Whereas many followers are clearly desperate to snap up Google’s debut foldable – the Google Pixel Fold, which launched at Google IO final month – rumors of it initially arriving alongside one other folding Pixel have now been confirmed to be true.

Google beforehand hinted on the chance that it was contemplating extra than simply the vertically-folding book-style kind issue of the Pixel Fold; with the corporate’s product supervisor, George Hwang, claiming that his group was “undoubtedly trying” at “various kinds of units, various kinds of applied sciences,” throughout IO.

For the reason that occasion, nevertheless, the corporate’s head of design for {hardware} merchandise, Ivy Ross, subsequently went on-record in the course of the newest episode of the official Made By Google podcast to substantiate {that a} second foldable kind issue was certainly within the works too.

At across the 17:20 mark of the episode (titled ‘Pixel Good’) Ivy states, “I am actually happy with the group as a result of there was one other foldable mannequin that we had created, that we had the self-discipline to carry again and say ‘nope, it’s not adequate but,’ and actually wait till we felt like we might do one thing that was adequate or higher than what was on the market already.”

Ross’ assertion clarifies Hwang’s earlier line about “various kinds of units” however extra importantly leaves the door open for one more Pixel with a special folding kind issue.

Phrases like “the self-discipline to carry again” and “it is not adequate but” could possibly be interpreted as this second Pixel foldable is not lifeless within the water, however relatively on ice till the group behind it’s pleased that it is prepared for shoppers and presents one thing that’s “higher than what was on the market already.”

One thing to show

In fact, what’s out there’s Samsung, who has its finest foldables – the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Four and Galaxy Z Flip 4 – in additional markets internationally than every other cellphone maker.

In Google’s homeland of the US, foldable followers have solely actually had Samsung to select from in recent times; particularly after Motorola selected to not launch the Motorola Razr 2022 within the area, leaving solely the 2019 and 2020 revivals to function less-than-stellar options to Samsung’s choices. The door is clearly open for some extra foldable competitors Stateside, and Google has lastly cottoned on.

Whereas a clamshell design was by no means explicitly acknowledged by Ross, it does appear to be probably the most logical companion foldable kind issue to the Pixel Fold; particularly based mostly on the competitors’s technique. Samsung began with the vertically-hinged Fold earlier than later introducing the clamshell Flip, Oppo launched the Discover N and Discover N2 earlier than releasing the Discover N2 Flip, a number of of Huawei’s Mate X foldables had been available on the market earlier than the P50 Pocket debuted, and Vivo lately adopted up its X Fold line with the X Flip. Motorola is the outlier on this regard, with its clamshell-only foldable lineage on the time of writing.

The caveat to dashing into the foldable house is that Android has been a famously lacklustre expertise on bigger screens for years now, with solely a handful of producers in a position to wrangle the expertise into one thing usable and fascinating (as you will discover with our rundown of the very best Android tablets).

With Google IO 2023 giving us the Pixel Fold and the Pixel Pill, each constructing on the groundwork laid by Android 12L and Android 13, it is clear that Google is lastly taking bettering that big-screened Android expertise critically, which additionally reinforces why a secondary Pixel foldable – particularly one with a special kind issue – could have fallen by the wayside, for now.