Google is using software to make the pixel 3's screen corners even rounder

Google is expanding its design atheistic that favors subtle, rounded corners even more by the world adjusting the pixels. Material Theme, an updated version of the company's software design philosophy, is the driving force behind the Gmail and Chrome redesigns of late, and you'll notice it most prevalently in the new Chrome tab design that eschews rough and pronounced corners for softer, rounded one is.

Google is not going so far as to turn the edges of the Pixel 3 display into Chrome tab replicas, but it is using a subtle software trick to "shrink" the radius of each corner of the display to produce more rounded corners. The radii changes the way it is, but it's a pretty much imperceptible cutoff unless you watch the change during the phone's start-up phase.

In the GIF below, you can see the corner change a few moments after the device is now turned on:

Notably, Google is not doing this on the Pixel 3 XL, as best we can tell from rebooting The Verge'S review model numerous times. That's interesting mostly because some people have commented on the lack of consistency of the curve on the edge-to-edge and that of the bottom bezel, or "chin," on the larger version. Theoretically, it sounds like it's going to make you feel good, but it does not make you feel like it's going to happen. Still, some people have noticed:

A few users Reddit thread mentioned above note that the same screen corner affects the Pixel 2 XL, but that would make sense both Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 have similar-shaped displays and lack the edge-to-edge look of the Pixel 3 XL.

Either way, this is not something that will affect anyone's ability to use the standard Pixel 3 or any visual experience on the device. It's mostly just a little little quirk that shows Google's aesthetic tastes when it comes to corner design.