Google made an announcement in 2017 pertaining to the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL smartphones. HTC was entrusted with the creation of the Pixel 2, and LG was behind the development of the Pixel 2 XL. The original plan laid out by Google admitted that HTC was supposed to release the Pixel 2 XL, but in the end, the project was handed over to LG.
Recently in a YouTube video uploaded by Calyz Hikari, the design of the discarded prototype of the Pixel 2 XL from HTC came to the front. The smartphone bore the codename of Muskie. Initially, the smartphone was thought to be a smartphone similar to the HTC U11+; however, the recent YouTube video confirms that this is not the case for the new Pixel phone.
The smartphone comes encased inside huge bezels above and below the display which discards the fact that the HTC U11+ cannot be the smartphone in question. As the bezels occupy a considerable space on the body of the smartphone, it rules out Pixel 2 XL. Thereby, the mysterious smartphone has to be the Pixel 2 which also received wide bezels and a screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9.
On the back of the smartphone, only a single primary camera has been spotted. A flash mounted on the upper left controller accompanies the camera lens. The video also reveals that smartphones will come in two separate colors. For privacy and security, the smartphone carries an in-display fingerprint scanner. Moreover, the smartphone seems to be running on Android Oreo with the May 2017 security patch.
For the latest Pixel smartphone, Google decided against the 16:9 display option and went for the 18:9 display. This indeed was a smartphone on Google’s part as quite a number of smartphone manufacturers had done away with the traditional 16:9 aspect. Maybe this was one of the reasons for pulling back the model.
