Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold

After a period of relative stagnation in the foldable market, where Samsung has experienced almost total market dominance, something is finally happening. More manufacturers are crawling out of the shadows and want to seriously explore this ambitious new category. No, it hasn't exactly resulted in more competitive pricing yet, but it will eventually lead to better products.

Last year, the OnePlus Open arrived, a foldable smartphone we here at the editorial office couldn't get enough of, and it remains a devilishly good buy to this day if you like Android options beyond Samsung's rather dominant OneUI system and their sea of proprietary apps. The reason I bring up Open is that its very introduction means that Google isn't surprising anyone by giving us the Pixel 9 Pro Fold now, since we've already seen what a bloat-free foldable can look like. But that doesn't mean you should write it off, because Google's second attempt at a foldable isn't just the best on the market, it's also one of the best phones of the year, hands down.

We gave the little Pixel 9 a 10, and we stand by it. For the first time, Google's line-up feels utterly complete, so much so that it's harder to recommend either the Pixel 9 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro XL, as the cheapest retains so much functionality. The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold stands on the complete other side of that spectrum, offering just unique functionality while still sharing the same well-functioning platform. But I mean it; the line-up of Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold is perfect duality, and this foldable phone is a stroke of genius in almost every way.

The design itself is quite magnificent. Yes, the shape itself is borrowed from the OnePlus Open, both in terms of dimensions and screen ratio. This means that this successor to last year's Pixel Fold opens apps in the traditional vertical ratio, not the horizontal. When closed, it's just 10.5 millimetres, so you barely notice that it's actually a foldable, and it weighs just 257 grams, which isn't much more than a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, or an iPhone 15 Pro Max. There's Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both front and back, an aluminium frame, IPX8 certification, 7.5 Watt wireless charging (which is way too slow) and a 4650mAh battery that easily got me through a busy day. Yes, the camera module isn't the prettiest, but overall this is the best looking foldable phone on the market and it makes Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 look like a remote control from the 2000s.

Inside you'll again find Google's Tensor G4, up to 512GB UFS 3.1 space and up to 16GB RAM. I know many have found the performance of recent Tensor generations slightly disappointing, but even with plenty of multitasking, which is the whole point of a large, foldable phone, I didn't find the G4 kept me waiting. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is always snappy, always responsive and always ready for whatever you need to get done. Of course, performance is again aided by Google's downright inspired approach to Android. This version of Android 14 (soon to be 15) is playful in the right places, concrete when needed and above all, never boring. This OS has personality, character and, of course, allows for plenty of visual customisation that I never got tired of. The fact that there are of course Pixel-exclusive software features like Call Screen and automatic identification of a song in the background is just icing on the cake.

Like all foldable phones, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold features an outer 6.3-inch 1080x2424 OLED display at 120Hz that peaks at 2700 NITS and delivers gorgeous HDR colours in all lighting conditions. Open the phone and you'll find an 8-inch LTPO OLED that also peaks at 2700 NITS, also running at 120Hz with support for HDR10+. There are some pretty nice software touches to improve multitasking, such as a taskbar, and either using the larger canvas or running apps side-by-side is totally seamless. I wish there were a few more gestures here, because OnePlus is thinking a little more outside the box, but it's hard to complain when you get these displays to play with.

Google's line-up of smartphones is named "Pixel" because they are basically camera phones. There's good news and bad news here. The bad news is that like Samsung, Google hasn't been able to find room for quite the same lenses as on the regular Pro phones, but on the other hand, this is arguably the most versatile and well-functioning camera system you'll find on a modern foldable phone. You get a 48-megapixel 25-millimetre standard wide with dual-pixel autofocus and optical stabilisation, a 10.8-megapixel 112-millimetre telephoto with 5x optical zoom and finally a 127-degree ultrawide at 10.5-megapixels. These three lenses, thankfully, have the same colour chemistry this time and the balance between them is pretty even. Furthermore, the 5x optical zoom on the telephoto lens is quite useful, and actually maintains detail a lot longer than that thanks to a digital crop. But you probably already know what I'm going to say; for Google it's more about the interaction between the module itself and the automatic post-processing of each image that emphasises dynamic range, prioritising sharpness and creating contrast where possible. This produces, in almost every case, an image I prefer to similar images taken with a Galaxy Z Fold 6 and a OnePlus Open, and whether you're really tweaking or just taking a quick shot in passing, they are decidedly excellent every time. Add little tweaks like a playable animation on the cover display so my kids always laugh when I try to take a picture of them, and you have a Google camera in all the best ways.

I will mention again, though, that while the Pixel 9 Pro Fold also offers all of Google's more questionable AI tools, it's just something I again don't want to use on principle. Features like Magic Eraser are right on the edge, which can remove passers-by in the background, but Add Me, for example, creates a false image of a subject that never existed in reality, and other features in Magic Editor are basically just ugly, AI-based Dall-E-like interpretation of reality. "What even is a photo anymore?" Marques Brownlee asks, and understandably so, but Google's features oscillate a little too wildly between useful in everyday situations to downright unethical, if you ask me.

Furthermore, it's also important to mention here that while I didn't come close to experiencing unreliable unfolding of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, such a design requires more consumer scrutiny before we really know if Google has produced a reliable foldable phone this time around. That said, the first Pixel Fold was a success, so there's no reason to doubt that this iterative upgrade is anything but exactly the same, but it's hard to test long-term durability, so keep that in mind.

Design, engineering, components, displays, software suite, attitude, personalisation and cameras all work together here to deliver the first foldable that can pretty much be recommended to anyone who believes that just such a changeable form could result in more entertainment, or more efficient work. Google has managed to combine all the key aspects of a functional and above all fun smartphone experience, and alongside the regular Pixel 9 it stands as a shining example of technical innovation and reliable recognisability. The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold are two sides of the same coin and therefore the score is identical between them. Well done this time, Google.