Times Square teaser confirms Coral/Orange Google Pixel 4

Even if you're not a fan of Google or its ecosystem, you do have to admire what the company has done about leaks this year. Last year, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL leaked back in May, more than four months before the phones were announced. This year though, Google has decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So it tweeted a photo of the Pixel 4 once renders started to surface and confirmed the use of its Project Soli radar-based chip for a feature using hand gestures called Motion Sense. Google did this through a blog post and a released video. At the same time, the company revealed that yes, there will be a secure version of face unlock on the new Pixels that will use 3D mapping just like the iPhone does.

And today, Google also confirmed that the Coral/Orange colored Pixel that appeared in a series of hands-on videos and pictures is 100% legit. It did this by posting an advertisement where it was sure to be seen by a large number of consumers-in Times Square. Spotted by Reddit users with the handles LousyTX and NVRLand (via 9to5Google), the billboard shows the back camera module of the Pixel 4 with the words "Hey Google, set a reminder for October 15th." That date, of course, is when Google will hold its next Made by Google event and we should see the latest Pixels unveiled at that time.

This isn't the first time that Google used the bright lights of Times Square to promote a new handset. You might recall that back in November 2009, Google allowed consumers to call a number or enter on a website a location that they wanted the directions to. The giant NASDAQ sign in Times Square showed the results of these requests; this was done to promote the turn-by-turn directions that were available for the Motorola DROID using Google Maps right out of the box.

The Pixel 4 series has now had two of its expected three color options outed by Google. The company has disseminated a photo of the Pixel 4 in Black and has now revealed that the Coral/Orange color is real. The third color choice could be a White/Panda model.

The Pixel 4 XL is expected to come with a 6.3-inch AMOLED display with a 1440 x 3040 resolution (19:9 aspect ratio) and a 90Hz refresh rate. This is 50% faster than the speed at which traditional smartphones refresh and should provide users with a buttery smooth scrolling experience. Under the hood will be the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform along with 6GB of memory and 64GB/128GB of native storage. Google is taking some heat here for not going with the overclocked Snapdragon 855+ with its enhanced Adreno 640 GPU providing a 15% bump in graphics performance.

The phone will come with three sensors on the back, housed in a square camera module in the upper left corner. There will be a 12.2MP primary camera, a telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom (8x hybrid zoom) and either a Time of Flight depth sensor or a spectral sensor that can show infrared and ultraviolet beams and X-rays; these are undetectable by the human eye. A feature called Motion Mode will snap action photos with a moving subject in the foreground and a blurred out background. The next generation of Night Sight will have a setting allowing the camera to take a longer exposure for astrophotography. The latter is a fancy name for photos shot of the night sky including the stars. And there is speculation that the cameras will use the wide-gamut P3 color capture employed by Apple. This would allow the Pixel 4 cameras to capture a 25% wider range of colors.

The Pixel 4 is expected to carry a smaller 5.7-inch AMOLED display with a 1080 x 2280 resolution. The rear camera module will not offer the third sensor. The remaining specs will be the same except for the battery. The Pixel 4 XL will feature a 3700mAh capacity battery while the one inside the Pixel 4 will weigh in at 2800mAh.

Now the question is, what will Google reveal next?