Over the last decade, no piece of technology has had more of an impact on human life than smartphones. But despite being such an important device, the smartphone itself hasn’t changed much in the last many years.
Sure it has become thinner and displays have become bigger, but it’s only now that smartphones are seeing the first true transformation with foldable designs. Leading the technology is of course Samsung, a company that has now released a number of foldable phones. But despite being early in this genre, Samsung's foldables aren't perfect.
There are many drawbacks such as that crease, a not so flagship camera system, and more. But what I find the most limiting with Samsung's foldables is the narrow cover display. Sure Samsung is rumored to kind of fix it with the upcoming Z Fold 4 but the thing is it's marginally getting wider so the problem may still persist. I'll reserve my judgment until we actually see the handset. But in the meantime, Google has decided to address these limitations with a foldable phone of its own.
We've heard about Google's foldable in the past but this is the first time that we have some concrete evidence. Ross Young, the display analyst says both the Z Fold 4 and Google's foldable will have the same inner display which is 7.6" but the outer display will differ. Google's foldable will be much smaller at 5.8" versus the Fold 4’s 6.2-inch panel. This means the outer display of the Pixel fold will be much wider and have a more easily usable screen than the Z Fold 4.
Now, for those who're wondering it's going to look like this. This is not a fan-made render by the way, but an actual image found in the Android 12L beta by google itself. So it seems the Pixel Fold will look almost exactly like the Oppo Find N with a squarish aspect ratio except Google's foldable will be much bigger than Oppos.
Also, it's going to be interesting to see how Google tackles the crease problem. I hope they go with Oppo's hinge mechanism than Samsung's as it allows the display to make an oval-like shape when folded thus reducing the crease significantly. Although we'll have to wait and see if this mechanism will develop lumps over time as seen on Motorola's Razr.
Anyway, the Pixel Notepad will be powered by Google's Tensor chip but it won’t use the Pixel 6’s 50-megapixel sensor. Instead, Google has decided to use a 12.2-megapixel found in Pixel 5. Apparently, they are not using the 50MP sensor because of its thickness. There will be a 12MP ultrawide sensor and two 8MP sensors for selfies - likely one on the outer screen and one on the inner one. Also, the Pixel Fold will undercut Samsung's latest foldable by a massive $400 which means Google is planning to launch the handset at $1399. This price will make foldable phones much more accessible and will turn out to be a problem if Samsung doesn't decrease the price of the Z Fold 4. Google will launch the handset alongside the Pixel 7 in October.
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