Google Pixel 3 XL hands-on reveals the phone in full

We’re now very close to the October 9 announcement of the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL, but ahead of that someone has seemingly gone hands on with the XL model, showing the phone in full as well as highlighting most of the specs.

And when we say ‘someone’ has gone hands on with it, we mean Engadget, which makes for a fairly reputable source.

That said, the Google Pixel 3 XL was sourced from a phone shop in Hong Kong that was seemingly selling the handset early, so it’s possible that this is actually a well-built fake.

Still, Engadget's Richard Lai is a respected and veteran tech writer, so it bodes well that he's convinced by it and it looks to more or less match up with all the convincing leaks and rumors that we’ve seen so far.

That means it's complete with a deep notch, a two-tone back and a rear-facing fingerprint scanner.

The box mentions that the Google Pixel 3 XL has a 6.3-inch screen and – at least in the case of this model – 128GB of storage. The box also includes a pair of USB-C earphones, an 18W USB-C power adaptor, a USB-C-to-3.5mm adaptor, a USB-C-to-USB-C cable and a USB-C-to-USB-A dongle.

For more pictures, head to the full Google Pixel 3 XL hands on over at Engadget

A bigger, better screen

Based on some apps that Engadget installed, the handset seems to use a Snapdragon 845 chipset and have 4GB of RAM, while the screen is apparently a 1,440 x 2,960 OLED panel and Engadget notes that it seems better than the Google Pixel 2 XL’s panel, even in direct sunlight.

It runs Android 9 Pie, of course, and has the Active Edge feature that lets you squeeze the sides of the phone to perform certain actions.

The main camera meanwhile is a single-lens 12.2MP one, while on the front there’s a dual-lens 8MP camera. The rear camera can apparently shoot video at up to 4K quality at 30 frames per second, while the front one tops out at 1080p.

The only difference here to what we’ve seen and heard before is the screen size, as most leaks put that at 6.2 inches, but it being 6.3 inches here is a minor difference and not much of a red flag.

Given how close we are to launch this probably really is the Google Pixel 3 XL, but we’ll know all the details officially very soon.