Google has officially unveiled the Pixel 5, and we're impressed by what we've seen so far – though the new smartphone lacks one key feature that the Pixel 4 had, and that's the Motion Sense gesture controls. According to Google, it's not gone for good.
Speaking to The Verge, Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh said Motion Sense and the Project Soli radar technology that powers it will "be used in the future" – so we can get the Pixel 6 rumors started up right away.
The main reason for the omission of Project Soli and Motion Sense this time around is the obvious one: cost. Google wanted to hit a mid-range price point with the Pixel 5, and that meant sacrificing some of the high-end features that were on the Pixel 4.
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We might also see Project Soli appear in other Google devices besides phones – we've already heard rumblings of a gesture-controlled Nest Thermostat that would let you move the temperature up or down just by waving at it.
Radar power
Project Soli as deployed as Motion Sense in the Pixel 4 lets you control your phone with certain gestures – waving left or right over the screen to skip forwards or backwards in a playlist when you're in a music app, for example.
It can also detect how close your hand is to the screen, which means alarms and incoming call alerts get quieter as you reach out to pick up the phone. The same sensing tech can wake up the Face Unlock camera system more quickly as well.
None of these features are available in Google's new phone, but the Pixel 5 does come in at a starting price of $699 / £599 / AU$999, whereas the Pixel 4 originally went on sale at $799 / £669 / AU$1,049.
The Pixel 4 was also joined by the Pixel 4 XL (starting price $899 / £829 / AU$1,279), though there's no Pixel 5 XL (which is a shame). We'll have to wait and see whether Google's focus on the mid-range for 2020 turns into more sales of its handsets, but Project Soli should make a return at some point.
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