ISSUE 64 • ANDROID ADVISOR 13NEWS ANALYSIS- What’s the real killer feature?
If Google is showing off the camera now, what does it
have up its sleeve? Yes there will be new photography
features and possibly a time-of-flight camera, but
will the Pixel 4 also bring a new trademark feature
like Active Edge or Call Screen? Most of the Pixel’s
best features have come from Google’s incredible AI,
so we’ll be waiting for the ‘wow’ moment during the
press conference that trumps the new camera. - Does hardware even matter?
Most phone makers go to great lengths to quash leaks
and rumours so they can surprise fans on launch day,
but Google is flipping the script here. By showing us
the back of the phone months before it’s revealed,
it’s taking the emphasis off aesthetics as the most
important part of its new phone and putting the
focus on what it can do.
Phone fans and reviewers put a lot of stock in what
a handset looks like, but the Pixel has always bucked
that trend, scoring high marks despite its pedestrian
design. Even though this leak is showing off a major
change to the Pixel aesthetics, Google is giving us
plenty of time to soak in the new look so it won’t be
an issue – good or bad – when the phone actually
arrives. In short, it’s saying that what’s on the outside
doesn’t matter, it’s what inside that counts. That’s
always been the case with the Pixel, but now Google
is really driving it home.