Android is all about customization, and some believe that the customization should not end at the bezel of the phone’s screen. Google subscribes to that belief, which is why they created Live Cases, cusotmizable, to-order cases for their Nexus lineup that buyers could put their own pictures on, or choose from a range of pre-made photos and works of art. The cases would transmit those designs to the phone via NFC, allowing the inside and outside of the phone to sport the same look. The cases were, of course, fairly slim to show off the design of the phones they were placed on, while also boasting decent protection chops. At today’s big event, Google revealed that the Pixel and Pixel XL, the first in the new Pixel family of smartphones from Google, will have their own Live Cases available.
The new lineup of live cases can be customized with a user’s own photo, as the models before them could, but also have a fairly extensive new gallery to pick images from, if a user decides to go with a design from Google’s house of images instead of their own. The set of pictures this time around includes a number of traditional photography pieces, works of art by the likes of FAILE and Justin Maller among others, and even photographs taken from space by astronaut Chris Hadfield, giving the people a wider selection than ever of potential designs for their Live Cases.
The original lineup of Live Cases cost $35 a pop, and had the NFC functionality with the chosen image baked in. The Google representative who took the stage to make the big reveal for the new generation of Live Cases did not specify whether they will have the NFC feature on board, or what the price will be. While it’s easy to assume that the NFC functionality will be on board, that is still speculation. Likewise, there could be other features that were not touched on during the big reveal. The price, as well, could easily change between generations thanks to the tech used to make the cases getting cheaper, or Google deciding to drop the price to raise interest in the Live Cases.