Pixel Fold will use new OLED technology from Samsung not earmarked for the Galaxy Z Fold 5

According to The Elec, the display for the upcoming Pixel Fold is coming from Samsung Display. The report claims that the first foldable Pixel will sport Samsung's M13 display material set. If this turns out to be true, the Pixel Fold will be the first to use this technology. Surprisingly, Samsung is planning to stick with the M12 display material set for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. This is the same material used with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Apple will be using it on all four iPhone 15 models.

This year's iPhone 14 series uses both M11 and M12 with the former found on the displays of the non-Pro models and the latter used on the higher-priced iPhone 14 Pro units. The report in The Elec doesn't mention in what ways M13 is superior to M12 but it is believed to be an upgrade. As noted by Patently Apple, "The OLED material set consists of a light-emitting layer and a common layer, such as dopant (light-emitting body), host (light-emitting layer), and prime (auxiliary layer) of individual pixels of red (R), green (G), and blue (B)."

Reportedly, Samsung is working on M14 display materials that will be used for next year's iPhone 16 series. Apple has used the same OLED material set used on Samsung's Galaxy handsets starting with the iPhone 11 line back in 2019. The first two iPhone models to sport OLED panels, the iPhone X and iPhone XS series, used Apple's own LT material set.

The Pixel Fold is expected to feature a 5.8-inch external display with a 1080 x 1900 resolution. The internal "tablet-sized display" could weigh in at 7.6 inches with a resolution of  1840 × 2208 and possibly a 120Hz refresh rate. Unlike the portrait-oriented display found inside the Galaxy Z Fold 4, the Pixel Fold screen will be more landscape oriented. The device will be powered by the same Galaxy Tensor 2 chipset that currently drives the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.

The Pixel Fold could be introduced at the Google I/O developer conference being held on May 10th. The device would then be released during the second half of this year and one tipster has the phone priced in the range of $1,300-$1,500 which would make it hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 4.