Review of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Acquired, but at What Cost?

Google unveiled its newest lineup, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold undoubtedly took center stage. It is far better than the terrible original Pixel Fold, which was really more of a prototype.

Most notably, it appears to be one of the best foldable designs at first appearance and is much slimmer. However, for $1,799, do you really receive a nice looking foldable, or is there more to it than meets the eye? I had the good fortune to spend a little more than a week with Google’s newest bendy boy. And, well, this is my opinion on the matter!

Android 14-based Pixel UI

Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Construct and Develop

As usual, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes with very little in the box: a Type-C to Type-C adapter and some documentation. Similar to the Pixel 9 (review) package, this one does not come with the Quick Switch adaptor. You also don’t get to see the inner cover, which would have been quite appreciated, unlike with the other foldables.

Speaking of which, the Pixel Fold 2 (sorry, Pixel 9 Pro Fold) felt hefty in my hand right away. I did a short search and found that, at 257 grams, this is currently the heaviest foldable. By contrast, the weight of the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro and OnePlus Open is 236 grams and 239 grams, respectively. But compared to the original Pixel Fold, which weighed 283 grams and was quite similar to the triple-foldable Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, it is less bulky.

I aspire to use the Honor Magic V3 eventually, but this is by far the thinnest foldable I have ever used, surprisingly enough. It’s small, but because of its weight, it kept sliding out of my pockets so frequently that I had to switch to pants with zipper pockets.

But the feel in the palm is incredible. I spent a good couple of seconds fondling the phone before analyzing the design closely. Because it is made of aluminum, Google’s most recent Pixel feels incredibly high-end. The hinge has a shiny, polished surface and is constructed of metal.

The back panel, on the other hand, has a satin-like feel that strongly reminded me of the Google Pixel 8 Pro. Also, the camera design is really good. I appreciate that Google did not simply use the Pixel 9 module here. Extra brownie points for it because it also keeps the phone sufficiently steady on a desk.

However, there is a significant design problem in that it is difficult to access the inside display. I eventually got used to using my fingertips to pry it open, but I still had to really dig in with my nails. Even so, it would have been wonderful to have an engraved texture to make opening it easier. However, it opens flat, which is fantastic.

Similar to other Pixel phones, the power and volume rocker buttons are situated on the right edge of the device. That always gets me, and I end up pressing the power button by mistake instead of the rockers, or the other way around. These buttons are also quite sensitive and I nearly always wind myself locking the device whether gaming or watching entertainment.

The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor that is positioned on the side. While it’s snappy and speedy, having used the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro’s Ultrasonic in-display sensor, this clearly feels inferior.

Furthermore, even low-cost Android phones include in-display fingerprint scanners that are somewhat faster than this. Moreover, the side-mounted won’t be able to read it if your fingers are even a little damp. With the Pixel 9, Google officially unveiled the 3D Sonic Gen 2 ultrasonic in-display sensor. Thus, my sincere goal was that they will apply it to the 9 Pro Fold.

Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Screen and Audio

The eye-catching real estate on the cover screen is the first thing I noticed and found appealing about the display. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the 6.3-inch 120Hz OLED “Actua” exterior display is large and expansive enough to prevent you from feeling cramped.

It feels like a lost opportunity that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s cover screen is not LTPO, unfortunately. You will require LTPO with a cover screen like this because you will be using it for the most of the time.

Although they are not particularly thin, the bezels around the cover screen are also not excessively thick to be unsightly. I like how the leftmost margins extend to resemble a diary, much like the OnePlus Open. In the week that I’ve been using the Gorilla Glass Victus 2, I’ve bumped the cover screen against a lot of surfaces, so it does an excellent job of protecting it. Fortunately, I don’t see any large scratches.

The large 8.03-inch OLED “Super Actua Flex” 120Hz panel inside is essentially two Pixel 9s stacked one on top of the other. However, it supports LTPO. Additionally, the bezels are narrower than those of the original Pixel Fold. That’s a relief, then.

Furthermore, I saw that the inside screen is not very reflective. The good brightness—which our Lux Meter recorded as remaining at about 2,700 nits—comes in handy as well. In the meantime, the cover screen achieved 2,850 nits, surpassing Google’s stated 2,700 nits. Even on the hottest of days, these levels hold up nicely. I had no trouble seeing the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s screens indoors in well-lit environments or even outdoors.

Additionally, I think the animation used to transition from the cover screen to the internal display is extremely cool. Your content is surrounded by this cool-looking vignette effect that expands and contracts. Tabletop mode—also known as tent mode—performs admirably.

The hinge on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is strong enough to support the device while I type with the screen slightly angled to improve visibility. In addition, it skillfully resizes the keyboard and modifies the content to maximize the crease in the middle.

But I observed something peculiar. The Fold’s colors were somewhat muted when it was first taken out of the package. It turns out that the issue is that the display is set by default to Natural mode. Those colors at last came to life when I switched it to Adaptive. However, the Fold’s default display setting was Adaptive when I reset it for the second time. That’s something to keep in mind.

With the display set to Adaptive, the colors were fairly good all over. I never had any issues with the content after binge-watching House MD on Amazon Prime and watching an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Crunchyroll. It was a really wonderful experience, going from fairly natural tones to deeper blacks.

However, the aspect ratio makes it difficult to view material, exactly like on other foldable. With a 1:1 aspect ratio, your material is surrounded by thick black bars that suffocate it yet it somehow manages to hang on. The internal display is not protected by a rating, but it does have a protective film applied on top that you are not permitted to remove.

The Pixel 9 range as a whole, however, only employs 240Hz PWM dimming, which some users claim is terrible. Some individuals may detect the difference and experience headaches from it, but I was unable to.

For comparison, the OnePlus Open uses 1440Hz of high-frequency PWM dimming, while the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro (first impressions) uses 2160Hz. Though it doesn’t directly affect me, it’s kind of frustrating to see Google deploy outdated technology in a market dominated by cutting-edge gear.

The two-speaker sound system is not very good. It’s just bland, even though it’s loud enough to watch a movie without needing headphones. Higher volumes have cracking, and there are hardly any mids or lows. It wasn’t for me, having used foldables with excellent audio outputs.

Software Experience with Pixel 9 Pro Fold

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold ships with Pixel UI, which is based on Android 14. It’s the most elegant foldable software available, of course. Bloatware is seldom noticeable, and you can remove several of the necessary Google pre-installed apps, including Find Device, Gemini, Lens, and Assistant.

Additionally, you notice those new uninstallable AI-focused apps like Pixel Screenshots and Pixel Studio. Other useful Pixel 9 AI capabilities include the quite wonderful Reimagine in the Magic Editor, Add Me, Auto Frame, and Gemini Live. Oh, you also get a year of free Gemini Advanced plus 2TB storage with the Google One AI Premium subscription.

Furthermore, the UI’s haptic integration is excellent—as one could anticipate from a premium Pixel device. The majority of animations are really smooth, which makes using them even more enjoyable. You can also access the Taskbar by swiping up and holding it from the bottom. Alternatively, you can select “Always show Taskbar.” Since I quit out of apps too frequently and it became annoying after a while, I prefer the latter.

Furthermore, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s Taskbar is essentially the sole multitasking feature available. Additionally, you can drag and drop programs to create split screens, quickly navigate between your most recent apps, and access the app drawer from anywhere, making it a very easy interface.

But given that we’re talking about a Pixel and that Google is essentially the one who invented Android, one would think that expectations would rise. Regretfully, Google has made a number of software-related gaffes that you wouldn’t anticipate.

To begin with, the setup page appears properly on the cover screen when you are configuring the device. However, the orientation was disorganized when I entered the interior display. The page was unable to meet the borders of the primary display. But it’s not limited to setup. This issue was present in a number of other apps, including OLX, Cashify, and Rapido. Here are some really bad optimization problems.

I don’t think the notification arrangement is the best when it’s unfolded. Likewise, the motion in the app drawer seems to be glitched. It appears worse because the background apps are not even blurred out.

I found that a lot of apps aren’t fully optimized for the split screen when I was using it. Because of this, the apps either can’t scale up to fit the screen in the top and bottom views, or they wind up leaking into the crease in the side-by-side view. Additionally, a neat little feature that would have been able to create a 3-app split screen view is not available.

Another improvement to the multitasking would have been a sidebar. The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro, OnePlus Open, and Galaxy Z Fold 6 all have this capability. I truly missed being able to quickly launch apps in a floating window on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but this makes it possible.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold could not have arrived with Android 15 out of the box because of the postponed release date. By doing this, consumers would have been able to fully utilize the promised seven years of software upgrades. But because of their software update policy, there’s no denying that this and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be the most future-proof foldables.

Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Functionality

The Tensor G4 (benchmarks) doesn’t significantly improve performance across the board for the Pixel 9 series. Do those figures, however, accurately represent everyday use or more graphically demanding activities like gaming? To find out, I put the Google 9 Pro Fold through its paces. Now let’s get started!

Benchmarks:

I’ve covered all the important points, and this is a brief summary of it all:

It is clear that these outcomes are unimpressive. That’s alright though, as I don’t anticipate Tensor chipsets to perform astounding feats in benchmarks. However, I must admit that I would have liked a UFS 4.0 more than the antiquated 3.1.

Daily Utilization:

The benchmarks are obviously not very good, but they have no bearing on how the phone is used on a daily basis. There were no lags or micro-stutters, and the limited multitasking I was able to accomplish was quite effective. The consistency of the app across screens is good, and it didn’t interfere with how I used it.

I could switch between the fifteen or so background apps that I had open with ease. Additionally, RAM management is adequate, as 75–80% of those apps resume immediately. I also enjoyed that the phone’s memory remembered the many app pairs I had open in split screen and allowed me to pick up where I left off.

Aside from just one motion in the app drawer, the user interface greeted me with charming animations in every corner. I never once experienced a stutter whether switching between apps or just idly perusing the user interface.

The phone did not overheat as I had anticipated, which surprised me. This is because of my amazing—or not—experience with the Pixel 8a (review). The Pixel 9 series of phones might literally be the coolest that Google has made to date!

But when you launch the camera app and take some pictures, they definitely get heated. It’s excellent that, in my experience, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold never gets hotter beyond 40 degrees when used normally. It has remained mainly lukewarm despite the humidity in Noida, which is a complement.

Playing games:

I played some video games as well, but it wasn’t the greatest experience. Similar to the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL, the appalling touch sampling rate significantly impedes gaming, particularly in titles like Warzone Mobile and CoD Mobile.

As a result, even with adequate graphics settings and a respectable frame rate, you are still unable to fully utilize it. In relation to settings, the following is a summary of what to anticipate from the device:

I’m relieved that Google has this year’s temperatures under control. The temperature in an air-conditioned room seldom rises beyond 40 degrees even after nearly 1.5 hours of game, which is respectable. Just beneath the camera module, there’s a tiny space that warms up to about 43 degrees higher than the rest of the rear panel. However, I truly like that it’s never too hot.

Even though there were occasional frame drops in games with higher graphics, like Warzone and Genshin Impact, they weren’t really noticeable. However, it is good to finally see a Pixel phone without any kind of thermal throttling.

The aspect ratio, however, really obstructs the picture. Although Genshin Impact doesn’t have a major issue, in CoD Mobile and Warzone’s more competitive ranked lobbies, your field of vision is simply too little, and the game also appears to be stretched out. For the most part, I played games on the cover screen.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s cameras:

 The Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold share a very similar camera configuration. Stated differently, quite antiquated and unimpressive by 2024 standards. To be honest, I thought it would have the same configuration as the Pixel 9 Pro XL. That would have been wonderful. Nevertheless, I experimented with the 48MP Quad PD primary + 10.5MP Dual PD ultra-wide + 10.8MP Dual PD telephoto sensor, and the following is what I found:

Daytime:

The camera’s user interface struck me immediately; most things are easily accessible with a thumb. I have to stick my thumb out a little bit to access the capture button, picture preview panel, front-to-rear camera switcher, and sensor switching icons on the left, though; they should have been positioned slightly lower.

Colors are shown in the viewfinder preview exactly as they will look in the final image. This makes sense—there are some minor processing variations. Talking about the day images themselves, for a second, I truly forgot that I was using a Pixel foldable.

The ultrawide sensor produces the most natural output, while the primary and telephoto sensors have somewhat different hues. The ultrawide lens produces noisy and incredibly grainy images, while the primary sensor does a good job capturing details. The noise is seen in the viewfinder itself.

There’s some noise, especially on overcast days, and the telephoto sensor is not very good. Little dullness may be found in the shadows and highlights, and there is not much dynamic range. At this point, I was seriously beginning to doubt the Pixel’s cameras and wondered why Google hadn’t just used the ones on the Pixel 9 Pro XL. Additionally, there is some variation in hue amongst the sensors.

Additionally, human portraits are not the best, and there are some fundamental problems with the images. For instance, the way skin tones are processed varies, and the details are obviously not as nice. You’ll also see that, as you enlarge, the edge detection becomes less precise and struggles to discern between the topic, foreground, and background.

 Night:

Nighttime images just don’t look very artistic because of the excessive noise in them. The other two sensors clearly struggle, but the primary sensor still manages to take some quite good pictures. Although it is greatly affected by the loud noise, detail retention is not too awful.

However, it effectively manages light sources and prevents them from blowing out. The telephoto produces dull, lifeless images, while the ultra-wide and main sensors capture warmer, more vibrant colors. This color difference is also noticeable in nighttime photos.

Selfies:

In terms of selfies, they hardly appear to have been taken with a Pixel flagship. That’s really disappointing because they appear approximately as good as photos taken with a phone that costs Rs 20,000. Not as many details are visible, and most of the time the skin smoothing doesn’t appear nice. It only gets worse at night, making for noisy photos that you most likely won’t share anyplace.

Videos:

With OIS support, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold can record in up to 4K at 60 frames per second. Thus, you may switch between the sensors with a smooth transition, and the output is pretty good. OIS functions effectively as well, and the majority of those jitters are eliminated.

That’s undoubtedly superior to the Pixel 9’s video recording skills because I could sense little vibrations when making vigorous movements. Everything is largely OK because there are no problems with focus hunting either.

Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Power Source and Charge

With typical use, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s 4,650mAh battery lasts for about 5–6 hours with the screen is on. My regular usage consists looking around Instagram, viewing a couple of YouTube videos, and playing a bit of CoD Mobile.

The OnePlus Open offered about 6 hours of juice, whereas the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro offered about 7 hours of SoT, essentially doing the same things and more. Anshuman, a coworker and fellow reviewer, has been using the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and has used it for around 5.5 hours. This makes it a rather good folding phone.

But I’ve also observed that when I use 5G exclusively, the battery runs out a little quicker. However, it stays above 5 hours of SoT, which is excellent. Furthermore, the internal display’s LTPO feature is really helpful.

This is because when you’re leisurely browsing through the UI, merely reading something (unless you scroll), or just having AOD (Always-On Display) set on, the refresh rate can dip down to as low as 1Hz.

In the meantime, the refresh rate on YouTube videos can drop to as low as 30Hz. This means that you save a significant amount of battery when using the internal display for all of stuff, which is what you’ll probably do.

With a maximum charging power of 21W, it’s incredibly slow and makes me want to side-eye the Z Fold 6. To fully charge that battery, it could take up to 1.5 hours. This feels so archaic to me—I’m too accustomed to seeing top-tier foldable charging completed in 30 to 40 minutes. Come on, Google—even Apple is adopting quicker charging these days.

Pixel 9 Pro Fold Networking:

There have been rumors that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will not give optimal 5G speeds and will instead force itself to use LTE. With the exception of that one occasion when I was in the office elevator, the former is accurate, but I haven’t yet encountered it. My room would be an ideal test bed for some 5G speed tests because it isn’t very good for 5G either, especially late at night.

I was carrying both my Vivo X100 Pro and OnePlus 11R at the same time. I conducted a few tests, and the results showed that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold still has to improve in order to reach its full potential speed. But in contrast, it offers faster upload speeds.

It’s fortunate that I haven’t experienced any call drops, considering how terrible the previous Pixel phones’ call quality was. To compete with the competition, the Pixel 9 series has to improve even though it manages network connectivity better than its predecessors. Not to mention that the OnePlus 11R, a phone that is far less expensive, is capable of faster speeds.

Is the Latest Google Foldable Worth It?

 The technology of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold severely limits its appeal, even if it is unquestionably one of the best-looking foldables available. Considering the $1,799 price tag, I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a faster charger, LTPO on the cover screen, an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader, or a strong processor. In addition, the camera arrangement is a major letdown given Pixel’s reputation for providing excellent camera performance.

The OnePlus Open, which is substantially less expensive and has a far superior price-to-performance ratio, starts at $1300 in the US. Now, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is perfect if you want an amazing foldable software experience with top-notch performance and are willing to put up with a narrower but better cover screen.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is $100 more expensive, but it’s worth it because it comes with good hardware enhancements. Furthermore, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is immediately doomed if foldables like the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro begin to ship in the US.

After all, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is billed as Google’s most brutal folding device. It’s simply not enough, even though it has a sturdy build, a sizable and bright internal screen, strong battery life, and a number of helpful AI capabilities.

 Furthermore, although Pixel’s software is one of their strong suits, the Fold’s shoddy veneer detracts from it as well. Although it receives software upgrades for seven years, the device’s lifespan is unknown due to its frugal features. Although I do think Google outdid themselves, this isn’t the greatest foldable available right now.