Google to release a more affordable version of Pixel 3

Ahhh, smartphone leaks, who doesn’t love them? The latest ones come from Russia, and concern the high-end and well-reviewed Google Pixel 3—particularly that a more affordable version is coming out sometime soon.

So far, Google’s Pixel 3 has been in the same category as Samsung Galaxy phones and the iPhone X, and so a mid-range version will be a welcome addition to the market.

Russian tech blogs Rozetked and Wylsa have been leaking photos and information about the Google Pixel 3 Lite, which will most likely be priced between US $400-$500 (S$ 548-685), half the price of the Pixel 3. As to its release date, it will possibly come out in the first or second quarters of 2019, before the Pixel 4, of course.

But there is a chance that the Google Pixel 3 Lite won’t be available everywhere since another leak says that it may only be made available in India and other emerging markets. Knowing the fast-moving tech world, this could very well change.

The Google Pixel 3 Lite is rumored to have a number of high-tech features, such as a rear fingerprint scanner. Its screen may be bigger than that of the Pixel 3, a bezeled 5.56 inches display. It will use LCD instead of OLED, a 1080 x 2280 resolution, a 444 ppi pixel density and plastic backing.

While this Lite model is supposed to have only one rear and one front camera, instead of the two front-facing cameras that the Pixel 3 has, it will have the same 12.2MP lens on the rear camera.

Finally, the Pixel 3 Lite will be using a Snapdragon 670 chipset, have 4GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, and no microSD card slot, since this is Google, after all.

Read related: Is the Google Pixel 3 better than the iPhone XS?