Last year, one of Google’s new features on their Pixel 4 smartphones was their built-in radar that gave us Motion Sense + a true Face Unlock. But for 2020, Google did not bring the feature back for its flagship Pixel 5.
The folks over at The Verge talked to the head of Google’s hardware, Rick Osterloh & found out why. His answer was that the components were too expensive for the phone they wanted to make this year. Seeing how the Pixel 5 is $700 compared to the most comparable version of the Pixel 4 which would be the 128GB XL model had a $1,000 price tag on it.
If you were a fan of the technology or wanted to see Google do more w/ it, all is not lost. Osterloh stated that their Project Soli-powered radar + gestures will return sometime in the future. He didn’t say if it will arrive in the form of a smartphone or not though. Interestingly enough, ahead of yesterday’s event, it was rumored that we would see a new Nest thermostat w/ Soli tech inside of it but we didn’t get it.
What were your thoughts on Google’s Motion Sense & answer to Face ID gone – for now?
