Live Pixel 9 Pro photos show controversial design changes

Google has largely stuck with the same design for its flagship phones since the Pixel 6 introduced the rear camera bar layout, but that appears set to change with this year’s Pixel 9 series. After introducing a search bar look for the camera cutout on the Pixel 8, it seems the company is going all in with that design language for its 2024 flagships, morphing the camera bar into a pill-shaped rounded protrusion. Now, a leaked set of live photos of what appears to be the Pixel 9 Pro gives us our best look yet at the new design changes, and some of them might not be well-received.

Russian-language site Rozetked posted a set of live photos showing the upcoming device from all angles (via Google News Telegram). In them, you can see the new rounded camera bar, which appears to be the only piece of metal on the outside of the phone that isn’t finished with a mirror polish. The frame is much flatter than the Pixel 8 Pro’s rounded sides, but there’s a slight curve to the metal as it meets the glass of the front and back panels.

One change that might be controversial with longtime Pixel users is the fact that the symmetric bottom speaker and mic cutouts are no longer present, with the cutout on the right being replaced with the SIM card tray, which has moved from the left side of the phone. However, this is more of a cosmetic change than a functional one, as the cutout being displaced is the one for the microphone, which appears to have been replaced by a hole rather than a slot.

The corners of the phone in these pictures are more rounded than those of the Pixel 8 series, which had already increased the corner radius compared to the Pixel 7 series. This gives Google’s phone a similar silhouette to Apple’s iPhone 15 series and mirrors leaks we’ve seen of the Pixel 8a that show an increased corner radius as well.

Source: Rozetked

If you’re wondering why the Pixel 9 Pro looks so small next to what appears to be an iPhone 14 Pro Max, it’s because Google is rumored to be releasing three (and possibly four) Pixel 9 models this year. If previous reports hold true, there would be an entry-level Pixel 9, roughly the same size as this year’s Pixel 8, which would continue to use a dual rear camera system and a flat or brushed finish on the metal frame. In addition to that, there would be two Pro models — the smaller Pixel 9 Pro pictured here, as well as a Pixel 9 Pro XL. Both of these phones would offer Google’s most premium features, like a triple camera array, polished metal frames, and undisclosed software upgrades.

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We also get confirmation of a few hardware specs if these images ultimately prove to be the real deal. In one photo, you can see the phone’s fastboot menu, which shows the device with a 128GB storage chip made by Samsung. This is likely to be the base storage level, as last year’s Pixel 8 Pro was available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage tiers. We can also see that this variant has 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM manufactured by Micron, pointing to a significant upgrade from the Pixel 8 Pro, which was only available with 12GB of RAM.

Thanks: Armando