And presumably the Pixel 4 as well.

Many thought that it was the HTC team that Google acquired a few years ago, that built the Pixel 3a. Now, Made by Google's head, Rick Osterloh confirmed that it was indeed the HTC team that Google acquired, that built the Pixel 3a.

This was pretty obvious, due to the big change in design from the Pixel 3 to the Pixel 3a. And the fact that the notch is gone. LG loves to do notches on its phones, and HTC has never done one. Which shows that LG built the Pixel 3 and HTC built the Pixel 3a.


HTC presumably built the Pixel 4 too

Since the HTC team that came over to Google built the Pixel 3a, it wouldn't be too surprising to see that it also built the Pixel 4.

The departure in Google's Pixel design from the previous three generations on the Pixel 4, also adds credence to that theory.

The Pixel 4 is a pretty big change in design from the Pixel 3a and older Pixel smartphones. Gone is the single camera on the back, and the dual-toned back. And in is a fully glass back that is either matte or glossy, depending on the color. Google also opted to drop the front-facing speakers, and gave us a down-firing speaker on the Pixel 4.


The Pixels that HTC has fully developed itself, have been pretty good. Interestingly enough, the models that LG made, have had many issues. LG manufactured the Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 XL. And those are the two that really had a number of issues. While the other Pixels had very little issues. Showing that HTC really knows what it's doing.

This is the team Google paid $1.1 billion for

In September 2017, Google officially acquired part of HTC. It essentially bought the part of HTC that was working on the Pixel smartphones. It paid $1.1 billion to HTC for this small group of employees.

And now in 2019, we're finally starting to see what Google really got from this deal.


It's no surprise really, that it took nearly two years for the HTC team that Google bought, to actually make a phone that would be available for everyone to buy. That's because these smartphones do take over a year to make. Going from a prototype to the final thing.

There's a lot of testing going on in between then and the final phone, not to mention the fact that some changes are going to be made at some point as well.

It's good to see that our theories were right, and that HTC did indeed make the Pixel 3a, entirely.