Pixel 4 XL hands-ons demo face unlock, 90Hz, and triple camera with night samples comparison

The fantastic camera experience is going to get even better, but we are a bit miffed about this revelation, as most rumors so far were for a second telephoto camera on the back. The third lens opening could thus be a time-of-flight or depth/color sensing which wasn't shared with leaksters as too mundane of an equipment then.

There was at least one speculation that the larger Pixel 4 XL will ship with an ultrawide angle camera, making for a trifecta of camera abilities similar to what Apple announced yesterday for the Pro versions of the new iPhone 11. Unfortunately, today's leaks kill that notion, as the sources say that the second camera is with telephoto lens. 

Mum's the word on the third thingy, but the system info screenshots name an OmniVision infrared module for face authentication, AR/VR eye-tracking and machine vision, so maybe that's it.

If so, we can't wait to hear what the smaller Pixel 4 will carry, as people have shown to prefer wide-angle before telephoto abilities for one reason or another, and maybe that is why Apple went with the latter for the affordable iPhone 11. We doubt that Google will differentiate them all that much considering that so far it's only been the display and battery that differed between the two Pixel models, so we'd bet on a zoom camera for the 4 as well.

Other than the eventual triple-camera set on the 4 XL, the live pictures from Genk don't reveal much that we don't already know - the wide forehead housing the Motion Sense radar, the glass back with black camera area that sits like sore thumb on the white model, and so on. 

There will indeed be new orange color, or, as the Pixel 3 XL codename tips it - a "Coral" one. The black model seems to carry a glossy finish, and the other two a matte one like the new iPhones, but we'll see what Google has in store for us with the smaller Pixel, too.

What it does confirm, though, are the specs - a 6.23" 1440p display, 3700 mAh battery, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, and Snapdragon 855. Move on, people, there's nothing here that we haven't heard so far. The new things that are brought to our attention, though, are the confirmation of the main and front camera resolutions of 12MP and 8MP, respectively, as you can see from the system info app snap below, as well as the 16MP secondary camera. 

The camera sensor models for the main wide camera and the selfie shooter are the same as on the Pixel 3 XL, so we'd expect the same great pics from them. The 16MP sensor, however, while clearly of Sony's making again, is the big unknown when it comes to quality. The camera samples below demonstrate zoomed-in details, so it's obviously a telephoto camera which will eventually be used for the portrait mode, too, as those face shots are rather different when compared with the results from the 3 XL below.

That third depth and AR/VR sensor opening sitting above the LED flash certainly has our interest piqued, though, and we are waiting on more camera info or demos to trickle down the pipe as we are nearing the October announcement date. Here are a few camera samples to tide you over until then.