A render depicting what’s said to be the upcoming Google Pixel 2 XL leaked online on Monday, having been shared by known industry insider Evan Blass on Twitter. The source also suggested that the official moniker of Google’s next phablet will be the “Pixel 2 XL” and not the “Pixel XL 2,” though previous reports on the matter have been highly inconsistent.
The image itself seems to be in line with recent reports about the larger member of the Pixel 2 series that’s presumed to be manufactured by LG Electronics, as indicated by what’s believed to be its FCC certification. The handset appears to be somewhat similar to the LG G6 and V30, adopting a largely bezel-free form factor and a tall display panel with an aspect ratio of 18:9, i.e. 2:1. The render also suggests that the Pixel 2 XL will feature two front-facing stereo speakers and have a screen with visibly rounded corners that stretches alongside the long edges of its case. The Pixel Launcher running on the depicted device is different to the one currently present on the 2016 Pixel smartphones, with its Google Search bar being situated near the bottom of the user interface instead of the top, immediately above the three on-screen system keys. The right edge of the alleged Pixel 2 XL accommodates two volume buttons placed beneath a power key, with the phone itself having no physical Home button on its slim bottom bezel. The top-left corner of the phablet features a single camera that’s rumored to be of the 8-megapixel variety, with the leaked device and its case being entirely black. Finally, the source also reiterated the opinion of many industry watchers on the supposed Pixel Ultra, stating that the leak in question was “a hoax.”
The next-generation Pixel devices are scheduled to be officially announced on Wednesday, October 4th, and are expected to become available for purchase in the United States by early November. The smaller Pixel 2 is rumored to succeed the overall design of the 2016 series and hence shouldn’t look like the newly leaked phablet, though it’s said to feature the same internal hardware, including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB of RAM, at least 64GB of non-expandable storage space, and Active Edge, a technology that’s said to be the rebranded version of HTC’s Edge Sense which debuted inside this year’s U11 flagship in the form of a pressure-sensitive frame which can be used for launching apps by squeezing the device.