HTC U11+ was reportedly the shelved Pixel 2 XL 'muskie'

If you were following the Pixel 2 phone's news from the beginning, you will know that initial reports suggested that Google was preparing three Pixel phone this year code-named Walleye, Muskie and Taimen. While Walleye was said to be the successor of the smaller Pixel phone, the Muskie and Taimen were the successor of Pixel 2. 

However, later the Muskie model was dropped and Google went ahead with Walleye and Taimen, which is now known as Pixel 2 (manufactured by HTC) and Pixel 2 XL (built by LG) respectively. So what happened to Muskie? 

The Verge reports that HTC's newly launched U11+ was originally intended to be the Muskie, the shelved HTC made Pixel 2 XL, which was replaced by LG made Pixel 2 XL.

Citing sources familiar with "HTC and Google's tumultuous recent history", the publication report suggests that the core design and engineering for HTC U11+ was essentially done to build the Google Pixel 2XL. However, for some reasons, unknown, Google axed the phone, which went on to become HTC's first bezel-less phone, U11+.

It's worth mentioning that the similarities between HTC U11+ and Pixel 2 XL are not hard to spot. Both have rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, 6-inch QHD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio, bezel-less design, single camera and Edge Sense function (squeezable frame to trigger various actions). Also both run Android Oreo (but HTC has Sense UI) out of the box.

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative