Samsung’s recently concluded event once more brought foldable devices into the limelight. Now cheaper and a touch bit more durable, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are being positioned to assist take foldable phones to the mainstream market. But, of course, that might require that other manufacturers also hop on the train, and, surprisingly, Google could be one among those. That rumoured Pixel Fold could come before expected, a minimum of supported some loose reference to the upcoming Pixel 6.
Google isn’t one to leap on bandwagons immediately. Therefore the concept might be making a foldable phone is already quite out of character. The suggestion that it could be coming within the subsequent 12 months is even more out of the standard. That, however, could be the case supported by a bit of clue found within the latest Android 12 beta code.
According to tipster @cstark27, the ASCII text file refers to devices codenamed Oriole, Raven, and Passport. Passport has long been related to Google’s first foldable device, which everyone’s calling the Pixel Fold for now. Oriole and Raven, on the other hand, are suspected to be the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
However, the more telling detail is that the Samsung 5G modem is mentioned as “g5123b”. That’s an equivalent modem that will be used for the Pixel 6 series, suggesting that this Pixel Fold will be a part of an equivalent generation of Google devices that will run on its custom Tensor chip. If so, the phone’s probability of launches before the subsequent Pixel iteration next year is even higher.
Oriole, Raven, Passport, "Slider" are 4 out of 5 devices that have a modem referenced as "g5123b". The most recent Samsung Exynos ("shannon") modem is 5123A. Can't confirm the last one right now.
— cstark27 (@Cstark_27) August 11, 2021
Unfortunately, not much else is understood about the Pixel Fold at now. Sources claim that it’ll be using Samsung’s Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) tech, but that component will be shared by most foldable phones, which will be launched this year. Google has been preparing Android to support such foldable scenarios, and it’ll be interesting to ascertain how different it’ll be from all implementations thus far.
