The Pixel 5 might not be the flagship phone we were hoping for

In the past with pretty much every Nexus and Pixel release, Google has opted to equip the phones with the latest and greatest hardware, essentially making them flagship phones for the company. Take for example last year’s Pixel 4 which used Qualcomm’s latest processor at that time.

Oddly enough, for this year’s Pixel 5, it seems that Google could be going down a different route. This is according to the folks at 9to5Google who managed to get their hands on a pre-release version of the Google Camera app from the prototype Pixel 4a, courtesy of TechnoLike Plus.

This is based on strings they found within the code that mentions a “photo_pixel_2020_config”. Given that last year’s code for the Pixel 4 was “photo_pixel_2019_config”, they’re assuming that this could refer to the Pixel 5. Digging further, they also found references to two devices codenamed “Bramble” and “Redkin”, which actually surfaced earlier this year.

Both these devices are said to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G chipset, which isn’t Qualcomm’s flagship chipset, although it will still support 5G. Based on all of this, they have come to the conclusion that there is a strong possibility that this year’s Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL could instead be higher-end mid-range rangers.

It is unclear why Google is not using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865, but perhaps the company has come to realize that mid-range phones sell a lot better, at least based on the prices of flagships these days. That being said, nothing is official yet and there is chance that we could be wrong, so maybe take it with a grain of salt for now.

Source: 9to5Google