In naïver times, we thought Google had suffered some pretty catastrophic leaks in the weeks ahead of its Pixel 3 launch. In fact, the Californian company itself joked about the prevalence of its unreleased hardware, suggesting that it could all have been planned from the start. Alas, that wasn't the case.
But while we had a pretty solid idea of what to expect with the Pixel 3, the leaks in the run-up to that launch event has nothing on the Google Pixel 4. The flagship handset has suffered a devastating flood of leaks.
Provided Google sticks with its typical launch schedule, we won't see the Pixel 4 until early October, which means we've still got a few weeks to go. And we've already seen an official advert for the Pixel 4, a hands on review, and all of the colours that will ship when the handset launches later this year. And to think we thought Google had ruined all of the surprise when it confirmed the design of the Pixel 4 months ago.
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The first hands on review of the Pixel 4 revealed some interesting new tidbits about the smartphone, including the fact that it will have a 90Hz high refresh rate OLED display – matching the flagship feature of the OnePlus 7 Pro.
According to Google, keeping the refresh rate at 90Hz – a feature that Google refers to as Smooth Display –will deplete your battery considerably faster. As such, the Pixel 4 will give users the option to keep the OLED display on 60Hz all the time.
It also revealed the white colour option from almost every angle, confirming that it will have a matte finish to the rear glass panel to make it grippier. The chassis will be black, with a peach-colour power button on the side.
The Pixel 4 featured in the video, which is purportedly an early demo unit and not the finalised commercial product, boasts a 6.2-inch OLED with a 3,040 x 1,440 resolution (that equals 540 pixels-per-inch), and is powered by a Snapdragon 855 chipset coupled with 6GB of RAM. For comparison, the display on the Pixel 3 had a pixel density of 443 pixels-per-inch, so the new handset should be visibly sharper.
Despite the unfinished nature of the device, the software running on the Pixel 4 in the video appears to confirm that will ship with a voice memo app preinstalled – something that has been missing from the smartphone series since launch.
Bafflingly, there is now more than one hands on review on YouTube for this as-yet unannounced flagship smartphone with channel Rabbit TV revealing all three colours finishes coming to the handset, including white, black and coral / peach.
In a nice twist, the coral / peach smartphone has a white power button.
The video also confirms the exact sensors that Google will be using for its next-generation smartphone – the Sony IMX481 for the telephoto, Sony IMX363 for wide-angle shots, and Sony IMX520 for the front-facing camera.
From that we can deduce that the Google Pixel 4 will be fitted with a 16MP telephoto lens, 8MP front-facing camera and a 12.2MP primary wide-angle camera. The latter is unchanged from the Pixel 3 – although that's not to say image quality won't see a boost.
As you'd expect from a Pixel-branded smartphone, Google appears to have made a number of improvements to the camera. The Rabbit TV video contains a number of sample images comparing the Pixel 4 with its predecessor and the results appear to confirm earlier whispers from the supply chain that the new flagship phone will improve Night Sight and Portrait Mode images.
Unfortunately, none of these leaksters have been able to test the incoming face unlock feature, or the gesture controls confirmed by Google since it seems the hardware need to test this has been disabled on early demo units.
Google is widely-expected to hold its annual Made By Google hardware event in early October, so there's not long to wait until we find out the remaining few details about the Google Pixel 4 – and get to make our own impressions on it.
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