REVIEW: Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, amazing foldable, but the XL stole my heart

If you’re in the market for a new phone this year, then you have lots of options, including the top of the line, second generation foldable from Google. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a solid iteration to the first Pixel Fold, and having just come from the new Pixel 9 Pro XL, it’s actually a really difficult choice when selecting between the two.

For the past couple of weeks, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has been in my pocket and unfolding to a tablet, any time I wanted.

Foldable phones have been on the market for a few years now, but I never had the chance to live with one as my daily driver and now that I have, I have mixed emotions about. The device is amazing technically, with a display that’s virtually seamless when unfolded, a hinge design that’s robust and avoids most compromises in terms of screen the external screen size and camera arrays. As good as it is, there’s a lot to consider, so let’s get into it.

Google News Design

When you enter the world of foldable phones, you know that phone is going to be thicket than a single-screen device. Somehow, Google engineers have managed to squeeze the internal componentry into a crazy slim profile, so when the phone is closed, it’s just 2mm thicker than the 9 Pro XL.

With the phone unfolded, thing get even more impressive, with the depth actually less, at just 5.1mm compared to 8.5mm. There’s one serious motivation to buy this device and that is the massive screen real estate you get access to via the foldable screen that unveils to a massive display that’s 150.2mm wide, compared to a 76.6mm of the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Having almost double the width of a regular phone and a 2076 x 2152 resolution, means you can do more and are can replace the need to buy a tablet to slot between the phone and laptop. This extra screen real estate can provide desktop-like experiences in the palm of your hand.

As someone who regular dedicates a part of their desktop monitor to X Pro, this experience is now available on the phone, with the multiple search columns viable on a screen this wide. The large display is also great for gaming, running two apps side-by-side and you can even save app pairs to launch multiple at once with a single tap.

The rear still features a large camera array to take amazing photos and videos, as well as a great front-facing camera for selfies, but this phone offers the ability to flip to the largest and best quality rear cameras, as you use the outside screen to frame the photo.

What’s really impressive about the foldable screen is that when you interact with it daily, you’ll look at it straight on and you really can barely see the fold, it appears as one seamless display. If you get off axis, you can see the bump and if you run your finger over it, you can feel a dip, but for daily use, it just looks like you’re holding a tablet.

When you fold the phone, the hinge mechanism allows both sides of the display to rest flat, avoiding the pitfalls of early foldables that left a gap for dust and dirt to accumulate.

I really appreciated with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers a larger external screen, allowing for rapid interactions, like checking the time, tap and pay, or even a quick scroll on social media, there’s lots of screen to feel like a fully functional phone.

Google News Performance

As with the rest of the Google Pixel 9 Series devices, Google includes the Tensor G4 processor. Being a foldable phone, the dual-screen means there’s so many more pixels to drive than a regular phone, but you’d never know that, as the performance of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold remains just as impressive as the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

The big difference with the Fold is that you can run multiple apps at once placing more burden on the processor. To be honest, I never once see the phone slow down when doing this and often scrolled multiple apps at once without delay.

Running dual apps is a process of launching an app, swiping up from the button just as you would if you were switching between apps, then you’ll see a new option to Split. Once you tap this, you’ll get asked to select a second app.

If you swipe up again, you’ll then get an option to save these as an App Pair. This creates a shortcut on your home screen to immediately launch both apps again.

Something I missed here is the ability to switch which app runs on which side. This all stems from the order in which you launch the apps, with the first app on the right and the second on the left. If you want to switch them, you’ll have to start over which is pretty annoying.

Something I did like is the speed and ease that the phone transitioned from the unfolded view, to the folded view. The inside screens turn off the instant the phone detects it has been closed and the front screen immediately springs to life. If you have been running 2 apps split vertically, they are transformed to be split horizontally on the single screen – a very nice touch, even if the real estate then feels very cramped by comparison, you don’t lose the content.

From launching apps, to running multiple side by side, or editing video and playing games, I was really impressed by the performance of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, for a second generation foldable, it really feels like Google has been in this game a lot longer.

Google News Features

We’ve already spent enough time of the screen in the design and performance section, so this will focus on the camera array, battery life and more.

Camera System

One concern I had when heading into this review was the potential for a compromise on the camera from, as more of the price tag is allocated to the displays than cameras. Thankfully this phone still takes stunning photos and videos and while it may not be a 1:1 match to what’s available on the 9 Pro XL, it’s close enough that I wouldn’t be concerned by it.

At the heart of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is its advanced triple rear camera setup, designed to capture life’s moments in stunning detail:

Wide Camera
This 48 MP sensor boasts a Quad PD system, ensuring sharp focus and superior low-light performance. With an ƒ/1.7 aperture and an 82° field of view, it captures expansive scenes with vivid clarity. The 1/2″ image sensor size further enhances the image quality, making it ideal for landscapes and group shots.

Ultrawide Camera
Featuring a 10.5 MP sensor with Dual PD for autofocus, this camera offers a 127° field of view, perfect for capturing the grandeur of your surroundings. Its ƒ/2.2 aperture and 1/3.4″ sensor size allow for detailed macro shots, bringing the tiniest details into focus.

Telephoto Camera
With a 10.8 MP sensor and a 5x optical zoom, this camera is equipped for those distant shots without losing detail. The ƒ/3.1 aperture and 23° field of view make it excellent for portraits, while Super Res Zoom up to 20x pushes the boundaries of digital zoom technology.

Front Camera
A 10 MP Dual PD front-facing camera ensures your selfies are always on point, with an ƒ/2.2 aperture and an 87° field of view that’s perfect for video calls or self-portraits.

As I used the phone to capture the world around me during the review, I was regularly impressed at the resulting image, just understand that results are always a combination of the optics in the camera hardware and some AI magic in the software.

I was a little disappointed by results of the new panorama stitching, with the process of following the dot being easy for end users, it’s only helpful if the panorama is stitched together flawlessly. I found there were artifacts, particularly surfaced when you had straight lines, like the top of a fence line for example.

Overall the video that came out of this device was stunning, and being a foldable phone, there’s an additional camera option, that is, to flip the camera to the external cameras, while also flipping the display (you can power all 3 simultaneously). In this mode, you can use the best, highest quality camera array, while using the external display to frame your shot like a giant GoPro.

Battery Life and Charging

Battery performance is another highlight with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold officially listing more than 24 hours of battery life, I regularly got through the day with around 20%+ but this has a big caveat.

The battery life of single display phone is fairly static day-to-day unless you have an exceptional change to your lifestyle (i.e. on holidays). The battery life of a foldable phone is most dramatically impacted by the amount you unfold the phone and run 2 displays, pushing twice the amount of pixels.

In a pinch, you can turn on Extreme Battery Saver and stretch the phone up to 72 hours, but expect most will have chargers around them and want to avoid the restrictions that come with this (lose colour on the display). The phone is really thin, which make it impressing that Google have been able to include a 4,650 mAh battery, although single screen phones can often have larger battery capacities than this.

While the phone offers fast charging to recover a couple of hours of battery in just minutes of charging.. I found using wireless charging was typically slow. If you need charge fast, then you’ll definitely want to grab Google’s 45W USB-C Charger.

Dual-SIM Support

The device continues Google’s tradition of flexibility with SIM card options and I personally love the ability to run dual SIM cards. Like most phones today, it offers 1 physical sim slot and an eSIM, but I think its time to start offering phones with dual E-SIM and no physical tray and if you want to use that extra space in the chassis for more battery, that’d be a great trade-off in my mind

Google News Issues and Opportunities

While there’s a lot to love, not everything is perfect. The following items are suggestions for improvement in future editions of the device.

I notice that there’s not an easy way to pick apps from the Store that support the dual-displays. I was hoping Google had some kind of filtering to help uses out, but to no avail.

One strange aspect to using the phone over time was installing all my standard apps and using them on the phone in both single and dual-display mode. Something I was shocked by is that Microsoft’s Office mobile apps actually leverage the dual-display, but Google’s own apps (Gmail, Calendar etc) don’t. As the owner of the hardware and software stack, this was pretty unforgivable.

As an example, tap an email from the list of emails in your inbox and Outlook will show the email on the right, leaving you ready access to the left list of emails. The Calendar and appointments is another example of the same thing, its just a bizarre omission from Google here, perhaps this will be fixed when Android 15 actually ships.

When you launch an app for the first time, you’ll learn about the setting that controls how apps launch. You can force apps to be fullscreen, even if they weren’t designed for this resolution. I did this with Pokemon GO and while it looks immersive, the touchpoints in the game don’t always lineup, breaking the experience.

I really hope more app developers consider foldable resolutions, as the experience can be really impressive. Foldable phones are gaining in popularity now, with multiple manufacturers getting into the market – OnePlus Open, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, Honor Magic V3 and Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 to name a few.

Google News Price and Availability

When you take a premium smartphone which is already at a premium price point, and add another 2 screens, a bunch more cameras, more battery, then you can expect the price to follow.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold starts at A$2,699, that’s a full A$1,000 more than the Pixel 9 Pro, and A$850 more than the Pro XL. For that money, it’s a really enthusiastic buyer that has plenty of disposable income that can make that make sense, either that, or convince the boss to pay for it.

One thought is that you could justify spending more on a phone if it saves you buying a tablet as well and with the size of this display, there’s not too many tablet tasks this couldn’t do.

The phone is available in 2 colours, Porcelain (white) and Obsidian (black) and is available with either 256GB or 512GB of storage. In the highest configuration, you’ll pay A$2,899 or the price of really good computer or older car.

I would strongly recommend a case for an investment of this scale, but coming from the rubberised case for the Pixel 9 Pro XL, the hard plastic case here felt a little slippery by comparison. The great thing about the case for the Fold (an additional A$79.99), is that it really doesn’t add much bulk to the phone at all, just smoothing out the camera bump.

Google News Overall

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold represents a significant leap in the evolution of foldable smartphones, offering an experience that blends the convenience of a phone with the utility of a tablet.

To wrap-up my time with the 9 Pro Fold, here are my final thoughts..

I loved what a foldable offers, a single device with more utility, that’s something we should demand from all of our devices. What I found as the days rolled on, was that the novelty faded and the reality of living with this set in. You really have to fight your way through the software.

I would say most of the apps I use do not support the dual-displays. When apps do, the experience is magical, something simply not available with single-screen phones and you get a real appreciation why you should spend up to get access to these new experiences.

It was troubling just how many of my apps didn’t support larger displays, I would say a majority of mine did not. This means you then have work to do to manage how these apps are displayed side-by-side. There’s an ability to save a pair, but I almost never want to use the pair on the same side every time and not being able to easily switch the left and right app is a crazy omission.

I found as the time rolled on, I most loved using a Chrome browser on it. This is the closest experience I’ve had to a desktop browser on mobile device. The extra real estate is perfectly suited for the scrolling columns of X Pro (formerly Tweetdeck).

If you have your heart set on a foldable, in 2024, I think this is the best you can deploy your money on, however there’s a lot of hope for Android 15 to resolve the issues we have today on the software.

The starting price of A$2,699 is a massive number, so this really would need to become your primary computer to justify. Everyone selling this product (to be fair, most flagships this year), are heavily promoting the discounts you’ll get when trading in an old phone, a clear attempt to bring the out of pocket expense down to a more reasonable number.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is really a great insight into where mobile technology is headed in the future. For those who can afford it, this foldable offers great hardware and an improving software experience, albeit with some gaps.

If you’re considering whether to upgrade or switch to a foldable, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, what I would heavily suggest you avoid what I did, which is use the Pixel 9 Pro XL before this device, or you could find your heart lost to another. Personally I love the Pixel 9 Pro XL and it’s certainly my pick of the two.