ISSUE 66 • ANDROID ADVISOR 103OPINIONGoogle calls it Motion Sense. It uses a series of
cameras, sensors, and a radar to let you perform
common phone actions such as skipping songs
and snoozing alarms without needing to touch
your phone’s display. It’s the kind of thing the you
can’t really judge until you try it, but I can safely say
this: Google is the only Android phone maker that
designs its phones around function, not form.
I’ve written more than a few articles bashing
the Pixel’s design, but now I’m thinking that maybe
Google is just playing a different game. Following
thelaunchofthePixel3aandwhatwe’veseenof
thePixel4,thatbezel‑heavy, utilitarian design isn’t
a deficiency—it’s a conscious decision. As such, the
Pixel 4 could be the most advanced phone of the
year, despite its lack of actual glamour.
If you took a poll of smartphone users asking
whether they would be willing to sacrifice innovation,
battery life, functionality, and fragility for smaller
bezels, I’m pretty sure that close to 100 percent of
responders would happily take a couple millimetres
of bezel. It’ll be interesting to see whether Google’s
stand against the trend will remind the rest ofthe
smartphone world that real beauty is only bezel‑deep.