Everything you need to know about the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold

With the ever-increasing demand for book-style foldables, Google’s latest foldable brings another option into the fold. Despite its mouthful of a name, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold brings massive changes over what seemed like an outdated design last year. The new Fold feels modern, has a more ergonomic design, a faster chipset, and satellite calling features for the first time on a Google phone.

If this is the foldable you have been waiting for, here is everything you should know about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: price and availability

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold will be available for a starting price of $1,799. While expensive, it is the same as the first-generation Pixel Fold, so there’s no price increase this year.

Preorders for the Pixel Fold are available as of August 13, while regular sales will begin on September 4.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: specs

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: hands-on

We’ll dive into all of the nitty-gritty details about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold below. But what’s the phone actually like to use? How does it all come together in person? We went hands-on with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to find out.

The upgraded design caught our eye the most; the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a really big departure from the first Pixel Fold. Add that together with great-looking displays, snappy performance, and some fun AI features, and there’s quite a lot to look forward to. We need a lot more time with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold before we can say anything too definitive, but it’s certainly off to a strong start.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: design

Like the other Pixel 9 phones launched by Google, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is getting a major design refresh compared to last year. The new Pixel Fold is narrower than last year and assumes a nearly square shape when unfolded. This also leads to better ergonomics when folded, yielding a layout similar to standard slab phones.

On the back, the camera now adopts a two-row layout, setting the Fold apart from the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro phones launching alongside it. The back has a matte glass back protected under Gorilla Glass Victus 2. It comes in the same black and off-white color options as before. Additionally, the display is also covered under the same Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

The frame now also has a satin finish, unlike the mirror finish of the last generation. The frame is now made of aviation-grade aluminum, which is 100% recycled, instead of steel previously. Google also says the stainless steel hinge has been improved to “hold up fold after fold” but doesn’t mention specific changes.

Besides changes to its dimensions forthright, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is also significantly slimmer than the previous variant. It now measures only 5.1mm when unfolded and 10.5mm when folded, making it much more slender than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. It isn’t as light as the new Galaxy Fold, though, and weighs about 260 grams, or 9 ounces.

As a result of the changed dimensions, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold also gets changes to its display. Before we discuss the specifications of the display, we must mention the Pixel 9 Pro Fold loses the archaically massive bezels from the previous generation. The inner selfie camera is now moved to a hole-punch instead of the ugly bezels, which makes the phone look more modern.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: display

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold undergoes noticeable design changes over the previous generation, resulting in better handling and ease of use. The new configuration also leads to a more acceptable aspect ratio of 20:9 for the outer display, just like the OnePlus Open. This is also much broader than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The outer OLED display measures 6.3 inches and has a 1080 by 2424 resolution. It features a refresh rate of up to 120Hz but does not refresh dynamically like the Pixel 9 or 9 Pro’s LTPO.

Meanwhile, the inner “Super Actua” display opens up to a nearly square layout. It measures 8 inches and has a resolution of 2076 by 2152. The inner display also supports dynamic refresh rates, varying between 1Hz and 120Hz based on the content playing on the screen.

Both displays support HDR playback, with HDR10+ support in addition to other open codecs. Google has also chosen brighter displays with a peak brightness of up to 1,800 nits while outdoors or playing HDR content and 2,700 nits of peak brightness (measured per pixel).

Google claims this is the largest inner display on any Android phone sold in the U.S. That said, while you will have the ease of using multiple apps across this large display with a split screen, Google has not added any special features resembling OnePlus’ Open Canvas to enhance it further. Furthermore, it lacks any official claims about stylus support.

With that, we move on to the performance of the new foldable Pixel.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: performance

Like the other Pixel 9 series phones, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs on Google’s own Tensor G4 chipset, which brings a much-needed upgrade from the Tensor G2 on the previous Fold. Understandably, though, the Tensor G4 is not as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that we see on the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

As rumored earlier, the Tensor G4 is a slightly less powerful rendition of Samsung’s Exynos 2400. From what the leaked specifications tell us, the Tensor G4 features an eight-core CPU — one less than the Tensor G3. Though it uses the latest Arm v9.2 cores, it gets a meager 10% performance boost over the G3. It also carries forward the neural processor, image signal processor, and Titan M2 security block from the Tensor G3.

Though we will certainly experience a performance boost over the first-gen Pixel Fold, the bigger benefit lies in better performance efficiency and lower heat generations. However, the foldable format may result in more heat accumulating inside than the standard slab phones.

Like the other Pixel 9 Pro phones, the Fold now features 16GB of RAM. However, the storage options are limited, with Google letting buyers choose between 256GB and 512GB variants, without the 128GB or 1TB options as the non-folding Pixel 9 Pro.

The new Exynos Modem 5400 on the Tensor G4 brings satellite SOS for emergency situations, though the feature will most likely be limited to the U.S. Additionally, it supports tri-band Wi-Fi 7, 5G, ultra-wideband for locating accessories and location tags, and, lastly, Bluetooth 5.3.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: battery and charging

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold packs a 4,650mAh battery inside, which is a downgrade from the older 4,821mAh unit we saw on the first-gen Pixel Fold. The roughly 5% decrease coupled with the larger screens and a more powerful chipset could reduce the battery life by a small margin. The first Pixel Fold‘s battery wasn’t truly impressive, so we can expect the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to take a slight hit. Google claims it’s built to last 24 hours, which we will test during our review in the coming weeks.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes with wired charging, although Google doesn’t specify the charging rates as it does for the Pixel 9 Pro series. The last one charged at a maximum speed of up to 30W, so we expect the same or more from the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, too.

The Fold also supports wireless charging with Qi-compliant chargers, but there’s seemingly no reverse wireless charging. We can hope Google has bumped up the wireless charging rate to 15W like the other Pixel 9 phones, but it will require some testing to confirm it.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: camera

Out of the entire Pixel 9 lineup, the Fold has the least-exciting cameras. It retains the same 48MP primary camera and the 5x telephoto with a 10.8MP resolution as the previous generation. Meanwhile, the ultrawide has been swapped out for a marginally smaller sensor with a 10.5MP resolution, but that helps increase its sweep to 127 degrees wide. These are all inferior to the newer cameras we see on the Pixel 9 Pro.

Google has also gone ahead and upgraded the inner and outer selfie cameras with newer sensors. Both cameras now have 10MP with a wider 87-degree field of view, though Google limits details about the sensor size and other traits of the cameras. When it comes to videos, the rear and the selfie cameras can only shoot at up to 4K at 60 frames per second, even though the chipset is capable of 8K recording. This could be due to the poorer thermals of book-style foldables.

Like the other Pixel 9 phones, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s cameras are supplemented by a breadth of software enhancements. Despite the comparatively inferior cameras, the Fold offers all the same features, such as Astrophotography, Frequent Faces, Night Sight, Top Shot, and more. Videos get enhancements in the form of Night Sight Video, Super Boost, Cinematic Pan, and Macro Focus Video features. Notably, we don’t see Cinematic blur, which may again have to do with the phone’s poor thermal performance. Similarly, the new Super Res Video mode, which enhances videos shot on the Pixel 9 Pro’s telephoto camera, is absent on the Fold despite it having the required hardware.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also gets the same editing features for photos and videos, such as Magic Eraser, Best Take, Audio Magic Erase, Wind Noise Reduction, Zoom Enhance, and more.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: software and updates

The Pixel 9 series comes with huge disappointment when it comes to software, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold isn’t alien to it. This is the first time ever that Google is shipping its devices with an older version of Android (14) instead of the latest Android 15. Whether this is because of the earlier-than-usual Pixel launch event or Google shifting its priority to AI features remains unclear.

Nonetheless, we expect the Pixel devices to get Android 15 from its first day of availability. For now, the standout features include new AI experiences, including Pixel Screenshots, which attach context to the image and make image sorting easier. Part of these AI experiences are powered by Google’s Gemini Nano AI model with on-device processing.

For more demanding tasks, Google assigns the workload to the more capable Gemini Advanced model, which is also available through the paid tier of the Gemini chatbot. To give new users a taste of its most powerful AI models, Google will offer a Google One subscription with 2TB of external storage and a free subscription to Gemini Advanced for one year. Charges to the tune of $20 a month will likely apply to any usage from the following year. Complementary access to Gemini Advanced and 2TB of Google Drive storage is only available to those who purchase the phone before October 31.

Like the other Pixel 9 series phones, Google promises seven years of updates to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. We hope Google delivers on the promise while remaining skeptical of how the hardware holds up.

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