Google’s foldable Pixel phone will get Pixel 5 cameras and will appear in 2022
The upcoming foldable Google Pixel smartphone wouldn’t get the camera sensors of the latest Google Pixel 6 series. Instead, the phone may get the Pixel 5 series sensors. Presumably, Google chooses this because of the thickness of the Pixel 6 series.
For the primary camera, Google’s folding Pixel gets the 12.2-megapixel sensor IMX363 from Sony. That writes 9to5Google based on files found in the latest version of the Google Camera app. The wide-angle camera gets Sony’s IMX386 sensor. According to the news site, this is a 12-megapixel sensor; it is not clear if this is an error. This sensor came in the Pixel 5 as a 16-megapixel sensor.
The foldable smartphone and the regular Pixel 6 will share the IMX355-8-megapixel sensor, according to the Google Camera app. This sensor was also used in previous Pixel smartphones as a selfie camera, the foldable phone will also use it for this. The sensor is mentioned twice in the files; presumably there is a sensor on the front when the smartphone is folded and there is one on the inside for when the phone is unfolded.
Google would go for these ‘older’ sensors, because it would like to make the foldable phone as thin as possible. The Samsung GN1-50 megapixel sensor used in the Pixel 6 smartphones takes up a lot of space; that’s why these phones have a camera island that runs horizontally from edge to edge on the back. Foldable smartphones often don’t have the best camera hardware; the Galaxy Z Fold3 also has lesser camera hardware than this year’s Galaxy S21 phones.
The news site also says that it has found a reference to the year in which the foldable Pixel should appear within the code of the Camera app. The files would show isPixel2022Foldable, which would refer to an introduction in 2022. Previously, the Pixel 4 series and 3a series would have been named isPixel2019 and isPixel2019MidRange. Those phones also appeared that year. A further release date is not given. The smartphone may appear with the release of Android 12L early next year, this operating system has been specially developed for foldables.
In the Camera files, the smartphone is given the code name Pipit. This appears to be a replacement for the Passport name previously used. It is not clear what has changed besides the name. In addition to Passport, Google also worked on a foldable phone called Jumbojack. This is a clamshell smartphone like the Galaxy Z Flip series; the Pipit phone will likely fold just like the Galaxy Z Fold series.