You think it’s a leak, but all it is Google trying to test the reaction from the market, it’s common used by all manufacturers these days, to produce the right goods from the start and not spend too much money on products that has no interest to the consumers.

I've been waiting to see what they do with a foldable phone and I gotta say, I do not want a foldable flip phone. What I want is (basically) 2 google pixel devices face to face that fold out into a tablet. I'd be willing to do around $1600 for it, depending on storage. But a flip? Nah.

>Google to reveal its $1,799 folding phone

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Release a new phone every year for the next three years.

Can we please have a small phone with a good camera at some point? Pretty please? I don't care about anything else related to performance, I am just tired of huge phones

Keep producing garbage

That's not how it works. Nobody who knows what they are doing "tests the waters" with a leak. There's no control over it or the response. They study the market, they watch trends, the biggest contributor is talking with supply chain sources to find interesting new display, sensors, capabilities, etc to see how they can leverage it. (see note)

Leaks are always bad and companies work hard to prevent them.

If the leak is wrong, it sets customers up for disappointment. "But the next release was supposed to have feature XYZ!"

If the leak is right, competitors learn about your plans. Combined with what they already know about the supply chain it may give them a leg up on getting ahead of you. Don't discount first-to-market, or first-to-market 'done right'. Nobody wants to lose that.

Also, if the leak is right, it takes the thrill out of the actual announcement. It's not exciting, it's not news. "I'm supposed to get excited about what we knew all along?" That gets announcements put on the back page, not the front page. Companies want the front page.

Talking about the importance of not leaking, Steve Jobs said (exact words not recalled) "An unexpected major release is worth $30 million in marketing to Apple".

NOTE: Apple was the first to see the importance of the 5gb micro hard drives the supply chain was offering. Nobody else cared. That's how the iPod came to market with a pocket device that could hold 1,000 songs while competitors were squeezing 40 songs into their devices. No leaks. It changed their fortunes.

tl;dr leaks always disappoint customers in the end when the product is released regardless of if the leak was right or wrong.

The A series is still reasonably small and has a great camera.

Not to mention development for any phone take years. Before the Pixel 6 was even released, teams were already working on the Pixel 7

Yea, people smugly think there is some cynical reason for leaks. But you nailed an excellent reason why not. The feature set is frozen quite a bit in advance because they have to line up the ability to make millions of them with bulk supply buys.

They can't "check interest" with a leak and then sell that phone in 8 months.

Most leaks are either people getting paid by industrial spies, or people who simply can't keep their mouth shut.

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How small?

I can’t see a future in a foldable phone unless the display is more durable or user replaceable. Which won’t happen anytime soon.

Something like the iPhone mini would be enough

How about a phone without any camera(s). And enough power to run multiple basic apps, doesn't come with any stock apps.

Why not an iPhone Mini then?

Because of the ridiculous price of Apple.

because apple is anti everyone.

samsung flip already has a glass replaceable screen

iPhone 13 mini is 600 and a used iPhone 12 mini is like 350. For what you get this is reasonable.

iPhone mini was a failure sadly

Pixel 4a is better with GrapheneOS, privacy is superior.

Zenphone 9 maybe?

And give me my fucking headphone jack back, you cowards.

My girlfriend has one and I thought of this but I prefer android and I would like to be able to stay on android. But I might

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“Leaked” or aka marketing

Leaks are a new way to market your product you’re a buffoon and a corporate shill

For idiots who don't know how to market well, perhaps. Leaking is a no-win for the company.

If the leak is true, then on announcement day, nobody is impressed or surprised because it was "Nothing unexpected. Yawn". News outlets may not even bother to note the announcement.

If the leak ended up getting exaggerated, then on announcement day it's nothing but disappointment, "That's it?!?!?! They were supposed to mega-feature!". News outlets might talk about how the manufacturer is struggling and had to "drop features". Looks bad.

But if you can get a new feature out that people did not expect, then people go "Wow!". There is chatter online. News people might make a story about it.

tl;dr leaks are like telling people what they will get for Christmas in advance. If it's true, it ends up being nice, but no real joy or excitement because of lack of surprise. If false, nothing but disappointment Christmas morning.

Leaking is a marketing strategy. Many companies does it now so idk what horse shit you’re spewing

I really wish Google would allow people to switch the back button to the right. I know they are pushing for gesture controls by default, but I like the screen buttons and I've always used a Samsung phone, which has the back button on the right.

Shouldn't they want to make it so people want to switch to Pixel phones?

If Asus phones, One Plus, and Samsung give the option to switch the back button to the right no problem, why is Google so stubborn about having the option in stock android. They even went out of their way to patch out an adb workaround.

And a charger with the wire and plug together instead of being sold separately with some humbug greenwashing notion of sustainability.