Google certainly went big this year when it comes to smartphone releases and choices. Not only did they give us a Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL, we’ve got a 4th option – they gave us their newest foldable, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. This is Google’s follow-up to the original Pixel Fold, it costs $1,799, and there are some big changes for this 2nd entry.
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks with this device off and on as I dance between a regular Pixel 9 Pro and this new foldable. So I’ve got kind of a lot to say on it both because there’s a lot going on and also because well, we didn’t review the original Pixel Fold. This is our first time diving into Google’s view for how a phone that folds in half can function.
Let’s dive into this. This is our Pixel 9 Pro Fold review.
What do I like about the Pixel 9 Pro?
Design. When it comes to design, this new Pixel 9 Pro Fold fits right in with the other Pixel 9 series devices. It carries similar colors and metal finishes, the camera housing has changed, and it should be easy to tell that this is a part of the Pixel 9 line. That said, it is a big change from the original Pixel Fold, which was a little shorter when closed and a little wider when opened.
For this phone, Google says that they really focused on making it a phone first in the hand that then unfolds to have this large display on the inside. I think they really nailed the design on this as someone who doesn’t love foldables. And I do have some complaints here (that I’ll get to later), but it does feel like a phone in your hand, plus it’s so easy to use as a phone because the front display really is the perfect size and is very similar to the regular Pixel 9 Pro’s size.
There’s good weight to it, the all-metal frame and hardware feel premium, and the hinge folds the device together perfectly, leaving no gaps when closed. The matte black (Obsidian) color I’ve been testing does a good job of repelling fingerprints, the buttons are in familiar spots, and the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader.
When unfolded you have this very large display to play with. That inside display has symmetrical bezels around it, unlike the original that had the most unfinished look of a foldable I’ve ever seen. This device looks properly made and as if great care went into how polished it should be. It is essentially a square, though, so while some content displays in a funny way, it’s not so large that you can’t interact with it.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold looks like a grown-up foldable, which is saying a lot for a device line that is only in its 2nd generation.
Battery life. Google slapped a 4650mAh battery into this Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which is slightly below the original Pixel Fold in terms of capacity, but it has the new Tensor G4 chip inside and so it’s just an efficient little beast. Like the Pixel 9 Pro and the rest of the Pixel 9 series, I’m finding really great battery life.
On most days, we’re talking up to 4 hours of use (screen on time) and going to bed with 30% battery remaining. On a few days during testing where I really hammered it, I saw up to 4.5-5 hours of use and still 45% battery remaining. This is really great battery life, but I’m also just not that surprised knowing how good the overall Pixel 9 has been in this department. I think where I am shocked on some level is the fact that I’m seeing battery life this good and there are two screens to power, one of which is a large 8-inch OLED panel at up to 120Hz.
As far as charging, there is both wireless and wired charging, but so far the wireless side has been a bit finicky, just because of the size of the camera housing and the placement of the charging coil (it doesn’t work with the Pixel Stand 2). So I haven’t really been able to test that much. For wired charging, Google is really only calling this “Fast Charging” with an official speed rating of 21W. I am seeing right around 20W on a pretty powerful charger that’s sitting on my desk, so I guess Google is correct.
Displays. The two displays that Google included on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold are both pretty great. The outside panel is a 6.3″ OLED display at 1080p and with a refresh rate from 60Hz to 120Hz. It’s probably very similar to the panel in the non-Pro Pixel 9. And then for the inside display, you get a large 8″ OLED (LTPO) at 2076 x 2152 with a refresh rate from 1 to 120Hz. Both panels can hit peak brightness of 2700 nits, so they are easy to see in outdoor settings and support HDR. The front panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, while the inside display only has ultra-thin glass protecting it, so go easy on it.
Like the other Pixel 9 devices, you have limited display color controls (Adaptive or Natural is it), but they do show limited color shifts when you aren’t looking directly at them. I keep mine set to Adaptive and that helps darken blacks, probably by ramping contrast, and that helps content really pop without being offensive.
Brightness levels are often a bit low during the day for my liking, so I’ve noticed that I shift the brightness slider often. I do like how low those levels can go though, as someone who spends too much time with a screen in my face when in bed.
Touch responsiveness on both displays is excellent. They are as good as the panels in the Pixel 9 Pro and that surprises me some with the inside display. Folding displays have come so far and this Pixel 9 Pro Fold really shows that. It looks as good as any other display, yet it can be folded in half. But speaking of touching it, another surprise is in the way this inside panel feels. Gone are the days of folding panels feeling like icky plastic. This feels very close to a normal display, plus the middle crease isn’t that large and I haven’t noticed it yet unless I go specifically looking for it.
I do have one complaint and that’s that I wish Google would find a way to heavily apply an anti-reflective coating to the inside display. This thing shines and reflects anything near me in ways that I feel like I haven’t noticed from other displays.
Software. The Pixel experience that Google uses on its other Pixel devices is here as you might expect, along with Android 14 since Android 15 (still) isn’t out at the time of this review. And since this is a foldable with two displays, you do get to utilize the tablet UI that Google has been steadily working on in recent years as a bit of a bonus. That mostly means a side-by-side notification shade, access to a taskbar at all times, app pairing (that can be saved as shortcuts), and a slight change to the app switcher.
I don’t really want to spend too much time on the software and features, because we’ve already talked about it in our Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 reviews. Like, if you have owned a Pixel phone, you know what this is like. All of the AI stuff is here too, with a Gemini Advanced subscription included, camera and photo editing tools, Google’s Recorder app, Circle to Search, etc. It runs Tensor G4, so you get all of the newest and best features first.
What I do love is that Google hasn’t tried to dramatically change the experience just because this is a foldable. Instead, you get a very familiar Pixel software approach that has enough features to give you some power, yet still stays out of your way by not overdoing it. And then because this doubles as a tablet, there are meaningful additions (like the stuff I just mentioned) to turn things up a notch.
I really appreciate the taskbar and being able to switch to my most-used apps, access the universal search, and scroll through the app drawer at any moment, no matter the screen I’m on. App splitting and app pairs are super useful and easy to figure out, plus the home screen setups match from the cover display to the inside. Everything flows seamlessly from phone experience to tablet.
I feel like so many foldables and tablets want to tell you all of the time that they are tablets and there are special features that you should use, yet Google is here doing the opposite. Instead of making two dramatically different phone and tablet experiences, they have instead given you a perfect blend of the two.
Oh, and I should probably mention that because this is a Pixel 9 series device, it will see 7 years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates. This phone will be updated far longer than you’ll ever keep it.
Camera: The Pixel 9 Pro Fold does not have the same camera as the other two Pixel 9 Pro devices and that does come off a bit like a big negative at first glance. It seems to me that if you want to name something the same, it should probably meet the others in one of their most important departments. Unfortunately, this is where Google had to make a sacrifice and I’m guessing it’s because of how big the camera modules are in the Pixel 9 Pro devices and how thin they wanted to keep this Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
You are getting a main 48MP sensor (f/1.7, 82° field of view) that has been paired with 10.5MP ultra-wide (f/2.2, 127° field of view) and 10.8MP telephoto (f/3.1, 23° field of view) lenses. It is essentially the same setup that we had on the original Pixel Fold.
As far as the picture-taking experience goes, I’ve got to be honest here and admit that taking pictures with this beast is a bit of a chore. It’s such a heavy and bulky device that I’ve found myself hesitating to grab it as often to take photos of my daily life. That’s not something that happens with a normal phone. That said, once I get the courage to pull this foldable device out, it does so like any other Pixel.
The camera app is mostly easy-to-use, with all of Google’s typical camera modes, like Photo, Portrait, Night Sight, Panorama, and the new Add Me. There are simple toggles to get to video mode or to change focal lengths/between lenses, view recent pictures, or flip from rear to selfie cameras.
Since this is a foldable with a big cover screen, Google will let you open the device up and let the cover display act as your viewfinder and the main camera take selfies of you. This basically gives you the ultimate selfie machine that should crush every other selfie from any non-foldable phone. I’ve attempted to use this a few times and it can be a bit of a confusing mess to get in and out of, but the results are pretty great.
Now, for the results, this is where you are probably wondering how big of a hit you’ll take in camera quality by going with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold over a regular Pixel 9 Pro or 9 Pro XL. I don’t think you’ll take much of one.
You’ll see in the many camera samples below that the main 48MP camera is quite good in almost any situation. From low-light close-ups to portraits, landscapes, and pictures of food or beer, this camera is as good as other Pixel devices. It is a strong main camera that loves a blue sky, can find hidden details in shadows without flattening an image, and typically finds the proper softness for backgrounds. This is a camera you should feel confident in at all times.
But returning to the comparison to the Pixel 9 Pro, I thought it might be best to show a couple of examples of how it compares at 5x, since that’s mostly where the cuts came. The Pixel 9 Pro has a 48MP Quad PD telephoto sensor, while the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a 10.8MP Dual PD camera. What I think you’ll notice is that greens turn a little brown on the Fold and that the objects further in the distance start to lose detail. However, for the most part, I think most people will struggle to find major differences. The processing is bringing both so close together.
Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs. Pixel 9 Pro
Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs. Pixel 9 Pro
So yeah, onto some more samples that have simply been resized to better work on our website. I think this camera is quite good and viewing photos on it is even more fun, thanks to that big inside display.
The better style of foldable. As the resident foldable hater around the Android space, I will say that this is without a doubt the better form of foldable. I think flip phones are, well, bad and I refuse to use them because they have this tiny screen on the front that just forces you to have to unfold your phone over and over all day long to do the simplest of tasks. It is a tiresome action that I do not enjoy.
With this style of foldable, you get a phone on the front that’s the perfect size and shape, so you can do everything you do on a normal phone on the front – without having to open the device. Then you also happen to have the bonus of an 8-inch tablet on the inside for those times you want to watch videos on a bigger screen, you want to multitask a little bit and run two apps at the same time, or there’s just stuff you would like to view in a bigger format, like photos. Again, I don’t really like foldables as a general idea in practice and I’m not sure that this is the space that I will ever come back to full time, but this Pixel 9 Pro Fold really comes close to getting me to switch. It has been a lot of fun to use over the past couple of weeks.
I’ve saved app pairs that I often go back to, I’ve consumed far too much YouTube and Twitch on it, and I’ve certainly noticed how much less time I’ve spent on my iPad. I’m about to go on a couple of trips and am weirdly considering bringing this over my Pixel 9 Pro. I thought I had made the decision to switch back to the regular 9 Pro, but as I type this, I’m having second thoughts. Can you believe it?
Performance. I keep comparing this to the Pixel 9 Pro, but you kind of have to when the specs and hardware are so similar. I’m going to do it again for performance, which is quite good. The Tensor G4 chip inside with the 16GB RAM and either 256GB or 512GB storage perform as you need them to. While I’m well aware that Tensor chips aren’t going to win benchmark awards, they do what you need them to. This device is fast whether you are using the smaller cover display or the larger internal display, it’ll handle all of your apps, the transitions between everything are buttery smooth, and battery life has been stellar because of improved efficiency.
What’s bugging me?
Weight, size, that bottom left corner. My biggest complaint – and it’s probably always going to be the case with foldables like this, the ones that start as a phone and open into a tablet – is just the weight and size. To carry around one of these devices, you really have to commit to the idea that you need both a phone and a tablet because this thing weighs a lot.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 9.1oz (257g). For comparison, the regular Pixel 9 Pro that I’ve been carrying around is at 7.0oz (199g). Those two ounces are a lot in your hand, your pocket, or in any situation where you are moving. As someone who gets out on these mean Portland streets to keep my body in some sort of old man running shape, this device wasn’t fun to bring along.
There’s also a thickness to this that you have to get used to as you hold it, there’s the opening and closing it non-stop requirement (which takes quite a bit of effort and is not a one-hand move), and when its folded up, that bottom left corner can sure irritate your left palm. Google has at least done a decent job of attempting to round those sharper corner parts, but as a left-hand holder of phones, it has been a struggle at times.
Again, the big idea here is that you need to be ready to commit to this size of device. The price is one thing, but the weight and the opening and closing of it need your full attention. The weight is actually down 30g from the original Pixel Fold, yet it’s still something I can’t help but point out.
Videos and games on inside display. My final complaint really just comes down to the inside display. It’s kind of an odd resolution as I mentioned earlier, as it is essentially a square at a resolution of 2076 x 2152. When you are watching content, like any sort of video or playing any game, you are going to have these black bars on the top and bottom below the content (or off to the sides). Most apps and video resolutions aren’t built to take up this shape of display. You can probably get used to it or try and force some apps to expand to the full screen, they just may look funky.
Should you buy the Pixel 9 Pro Fold?
Coming from someone who has never been the biggest fan of foldables, I think the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is without a doubt a device to consider buying. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with this new foldable from Google, which I can’t believe I’m actually saying out loud.
I think Google really nailed this idea that a foldable of this type should be a phone first and feels like a phone in the hand when folded up, with a normal shape and resolution. That lets you use the device as you would a normal phone, but then there’s this amazing 8-inch tablet waiting for you at any moment. And that 8-inch tablet is a good tablet that showcases the major strides Google has made with Android for bigger screens, making way for simple multitasking, consuming media, editing photos, and doing anything that may require (or look better) on a larger display.
The camera experience still lives up to the Pixel name, battery life has been very good for me, the hardware is at a level that meets the price point, and thanks to Google’s software support, the investment you make here should be worth it over many years to come.
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This post was last modified on September 26, 2024 3:33 pm