After the poor show put up by Pixel and Pixel XL, Google plans on making a comeback and doing justice to its “premium” brand. The company is already working on the next generation of the devices – Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL – and going by its hardware boss Rick Osterloh, we could be seeing them around the second half of 2017.
That said, it is also worthy to note that Osterloh said the Pixel brand will stay “Premium”. While this suggests a hefty price bracket for the upcoming phones, it also points to some big hardware changes, especially on the design front.
A New Design And Display
As Google’s polarising design strategy for Pixel and Pixel XL was heavily criticised, the first thing the company would want to upgrade would be their look and feel. According to latest rumours, the search giant is taking the feedbacks seriously and is planning a whole new design for Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. The company has already offered LG display one trillion Korean won to revamp its OLED display production, which could mean that just like Samsung and Apple, Google is also planning on bringing OLED into its next flagship.
As Pixels don’t have home button anyway, the idea of a large OLED panel adds up perfectly. OLED screens don’t offer too many features, but they’re aesthetically pleasing for sure. This paired with water and dust proofing could be a game-changer for Google, especially at a time when it’s up against Samsung, whose OLED adoption has been well received in the market.
However, just because an OLED panel is flexible, you should not deduce that S8-like curves are also guaranteed. Things are heading in a very different direction and Pixel could probably boast a lot more than we think.
Snapdragon 835 Under The Hood
On the inside, Snapdragon 835 – Qualcomm’s latest top-tier processor – is rumoured to show up with Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. This is the same chipset that throttles Galaxy S8 and is set to power other flagships that are coming this year. SD835 would cut down power consumption and heating by a significant margin, and will probably pair up with 6 gigabytes of RAM, and 128GB and 256GB of storage options for enhanced performance.
Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL Codenames
Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have already been spotted on Android Open Source Project with their codenames “Walleye” and “Muskie”. Those familiar with Google’s internal operations must already know that a bunch of its phones are named after aquatic animals. For instance, last year’s Pixel and Pixel XL were named “Sailfish” and “Marlin”.
But, besides these two, a third device codenamed “Taimen” also appeared on the AOSP. This one is a much larger device, probably hinting towards a new tablet from the search giant.
Plausible September Release
Either way, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL will bring a bunch of upgrades over their predecessors. The two smartphones are rumoured to be unveiled in September, but until an official statement comes out, let’s just say they’re still in the works. For the starters, we can expect HTC manufactured Pixel 2 & Pixel 2 XL. The Taiwanese giant had won Google’s two-year contract to manufacture Pixel devices and going by recent rumours, it would be handling manufacturing this year as well!