Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Review
A welcome reboot that is so much nicer to use
Verdict
As unique as its predecessor was, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a welcome reboot that is so much nicer to use for extended periods. Both screens are (mostly) great, the build is thinner and lighter and everything just feels more high-end.
Pros
- The updated design really works
- Great software
- Strong main camera
- Very bright screens
Cons
- Camera system inferior to Pixel 9 Pro
- Display crease is very visible
- Slow charging
Key Features
- Large interal screenFoldable 8-inch OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and HDR
- Google’s AI chipsetThe Tensor G4 is designed to focus on AI performance
Introduction
Google has decided against releasing the Pixel Fold 2, with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold taking its place.
This is more than just a name change to bring the foldable in line with other models in the 9 Pro series; it’s a complete reboot of what a folding Pixel is.
I’ve spent the last two weeks with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, using it as my primary device and putting it through its paces to see if this is the best foldable phone, or just another challenger to the OnePlus Open.
Design
- Big redesign over the first Pixel foldable
- The design is similar to the OnePlus Open
- Two colours: white and black
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a big departure from the design of the original Fold. The squat shape has been ditched, replaced by a body not too dissimilar to the excellent OnePlus Open.
It’s thinner, lighter and easier to hold as a result. Even though I was charmed by the odd passport look of the original Fold, there’s no denying the updated model is an improvement – even if it lacks those distinctive looks.
This is a very thin foldable. When it’s closed up, it is roughly the same thickness as an iPhone 15 Pro Max inside one of Apple’s cases, and throughout my testing it has sat well in my pocket without feeling irritating. The size is also shorter than most ‘big’ phones, so it can be used in one hand – depending on how big your hands are.
I used the first Pixel Fold from Google for several months and that was a heavy device, sagging down pockets and making itself very noticeable.
It is rigid and sturdy too, with a hinge that actually lets the screen fold completely flat – something the original failed to do without some force. This is a very expensive device, so it’s good that It feels like it’s worth that price in terms of its build.
Like the other 9 Pro phones, matte is the finish of choice here – and it’s very welcome. The flat sides and back have an almost satin finish, that feels soft in hand. Two colours are available, a fairly standard black (Obsidian) and white (Porcelain).
It seems that Google doesn’t sell these in the required numbers to make offering it in more alternative colours viable, but I would love a Pixel foldable in the Peony pink the regular Pixel 9 comes in.
Now, foldables as a category are still more delicate than standard phones, and there’s no saying how well the 9 Pro Fold will last over time. Google says the hinge is made of an aerospace-grade high-strength aluminium layer, while there’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 across the front and back. It’s IPX8 rated too, similar to Samsung’s foldables, so it’s ok in shallow water but not resistant to solid objects.
Google has been on a sustainability push with its devices over the past few years, including switching to a box that is 100% free of plastic. The aluminium in the housing, hinge and camera is also 100% recycled.
Screens
- Large 8-inch internal screen
- Smaller 6.3-inch 20:9 screen on the outside
- Both of them get very bright
Google has worked to upgrade the screens across the whole Pixel 9 range, and the two displays on the 9 Pro Fold are great. The outer 6.3-inch panel feels just like a standard, small Android phone and it’s basically the same size as the Pixel 9 Pro. The 20:9 aspect ratio is welcome too, avoiding that tall, narrow design that’s such a divisive feature of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold range.
With any iteration of the Samsung Z Fold, I would always shy away from using the outer display as I found it too restrictive. The apps would look weird because they were all squashed, and the panel was too narrow for video or light games.
Unless I am typing out a quick message or answering a call, I would always open up the Z Fold. By having a more traditional outer screen, my use cases with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold change completely. I open the phone less, and it just feels like I am using the Pixel 9 Pro – until I want to watch a YouTube video or play a game on the larger internal canvas.
That internal screen is big at 8 inches, with a 1-120Hz refresh rate and a sharp 2076 x 2152 resolution. It’s a very square panel, so you will get hefty black bars on either side of the 16:9 video but on the whole, it’s great. I much prefer opening up a Google Doc or Excel spreadsheet or replying to an email or Slack message, on this screen than on a traditional phone display.
One big issue with the original PIxel Fold was the way apps would struggle with the internal aspect ratio, displaying incorrectly or sticking to their phone version and leaving loads of space wasted. With the tweaked aspect, and an extra year of app development, the issue doesn’t seem as noticeable now.
Google has upped the brightness over its first foldable entry, with this model able to hit 2700 nits in certain situations and a more sustained 1600 when playing back HDR video. The update makes a real and noticeable difference, both for general everyday use (outdoor visibility is excellent) and for video playback.
My biggest issue with the screen is the same issue I have had with countless foldables, including the Z Fold 6 – the crease. Google, like Samsung, hasn’t managed to follow the lead of Honor and OnePlus in eradicating the visible fold that runs down the middle of the screen.
I’ve always found feelings towards the crease on foldable phones vary depending on personal preference. Some can simply look past it and move on, whereas others find it the single biggest issue with these kinds of phones. I’m certainly in the latter camp.
The crease here is annoying. It’s annoying when you run your finger across it and feel the bobble and it’s annoying when you’re looking at the screen at an angle and the sun reflects off. The fact that the screen and its plastic covering pick up fingerprints and oily smudges far quicker than a standard glass panel is also annoying.
I understand why the crease is there, but when others have managed to engineer it out, it’s hard to swallow when the 9 Pro Fold is such an expensive phone.
Performance
- Tensor G4 chipset runs the show
- 16GB RAM, up to 512GB storage
- Not the quickest in benchmark tests
Aside from the design and some aspects of the camera, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is just another member of the Pixel 9 Pro family. It has the same Tensor G4 chipset as the Pixel 9 Pro XL, meaning it’s a capable performer that impresses in AI performance but not so much in GPU grunt, and the same 16GB RAM.
The gap has widened even further with the Snapdragon competition in benchmark testing, with results from the Pixel 9 Pro Fold more comparable to the Tensor G3 than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped competition.
When compared to the A17 Pro chipset inside the iPhone 15 Pro Max is not far off doubling the multi-core test results in Geekbench. While it might look a bit weak on paper, I can’t say I have been frustrated by pure performance throughout my daily use of the phone. Games play well, apps open up quickly and everything feels smooth.
Where performance is super snappy is in AI tasks. The Pixel Studio image generator can whip up images in a few seconds, and the various AI photo editing tricks finish up without any long waits. These are the tasks where Google is prioritising the processing power of Tensor, and it does show.
The 9 Pro Fold, like the Pixel 9 Pro XL, does get hot during gaming – even during short bouts in basic titles. In more graphically intensive titles, a 20-minute round of gaming can leave the metal sides feeling noticeably warm. Even when charging the phone gets far warmer than I am used to.
On one occasion during the review process, my partner picked up the phone while it was on charge and was noticeably surprised by quite how warm it was.
Elsewhere, the Pixel 9 Pro has all the usual high-end Android phone features. There’s a fast fingerprint sensor built into the power key, nano and eSIM support, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. Security is handled by the Titan M2 processor, and there are safety features like car crash detection.
Camera
- Not the same array as the Pixel 9 Pro
- Duo of 10MP selfie cameras
- Excellent image processing
The cameras on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold aren’t the same as the ones on the other two 9 Pro series phones. Space remains tight on such a thin device, and that’s clearly led to sacrifices having to be made.
There’s a main 48-megapixel f/1.7 camera on the back, but the ultrawide and telephoto zoom cameras are 10.5MP and 10.8MP respectively putting them below the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL. Neither of these secondary cameras are standout, and I was bit disappointed with the results from both.
In my testing, the biggest loss is the zoom quality where the lower megapixel sensor has to rely on AI more to keep shots detailed. Considering the Pixel 9 Pro XL is one of the better phones for zoom on the market, the Fold falls well below that.
The main camera stands out comfortably as the best of the trio – and Google’s fantastic image processing continues to give all shots a lovely contrast-heavy look that I really like. It’s a little more natural than results from the iPhone 15 Pro or Galaxy S24 Ultra, with softer skin tones and less emphasis on saturated colours,
Low light continues to be a strong point for the phone, even if the Pixel isn’t the night champion it once was. Images avoid being overbrightened, instead matching reality closely and colours aren’t artificially pumped out.
There are two 10MP selfie cameras (one on the inside, one on the cover screen) both of which have the same specs, so you can use them both depending on the scenario without sacrificing quality.
Google’s recent Pixel phones have become known for their suite of AI photo and editing tools. Alongside some new additions, all the old classics are present and all perform a little bit better than they have done before. There are also a few Fold exclusive camera software tricks, like being able to stick a distracting image on the outer display to catch the attention of kids who have dwindling attention spans.
Zoom Enhance boosts the detail of cropped photos, and the new Add Me feature allows photographers to get in on group shots. Add Me is wild, ensuring even the taker of the photo can get in the action. It’s a little bit of an elaborate process for it to work, and often arms and ankles can look very odd in the final, yet if you don’t look too closely the results can be impressive.
This suite of tools continues to be some of the best on any phone we’ve tested, with Magic Editor using GenAI to completely change the backgrounds and size of items in snaps.
As my colleague Lewis noted in his Pixel 9 Pro XL review, there’s still strong debate as to whether these heavily AI-powered tools represent ‘true’ photography and the GenAI features are not really for me even if they are fun to mess around with.
Battery Life
- 4650mAh battery
- Endurance varies depending on how much you use each screen
- Slow to charge
The 4650mAh battery inside the Pixel 9 Pro is smaller than the cell inside the original Pixel Fold. However, throughout my testing, I have been getting through the day – although only just. Coming from the Pixel 9 Pro XL where I was getting well into day two even with heavy use, this is a little disappointing but not uncommon for foldables.
Judging the battery life here can be tricky, as it varies so much depending on how the phone is used. For instance, one day I decided not to open it up and look at the inside screen at all, with the result being that I had over 60% juice left at the end of the day, Another day I focussed solely on the inside screen, opening it up for everything and the phone hit 0% before I went to bed at midnight.
It’s a similar story in other tests. An hour of Netflix on the big 8-inch screen took off 9%, whereas the same test on the outer display saw a drop of 5%. This isn’t surprising, and I am not sure who would choose to watch something on the outer screen – yet it shows how usage dictates how long the battery can last.
Charging is slow, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold can’t match the 37w speeds offered by the 9 Pro XL. A full charge can take over 100 minutes, with a 30-minute juice-up getting the phone from 0-46%. As a comparison, the OnePlus can go from 0-100% in 46 minutes.
Software & AI
- Android 14, rather than Android 15
- Google’s Gemini can be very good
- Many years of software updates
Google has launched the latest Pixel series earlier than usual this year. My guess is that the reason behind this was to get ahead of Apple unveiling the iPhone 16.
One side effect is that Android 15 is not quite ready yet, so instead of launching with the year’s latest Android update the Pixel 9 Pro will run on Android for a few more months. Rest assured the Pixel 9 range will be one of the first that get update when it’s ready.
This is far from an issue though, as yearly Android updates don’t add much these days and many of the Android 15 features are still here. There are still plenty of new software features here, many of which are focussed on – you guessed it – AI.
Before I delve into the (mostly) wonderful world of Gemini, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold also has to make use of that bigger screen somehow.
OnePlus has really set the bar when it comes to software on a foldable phone with its fantastic Canvas feature, which lets you run multiple apps all next to each other. Google’s efforts are far less ambitious, but there’s still enough here to make it feel like you can be more productive on here than on a standard phone.
The multitasking features are good, with two apps able to be used side-by-side and resized. A handy dock appears with a flick from the bottom of the screen and this gives quick access to apps, which can then be dragged to either side of the screen. It’s all very straightforward and user-friendly.
Close the phone and a quick swipe on the outer screen brings up the app you were using on the inside, while opening the Fold when you’re in an app will see it take over the larger internal panel.
Apps are also generally very good at making the most of the screen, with the tweaked aspect ratio – compared to the original Fold – allowing for much better compatibility. Some apps will jump into their larger tablet version, making use of the bigger screen, while others – Instagram, for example – stretch out.
There is a smattering of Pixel-exclusive apps installed here, and many of them are quite useful. I love the new Pixel Screenshots app, which collects all your screenshots that clog up a phone and allows them to be searched through with text thanks to AI. I’ve already used this countless times and it works exceptionally well. There’s an updated Weather app that not only looks gorgeous but offers daily weather reports, too.
Pixel Studio is another interesting addition, leaning in on the Tensor G4’s ability to generate images on-device. Studio works like other AI image generators: describe what you want to see and Pixel Studio creates it in a few seconds based on the prompts. You’ve got several styles of image to choose from, and unless you’re asking it to create an image of a real person there aren’t too many restrictions on what can be created.
These three apps work as they do due to the phone’s focus on AI. The Tensor G4’s ability to run multimodal AI on-device, allows it to process images and audio alongside text for quicker responses. For instance, I could take a snap of a plant, ask the new Gemini Live assistant what it’s in the picture and it’ll find an answer.
Gemini Live works alongside Google Assistant, offering a far more natural and conversational-focused assistant. It works very well, although it’s not a completely free service. You get a year of the Google One subscription which includes Gemini Live skills included, but after that it’s £17.99/$20 a month.
These newer AI features join the older extras that have become commonplace on Pixel phones. Call Assist (still a US exclusive, for now) summarises calls, while the camera app is full of editing features that utilise generative AI.
The long-term software promise continues to be industry-leading, matched only by Samsung’s flagship phones, and it is good enough to plump for a Pixel a competing device. You get seven years of OS upgrades, security patches and Pixel Feature Drops which means the experience will only continue to improve over time.
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Should you buy it?
You want the Google smarts in a unique device
There’s no other device that has these AI smarts, such a long software promise and hardware quite this good. If you’re after a Pixel, but want something that stands a little more then the 9 Pro Fold is a good choice.
You want the best camera
Picking a foldable still comes with sacrifices, and there are a few here. The screen crease, slower charging and smaller battery life are a few of them. But really, the biggest reason to just go for the standard Pixel 9 Pro XL is the better trio of cameras.
Final Thoughts
I was really taken with the design of the Google Pixel Fold, and I was slightly irked at first that that blueprint had been ditched for something more akin to the OnePlus Open.
After a few weeks of use, it all makes sense. As unique as its predecessor was, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a welcome reboot that is so much nicer to use for extended periods. Both screens are (mostly) great, the build is thinner and lighter and everything just feels more high-end.
Issues remain, not least with the obvious screen crease and inefficient chipset, but there’s every chance this could be the best foldable phone we’ve tested this year.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as a main phone for a two weeks
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
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FAQs
No, you only get a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box.
Google has promised seven years of OS upgrades for the Pixel 9 collection, including the Fold
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Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
