Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold hands-on: unbelievable improvement | Digital Trends (2024)

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold might just be the biggest generational improvement I’ve seen on any foldable device. While Samsung is an old hand in the foldable market, a lot of its tweaks are fairly incremental, with minor improvements to the hinge, some spec bumps, and a few other bells and whistles.

The jump between the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the first Pixel Fold is much more dramatic. Google completely revamped the design, added some cool new Gemini features, and made serious improvements to the specs. The result is a foldable phone that may very well beat out the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 in usability and more than matches it in terms of specs. Here’s a first look.

Google’s hardware is outstanding

At first glance, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold doesn’t even look like it’s made bythe same company as the Pixel Fold. Where the first Fold is short and squat and comes with a 17:4:9 aspect ratio, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is both taller and wider, making it more similar in size to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6with a 20:9 aspect ratio, but a wider cover screen. The edges are also nicely rounded, rather than the squared-off, almost sharp edges of the Fold 6, which make it slightly uncomfortable to hold.

The result is a big step up in usability. I found the 6.3-inch cover screen easier to use with one hand, easier to grip, and just generally more satisfying to use. When folded, it’s more of a Plus- or Pro-sized phone without being as awkwardly narrow and tall as the Z Fold 6. Impressively, it only measures about 0.4 inches thick when folded, making it about the same thickness as the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

However, it’s worth noting that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is somewhat heavy, tipping the scales at 9.1 ounces, or 257 grams. That’s still slimmed down from the Pixel Fold, which weighed in at almost 10 ounces or 283 grams, but if you’re used to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which is a relatively light 8.43 ounces or 239 grams, the added weight may be more noticeable in your pocket. The frame is made of satin metal, while the back is a silky matte that comes in Obsidian or Porcelain color options.

Unfolded, the dimensions are respectably tablet-sized, at 6.1 inches tall, 5.9 inches wide, and 0.2 inches thick. Personally, I’m a fan of the added vertical pixels because they help apps and media fill the screen better, though those who liked the squatter dimensions of the first Fold for pocketability and usability may not be as pleased.

The cover screen comes with Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which should be quite resistant to scratches or shattering, barring heavy abuse. The internal screen is going to be a bit more fragile, which is to be expected, so you may need to keep your eye out for scratches. The phone as a whole comes with IPX8 water resistance, meaning it can withstand immersion in up to 1 meter or more for a period of time, though it’s not resistant to dust ingress at all, so I advise against taking it to the beach.

Speaking of durability, that brings us to the hinge, which is significantly slimmed down and redesigned from the Fold. It’s now made of stainless steel, and the slight wedge-shaped gap that used to exist between the hinge is gone, allowing the phone to lay flat in both tabletop and tent mode. Opening and closing are also smooth and satisfying, though it’s not really possible to do it with one hand.

Two very impressive displays

The cover screen is bright and colorful, with a 60Hz to 120Hz variable refresh rate and the ability to hit 1,800 nits for HDR content and 2,700 nits of peak brightness. The internal screen is no slouch either, consisting of an 8-inch LTPO OLED screen with a 1Hz to 120Hz variable refresh rate. It can hit 1,600 nits for HDR and 2,700 nits of peak brightness. It’s quite a bit bigger than the 7.6-inch screen of the Fold 6 and the 7.8-inch screen of the OnePlus Open, making it one of the biggest screens you can get on a foldable in the U.S. market.

Both screens looked fantastic in a bright room exposed to direct sunlight. The colors looked rich, warm, and saturated. The text was crisp, and the viewing angles were great from all sides.

Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold seemed less prone to washing out or being subject to glare. You can also see the 9 Pro Fold pictured next to the OnePlus Open above. As is the case with the Fold 6, it’s both wider and taller, giving you more usable space.

The only downside here is that the inner screen still doesn’t support the use of a stylus the way the Z Fold 6 does. If you’re planning on doing serious notetaking, this may still be enough to convince you to stick with Samsung.

Gemini, Pixel Studio, and more

Naturally, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is loaded with AI features and comes with the Gemini assistant built-in. You can access Gemini by pressing and holding the power button. It’s set to replace Google Assistant, allowing you to do things like request it to create content, plan events, or pull up details about items from Gmail or Google Maps. It supports both voice commands and text, letting you pick what works best for you at the time.

Obviously, the big selling point of a foldable is multitasking. Split-screen mode is easy to access. Swiping up from the bottom of your screen lets you bring up apps that you can drag and drop on different parts of your screen, allowing you to do things like having a video running on one side while you take notes on Google Docs on the other.

The dual screens are also optimized to take advantage of photos and videos. You can get selfies using the rear camera by unfolding and framing yourself using the cover screen to preview. For kids, Made You Look can help keep your children engaged and looking at the camera thanks to animations on the cover screen while you frame the shot. You can pick from a variety of different and fun animations. Meet calls are also supported, with calls shown on both the inner and outer screen so that other people can be involved in the call.

Pixel Screenshots is a feature that’s gotten quite a bit of discussion. It exists as a separate app, but basically, every screenshot you take on the device can get automatically sorted and organized by Pixel Screenshot, making specific information easier to search. For instance, if you screenshot a recipe or event email, you’ll be able to pull the details easily via Gemini Nano. It seems handy, and it’s nice to have all your screenshots filed away in the app, rather than cluttering up your photo gallery.

Pixel Studio also stands apart as its own app, giving you a variety of generative AI features out of the box. You can also use it to generate brand new images based on text or voice, combine different images together, and make various tweaks and changes to the images you generate. Essentially, think of it as having DALL-E on your phone.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs Android 14. Like every Pixel device, it will receive seven years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates.

Capable specs, promising cameras

I wasn’t able to spend much time testing the phone’s performance or doing a full-fledged camera comparison, but I will say that everything was smooth and responsive. You’re looking at a Tensor G4 processor, 16GB RAM, and storage options of 256GB and 512GB.

I didn’t have any problems launching or using apps or multitasking by running two different apps on different parts of the screen. However, I wasn’t able to run any benchmark tests or do anything more intensive like games, but I feel comfortable saying that you won’t have any problems with performance.

I was able to snap several photos on the 48-megapixel primary camera, 10.5MP ultrawide lens, and 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. Obviously, the conditions weren’t challenging because the room was very brightly lit, but all the photos looked incredibly sharp and clear, with no loss of detail. The camera app also features a variety of modes like Macro Focus for bright colors and contrast and Pro controls to enable manual tweaking of things like white balance and shutter speed.

The phone also has Night Sight Video, which uses AI to reduce noise and boost video quality when recording at night or in lowlight. Naturally, I wasn’t able to test this feature, but look for our takeaways in our full review.

And speaking of AI features, there’s also a new one called Add Me. Essentially, it lets you take two different photos and add a person from the previous photo into the new one, which is handy if you’re usually the photographer for group shots.

After photos are snapped, you can also use Magic Editor to make additional AI-powered changes. These include some neat ones like reframing the photos and even expanding them to get more of the scene. There’s also the reimagine feature that lets you make changes to anything in the image, such as switching out the background from a road to a raging river.

Last but not least, the Weather app also gets a redesign. When the screen is unfolded, it shows quite a bit more information, including hourly forecasts, 10-day forecasts, weather maps, AI-powered weather reports and insights, wind speed, and more.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold means business

And that’s the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold! The first Pixel Fold was not a bad phone by any means, but it was also very clearly a first-gen foldable. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a very clear and immediate upgrade from its predecessor, but will it be enough to top the charts as the best folding phone you can buy? We’re eager to find out, and we’ll be doing precisely that in our full review soon.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold starts at $1,799 and is available for preorder as of August 13. It comes in two colors: Obsidian and Porcelain. Regular sales will begin on September 4.