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00:00Recently, there was an alleged leak as to what the Pixel 4 XL would look like.
00:07And it was a very primitive leak.
00:09It wasn't particularly revealing, it was just a line drawing of some sort.
00:13But the internet ate it up.
00:14We all loved the idea of what that leak suggested.
00:17A couple renders were made of it, and a lot of websites were making articles about this
00:21thing.
00:22But it was the idea of what this thing represented that was so special about it.
00:26So what that leak suggested were three kind of standout features.
00:30The first is the disappearance of the giant notch on the Pixel 3 XL.
00:34This has one of the biggest notches in the industry, it's one of the ugliest notches
00:37right now, and they removed that and replaced it with a pill-shaped cutout, which is similar
00:42to the screens that we see on S10 devices.
00:45Those phones have an exclusive on the Samsung OLED punch hole screens, but that exclusivity
00:50is supposed to end sometime this year, which would line up nicely with the Pixel 4 launch
00:54in October.
00:56The second feature that kind of stood out was the removal of the fingerprint sensor
00:59on the back.
01:00And again, this is based on an alleged leak, but the removal of that fingerprint sensor
01:04would imply there's an in-screen fingerprint sensor.
01:07And the third feature is the presence of a dual camera system on the back of the phone.
01:11This is the first time a Pixel phone would ever have had a double camera on the back.
01:16So it's not that this leak is super unique or super cool, because, like, leaks are leaks,
01:20right?
01:21And we have no way to really judge the validity of that leak, but it is what that leak represented
01:25and the way that the internet acted to this, that kind of speaks volumes about Google Pixel
01:31phones in general.
01:32See, there has always been a problem with Pixel devices.
01:36They have excellent software, like literally the best software, in my opinion, on Android
01:41phones, but their hardware is so lackluster.
01:44They have had underwhelming hardware on their phones every single year, and to see a shift
01:48like that to what that leak would suggest would be a very big shift in what Google phones
01:52are all about.
01:53See, their software is so good.
01:56It's good to the point where it can alleviate some of the pressure of that poor hardware.
02:00They have amazing camera software, they have good AI features, they have a really clean
02:03UI, really simple, just really nice looking, but the hardware deficiencies are pretty evident.
02:09And it doesn't matter how big of a Pixel fan you are, you cannot deny that stuff like 4
02:13gigs of RAM, a big forehead, a big chin on the phone, a giant notch, a single camera
02:18on the back, like there's a lot of hardware features on the Pixel devices that feel just
02:22mediocre, especially at that price point.
02:25And when you try to sell a phone that looks like this, compared to the rest of the competition
02:28at that price point, it is hard.
02:30Like in 2019, you can't sell an ugly phone, and these are ugly phones by comparison.
02:36Pixel phones don't sell that well.
02:38They're great phones, but the hardware just does not match that price point, and software
02:42alone isn't enough to carry the sales of these devices.
02:45I mean, clearly that's the case, or else these things would be flying off their shelves.
02:49Google's philosophy on how they want to market these Pixel phones might be shifting.
02:53It's come to the point where you can't sell a phone just on the merit of software alone.
02:58You have to play that game of good hardware, because everybody else in the field is playing
03:03the hardware game, and they're doing such a good job at it.
03:05When you don't compete in the hardware game, you can't win.
03:08And I feel like Google's gotten to the point where they realize that you can't just base
03:11your phone on software.
03:13It has to be a hardware and software combination.
03:16So I'm hoping, I actually think that this is the year that we get some really good hardware
03:21from Google's Pixel phones.
03:22So, that's why I think all of us, myself included, have been so interested in that Pixel 4 XL leak.
03:28It looks legit, it looks awesome, and if it's real, I hope it's real, but if it's real,
03:33it's going to make a huge difference in how Pixel moves their phones.