A pinch of salt required for latest Pixel 4 leak, but it still might not be to everyone's taste

Smartphone design has certainly evolved over the past 11 years or so since the iPhone arrived when it radically reshaping smartphones from being dominated by buttons including physical keyboards to being streamlined to just three or four. Since then, we’ve lost the headphone jack, lost parts of our smartphone displays to notches and cutouts and now we might be going completely button-less altogether. At least that is according to YouTuber Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech who claims that sources have revealed that the Pixel 4 won’t have any physical buttons at all.

While it will be a radical departure from the norm, it won’t be the first time that a phone without any physical buttons has surfaced. In fact, earlier this year, experimental Chinese smartphone maker revealed the APEX 2019 concept phone which not only had no physical buttons but dropped ports altogether as well. The APEX 2019 concept replaced physical buttons with capacitive touch and pressure sensing which does seem to be the way things will eventually head whether we like it or not.

As we know, the Pixel 3 series (including the new Pixel 3 a models) already use a pressure sensor to launch Google Assistant when the device is squeezed, a feature it calls Active Edge. According to Prosser, the Pixel 4 will incorporate the capacitive touch sensors on the right side of the device. Given Prosser’s track record, however, it wouldn’t surprise if there is some legitimacy to the rumor – he accurately predicted features of the Pixel 3 series and confirmed the existence of the Pixel 3a series before anyone else.