- An official Google blog post contains a photo with EXIF data that suggests it came from a Google Pixel 5a.
- Google hasn’t launched this phone yet, so this is quite the anomaly.
- However, it is possible the photo is erroneously labeled and came from another device.
Today, Google posted a seemingly innocuous blog post details some camera features of Pixel devices. However, within the post is a link to a photo that, when examined, comes from a curious source.
According to the EXIF data associated with this photo, it comes from a Google Pixel 5a (h/t 9to5Google). This unreleased smartphone was only just confirmed to even exist, yet here’s a photo allegedly sourced from the device.
Related: Google Pixel 5a: All the rumors so far
Just in case Google takes the photo down, here it is in a compressed format:
Credit: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
There’s nothing too exceptional about this photo. According to its EXIF data though, it was shot on October 1, 2020, by Google software engineer Manfred Ernst using a Pixel 5a.
Now, October 1, 2020, was a long time ago. In fact, the Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G had only launched the day before this shot was taken. It seems strange that Ernst would take a working prototype of the Pixel 5a out for a photo session that long ago. That’s exactly what’s suggested by this EXIF data, though.
Of course, it’s possible the EXIF data is incorrect and this was actually shot with something else — perhaps a mislabeled Pixel 4a prototype that Ernst was still using. We can’t say for certain.
In the end, this might be the first publically accessible shot taken with a Pixel 5a. Hopefully, we’ll know more about this highly anticipated phone soon!
