As the announcement date comes closer, for quite some time, there were a couple of leaks of the new Google Pixel phone. Considering how things are going for a couple of years – nothing new here. There are leaks of pretty much every noticeable hardware well before the announcement. The production chain is so big it’s hard to keep something secret. On some point or another somebody will provide press with a photo, case or sometimes even device.
What’s surprising about this story is companies tweet on June 12th. Google provided photo of the device.
I still can’t wrap my head around this decision. At first, considering, the amount of leaks this made sense. It’s fun, it got a lot of press and device is already out there, so why not use it as an advantage. But then I’ve thought some more and decided I don’t like this move.
First, I don’t like leaks. That’s why I try to ignore it on Twitter, don’t open links if they are about unreleased product. I still like to be surprised. When Apple announces a new device, I want to see it first there, with the intended reveal.
So second comes right out of the first, if someone like me wasn’t following along all the leaks – why spoil the surprise? Now I’m sure what it will look like, we all now how new Android looks, because of the betas. So there is not much left there to announce.
Regarding the phone itself, the only notable thing is – two cameras and a camera bump. Why it’s something of notice? First, Google made of fun of Apple that they removed headphone jack from their phones, two years later it was gone from Pixel. Then they’ve took pride of how there was no camera bump and you could do all the effects with just one camera – seems they’ve changed their mind about that also.
Hope there are some software surprises left for the announcement as hardware seems like “announced” already.