/2.0 aperture; the screen is a Full HD AMOLED display protected by Gorilla Glass 4, and there’s an 8-megapixel camera above it. The handset is said to be powered by a 2,770mAh battery.
The Pixel XL’s page mentions a 5.5-inch Quad HD display with a 3,450mAh battery; other specifications, including Android Nougat 7.1 and the camera setup, remain the same as the smaller device. Both phones appear to be available in black and white.
With that, Google’s phones could go up against this year’s flagship phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7, the LG V20 and Xiaomi’s Mi 5s – but it’ll have to score high on performance and offer competitive pricing if it wants to win in 2016, as the Pixel handsets don’t appear to offer major discerning hardware features.
Naturally, we’ll only be able to confirm these details tomorrow at Google’s event. It’ll be livestreamed on the company’s YouTube channel; you can alternatively follow along here, as we’ll be reporting the announcements as they happen.
Update: Tipster extraordinaire Evan Blass has stumbled upon images of the Pixel and Pixel XL in blue and silver finishes. You can see what they look like in the tweet below.
Google Pixel (bottom) and Pixel XL (top) for Verizon Wireless, in blue and silver pic.twitter.com/o1phG9esbP
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 4, 2016
Follow our full coverage of Google’s hardware launch event here.
Join us on Facebook Live after the event as we discuss all the breaking Google product news.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.