- Verizon exclusive
It's the only way to survive when you sell fewer than 4 million phones a year. Google is such a hilarious irrelevant non-existence in smartphones even though over 2 billion devices use Android worldwide.
- thick ass notch
No one is going to custom make you fewer than 4 million OLED panels. Google has to use whatever shit LG doesn't want for themselves. LG has moved to making notched phones and that means the displays are notched and since Google can't get anyone to make shit for them custom, they have to use whatever notched shit LG has left over.
- LG OLED
Google insists on using 1440p OLED panels. If they used 1440p LCD, well Samsung and LG are swimming in those and they are good quality too. If they used 1080p OLED, they could get plenty from Samsung and they wouldn't be notched either. But they want 1440p OLED. Only 2 companies on Earth make that: Samsung and LG. Samsung is production-constrained, they need every panel they make for themselves to use in Galaxy S + Notee and for Apple to use in iPhone X. So that leaves LG.
In many ways, Google is stupid. All the problems they have, outside of being a nobody in smartphones who sell less than 4 million a year, are because they insist on having both 1440p and OLED. There's nothing really good about 'stock' Android on Pixels anymore anyways, my OnePlus 5T has better features than Pixel. The only thing Google seems to have left is a pretty amazing camera and the reality is that Apple and Samsung are close enough that no one cares.
