Google’s next two Pixel smartphones are reportedly going by the codenames, “Muskie” and “Walleye”. The information comes from a new report out of Android Police which cites too different sources for the information. The first being a reference to the walleye naming which has been spotted in the Android Open Source Project (shown below), and the second being an unnamed source which has said to have ‘corroborated’ the information. At present though, it is only Walleye that has been spotted in the gerrit, which means that particular codename comes with more of a likelihood of being correct. Although, the report does detail that neither codenames are guaranteed at the moment.
In terms of the two phones, it seems Google is going to continue with a similar approach as was seen in 2016, with the launch of the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL. Namely, that Google will be releasing two Pixel phones and one of their most obvious differences (between each other) will be the size. It is currently understood that Walleye is expected to be the smaller device and Muskie, the larger device. Unfortunately, this is largely the extent to the new information coming in with no further details provided on either of the devices.
While this report does look to provide some context to what Google will likely bring to the smartphone table in 2017, this is not the first confirmation that has come through on an upcoming Pixel smartphone. Google’s own hardware chief, Rick Osterloh, had recently confirmed that a ‘Pixel 2’ is in the works and is due to be released this year on schedule. Although, at that time, there was no real mention of whether Google would maintain a dual Pixel smartphone release or whether they would change to a one-smartphone cycle. In spite of Muskie not showing up as readily as Walleye, this latest report does certainly seem to be confirming that there will indeed be two Pixel 2 smartphones coming. Unfortunately, the Osterloh report also did not provide much in the way of new information, although Osterloh was noted confirming that the Pixel 2 will be “premium” once again. Which can probably now be translated to both the Muskie and Walleye variants – as if last year was anything to go by, other than the screen size, resolution and battery life, there will be few, if any, other differences between them.