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Claude Zellweger, who was the lead designer for the new Pixel 9 series from Google, was recently interviewed following Google’s big event. Where he talked a lot about the design of the Pixel 9, specifically the camera bar.
The Verge asked Zellweger what he thought about the beefier camera bump this year, and he said it was “absolutely intentional”. He also called it a “modern and unapologetic approach”. He says that the camera bar’s design is simply “the most efficient way to package these camera modules”. It’s also designed to highlight the minimalist beauty of the Pixel.
Surprisingly, Zellweger does not think this big camera bar will dominate Google’s design language forever. He says that this will depend on how much future phone buyers will need big camera hardware inside. Currently, cameras are getting larger and larger on phones, not only more megapixels, but larger megapixels and more cameras. However, Zellweger suggests that someday designers might use thinner hardware because the computational photography and AI post-production techniques that Google utilizes could fill in the gaps of those larger camera sensors.
Zellweger is also a fan of small phones
Surprisingly, Google’s designer of the Pixel 9 series is a big fan of small phones. He is actually rocking the Pixel 9 Pro, over the Pro XL, which is a 6.3-inch phone. So not exactly small like the iPhone 12 Mini and 13 Mini, but the same size as the regular Pixel 9.
Zellweger does acknowledge that making phones smaller, like the iPhone 13 Mini, is tough because of modern expectations. Stating that “building small phones is just fundamentally a bigger challenge”. This includes things like battery life, cameras, thermals, and user experience, which are things that tend to push manufacturers toward larger handsets.
Zellweger says that it might not always be that way, stating that “I could see a future in which some people have different priorities about what they use their devices for, and there, some compromises can be made.”