Review of the Google Pixel Fold

Samsung has been at the forefront of the foldable phone movement since introducing the technology in early 2019. In fact, the first year you will be able to purchase a foldable phone that isn't a Samsung book is 2023 if you reside in the United States. By creating a foldable phone, Google has now officially entered a burgeoning market for its operating system. You can read more about it in our Google Pixel Fold review.

Google needed to make this step more and more, and the business responded with some extremely attractive hardware. However, it's a little rough around the edges—a beta, if you will—just like so many of Google's efforts. With its first foldable, Google checked off a number of boxes, but not all of them.

Cost and accessibility

With a $1,799 initial launch price and a $1,919 512GB variant, the Google Pixel Fold is an expensive device. Its MSRP is around the same as that of its primary rival, the Samsung Galaxy Fold5, which seems expensive for Google's first entry into this market. As we'll explain later, it still manages to hold its own against the Galaxy Fold5.

It comes in two hues, Obsidian and Porcelain, and is offered by the top mobile phone companies and stores worldwide.

Specifications

specifications for Google Pixel Fold:

Design

It's difficult to ignore the amount of inspiration taken from Microsoft's 2021 dual-screened phone, the Microsoft Duo 2. Though the Google Pixel Fold has an external screen and is somewhat larger, the two devices have a lot of similarities in terms of overall design and build quality. To put it simply, the hardware looks amazing.

The phone weighs 283 grams and has a robust folded size of 12.2 mm and an unfolded size of 5.8 mm. A Google Tensor G2 CPU, 12 GB of RAM, and up to 512 GB of storage are included within. This whole system is run by a 4,821 mAh battery.

The Google Pixel Fold's hinge is just as excellent as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5's. The Samsung gadget is similar in that it maintains its place from almost any angle. Large bezels surround the top and bottom of the screen, but the Pixel Fold's hinge design also grants it an IPX8 water resistant rating—a fantastic feature for a first-generation foldable. Not so awesomely, the same hinge design also prevents the phone from folding exactly flat. It's rather off-putting even if it's just two or three degrees off from flatness.

Gorilla Glass Victus protects the phone's cover screen as well as its back, which also has the Pixel's recognizable huge camera hump. For now, simply be aware that the camera bump has not decreased in size in this new form factor. We'll discuss more about the camera set later.

Displays

The Google Pixel Fold has two stunning, accurately colored displays. With their 120 Hz refresh rates and high brightness, both of them make using a phone outdoors effortless.

The Pixel Fold's cover screen is especially impressive because to its dimensions and aspect ratio. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 5, it has a broad cover screen with a squat ratio of 17.4:9 that is quite useful when the phone is folded. It's a touch odd that the Pixel Fold excels at meeting one of the key value propositions, which is "How useable is the phone when it's folded?"

Although the Galaxy Z Fold 5 still has advantages when it comes to one-handed usage, the wider aspect ratio isn't as useful for that. However, if you're the kind of person who prefers to use your phone mostly folded and just open it when you need the bigger screen, this will appeal to you.

In relation to the inner screen, it has a very large 6:5 aspect ratio. For consuming media like reading books or watching movies, this is fantastic. However, there is one aspect of the experience that is lacking, which we will address in the next section. That being said, you'll like its form factor if you enjoy reading and watching movies. Though it's not flawless, multitaskers will like this inner screen as well since it makes for convenient side-by-side app arrangement.

Applications

If there's one significant flaw with this phone, it's the complete underutilization of the inside screen—a strange statement to make about hardware made by the company that makes Android. It seems OK on the surface.

The first two pages of your home screen are merged into one when you initially start the phone. This is very logical. When you consider that Google is combining two sites into one, even the inability to arrange a widget so that it fills the whole screen makes sense.

You'll like the form factor even more when you open up applications like Netflix and Kindle. The 6:5 aspect ratio works well for extending the pages of an ebook in the Kindle app, but it's not ideal for videos, which are usually more 16:9.

However, when a program is not designed to fill this widescreen size, that's when the software breaks down. Many games, retail apps, and other applications just don't make the most of the available area and end up giving users a side-letterboxed experience. Not everything in the world is as bad as this.

In order to make up for this, Google implemented a mechanism that allows the app to be moved to either side with a double touch, making it simpler to use one hand to access it. Although I seldom ever use it and it's not the greatest option, the fact that it exists indicates that Google gave it some attention.

The issue is that it's not that great—this is meant to be the optimal version of Android on a foldable device. I wonder whether Google views foldables as a passing trend, something it felt compelled to demonstrate with hardware, or as a real endeavor for the future. In any case, that doesn't seem good.

Cameras

The perspective as seen via the cameras is attractive. For the most part, Pixel phones are still the best option when it comes to photography, but there are a few issues that need to be addressed. Let's examine the hardware first. Similar to the top Google Pixel phones, the Pixel Fold is equipped with three cameras. However, in keeping with foldables, those cameras are somewhat inferior than those of the Google Pixel 7 Pro.

Notable features include a 10.8-megapixel telephoto zoom lens with a 5x optical zoom and an f/3.1 aperture, a 48-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.7 aperture, and a 10.8-megapixel ultrawide shooter with a 121-degree field of view and an f/2.2 aperture. When it comes to foldable smartphones, this is one of the greatest camera setups available.

The colors are vivid and true throughout the day, with little variation among the three lenses. I really like taking close-up macro photos of flowers and insects. In macro mode, the Pixel gets a lot of detail, and the bokeh behind the subject is excellent.

Smooth footage is also produced throughout the day while recording in 1080p by default. The camera can also record in 4K at 60 frames per second, however at that resolution stabilization is not available.

The 5x optical lens is one prominent example of this not being the case. That camera is capable of producing excellent social media images; that is, until you enlarge them to their full resolution, the images captured via that lens are excellent. It's not ideal if you want a print of a photo since the image starts to pixelate as soon as you reach 100% resolution. You'll be OK, however, if you restrict picture sharing to Facebook or Instagram.

The Pixel Fold's camera performs well at night. Most of the sensors will take good pictures when nothing is moving, but you may want to forego the ultrawide camera. It is imperative that you remain with the primary sensor, particularly when dealing with moving subjects such as animals or people.

You should never even attempt to take moving pictures with any other kind of sensor, not even the selfie camera. As soon as you start the camera, you may open the phone and utilize the cover screen as a preview to line up your photo by just tapping a button. Be cautious however, since shooting with the phone open might be a little tricky.

All lenses provide really poor night vision, with the primary lens being the only one that can produce anything worth seeing. One major benefit, however, is that in daylight conditions, the Pixel Fold may effectively reduce judder caused by your footsteps while you're walking and photographing. This works even without a subject in the frame, but it is much more effective with one. It's decent, don't get me wrong; you won't use it for your film school final project.

Connectivity

All things considered, the Tensor G2 processor at the Pixel Fold's core has to be one of its greatest shortcomings. Similar to other Pixel phones that use Tensor processors, the phone has a few problems that prevent it from performing at its best. Its connection problem is the most significant one. Although it is tough to measure, I can tell you that the Pixel Fold has poor network connectivity when it comes to T-Mobile.

Sadly, my house is situated in a connection black hole for all three carriers, and this problem is exacerbated at certain times of the day. The majority of flagship devices, such the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Even the iPhone 14 Pro can keep up a strong enough signal in my house to handle a phone conversation, but Pixels—all the way back to the Pixel 6—have never been easy to use. That also applies to the times I leave my house. I usually find myself in the regions around my home using LTE rather than 5G.

In terms of performance, I don't play games a lot on a daily basis, but I do multitask a good bit, and the Pixel Fold hasn't caused me any issues in that area. When I do play games, I usually play Call of Duty: Mobile on default graphics or Genshin Impact on medium graphics. After up to thirty minutes of play, neither the game nor the phone warms up.

Life of Battery

The Pixel Fold may last up to one day on a single charge, provided you don't go anywhere throughout the day. I can easily finish the day with 20% left in my tank on an average day when I spend the most of my time at my office and do the odd errand.

The phone, however, has a hard time lasting until the end of the day if I have the audacity to leave my residence for many hours at a time. Although this is not unusual for a foldable, it is something to consider. Furthermore, the phone takes around ninety minutes to completely charge and can only handle 21W of cable charging. It goes without saying that the Pixel Fold does not come with a charger in the package.

Is the Google Pixel Fold a good purchase?

There is no simple solution to this excellent question. Remember that this is the first foldable device that Google has created, since the Pixel Fold has first-generation hardware. In comparison to its rivals, this phone does indeed perform well if you can overlook that.

In my opinion, Google might have taken a chance by lowering the price of this phone so that it would more closely rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. Additionally, I hope that Google will use its authority as the creator of Android to improve app performance on the home screen.

This is a pretty excellent phone when you consider all the additional features that a Pixel can provide, including Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Call Screening, and a clean Android interface. However, similar to the majority of other foldable books, its price makes it difficult to suggest. It's one of the greatest foldable phones available, so if you can afford it, you couldn't do much worse.

Replacements

Check out these options if you still want to have one of the greatest folding phones available on the market but don't believe the Pixel Fold is for you.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5

Since Samsung has been at the forefront of the foldable market from the start, it has amassed a strong hardware portfolio, excellent build quality, a reliable support network, and—perhaps most importantly—a form factor that has been around long enough for many, if not most, app developers to have optimized their apps to make use of the inner screen. That's the main, and most obvious, item missing from the Pixel Fold.

Furthermore, nevertheless, a lot of individuals who often use their phones while on the road will find the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 to be quite simple to use one-handed. Given that both phones are of same cost, selecting one may be difficult. See our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 review for further details to aid with your decision-making. Alternatively, you may visit our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 review to learn more about its predecessor.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 3

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 is one of your alternatives if you don't reside in the United States; it has one of the greatest camera setups available on a folding device. Given that Xiaomi is renowned for producing high-quality but reasonably priced hardware, this phone is not too pricey for this kind of folding phone—though it is still pricey.

With two optical zoom settings of 3.2x and 5x, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 offers you additional shooting choices and, if you're like that kind of thing, produces quite great product photographs.

In addition, the phone weighs less and is both.5 and 1 mm slimmer than the Pixel Fold. Its cover screen aspect ratio, which is typical of most Candybar phones these days, is a very good 21:9. In general, if you don't reside in the United States, it's a pretty respectable alternative.

Consider checking out our lists of the top mobile gaming controllers, best phone cases, and mobile keyboards if you'd want to add some amusing accessories to your new gadget.