More and more companies are releasing their own foldable phones onto the market, with the Huawei Mate X looking promising and the Motorola Razr also aiming to release this year. Well, it looks like Google are also working on its own foldable phone. Mario Queiroz, who leads the development of Google’s Pixel phones, said in an interview with Cnet that the company has already created early designs and prototypes. “We’re definitely prototyping the technology,” he said. “We’ve been doing it for a long time."

We shouldn’t expect it any time soon, however, as Queiroz made it clear that Google’s in no rush to release its version of a foldable phone. While this makes sense, after the problems plaguing the Samsung Galaxy Fold launch, it is interesting to see a company announce its plans so early into development.

This also means details are scarce right now relating to a potential foldable Pixel . Based on what information we do have, however, we can start to paint a picture about what a Pixel foldable phone might be like.

Pixel foldable phone release date: When will it come out?

As mentioned previously, Google is looking to take its time with the release of their own foldable phone. The company has said that they’ve already been prototyping the phone for a long time, but that doesn’t provide any indication as to when it might release.

Looking at other release dates and announcements of foldable phones, the Samsung Galaxy Fold was originally revealed to the public in November 2018 and would have released in April 2019, before it was delayed. Similarly, the Huawei Mate X was announced in February 2019, with plans to release in June of the same year.

Taking this into account, what we can surmise is that once Google officially unveils their version of a foldable phone, we can expect it to release roughly around four to five months after their official announcement. Based on how early into development they are, though, we likely won’t be seeing it until 2020 at the earliest.

Pixel foldable phone price: How much will it cost?

The foldable phones we’ve seen so far certainly aren’t cheap. Samsung’s Galaxy Fold cost more than £1,800 upon release and the Huawei Mate X is expected to cost around £2,000, so you can expect Google’s foray into the market to be similarly expensive.

Saying that, Google isn’t rushing to enter the foldable phone market any time soon, so perhaps we’ll see a price reduction once the technology has been adopted more readily and more models are in the hands of more people. We wouldn’t hold our breath, though.

Pixel foldable phone design: What will it look like?

While we could look to the current Google Pixel range of phones for ideas on what the company’s foldable phone might look like, ultimately there are no images available to give us a peek at its potential design.

Well, that’s if we forget about the Google patent leaks, which were acquired by Patently Mobile. While they are only experimental concepts at this stage, we can see some of the ideas going through Google’s head.

One image released shows the phone folding down on itself, in what is referred to as a “clamshell” design, with the phone’s screens on the inside when folded. Another image shows a phone that folds into three separate sections that act as three separate displays, stacking on top of each other when folded.

Interestingly, this design looks to have multiple air gaps when folded. This is interesting because the Galaxy Fold only had one air gap but it was widely criticised and even suggested as being a cause for some of the screen issues that the device faced. Knowing this, Google having a patent with two air gaps in its design seems peculiar.

Neither of these patent designs are set in stone, but still gives us a rough idea and suggests that Google is considering very different designs than its foldable phone competitors.

Pixel foldable phone specifications: What’s inside?

While these patents give us a clue on the potential design of a Google foldable phone, the same can’t be said for the specs of the device. Ultimately, Google is still very much in the prototyping phase with the technology and supposedly has been for a long time. With the company keeping its cards close to its chest, we’ll have to wait a little longer before we learn what the specs of a Pixel foldable phone.