Google shared a first look at the Pixel 7 Pro at I/O before the leaks came flooding in. | Image: Google
Another alleged Google Pixel 7 prototype has surfaced, this time from a Reddit user who says they bought it on Facebook Marketplace. From appearances, it’s a Pixel 7 Pro, which Redditor AMC20_ says was listed as a Pixel 6 Pro without a box. It is not, in fact, a Pixel 6 Pro.
Google’s phones have a long history of unusual leaks, but even by Pixel standards, this is a strange one. It’s also the second time a prototype Pixel 7 Pro has surfaced in the last week. In case you missed episode one of this saga, someone listed a Pixel 7 prototype on eBay. As Android expert Mishaal Rahman pointed out, the photos seem to have been taken with another prototype unit — a Pixel 7 Pro, which can be seen in the reflection on the phone’s glossy back panel. The person who purchased the 7 Pro prototype on Facebook thinks that his phone is the same one used to take those photos.
Image: Reddit user AMC20_
The buyer says this phone was advertised on Facebook Marketplace as a Pixel 6 Pro without a box.
Google pre-announced the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro at its I/O keynote last month, revealing what the devices will look like and… not much else. They’ll very likely make their formal debut in October with Android 13. These alleged prototypes haven’t shed much more light on what we can expect from the phones, either — just confirmation that it’s using a different modem than the Pixel 6 series and that it appears to come in a variant with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM.
There probably won’t be much more we can learn from it, either. The purchaser of the alleged prototype said that the phone had been functioning fine until a few days ago when it seems to have been remotely wiped. That’s not surprising — if it’s the genuine article, Google would have a safeguard like that in place in the event that the phone went missing. But given the Pixel series’ track record, it probably won’t be long until we see another leak.