An upcoming Pixel phone — possibly the Pixel 6, if expectations pan out — is set to have an upgraded and centered Galaxy S21-style hole-punch camera, according to a recent teardown. Tidbits hidden in the latest Google Camera app update regarding an upcoming device code-named Oriole point to the change, which would be a departure in design from both last year's Pixel 5 and 4a series, and a change from the leaked design of the upcoming Pixel 5a.

The folks at 9to5Google spotted the change in a teardown of the latest Google Camera app version. Should it pan out, it would have an impact beyond simply the camera's location as well.

Based on the details included in Google's code so far, the new camera cutout will also be a tiny bit smaller than the rather large cutout on the Pixel 5 and 4a series — a 55-pixel radius rather than 65 pixels. The location change also means that the status bar's clock could be tweaked slightly, pushing it further left with the previous corner hole-punch cutout no longer there. (Even though we no longer have to deal with chunky notches in Androidland, the time is still on the left side of the status bar ever since Google put it there all the way back with Android 9 Pie.)

A mock-up of what this change could look like, though status bar height may vary with the new, smaller cutout. 

The front-facing camera in this upcoming Pixel is also getting a minor upgrade, according to details in the camera app. This camera will now be able to record selfie video in 4K. Prior Pixels locked that to 1080p, even though every Pixel to date has had an 8MP front-facing camera that should support higher resolutions.