Secret file found in Android 12L beta reveals that the Pixel Fold won't resemble the Galaxy Z Fold

It was a bit of surprise when word leaked out in November that Google had put the kibosh on the Pixel Fold. But early in the new year, a Geekbench benchmark test of a device called the Google Pipit got the wheels in the rumor mill turning once again. The chipset powering the device appears to mirror the Tensor chip that is found inside the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with two 2.8GHz cores, two cores clocked at 2.25GHz, and four efficiency cores clocked at 1.8GHz. A Mali G78 GPU is included.

The Pixel Fold originally was expected to resemble the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 that opens and closes like a book revealing a 7.6-inch tablet-sized screen when fully opened. There is a 6.2-inch exterior Cover Screen display and both the smartphone and tablet-sized screens refresh at a rate of 120 times each second (120Hz). If you're a foldable device, there are a lot of worse things you could aspire to be than the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

As we mentioned earlier, on Wednesday Google released the second beta version of Android 12L (for Android devices with larger screens) and it contained secret illustrations that appear to show the Pixel Fold when closed and when open. The two illustrations are part of an animated look at how users should insert their SIM cards into the phone.

One animation appears to be showing the Pixel Fold's exterior outer screen with the volume rocker on the right and the hinge on the left. The SIM card tray is on the bottom of the device. Another part of the animation shows a drawing of the Pixel Fold when open exposing the large tablet-sized display.

Since the images were not present in the first beta release of Android 12L and appeared in the second beta release, we can assume that Google is still busy developing the handset. Another observation made by 9to5Google notes that the illustrations do not show a device with a 22.5:18 aspect ratio like the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Instead, the large interior display is almost square calling to mind the Oppo Find N's 8.4:9 aspect ratio.

This news could be good for both Samsung and Google since there would be room for both manufacturers to mark some territory in the foldable market. Some of the specs leaked in the Geekbench test show that the Pixel Fold will sport 12GB of RAM, just like the Pixel 6 Pro, with 256GB and 512GB of storage.

Google is really going to have to work on quality control if it does release a foldable that could have a price tag in the $1,500-$1,800 range. Already, the company is under pressure for the number of bugs found on the Pixel 6 Pro, a phone that is priced at $899 and up. Google can't afford to have a series of problems on the Pixel Fold if it wants to be taken seriously in this sector of the smartphone market.

And even though Google is usually to exterminate bugs by sending out a software update, it has temporarily stopped sending updates to the Pixel 6 series and hopes to resume pushing out the updates later this month.