Google strategies to release a foldable Pixel in late 2021, according to leaked doc

A leaked internal Google doc implies that the business has earmarked the fourth quarter of following yr for the launch of a foldable Google Pixel cellphone, 9to5Google studies. The gadget, codenamed “Passport,” is explained to be explicitly referred to as being “foldable,” and is provided along with a listing of all Pixel units heading back to 2017’s Pixel 2.

As perfectly as the foldable Pixel, the document also mentions a “lower finish mid year device” called the Pixel 5A with a “Q2 2021” release day, and two other gadgets codenamed “Raven” and “Oriole” for “Q4 2021.” 9to5Google speculates these could be Pixel 6 types. Last but not least there’s the Pixel 4A 5G and Pixel 5, which Google pre-declared alongside the Pixel 4A before this week. Formally these products are owing to start in the slide, but the doc indicates they could get there in October, regular with a individual report from 9to5Google.

It should not arrive as any surprise that Google is performing on a foldable Pixel unit. Very last 12 months it verified that it was prototyping the know-how ahead of its annual I/O developer convention. On the other hand, at the time Google Pixel’s growth guide Mario Queiroz tempered expectations by expressing that the corporation experienced been doing work on the tech for “a extensive time,” and additional that he did not consider there was “a crystal clear use case” for foldable devices nonetheless. In accordance to this doc, even so, it appears Google has strategies to shift outside of prototyping and use the delicate technological know-how in a consumer product.

As 9to5Google notes, the leaked document is generally concerned with building Android for these distinctive products, and doesn’t mirror the hardware team’s last options. With a calendar year and a half to go until eventually release, the schedule is also virtually surely subject matter to adjust. However, even if the launch day shifts, it even now implies that Google plans to actually release a foldable device of its very own.

Google introduced native support for foldable devices in Android in November 2018, forward of Samsung’s original unveiling of the initial Galaxy Fold.