While we’re all playing with this new Android 12 Beta and enjoying its Material You fanciness, diggers of code are finding hidden items within that could shape our future hardware decisions. As an example, Google has apparently been quite loose with leaving hints of its upcoming phone line-up, including the Pixel 6, Pixel 5a, and a potential Pixel foldable.
Spotted “numerous” times within Android 12 Beta files, 9to5Google says that Google has left references to all of the new phones, including their model numbers. Those are as follows:
- Barbet (Pixel 5a 5G) – G4S1M
- Oriole (Pixel 6 device) – GR1YH
- Raven (Pixel 6 device) – GF5KQ
- Passport (Pixel foldable) – GPQ72
All of those codenames should sound familiar, as we’ve talked about them on several occasions, including as far back as last August. This news isn’t necessarily the most interesting, except that the references to them are now baked somewhere into Android 12. Google could certainly still kill any or all of these devices, but hey, we love a good reference when we are only months from seeing new Google phones.
As of today, we know that the Pixel 5a should show up around the time that last year’s Pixel 4a arrived. There are supposed Pixel 6 and “Pixel 6 Pro” renders floating around that I still can’t help but question. And this possible Pixel foldable device is still hanging out in the background. I know there are also rumors of a Pixel Watch, but I’m just not buying those at all yet. Either way, 2021 is looking like a big hardware year for Google.