Read update
You have to give Google some credit. Despite being known for quickly throwing in the towel on projects that fail to garner a fan base quickly, it continues to pump out more hardware than ever before. What began in 2016 with the original Google Pixel — alongside some Chromebook hardware, rest in peace — has blossomed into an ever-growing lineup of smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and now, foldables. The Pixel Fold has long been a dream for the company — it evencanned an earlier iterationafter deeming it unsatisfactory. That’s not the type of thing most companies will admit, and for a brand that often struggles with first-gen products, it doubles as a big promise.
It also represents something even more substantial than Google’s first move into folding phones. The Pixel Fold is Samsung’s first real competition for the Galaxy Z Fold series in the US. It arrived on store shelves a little more than a month before theGalaxy Z Fold 5, both literally and figuratively speaking, closing the gap. Google has much to prove here; Samsung may be resting on its laurels with one iterative release after another, but the brand’s huge head start allowed it to get there. So, with a fresh design, Google’s excellent Android experience, and Pixel-quality cameras onboard for the Pixel Fold, has the company managed to best Samsung to become thefoldable to beat? Not exactly.
Google Pixel Fold
The Google Pixel Fold attempts to adapt everything we love about the Pixel experience into a pocketable tablet. It’s not entirely successful, but it’s an interesting step towards something spectacular — and a decent, if flawed, rival to challenge Samsung’s dominance in the foldable space.
Availability and network
The Pixel Fold is one of Google’s most limited releases, available in just four regions: the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom (sorry, Canadians). In the US, it’s sold unlocked through Google’s website for $1,800 and is available in Obsidian (black) and Porcelain (white). The latter is a Google Store exclusive, meaning the black version should eventually make its way to various retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.
You’ll also find it in carrier stores, including Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. Verizon is offering big deals on the Pixel Fold at launch, though only when you switch to the carrier with a phone to trade in.AT&T will take $900 off the device, with no trade-in required, while T-Mobile has yet to go live with its pre-orders. The carriers aren’t shipping the phone until later in July; likewise, Google’s dates have slipped backward, suggesting low inventory. If you want this phone, you might be waiting a while.
Design and display
Google’s foldable is the first I’ve seen arrive folded in its box, and frankly, it makes an incredible first impression. From the outside, this is my favorite Pixel hardware to date, bar none. It’s the first handheld the company has shipped that feels on par with the refinement Samsung and Apple bring to their phones. This is no longer B-tier hardware — Google really nailed it.
The base design isimmediately reminiscent of the Pixel 7 Pro, but with a few modifications that help improve the overall experience. The back glass is now matte, sporting a silky smooth finish similar to what’s on Samsung’s devices. It’ll still show some smudges, particularly on the black model, but compared to the slimy feel of Google’s glossy glass on the Pixel 7 series, it’s a huge improvement. Google has also separated the camera bar from the surrounding frame, creating more of a cameraisland, or maybe a plateau, if you’re feeling fancy.
That frame, by the way, is the same style of polished steel you’ll find on last fall’s flagships, though without a curved front display, I like the look of it much better here. It’s still super susceptible to scratches, though — after two months with the phone, it’s covered in them — so it’s probablyworth investing in a durable case. It feels surprisingly slim in your hand for a foldable, though the protruding camera certainly adds some bulk. Comparing it to theGalaxy Z Fold 4makes it feel positively svelte, while even the Z Fold 5 feels chunkier thanks to an extra millimeter.
Along the frame, you’ll find the usual suspects: a USB-C port, dual speakers for stereo sound, the SIM tray, and a mmWave window along the top.
In your hand, the Google Pixel Fold feels almost like a tiny Moleskine notebook, and I doubt that’s a coincidence. It’s hefty, and that’s both good and bad. On one hand, the whole thing feels really premium, thanks to that weight. But on the other, its 283g weight is just a little too bulky for one-handed use. When closed, the phone usually rests on my pinky finger, and after fifteen minutes, it starts to feel uncomfortable.
Still, there’s plenty to like about this design. I’m in love with the hinge off to the side of the screen for reasons I can’t explain. It’s the perfect mixture of professionalism and fun. And compared to Samsung’s tall-and-borderline-useless outer screen, you can’t just help but feel like this is what foldables aresupposedto look like.
That display, by the way, is a 5.8-inch 120Hz 1080p screen with a 17.4:9 aspect ratio, and it might be the best part of the phone. This one feels like a breath of fresh air in a world filled with ultra-large, ultra-narrow slabs. It turns out I don’t particularly miss the extra height offered by every smartphone, so long as the screen is wide enough to comfortably type on (more on that when I discuss software). This display has mebeggingfor a return to the 18:9 displays once used by companies like LG, but unfortunately, I’m unlikely to get my wish outside of foldables like this.
As far as the panel itself goes, you’ll hear no complaints from me. It’s bright, it’s vivid, it’s fast, and it looks great outdoors. The rounded corners and camera cutout might bother some, but both are inoffensive. Though, it’s time to consider whether front-facing cameras are completely unnecessary on this foldable style. If I want to take a selfie or place a video call, I’m better off just opening the device and using the (much better) rear-facing cameras or using the front-facing camera with the inner display. But I digress.
All told, a closed Pixel Fold is one of my favorite smartphone designs in years and certainly a step above what Google’s been doing with recent Pixels. Honestly, from the first time I held it in my hands, it seemed like it might be love at first sight, a perfect match between me and this brand-new foldable. But then you open it up.
“Cheap” is the first word that comes to mind when I see the Pixel Fold’s inner display, and on a $1,800 foldable, that’s a bad sign. I’m not talking about the bezels, either; although they generated controversy on various subreddits when Google took the stage at I/O, I think they’re fine. If anything, I wish the side bezels werelargerand more aligned with what runs along the top and bottom of the screen. If we’re looking at a pocketable tablet, having a frame around the display for your thumbs to rest just makes sense.
No, my issue is with the screen itself. It’s a 7.6-inch OLED panel with all the specs you could ask for: 120Hz, 1840 x 2208 resolution, and 1,000 nits of brightness in High Brightness Mode with 1,450 nits while viewing HDR content. On paper, it’s a good screen.
In practice, I dislike almost everything about it. It all starts with the quality of the materials Google is using. Credit to Ben Schoon at 9to5Google for making this observation first, but it seems like Pixel Fold has fewer coatings than what’s on modern Galaxy Z Fold models. Indeed,comparing it to the Z Fold 5or theMotorola Razr+, it’s impossible not to notice how much worse the panel feels under your fingers. It’s also more reflective in direct sunlight, making it difficult to use outdoors, and although I haven’t tested it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more prone to scratches.
Outdoor viewing is terrible. You will see every smudge, even if you’ve just used a microfiber cloth.
Between the pre-installed, non-removable screen protector and the surrounding bezel, you’ll find a millimeter of unprotected space that draws in dust and debris. I don’t know what’s up with this device, but it’s like a panel for all sorts of material, and trying to get it out — even with a microfiber cloth meant to pick up minuscule particles — is a chore. And, as I’ll talk about in a moment, the inability to remove dust from this space might just be a fatal flaw.
Then there’s the crease. To my eyes, it’s a pick-your-poison situation. It’s not as deep as what’s on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, but it’s far wider, making it arguably more noticeable in daily use. I don’t know what it is about Samsung’s hardware — its crease is far from invisible — but in certain conditions, this screen can look okay — catch me curled up on the couch at night binging through season two ofThe Bear.
It’s like a funhouse mirror.
But darker rooms aren’t much better if reflections make it difficult to view the display in bright environments. Black levels look particularly washed out and grainy at lower brightness levels, especially on the left side of the hinge on my unit. This would be less of a problem if you weren’tconstantlyin situations where large portions of the display are blacked out — more on that in the software section.
I just can’t get over how much I disliked looking at the Pixel Fold’s interior display, which is, you know, aproblemwhen it’s the entire draw of this device. Your mileage may vary on some of my complaints — I have no doubt plenty of shoppers are less picky than I am regarding reflectiveness, or just how the screen feels underneath your finger. But for $1,800, I would at least expect Google to match what its rivals in this space are capable of. First-gen product or not, I’m just not seeing that here.
Pixel Fold durability
Let’s quickly talk about durability because, immediately following the launch, it became clear that Google was experiencing similar bumps in the road as Samsung did in 2019. While it doesn’t seem like the company is going to have to recall its devices — at least as I re-publish this review two most post-launch — the first week of Pixel Fold availability was troubling.
It all kicked off when Ron Amadeo at Ars Technica (and formerly of Android Police!) used the review embargo to revealhis unit hadn’t survived more than a few daysbefore the inner screen was toast. On Reddit — a place famous for its fair share of Pixel horror stories —several users noted that their devices showed up broken, suffering from pink lines and lifted screen protectors.
A quick search tells me I’ve used the word “problem” in this review eleven times (not counting that one), and I’m about to do it again. Durability concerns are a huge problem for Google. While the company ispartnering with iFixitto make at-home repairs easier for customers competent enough to fix their phones, that’s no excuse. And for anyone uncomfortable with self-repair, Google’s poor reputation for fixing broken Pixels might be a deal-breaker for anyone considering paying just shy of $2,000 for this device.
This seems mostly like a stumbling block for the company, though, not a complete disaster requiring some sort of action on Google’s part. It certainly needs to get better at repairs, but as of late August, Pixel Fold’s durability seems in line with some of the issues we’ve seen with Samsung’s phones.
Other hardware and what’s in the box
This feels as good a place as any to focus on the hinge. Duringmy initial hands-on at Google I/O, I wrote about the Pixel Fold’s inability to lay flat when unfolded. Now that I have a production model in my hands as a daily driver, I’d like to walk back that sentiment — but only by about half a step.
Naturally unfolding this device stops about five degrees short of laying completely flat. That’s in line with my I/O experience, and to be sure this wasn’t ameissue, I’ve handed the phone to several friends and family members over the last week to see how they’d open it. It was a universal experience.
How the Fold opens naturally compared to how it looks after applying a surprising amount of pressure.
This is not great. Even when just looking at the screen, it’s evident that everything’s a little off-axis. Laying it on a table only compounds the issue, thanks to the camerabarisland, which raises the screen’s right side even further off the surface. It looks bad, and I can’t blame people for not wanting to add additional flex to their unit to try and get it open to a full 180 degrees.
That said, if you provide that extra bit of pressure — and make no mistake, it takes a fair bit of pressure — the Google Pixel Fold can lay completely flat for a while. Inevitably, while using the phone, I noticed it would return to its slightly bent default. With enough time and use, it’s possible that the hinge would adapt to sticking to 180 degrees, but so far, that hasn’t been my experience. And frankly, placing backward pressure on the hinge doesn’t feel great to begin with, especially considering those durability concerns.
Of course, having used the phone on and off for two months, I can tell you the hinge on my device isn’t aging particularly well. It struggles even more to stay flat, requiring additional pressure than it previously did at launch. And especially compared to the hinge on the Z Fold 5 — which features a satisfying snap every time I open it — I think Google’s far behind the competition here. At launch, the Pixel Fold’s ability to close flat was a short-lived advantage over Samsung. Now, it’s yet another place where the device falls short of its closest competition.
Google is quick to promote all the positions this hinge allows for, including a tent mode perfect for watching movies on a desk. I found the experience pretty finicky, but much of that comes down to the software experience. The hinge itself is tight enough to hold the Fold in pretty much any stance, except flat, even if you shake the device. A turbulent flight shouldn’t get in the way of your next binge-watch.
The fingerprint sensor has been relocated to the power button, a relief to current Pixel owners everywhere. It works as well as you’d expect, on par with Samsung in speed and accuracy. I would’ve preferred a retreat to the back of the phone since finding the power button can sometimes be a bit awkward, depending on its orientation. Largely speaking, though, I’m perfectly satisfied with the biometrics on the Fold.
Haptics don’t feel quite up to par with the excellent experience I had with the Pixel 7 Pro last fall; they’re a little softer, a little mushier. It’s not a bad experience, just one that doesn’t stand out among the crowd.
The speakers, however, are some of the best I’ve heard on a smartphone in quite some time. They get surprisingly loud without sounding tinny, perfect for podcasts, YouTube videos, or even listening to an album without headphones. As is now customary for Pixels, the box includes the phone, a USB-C cable with an adapter, the usual assortment of paperwork, and not much else.
Android is not a particularly friendly operating system on tablets. This has been a problem since the days of the Motorola Xoom, and it remains a problem on thePixel Tableteven today. Most apps — even big-name apps — aren’t properly formatted for large-screen devices. And despite its foldable status, the Pixel Fold is, at its absolute core, a small tablet with all the strengths and weaknesses that come with the territory.
I’ve approached the inner display experience in two different ways. First, as a large screen dedicated to a single application, then as a multitasking beast, effectively placing two regular-sized smartphones side by side. Neither tactic worked out exactly how I’d hoped, though it’s clear one of those is the “proper” way to use the device.
Single-screen apps are the Pixel Fold’s Achilles' heel. Google has spent the last couple of years redesigning its first-party apps to support tablets and foldables, no matter which way you hold the device. That work pays off here. Most Google apps look exceptional on this device. The company’s new weather app, first seen here and on the Pixel Tablet, is a total winner. Calendar looks stunning. Finding files in Drive is a cinch.
Other apps don’t fare so well, though. Gmail keeps your inbox on the left and any email you view on the right. It’s fine, but sometimes, I actually want the email in fullscreen, and the only way to do that is to rotate the screen. The same goes for Keep, which just splits all notes and single notes into two separate panels.
Other apps, like Fit or YouTube, just function as “the phone app you know, but stretched to fit.” They’re fine, but with bottom navigation tools meant to operate on taller phones, the actual content feels pretty compressed on that 7.6-inch screen.
These apps feel either overexpanded or waste massive amounts of screen space.
This experience of “it’s everything, but bigger” even sinks through to the home screen. Rather than using two different launcher layouts as Samsung does, Google just pairs your first two panels as one main screen. This might work for some people, but in my case, it made the app layout look odd, and I’m unable to adjust it without also modifying my front screen. I’d like to see unpairing these interfaces available as an option in the future.
Meanwhile, one app — Apple Music — actually required a hard reset to swap between its tablet and phone layouts. Considering it stops whatever you’re listening to, this is a pretty big problem, though it’s not exclusive to Google’s foldable. I guess I should be happy Apple even bothered to support a tablet layout on Android.
This is technically Apple’s fault, but most users won’t think of it that way.
I’d have little to complain about if everything feeling stretched was the only issue with the Pixel Fold. Unfortunately, most third-party apps actually hold theinversetrue. Most mainstream and niche apps are not ready for a device primarily used in landscape mode. It was a problem on the Pixel Tablet and remains a problem here.
Open up Twitter, Facebook Messenger, or Letterboxd on the Pixel Fold, and unless you turn it 90 degrees every single time, you’ll find yourself faced with black borders on either side of the window. You can tap twice on either side to move the paneled app one way or another, but it brings the UI closer to your finger. No matter where it’s displayed, it still looks terrible.
I wish the list ended there, but in my experience, it’s never-ending. Marvel Snap. Target. Yelp. Recipe apps, fitness apps, banking apps — most software on my phone doesn’t fill the screen unless I rotate the Fold every single time. Even apps that “support” landscape tablets, like Slack, Spotify, or Pocket Casts, feel like they’re half-assing it, simply adapting their existing apps to stretch across the panel. Even Chrome nearly always defaults to displaying mobile-friendly layouts, leaving plenty of wasted space on pages across the web.
Instagram is particularly bad, especially considering Samsung’s foldables have startedgetting an exclusive big-screen layout.
And I know that sounds like such a small thing, but it presents a fundamental flaw in Google’s approach to hardware. Yes, this issue boils down to third-party app support.Technically, this problem lies with the world’s Yelps, Twitters, and Apple Musics. But this is a $1,800 device, and if Google can’t convince developers to make their software work on larger screens, this phone will always feel hamstrung. Sure, the outer screen is usable here, but what’s the point if it comes at the cost of an enjoyable, reliable experience on that massive display?
The point is multitasking, which brings us to our other use case. It’s easier to think of the Pixel Fold as a Surface Duo-like than a Galaxy Z Fold-like, effectively giving you two “normal” screens next to each other. Swipe up from the gesture bar to reveal your dock, drag and drop two apps to the left and right of the screen, and you’re cooking with gas.
Two apps side-by-side feels a lot like holding two phones.
I’ll admit, this makes much more sense than using the large display for a single application. At first, I was excited to see how this specific form factor could improve everyday tasks — keeping Slack and AirTable next to each other during the workday for tracking tasks and incoming messages. My workout tracker and my music player could live side-by-side for easy controls. Telegram and Maps could let me chat with my friends while I walk to meet them at our favorite restaurant.
And yes, these experiences are totally possible — good, even — with oneteeny, tinyproblem. If you close the Pixel Fold, even if you do not interact with the outer display before unfolding the device again, whichever app was inactive will disappear, leaving you with a single application when you reopen. I’ve confirmed with Google that this is expected behavior, and there is no way to change it. And I absolutely cannot understand why.
After closing and reopening the phone, the split-screen layout above turned into this. No, I don’t know why it also opens Slack’s menu, but it does.
I don’t think this is a nitpick; this fundamentally changes how I interact with the Pixel Fold. The idea of leaving two windows open while slipping the device into my pocket is obvious. What if I’m on public transit and transferring to another train? What if I’m headed over to a friend’s house but would like to keep the same apps open when I arrive? What if I don’t want to leave my $1,800 very fragile foldable with a display that fingernails can scratch and which gathers dust like a magnet laying out on my living room table when I could just close it until I need it again?
I digress. This won’t be an issue for everyone, but it really frustrated me in regular use, and I’m really hoping Google decides to change this behavior in a future update. I asked the company if app pairs in Android 14 would improve the situation, but they didn’t comment on that feature.
My frustrations aside, multitasking does work as you’d expect on the Pixel Fold. Having two apps open at once is a better experience than having a single app unable to fill the screen, and the work Google’s put in to make multitasking easy is appreciated. I really like how drag-and-drop is enabled throughout the UI to bring a second app up from the dock and share content between apps. It’s fairly seamless, though Samsung has it beat in a few crucial ways. The Z Fold 5, for example, can hold more than two apps at once, while I found myself missing the recents list in the dock for easy access.
It’s worth noting the struggles of this big screen don’t stop at single apps and multitasking. Typing remains an issue when the device is open. Gboard has a split mode, but it’s just not particularly fun to type on, forcing me to nearly always close the phone to reply to messages even if I was actively using the larger screen. Do yourself a favor and swap back to the standard layout.
Although I’ve run into a few bugs while using the Pixel Fold (a couple of which were squashed by a pre-launch patch), only one is particularly frustrating. Although it seems like closing the Fold is meant to lock it, occasionally, the device would stay unlocked, and the active application would appear on the front screen a few moments later. Some apps, like YouTube, clarify this is the desired behavior. But sometimes, it would just… happen without any reasoning behind why.
Once, I closed the phone several times in a row on the home screen, only for it to appear on the outer screen. After doing it four or five times in a row over about ten minutes, it stopped doing this and locked as expected. That is, except for the few times it’s happened since, where I’ve found the phone unlocked (and very warm) in my pocket.
I should also mention that, although the company is promoting YouTube’s tabletop mode at the moment, its main feature — moving the playback controls to the bottom screen — isn’t shipping until August, and considering how close we are to the end of the month as I update this, I’m not holding my breath. As it stands, bending the display to prop the phone up (a difficult task, given the weight of the camera island) does shift the video downwards, but also seems to crop out a sliver along the bottom of the screen.
For what it’s worth, using the Pixel Fold’s front display felt like any other modern Pixel phone, just, you know… shorter and fatter. I’d recommend you check out myPixel 7 Pro revieworManuel Vonau’s Pixel 7 reviewif you want context surrounding the standard Google software experiences. I’ve certainly spilled enough virtual ink here.
Performance
This phone uses Tensor G2, the same SoC found in the Pixel 7 series and on the Pixel Tablet. Like a few other reviewers I’ve spoken with, I’ve soured on it a bit since its debut. It’s a chipset known to overheat, and in such a thin chassis, it’s a real problem on the Pixel Fold.
I’ve felt this thing get warm to the touch nearly every time I pick it up. Looking up recipes in Chrome? Scrolling through Instagram?Texting?Nearly any action starts heating my hand, something compounded by the hotter summer weather. While lounging in a hammock, this device got so hot it was uncomfortable to touch. The inner display dropped to an unstable 60Hz — as in, things looked even choppier than that refresh rate implies — for over an hour after I went inside. I wasn’t in the hammock for more than thirty minutes. This is a problem.
Heat aside, Tensor G2 is a fine chipset. When working properly, I haven’t seen or felt any lag in apps, and games likeGenshin Impactperform as expected. If I sound a little bored, it’s because we know what to expect out of Tensor G2 at this point, for better and for worse. Nothing has changed here; it’s still a flagship-quality chip in performance.
I’m hoping Google can get its thermal performance under control by the timeTensor G3launches later this year, but for now, this experience is all I have to go by. And frankly, I’m tired of my phone feeling uncomfortable in my hand.
Google claims it has the best camera on any foldable to date, and unsurprisingly, I believe that. It’s also not a particularly difficult feat to lay claim to, considering nearly all folding phones have struggled to fit the camera hardware necessary to really impress us. To its credit, Samsung has clearly emphasized photography with its S-series phones, while the Z-series exists as futuristic experiences first and foremost.
At the risk of oversimplifying my experiences with the camera, the Pixel Fold basically produces the kind of images you’d expect. If you’re a fan of Google’s post-processing, you will like what this phone can capture. Daytime images more or less look great, no matter the lighting conditions. Many of my samples also seem to have dialed down the oversaturation you’ll sometimes spot in Pixel photos, making for a more neutral look without losing the company’s signature style (this also makes comparing it to the Z Fold 5, which blows its saturation out in typical Samsung style, particularly funny).
Some comparisons between the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5. Pixel Fold first, Z Fold 5 second. I prefer Google’s shots in the first and third examples, though the second shot has a weird green tone missing from Samsung’s shots.
Photos can occasionally look a bit oversharpened to my eyes, especially when zooming in on elements like grass. However, unlike other cameras I’ve tested this year — even the Galaxy S23 Ultra — the Pixel Fold is excellent at handling motion. Other phones would struggle with snapping a photo of a rabbit mid-hop. This one, not so much.
The last two images are using the Pixel Fold’s zoom lens.
If there’s one space where the Pixel Fold might fall short of its fellow flagships, its low-light performance. Looking through these shots, it seems like this phone is struggling to expose scenes with dark and bright elements, which I haven’t noticed nearly as much on the Pixel 7 Pro.
Google is usually pretty good at compositing various exposures into a single shot for the best of both worlds, but it’s not as successful on this particular phone.
A solid 5x zoom shot.
I’m happy that Google kept a 5x telephoto lens around on this device, as it was one of my favorite shooting elements with the Pixel 7 Pro. I’m not seeing a big difference in quality between the two devices here, although Super Res Zoom is limited to just 20x anddoesseem to look lower quality. Anecdotally, it also appears the phone isn’t as stable when zoomed in on a subject, which can result in blurry shots.
Left to right: Outer front-facing camera, inner front-facing camera, selfie with rear cameras in flip mode.
Both front-facing cameras take aggressively fine shots, whether you’re snapping a selfie or jumping into a video call. But if you’re looking for the best quality possible, you’re best off flipping the phone around to use the rear-facing lineup. In fact, I wouldn’t mind future phones ditching one or both of the selfie cams. This could be a controversial take, but they’re simply unnecessary.
Spending the last couple of months with the Pixel Fold, I’ve been pretty impressed. It’s not a mind-blowing camera lineup by any means, but it can get high-quality shots without too much of a compromise. It surpasses all of Samsung’s efforts in this space — even if the Z Fold 5’s camera cantechnicallydigitally zoom further into the frame — and, as minor as this might sound, is also a fun device to shoot with, thanks to its odd outer aspect ratio. As bulky as that camera island can feel, it’s clear giving the sensors some extra space paid off.
Battery life
My experience with the Pixel Fold’s battery has been as consistent after two months as it was after a week and a half. Its battery life seems to be fairly steady, presumably with adaptive battery active working as expected. I’m seeing between five and six hours of screen-on time consistently with a mix of both displays, and I’m usually ending the day with between 20 and 30 percent left on a charge. Getting through a full day’s worth of mixed-use seems totally doable here, though I wouldn’t expect to go multiple days without a charger.
If you want proof that Google feels confident in its battery here, consider that this phone’s screens each run at 120Hz out of the box. The Pixel 7a — despite supporting 90Hz — arrives with Smooth Display disabled to help bolster its longevity.
Still, charging remains a total headache. Rated at just 21W, charging the Pixel Fold can feel pretty slow, even compared to cheaper foldables like Motorola’s Razr+. If the phone is reliably capable of getting through a full day without battery anxiety, it might not betoomuch of a concern, but it’s something worth keeping in mind if you’re headed out for the night.
Competition
If you’re outside the United States, you have a solid selection of Pixel Fold alternatives. But if you’re outside the United States, you likely can’t buy this phone to begin with, so let’s focus on the only competition thatreallymatters: Samsung.
I’m returning to the Pixel Fold to update this review after using the Galaxy Z Fold 5 extensively; frankly, that experience has only soured me on this phone further. It’s a little bulkier, but it’s pretty easy to ignore without the gap seen on previous Z-series models. It’s lighter, too, making holding it much more enjoyable. The hinge is more satisfying and opens completely flat without pressure, and One UI — for whatever you may think of it — is optimized to its bones for big-screen devices like this. If you’re looking to primarily use that big inner display, it might be the $1,800 device to get.
But it’s not perfect. The design, specifically when closed, feels dated compared to what you’ll find on the Pixel Fold. Google’s camera is, I think, better in most situations, and if you’re looking to use the device closed, it’s a far more comfortable experience on this particular unit. Still, I don’t think Google is ready to compete with Samsung again — based on the limited availability of this phone, that’s not a secret. But if you’re allergic to even looking at One UI, well, this remains your only option for the time being.
Should you buy it?
So that’s the Pixel Fold. It’s a complicated mess of a foldable, somehow sporting some of Google’s best and worst hardware in a single package. Massive software issues completely weigh it down, some of which Google cannot solve alone. And it’s all paired with everything else that makes the Pixel lineup unique, from its chipset to high-quality cameras to itssuper-popular Recorder app.
I do not doubt that the Pixel Fold will find a rabid fan base, just as most of Google’s past products. I’m also sure the issues I’ve brought up here are internally known at the company. The limited lineup of launch regions for the Fold seemed to spell an experimental status from the jump as if to advertise it as unready for a broader debut. Maybe next year, the world echoed back.
But even if this is simply the first step into a future product line for Google, this is still a $1,800 smartphone, and I find myself incapable of suggesting anyone drop that kind of cash. There’s plenty of work to be done on the hardware and software before the Pixel Fold is ready for a real recommendation. As it stands right now, this one really exists for early adopters and the most die-hard Pixel fans among us.
UPDATE: 2025-06-26 11:00 EST BY WILL SATTELBERG
Long-term update
I’ve updated this review with additional context on the Pixel Fold’s hinge, software experience, camera, battery, and plenty of comparisons to the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Google’s first foldable sports two large displays on the outside and inside for getting work done on the go. It’s powered by Tensor G2, the same chipset found in the Pixel 7 Pro, and sports one of the best cameras we’ve seen on a foldable to date.
