Real-life photos of the Pixel 4 "leak" online

Welcome to Pixel 4 season, where Google drip-feeds information about its next flagship until its launch sometime in October. No sooner did the company publish a render of its upcoming device, has one been spotted in public. Suspect timing indeed.

The photos, shared to 9to5google by someone who would like to remain anonymous, show a person holding a smartphone with the unmistakeable Pixel 4 camera bump and its two rear-facing cameras. The device in question has a case on, so that it is all Google seemingly wants to give away for the time being. 9to5google also reported that the person who saw the device in London got a:

quick peek at the front of the device and confirmed that the rumoured “forehead” did indeed seem large and still had the two front-facing cameras from last year’s model.

Shockingly, this does not reveal whether the Pixel 4 will have a notch or a conventional bezel. Is Google stoking up hype in its next device again, as it has done with previous Pixel smartphone releases? Alternatively, Google could well be running an elaborate social experiment to see how popular this version of the Pixel 4 is. It does have three design teams working on designs of the Pixel 4 after all and could ditch this prototype if it proves unpopular. Food for thought, at least.