After several leaks and rumors, Google has finally unveiled the Pixel Fold, its first foldable device. At $1,799 the Fold is set to go compete directly with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 with preorders starting today in supported countries and will be shipping to customers in June 2023.
It could have been Google’s first attempt at a folding phone, but the phone is well-built. As a general gadget or device that you hold and manipulate in your hands, the Pixel Fold is very nice — the hinge is stiff but not cumbersome, the screens look great, and it feels like the expensive object it is. Google’s apps and software appear to work well on it according to initial reviews, and it’s likely that any future folding phone features built into Android will be done with the Pixel Fold front of mind.
The Pixel Fold transforms from a compact, 5.8-inch phone into a 7.6-inch tablet thanks to its flexible screen and hinge, providing you with a spacious screen to run apps, watch videos, play games, or whatever else you want to do with a mobile device. The biggest downside of the new pixel is its huge inner bezel.
Both of the Pixel Fold’s screens are OLED panels with 120Hz refresh rates, and the inner screen is covered in ultrathin glass (plus a factory-installed and not-really-supposed-to-be-removed screen protector). The 1080 x 2092 pixel outside screen can hit up to 1550 nits of brightness, while the 2208 x 1840 pixel inner display hits up to 1450 nits, which means both should be quite usable outdoors. It’s nice that there isn’t a real compromise with either display compared to standard slab smartphones, though it’s fair to expect that on a device that costs nearly $2,000.
On the inside, Pixel Fold has the same Tensor 2 processor found in the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro (as well as the Pixel 7A and Pixel Tablet, also announced today) paired with 12GB of RAM. You can get either 256 or 512GB of storage, but there is no way to expand it after the fact.
Google is claiming “beyond 24 hours” of battery life from the Pixel Fold’s roughly 4,800mAh battery system, which is split between two cells, one in each half. The Pixel Fold can fast charge at a rate of up to 30W or can be wirelessly charged on a standard Qi charger. Sadly, neither charger is included with the device.
There are five total cameras on the Pixel Fold. There are two 8.3-megapixel cameras — one on the outside for selfies and another above the inner display for video calls — and then three cameras around back: a 48-megapixel optically-stabilized main camera, a 10.8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10.8-megapixel 5x telephoto. The camera’s features and capabilities are similar to what’s available on the Pixel 7 Pro, but these are different sensors — Google wasn’t able to fit the larger sensors of the 7 Pro in the Fold’s slim frame.
Where Google differs from Samsung is unsurprisingly in software and the raw number of features. The Pixel Fold does not support stylus input whatsoever, nor does it support output to an external display, both of which are available with the Galaxy Fold 4. The Pixel Fold’s multitasking options are limited to two side-by-side apps; Samsung will let you run three apps on the screen at a time and then throw another floating window on top of that for the most possible productivity chaos. You can even get a whole desktop environment when the Galaxy Fold is connected to an external screen.
What is true is that the Pixel Fold will not change the status of folding phones for the general public. It’s still prohibitively expensive for many, and though Google is offering preorder promotions like strong trade-in values and freebies, this will not change much for this form factor.
