Google Plans To Ignore Its Smartest Pixel Decision

Google has crafted a unique identity for its Pixel series of smartphones. New details around the Pixel 9a point to Google walking away from this hard-won position due to the latest fashion in smartphone design.

The Pixel’s Bar Of Identity

The Pixel 6, Pixel 7, and Pixel 8 series all carried one design cue identifying the phones as being Pixel phones—namely the camera bar. Stretching across the full width of the rear panel, the various camera lenses and sensors were all placed in this band. Crucially, it supported the phone in a stable position on a desk, unlike the countless rocking smartphones sporting raised islands of camera lenses.

Crucially, it also offered something else… a static design and a constant silhouette. It allowed the Google Pixel to be quickly and easily identifiable as “a Pixel.”

The Pixel Bar Fades Away

That had to be compromised with the Pixel Fold. Launched as a compatriot to the Pixel 8, there was no way the camera bar could stretch across both sides of an open unit. Closed was another matter, the same design was possible, yet Google changed the design. The long camera bar was still identifiable on the closed device but with rounded corners. What was once unique and broke away from the typical island was slowly turning back into an island.

The Pixel 9 family continued that transformation to the majority, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold went full island.

Now, Google looks set to continue the slide from unique design to uniformity.

The latest details on the upcoming Pixel 9a include several shots of the rear casing of the mid-range smartphone, including the dual cameras and the LED flash. And there is no camera bar in sight to say this is a Pixel. Neither is there an elongated island that would associated it with the rest of the Pixel 9 family.

Instead, the lens covers sit flush with the rear of the handset, surrounded by a tiny raised lip to help prevent scratches when laid on a surface.

What The Pixel 9a Gives Up

As the phone is still to be released, we’re squarely in “assuming Taniyama-Shimura” territory. If this is the design route that Google is moving down, it is undoubtedly a feat of engineering. Both Samsung and Apple are moving towards thin phone design as the next marketing point to sell you a new smartphone, so it makes sense for Google to show off its prowess.

Yet, in doing this, Google will have to sacrifice the physical identity of the Pixel. In a sea of identical slabs of glass with an awkward bump on the back, Google managed to shape an identity that was recognisable to the press and the public. Even the tinkering by the Pixel 9 team couldn’t completely erase that identity.

Fashion trends come and go, but style lasts forever. The camera bar offered Google a style that became its own. Now, that could be passed over for the fast fashion of a thin phone.

Now read the latest Pixel 9a, Galaxy S25, and OnePlus 13 news in Forbes’ weekly Android digest…