Between now and the end of the year, there are four major smartphone launches due that we know of: Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, Apple’s iPhone 8, LG’s V30 and Google’s second generation of Pixel smartphones.
However, two of these products are actually being built by the same company, and as more and more rumours and specs emerge about the V30 and Pixel XL (or Pixel XXL, if you want to be more specific) the two phones are actually beginning to sound more and more alike.
The original HTC-built Pixel and Pixel XL are said to have moved over 2.1 million units since their launch in September 2016. Google’s follow-up devices are expected to release between August and October this year in order to coincide with the release of the Android O software update.
As originally reported by Android Police, the successor to the original 5.5-inch Pixel XL (code-named “Muskie”) has been shelved in favor of a 5.8-inch device (codenamed “Taimen”). However, where Muskie was being built by HTC (who built last year’s Pixel devices), Taimen is being built by LG.
Though previous reports had seemed to suggest that Google planned to continue to work with HTC on Pixel devices for at least another year, the choice to jump ship to LG (at-least in part) suggests that features like an OLED display might come to the Pixel range sooner rather than later.
With both Samsung and Apple having moved to OLED this year, the pressure has been building for other major brands to follow suit. Google has reportedly invested almost $900M in LG Display in order to ensure this happens to the Pixel.
What’s more, following their investment in ramping up LG’s production capabilities, word quickly surfaced that both the V30 and G7 would feature OLED displays as well.
In fact, when you gather up the details that have emerged for both handsets, they do sound very similar.
Both the V30 and new Pixel (X)XL have been tipped to feature waterproofing, a 5.8-inch display, 2.4Ghz Snapdragon processor, 4GBs of RAM and dual-lens camera.
Given reports that LG’s V30 will be dropping the most memorable feature of its predecessor – the second screen – it almost makes you wonder if the Pixel XL will just be the V30 by another name?
