Google may launch a foldable Pixel phone this year

Google may launch its first foldable Pixel phone later this year.

TheElec reports that Samsung Display is working on in-folding foldable OLED panels for Oppo, Xiaomi and Google, which will be used by phones launching within the year.

Google has reportedly requested Samsung Display to develop a foldable OLED panel around 7.6-inches. As for Oppo, it has requested for a 7.7-inch foldable panel for a clamshell-type phone. The external screen is rumoured to be 1.5 to 2.0-inches.

Xiaomi is said to be aiming for an 8.03-inch panel for the primary screen and a 6.38-inch panel for the external screen.

This isn't the first time that Samsung is rumoured to be supplying foldable displays to Google. ETNews reported in March 2019 that Samsung specifically provided foldable panels to Google for testing.

Google's Pixel development lead Mario Queiroz revealed in an interview two months later that the company was "prototyping foldable displays and many other new hardware technologies" , but felt that there wasn't a clear use case yet in 2019.

The first evidence of Google working on a foldable Pixel phone surfaced in August 2020 where an internal document revealed that the company is working on Android builds for at least four new smartphones, one of which is explicitly referred as "foldable".

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.