In the midst of the madness of smartphones
foldable screen, dominated by Samsung and its Galaxy Z Fold
and Z Flip
, Google seems to continue to work on its own model.
After strong rumors at the start of 2021, then a potential cancellation of the project, it seems that Google is still in the race for the folding Pixel.
The Pixel Fold “canceled” in 2021
In March 2021, rumors led us to believe that the next Pixel smartphone was going to have a foldable screen. Since then, we have discovered the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro and as much to say that it is necessary to avoid folding them in half. However, rumors continued to grow and for good reason, the market for smartphones equipped with this type of screen is also growing, as evidenced by the prototypes recently unveiled by Samsung.
But a few months later, in November of last year, the “Pixel Fold” project was purely and simply canceled by Google. The reason would be quite simple, the Mountain View firm would have deemed its project not attractive enough to try to overshadow Samsung, which currently dominates the market. However, rumors wanted Google to continue working on this technology, especially since the company has developed Android 12L, a wide-screen (and foldable) version of its operating system.
Google Pipit benchmark revives rumors
Finally, a benchmark of a “Google Pipit” was discovered on the site Geekbench, listing a number of benchmarks with, often, technical characteristics. As Mukul Sharma mentions on his Twitter account, Pipit is none other than the internal code name of the Pixel Fold and therefore of a foldable screen Google smartphone.
In addition to the fact that this smartphone exists at least in test and internally at Google, we discover via the benchmark that it would be equipped with an eight-core processor clocked (in pairs) at 2.8GHz, 2.25GHz and 1.8GHz. On the GPU side, the Pipit would be equipped with an ARM Mali G78. Likewise, the smartphone would benefit from 12 GB of RAM and 256 or 512 GB of internal storage, probably for two different models.
But rather strange thing, the benchmark indicates that the Google Pipit works under Android 12 and not 12L, the version adapted to foldable screens (among others). Is it simply a lack of information from Geekbench, or will Android 12L be perfectly integrated with the classic 12, to the point of not having a name difference once launched?
We’ll have to wait a few more months before we know whether or not Google is embarking on the race for folding smartphones. In view of the presence of Pipit on a benchmark, we can hope to speak from this year 2022.
Source: Phone Arena
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