We may never know if the Google Pixel 5 is a smash hit, but seeing the phone go “out of stock” today on both the Google Store and Amazon sure should have Google feeling OK about its newest phone. If anything, they’ve sold what they produced and I’m going to assume that’s not a bad number to hit.
If you head into the Google Store and try to checkout, you should be met during the configuration process with a “Choose your carrier” page. Over the last couple of hours, the unlocked version of the Pixel 5 switched to “out of stock” in both Just Black and Sorta Sage. In fact, you can’t even click on the big button for unlocked models any longer.
Should you choose Google Fi as your carrier, you will still be able to buy either phone, but I’m only seeing shipping options with January dates. Google may be holding out some remaining unlocked inventory for Fi customers.
Additionally, if you cruise over to Amazon to buy the phone, neither color is shipping any time soon. Just Black Pixel 5s might ship at the end of the month, but the Sorta Green units are showing an “in stock” date of January 21, a full month from now.
You can still buy the Pixel 5 at Best Buy and get it within a day or so, so it’s not like this phone is completely gone from everywhere. I’d imagine there are plenty of Verizon units out there too.
And look, I’m not writing this to tell you that the Pixel 5 is going away, this is almost guaranteed to be a situation where Google has simply sold through an initial batch or two and is waiting for more units to be available. The Pixel 5 is only a couple of months old. As short as the life of the Pixel 4 was, the Pixel 5 is still technically “new.”
Am I surprised that Google has sold enough Pixel 5 units to show as “out of stock” at a couple of online shops? Yeah, sort of. Even though I really, really like this phone, haven’t put it down in weeks, and likely won’t for a long time, I get that it’s not the phone for everyone. Spec bros think it’s overpriced, there were some early concerns about how well it was made, and there could be better values out there. This phone was not made for the super power user guy who games and watches 4K content at 120Hz and thinks glass is premium. This phone was built for those of us who want a bit of simplicity.
Hey, Google should take any sign of success it can with Pixel phones. Recent Pixel history has not had many positive moments.