Google seems to have accidentally leaked its next flagship phone, the Google Pixel 8 Pro. And not only that, but it did so on its official website. The leak was spotted on the same day that Apple announced the launch date of the iPhone 15 series. Talk about consumer tech serendipity at its opportunistic best. The Pixel 8 Pro marketing render was first spotted on the official Google Store website’s subscriptions page by journalist Mishaal Rahman.
If you look closely, you can also spot a smartwatch in the picture, which many are claiming to be the Google Pixel Watch 2. The image was quickly yanked off the webpage, but not before it was spotted by a few keen eyes and shared widely online.
We get a good glimpse of the Pixel 8 Pro in its white (aka porcelain) finish, flaunting its shiny glass back and the camera island strip with a metallic luster on top. The looks match those of the leaked renders, in which we saw the Pixel 8 Pro in its obsidian black color.
The standout design element, this time, appears to be the cyclopse-ish oval lens cutout instead of the pill-plus-hole aesthetics we got on the Google Pixel 7 Pro. The rest of the build elements, including the glass-sandwich design and the rounded corners, are familiar.
Reportedly in development under the code name “husky,” the Pixel 8 Pro is slated for a fall debut during an event on October 4. However, I won’t be surprised if Google offers a better look at the device and some of its key tricks ahead of the launch event. Officially, that is. The company has been pulling this prelaunch soft reveal trick for the past few years, so it wouldn’t be unheard of if the Pixel 8 gets the same treatment.
The Pixel 8 Pro is rumored to offer a 6.7-inch OLED display and is said to draw power from the third-gen Tensor G silicon that will be based on the 3nm process, the same as Apple’s upcoming A17 Bionic chip destined for the iPhone 15 Pro.
Some camera improvements are also in tow, with the ultrawide camera getting upgraded to a 64-megapixel sensor. We’re also hearing chatter about an enhanced time-of-flight sensor and a thermal sensor, which can be seen sitting below the LED flash module.
Now, coming to the supposed Pixel Watch 2 seen in the image, it seems slimmer, the band color appears creamy (instead of white), and the rotating crown also looks slightly different. But then, it could also be due to the specific camera angle and the external lighting conditions.
I won’t put too much faith in those speculations, but if I were to make an educated guess, Google could recycle the original Pixel Watch’s design for its successor as well. It was quite a looker, even though the overall experience left a lot to be desired.
The Google Pixel 8 series and the second-gen Pixel Watch aren’t too far off from an official reveal, and given Google’s track record, more definitive leaks are going to pop up in the coming days.
