T-Mobile might be making way for the Pixel 4a by pulling the Pixel 4 XL plug
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Google got a lot of flak for overpricing and underspeccing its high-end handsets last fall, but a number of killer deals and substantial discounts in recent months pretty much brought the Pixel 4 and 4 XL on par with their mid-range cousins. And while we definitely found it difficult to recommend you buy these Snapdragon 855 powerhouses with 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage space at starting prices of $800 and $900 respectively, being able to pay hundreds of bucks less radically changed the equation.
Besides, T-Mobile sometimes randomly pulls the plug on certain phones only to reconsider its decisions and reboot sales after a while. Then again, one eagle-eyed Redditor points out Samsung's non-5G Galaxy Note 10+ variant also vanished from Magenta's stores a week or so before pre-orders for the Galaxy S20 family started, and the S Pen-wielding 6.8-incher has yet to come back.
Unfortunately, Android purists who didn't get a chance to purchase a jumbo-sized model sporting a 6.3-inch P-OLED display and packing a respectable 3,700mAh battery at 500 bucks last month can no longer rely on T-Mobile to offer similar price cuts anytime soon. Or ever, as the "Un-carrier" appears to have silently discontinued the Google Pixel 4 XL while keeping the "regular-sized" 5.7-inch Pixel 4 around.
Curiously enough, the mid-end Pixel 3a and 3a XL are still sold through the nation's third-largest wireless service provider, so it's hard to tell if this early Pixel 4 XL retirement has anything to do with the impending release of the Pixel 4a. What we can say for sure is that recently leaked 4a prototype looked pretty much ready for primetime, so we wouldn't exactly be shocked to see the trendy hole punch-sporting mid-ranger unveiled in the very near future.
While a number of major tech events and product announcements have been cancelled or postponed lately, Google's own I/O conference included, the Pixel 4a looks like the kind of device that could escape the ongoing coronavirus pandemic with minimal damage. This is no iPhone 9, and if Google kicked off production early enough, the search giant might be able to satisfy initial demand with relative ease.
Of course, that's little more than conjecture on our part, especially seeing as how the Pixel 4 XL is still available from all other major US carriers, authorized retailers, and Google itself.
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