Leaked Pixel 5 renders paint a sad vision of Google's next flagship smartphone

OnLeaks and Pricebaba have published renders of an upcoming Pixel smartphone, and it looks unwaveringly like the Pixel 4a. Google has already teased the design of its next Pixel smartphones, which OnLeaks and Pricebaba have reflected in their renders. Pricebaba definitively refers to the device as the Pixel 5, which it claims will have a screen size of between 5.7- to5.8-inches. The top-left of the display has been punctured by a single front-facing camera, which is border by slim bezels. The screen has a noticeably thicker bottom bezel, though.

Pricebaba adds that the Pixel 5 measures 144.7 x 70.4 x 8.1 mm, although its rear-facing camera housing apparently protrudes a further 0.5 mm from its back panel. According to Pricebaba, the housing holds "two cameras, an unknown sensor and an LED flash. Considering that the layout is almost identical to the housing of the Pixel 4 series, we suspect that Google is reusing the spectral and flicker sensor from last year's models.

This is not the first time that we have seen this design presented. @xleaks7 and Pigtou released almost identical renders in July, which were put down by Stephen Hall of 9to5Google. It is worth noting that @OnLeaks made an important distinction when announcing the publication of the renders. Usually, he tweets along the lines of "here comes your very first look at" x smartphone, but this time he caveated the renders by stating they were of a device "which I assume Google will soon launch as Pixel5 [sic]". 

So, we would not rule out the possibility of Google releasing this device by another name. Based on past rumours and leaks, the next 5.7-5.8-inch Pixel smartphone will be the Pixel 4a (5G). By contrast, the Pixel 5 will apparently have a 6.67-inch and 120 Hz screen.

Separately, Roland Quandt claims that Google will offer the Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 with 128 GB of storage. Apparently, if there are 64 GB versions, he has not seen them. Google is only selling a 128 GB version of the Pixel 4a, so it would be unsurprising if that were also the case with the Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5.

Overall, we hope that these renders are of the Pixel 4a (5G) and not of the Pixel 5. If they are of the latter, then the Pixel 5 would represent a huge step backwards from the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. The face unlock and Motion Sense capabilities of the Pixel 4 series would have been omitted, while there may be no camera upgrades for this year's flagship model. These backward steps would be coupled with a slower processor, which would add insult to injury for Pixel fans.

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