Google has filed a patent that could give us some clues about the next-generation of Pixel smartphones.
The patent, which recently popped up on the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s website, shows an all-screen design for a mystery smartphone. This design would certainly catch Google up to some of its prime competition in the smartphone market. It's an important but obvious choice for Google in its Pixel smartphone series, as it seems like every company that produces phones is racing to see how small the bezels can get around the display.
The patent listing, spotted by 91mobiles, includes some sketches of the unannounced device, giving us some idea about Google’s plans. It’s too early to say definitively that this is an early design for Pixel 4 devices, but the sketches show some of the trademark features of Google's flagship smartphone line, especially when looking at the back, which quite clearly has a two-tone look.
From the illustrations we can see the phone will have a near bezel-less design and no notch. The device also has a single rear camera with a flash. And it has a fingerprint sensor on the rear, power and volume buttons on the right side, and a SIM card tray on the left. Google will continue using the USB Type-C on the bottom, it looks like. Lastly, this device lacks a headphone jack.
Google unveiled the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL last October and is reportedly working on more affordable versions of those phones, thought to be called the Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 XL Lite. We don’t know when those phones will be released yet, but it'll be well before we likely see anything about this newly patented Google phone.