Google has reportedly begun test production of a 5G smartphone that it may unveil as soon as next week.

Sources told the Nikkei Asian Review that Google's new 5G smartphone could be announced at its launch event for new products on Oct. 15, where the company will also unveil two new 4G Pixel smartphones, and possibly a new smart watch and notebook.

The Google 5G handset will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. Meanwhile the new flagship Pixel 4 series will sport advanced organic light-emitting diode screens.

With the move into 5G phones, Google would challenge to Apple and other leading hardware and handset makers such as Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies. It would also throw down the gauntlet at Microsoft, which announced a return last week to the competitive smartphone market with its own Android folding model, after it exited in 2016.

Google's 5G model is currently being test produced in China. But to avoid U.S. tariffs from the China trade dispute, and to source cheaper labor, all Google production destined for the U.S. will eventually be made outside China. A leading option is a Vietnamese facility due to be ready by the end to the year, as the Nikkei Asian Review first reported.

Google may eventually decide to unveil its new 5G model in spring next year, still ahead of Apple.