Google’s foldable Pixel 7 alternative could be just a few months away
>
Google has just had a busy day with the full reveal of the Pixel 7, the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel Watch, but the company may have more to follow soon, with the Pixel Fold possibly being its next smartphone launch.
This would be the company’s first foldable phone, and according to Ross Young – a leaker with a decent track record – in a tweet reply (opens in new tab) spotted by Phone Arena (opens in new tab), it will arrive in the first quarter of 2023; meaning somewhere between January and March.
Young additionally claims (opens in new tab) that panel shipments for the phone will begin in January, which may mean the phone itself won’t land before February, but that’s just speculation on our part. Anyway, it may be too long here.
That’s in line with the last release date leak we heard, which pointed to a 2023 release, and that came from a different source; so with multiple sources saying so much now, there’s a good chance this is true.
That said, plans can always change. Previous leaks suggested we’d see the Google Pixel Fold this year, with the move to 2023 apparently due to a delay, rather than those previous leaks being just wrong.
So another delay is always possible, especially since making a foldable phone for the first time is likely to be quite an undertaking. But for now, we’d say a late March launch – if not sooner – seems most likely.
Analysis: what we expect from the Pixel Fold
We’ve heard a lot more about the Pixel Fold than just its potential release date, with past leaks revealing a number of potential specs.
Those include a 7.6-inch foldable OLED screen and a 5.8-inch cover display – which wouldn’t be foldable and would be what you see with the main screen folded. Given those screen sizes, you can expect this to be a large foldable one, in line with that of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.
The Google Pixel Fold may also have 12GB of RAM, and there’s a good chance it will run Google’s latest Tensor G2 chipset, just like the Pixel 7.
As for the cameras, most of the leaks point to a 12.2MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide camera and two 8MP selfie cameras (one for each display). That’s a setup that sounds inferior to the Pixel 7 lineup, at least in terms of megapixels, but then the best foldable phones are rarely among the best camera phones.