Google launched its much-talked about 2019 flagship Pixel 4 series phones at $799 and $899 in the US in October. The company, however, did not launch the new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL handsets in India. Now, with Black Friday and CyberMonday sale on in the US, the prices of the latest Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones are down by $200 (approximately), as per a report byP honeArena. Considering the price cut on less-than-two-month-old devices may upset existing buyers who paid the full amount to pre-order their new Pixel 4 phone or had purchased soon after the devices were just launched, Google is reportedly offering a refund of $100.
Google hasn’t made this refund official yet. YouTuber M Brandon Lee took to Twitter to share the information that Google is refunding $100 to keep Pixel loyalists happy. Very little is known about the process of refund but it seems like those who had pre-ordered the Pixel 4 can actually try to claim a refund of $100.
While Google did not reveal the exact reason officially for not launching the Pixel 4 smartphones in India, reports suggest that Google had failed to acquire permission from the Indian government to use the 60GHz mmWave frequency band -- which is not permitted in India. The 60GHz mmWave frequency band is required for Google’s key biometric feature in Pixel 4 series -- Project Soli -- to work.
Interestingly, ahead of the Pixel 4 series launch, it was already known that Project Soli will not work in India. In fact, not just India, Project Soli as of now is not supported in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico as well.
However, this doesn’t imply that Google will no longer launch Pixel phones in the country. India is among the first countries where the affordable Pixel 3a series was launched in May. And it seems, going forward, Google may stick to selling affordable Pixel handsets under the ‘a’ sub-series.
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