A real-life image depicting what is alleged to be a pair of tempered glass screen protectors for Google’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL emerged online on Monday, having surfaced on Chinese social media platform Weibo, though the original source was deleted within hours of being posted. The photograph that can be seen above indicates that only the larger Android flagship will feature a display notch, whereas its smaller counterpart will be more similar to the Pixel 2 XL in terms of the overall aesthetic due to its 18:9 (2:1) screen, though it still seems to be sporting slightly thicker bezels.
The protector supposedly designed for the Pixel 3 XL is indicative of a 19:9 display panel which lacks a traditional top bezel and instead features a cutout meant to accommodate an earpiece, ambient light sensor, and what’s believed to be a dual-camera setup. The protector associated with the smaller Pixel 3 also seems to have been made to account for a twin lens system being available on the front. While 3D cameras similar to the one found inside Apple’s iPhone X are expected to start being commercialized by Android device makers in the second half of the year, Google and its manufacturing partner(s) are unlikely to have found a way to implement such a setup into a small display notch, so the upcoming flagships will most likely lack that particular feature. Dual stereo speakers will once again be part of the package, as indicated by the same leak.
While the Alphabet-owned company has been resisting the twin sensor trend in the mobile industry for two product generations now, it appears it’s now ready to embrace it in its entirety, most likely by delivering a pair of devices with two dual-camera setups each. One of the main implications of the move is that Google may have retained HTC as one of its manufacturing partners and could end up diving delegating the actual production much like it did with the Pixel 2 lineup last year, commissioning LG to make the larger Android flagship and paying HTC to deliver the smaller one. HTC recently commercialized a device with two dual-lens setups in the form of the U12 Plus and as evidenced by the U11 family and its Edge Sense functionality from last year, the Taiwanese company is no stranger to implementing its technologies into Google’s products, with the Pixel 2 lineup featuring the same solution but simply changing its name to Active Edge. The Pixel 3 series is expected to be announced in early October alongside revised Pixel Buds and three Pixel-branded smartwatches running Wear OS, formerly known as Android Wear.