It was only until recently that new benchmarks for Google’s upcoming Pixel XL 2 smartphone had been leaked online, giving many fans of the company hope for a sequel to one of the best Android experiences out there. However, yesterday, a report by Android Police indicated that Google will be cutting off the successor to the Pixel XL 2 and instead of being called “muskie”, will be called “taimen” instead.
While there was speculation that the company will be releasing three new handsets this year, it seems that they are sticking to releasing only two now. The direct successor to the original Pixel was codenamed “walleye” with the Pixel XL 2 being codenamed “muskie”. Based on the benchmarking found on GFXBench, the details suggested that the phone would feature a Snapdragon 835 processor and will be paired with 4GB of RAM. In the case of Taimen, the key feature that will distinguish itself from the Pixel will be its screen size and the camera. What is evident, is that both new Pixel phones come shipped with Android O out of the box.
Gizbot reports that the Taimen will have a larger display than what was originally planned for the Pixel XL 2. While the XL 2’s would have been 5.5-inches, it seems that the company may be opting to use a 6-inch display instead, or even somewhere around 5.7-inches or 5.8-inches. Earlier rumors suggested that the Taimen phone was supposed to be a kind of tablet for the Pixel line, but this now seems to be a defunct rumor. Google has made similarly big screened phones in the past, with the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 6P, so it won’t be surprising for the company to release a phone of a similar size this year as well.
It also seems that LG might have a huge part to play in the manufacturing and development of the Taimen. A query for bug entry was tracked down to an LG employee that had submitted a USB PD Compliance Failure bug entry to the Android forums. While it does suggest that Google may switch to LG from HTC for becoming its prime device manufacturer, both companies have worked together on Google’s phones in the past as well, such as the Nexus 5X and the 6P. This further substantiates why Google recently made in investment with LG to make flexible OLED display panels for their next phone.
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