After years of speculation that Google might be getting aboard the (purely figurative) folding phone train, it looks like a big reveal is just around the corner.
Yes, if you’re indecisive as to whether you want a phone or a tablet, it looks like you’ll soon be able to get a Google-branded 2-in-1. Albeit at more than the cost of just owning both separately, given an estimated price of nearly NZ$3,000 has been mooted.
The leaker Evan Blass has shared what looks like very official marketing renders of the upcoming foldable. There are three shots in total, showing the device closed, and then open from both the front and the back.
Here it is closed:
Here it is unfolded:
And here it is again unfolded, but this time from a coquettish reverse angle.
Fans of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 will no doubt scoff at the extremely chunky bezels surrounding the unfolded screen, but there are advantages to avoiding the all-screen arms race. For one thing, you actually have something to grip on to while using it. For another, Google can stick a camera in the frame, rather than putting a patchy one underneath the screen or installing an ugly notch.
Blass rattled off the Pixel Fold’s specs too, and there aren’t any alarm bells ringing. It’ll apparently use the same Tensor G2 processor as in the Pixel 7, backed by 12GB RAM and 256 or 512GB of storage. It’ll have three cameras: a 48MP main lens and a couple of 10.8MP sensors — one ultrawide and one telephoto.
So why are these marketing pictures leaking now? Well, the Google I/O developers conference begins in ten days’ time, so it would be very surprising if the Pixel Fold didn’t make an appearance then.
Though it would perhaps be even more surprising if Google remembered New Zealand exists. So get ready to import if you happen to have a silly amount of money set aside to blow on a first-gen foldable.
