Big Pixel, small camera sensors
Google has long been rumored to be making a foldable Pixel. Rumors of a “Pixel Fold” date back to 2019 but haven’t been followed by any conclusive announcement or even a proper leak. Google usually has a difficult time keeping leakers away from its products, too, so that we’ve yet to see any visual details of the foldable Pixel likely means the company is expending more effort keeping its intricacies under wraps.
With the announcement of Android 12L, evidence is mounting that a foldable Pixel might actually be closer to release than we anticipated. Today, more evidence points to a tentative release date and some yet-unseen camera details.
The folks at 9to5Google managed to find some information about the upcoming Pixel foldable via an APK teardown of the latest version of the Google Camera app. There are a handful of takeaways here, but the most important one is the string showing off a potential launch timeframe. Within the app’s code, the string “isPixel2022Foldable” can be found. This is a check string that helps the Google Camera app know what phone it’s running on, and the 2022 bit all but confirms that this Pixel foldable phone will be coming to the market at some point next year — potentially when stable Android 12L arrives, which should be in the first quarter.
If you were expecting to see the same high-quality camera setup as the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, though, you might be out of luck. The Pixel foldable might actually have the same camera setup as the Pixel 5.
According to the teardown, the main sensor will be a 12.2 MP Sony IMX363 sensor, with a 12MP IMX386 sensor pulling ultrawide duties. For its front cameras, we’ll potentially see two 8MP IMX355 sensors, one as an “innie” and the other an “outie” — in other words, two identical front cameras, one for the external screen and another for the internal, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3.
While it’s not surprising Google’s first Pixel, presumably its most expensive phone ever, will need to cut costs in the camera department, Google’s well-versed in the smaller sensors that powered its phones between 2017 and 2020.
We’ll know when the Pixel foldable is about to arrive — its launch will most likely be preceded by an inevitable set of leaks.
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