Ahead of the announcement of the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, there were rumors to suggest that Google had three Pixel 2 handsets in the works codenamed Muskie, Walleye, and Taimen. However it seems that for whatever reason, Google decided to cancel Muskie, which led to Google announcing just two Pixel handsets this year.
Now thanks to the folks at XDA (via 9to5Google), it seems that references made to Muskie was spotted in the AOSP. While we doubt that Muskie is still a project that’s alive and kicking over at Google/HTC, the references made to Muskie in the AOSP does reveal some clues about what could have been, namely the display and battery size of the device.
Based on the references, the battery capacity of Muskie is said to be 3,830mAh, making it slightly bigger than that of the current Pixel 2 XL which is at 3,520mAh. Its display and pixel density is also said to be of 560 DPI, which makes it the same as the Pixel 2 XL, although in terms of size we can’t say for sure how big it is.
Like we said it is unclear as to why Muskie might have been cancelled. There were reports suggesting that HTC was going to make both phones, but later it was suggested that one would be made by LG and the other by HTC, or maybe Muskie was just one of the prototypes that Google had in the works that just did not work. Interestingly enough the alleged codenames of 2018’s Pixels have been revealed, once again suggesting that we could see three Pixel handsets in 2018.