A part of me was hoping that Google would go against the trend. Another part of me figured that the notch was inevitable when you consider that practically everyone else is going that way. Well, everyone but Samsung (at least for now). In any case, leaked images have appeared online showing off the front and the back of the upcoming Google Pixel 3 XL and, yes, it’s got a notch.

Now, we have to take this leak with a generous pinch of salt. It was just some random post on XDA, so there’s no real saying how legitimate it is. That being said, everything about it aligns with what we think we know about the upcoming flagship.

So, let’s start with the front. Just as we see on everything from the Asus Zenfone 5 to the LG G7 ThinQ, the Google Pixel 3 XL has a notch. This allows the screen to reach almost all the way to the top of the phone, complete with the rounded corners that everyone else is doing too.

Clearly visible inside the notch are a pair of front-facing cameras. The suspicion is that the dual camera setup enables a more advanced facial recognition system a la Face ID on the iPhone X. The chin on the bottom remains. You can also see the power volume buttons on the side, as well as a partial list of specs. There’s 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. No real surprises there.

On the back, it appears that Google is sticking with a single camera configuration. The Google Pixel 3 XL retains a similar two-toned, dual material finish as the Pixel 2 XL, along with the same circular fingerprint reader. Without a glass back, we can probably assume wireless charging is out the window. You will notice the extra sensor between the rear camera and flash too, but we’re not 100% sure what that is.

If Google maintains the same release window as the first two Pixel generations, then we should expect the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL to land in our hands by mid-October 2018.

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