Google’s Pixel Fold to be Priced Competitively with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold Series
According to a new leak, Google’s upcoming Pixel Fold will be priced competitively with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series. Earlier rumors had suggested that the Pixel Fold would be priced at around $1,700 when it’s announced in May at Google I/O 2023. However, the same leaker now suggests that the Pixel Fold will cost between $1,300 and $1,500, which is roughly £1,100 to £1,200 or AU$1,900 to AU$2,200.
The Pixel 7a is also expected to be priced similarly to the Pixel 6a, or a little higher. The Pixel 7a is rumored to cost between $450 and $500, which is about £370 to £410 or AU$670 to AU$745.
The latest rumors come from Yogesh Brar, a notable tipster who’s proven fairly reliable over the years.
Pixel Fold Price to Lower the Barrier to Entry for Foldables
The Pixel Fold’s rumored price is interesting because it suggests that the Fold’s price is being positioned to lower the prohibitive entry cost of foldables, especially vertically-folding larger folding phones. While some clamshell foldables have cost around $1,000 / £800 or even less, Galaxy Fold-style foldables have been pitched closer to $2,000 / £1,700. However, the Pixel Fold will fall somewhere in the middle of that range if Brar’s leak is accurate.
Foldables as a category have been getting stronger year over year, with Google’s Android 12L and Android 13 improvements going a long way toward enhancing the foldable user experience. As Google prepares Android 14 to further improve on the OS’s foldable support, with tools for developers to build or improve existing apps to work better on foldables, the Pixel Fold will mark the company’s fully enthusiastic embrace of this form factor – and an accessible price point would be the icing on the cake.