Google Pixel 3 Leaked won’t surprise but it might delight you

Google Pixel 3 leaks and prejudgment in the buildup to the launch this week reminds me of how the original Pixel made its way into the world. Two years ago, as now, Google’s flagship phone set a new high-water mark for pre-announcement leaks. The original Pixel was also a dowdy slab of big-bezel electronics, and the new Pixel XL doesn’t do much better, featuring arguably the ugliest and most intrusive notch — a hotly-contested prize — we’ve yet seen.

The new Pixels look every bit as unexciting and quotidian as their predecessors. They have no sliding camera modules or iridescent paint jobs, and their new color this year seems almost reluctant to admit to being pink. I’ll understand if you find yourself underwhelmed.

Google's Pixel phone has already earned the prize for being the most comprehensively leaked (and prejudged) gadget in history.

— Vlad Savov (@vladsavov) October 4, 2016

But haven’t we already made the mistake of judging things on their appearance too quickly? Many of us freaked out about the iPhone X’s notch, however Apple’s iPhone sales have hardly been upset by it. I derided the unattractiveness of Apple’s AirPods when they were first announced, only to later eat my words. And when the original Pixel arrived at my home for review, I’ll never forget this, I found its design so bland that I left it in its box and instead spent time with Sony’s forgettable, but prettier, Xperia X-whatever of the time.

Also Read: Google Pixel: New Smartphone By Google, Interested?

When I did get around to checking out the Pixel, it’s safe to say that it transformed my mobile life. There is a distinct break between the pre-Pixel era of my phone photos — characterized by liberal use of filters, edits, and transformations from apps like Prisma — and the ones I started taking with the Pixel. It was the first phone that could legitimately compete with DSLR camera quality while still being a respectable modern smartphone. Unlike Nokia’s 808 PureView or Lumia 1020, the two previous awesome cameraphones, the Pixel ran the latest and best edition of Android, and so it was a device I actively wanted to use for everything else beside images.

The second-generation Pixel couldn’t possibly improve on the camera of the first, I thought, and it really didn’t need to. When Google reduced the pixel size (ironic or what?) on the imaging sensor of the Pixel 2, I worried that things might actually get worse, but the Pixel 2 turned out to be significantly better than the original. This year, I used the Pixel 2 XL exclusively to capture all my photos from the Paris and Geneva Motor Shows. And all my photos from Photokina in Cologne. Oh, and every single shot from Computex in Taipei. I also went to Tokyo for the first time, and my Pixel was the only device I needed: both to find my way around the world’s most intricate transport system and to capture the local sights.

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