Google's familiar-looking Pixel 7 and 7 Pro 'may' be released sooner than you'd expect
For a pair of high-end smartphones widely expected to come out no earlier than October, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro have sure been making a lot of headlines lately, most likely already revealing their designs in pretty great detail.
But while Google does have a long history of letting big secrets slip many months in advance of its official product announcements, one of the reasons why we (purportedly) know so much about the company's next hero devices might actually be an early launch... for a change.
Will the iPhone 14 family get direct competition in September?
All early signs point to the Pixel 7 generation being about refinement rather than radical change, and with the global chip situation looking more and more encouraging by the day, Google might be able to produce a larger number of handsets more easily than last year.
The Pixel 7 Pro (rendered above) doesn't look all that different from the Pixel 6 Pro (pictured here).
Of course, all of this is mere conjecture on our part, but that's not what we can say about Ross Young's prediction of a panel shipment start in May. This is an industry expert who knows a lot about smartphone displays, so you can be all but certain that his latest prophecy will come true.
Naturally, that doesn't mean the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro stand any chance of seeing daylight in May... or June, or July, or even August. But September is a definite possibility given that the two phones are apparently roughly a month ahead of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro schedule, at least for now.
Then again, Google could always use that extra time to try to perfect the second-gen Tensor processor or polish the recently leaked designs before unveiling and releasing the Pixel 7 duo in a traditional October timeframe. Finally, there's a chance the company will simply look to manufacture more devices than ever ahead of an October launch to boost its still-modest global (and US) sales numbers.
While a September debut directly against the iPhone 14 roster certainly sounds... exciting, the other two theories also paint a much prettier picture than what happened with Pixel 6 availability last year, so either way, Google is likely to become a bigger threat than ever for Apple (and Samsung) in 2022.
No big screen size changes in the pipeline
The other part of Ross Young's newest prediction is as unsurprising as it is unexciting, calling for a 6.3-inch "vanilla" Pixel 7 and a 6.7-inch ultra-premium Pixel 7 Pro.
If those numbers happen to sound familiar, that might be because the Pixel 6 Pro also sports a 6.7-inch display, while the "regular-sized" Pixel 6 actually offers a little more screen real estate than its successor is expected to offer, at 6.4 inches.
This is (most likely) the 6.3-inch Pixel 7.
The Pixel 7's tiny screen size downgrade, which you're unlikely to notice out in the real world, was fairly easy to anticipate based on the 155.6 x 73.1 x 8.7mm overall dimensions revealed by Steve Hemmerstoffer along with factory CAD-based renders last month.
That makes for an ever so slightly shorter, narrower, and yes, thinner device than the Pixel 6, which probably means the hefty 4,600mAh or so battery under the 6.4-incher's hood could be downgraded by 100 or 200mAh as well.
Meanwhile, the same rock-solid source tipped nearly identical measurements for the Pixel 7 Pro as its 6.7-inch predecessor, so it definitely makes perfect sense for the screen diagonal and 5,000mAh battery capacity to go unchanged.
Ross Young also "believes" the Pixel 7 Pro will support 120Hz display refresh rate and LTPO technology, which seems to suggest the non-Pro model could play things just as safe as its 90Hz and non-LTPO forerunner, most likely to keep production costs and resulting retail prices in check.
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