TL;DR
Google's Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a serious contender in the foldable market, offering a slim design that seamlessly transitions between a standard smartphone and a mini-tablet. It boasts bright, excellent screens, intuitive multitasking, and innovative hinge functionality that makes it a versatile device. Even with a high price tag, it's a compelling option that could replace your need for a separate tablet. Discover if this foldable powerhouse lives up to the hype – read the full review!
Google has now also joined the ranks of mobile manufacturers producing foldable phones intended for the Swedish market. Here in the Nordic region, Samsung has long sat relatively alone on the throne; we tested their Z Flip 6 last year. Motorola has also released foldable phones in recent years. But on the Swedish market, only Samsung and Google offer phones that unfold into small tablets. Today, we are going to test Google’s second attempt at a foldable phone: the Pixel 9 Pro Fold!
What is the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold?
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a foldable mobile phone that opens horizontally, like a book. There are other foldable solutions that open vertically, much like the old flip phones from the 2000s. When we first open the package containing the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, we are truly surprised by how thin Google has managed to make the phone. Unfolded in tablet mode, it is among the thinnest phones we have ever tested, and in its folded format, it is roughly as thick as a regular phone with a thin case on. Google has also chosen a slightly wider format for the outer screen than Samsung, for example, has chosen for its foldables. This means the outer screen functions like a standard mobile display, where we comfortably spend 90% of our time.
The Screens
The star of the show for a foldable mobile is, naturally, the screen. We’ll start with the smaller outer screen, which has a 20:9 aspect ratio and a high refresh rate of 60-120Hz. As mentioned, we spend the majority of our time with this outer screen, and it truly does its job, delivering exactly what you would expect from a standard mobile display.
When we then unfold the phone and the larger inner screen reveals itself, it’s almost like magic—where was this creation hiding? The inner screen is roughly twice as large as the outer screen but with a slightly lower pixel density, though this isn’t something you notice. This screen also features a high variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz. Both screens have the same brightness of 2700 nits, and we have no trouble using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold outdoors in bright daylight. The crease that forms in the middle of the inner screen is something we quickly got used to and eventually stopped noticing.
What is the Pixel 9 Pro Fold like to use?
It’s clear from the start that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is packed with Pixel DNA; all the features we’re accustomed to are here, and when using the outer screen, the experience is identical to other Pixel phones we’ve tested (Pixel 9a and Pixel 9 Pro XL). If you, dear reader, want to know more about this, please feel free to read those reviews. Here, we will instead focus on how Google has chosen to approach the user experience for a foldable phone.
Mobile manufacturers have long mastered the art of creating screens that fold, but mastering the user experience at the intersection of smartphone and tablet has proven to be a bit trickier. Here, it feels like Google has truly tried to make a phone first that can then unfold into a tablet, rather than a tablet that you can fold up (as the experience with some competitors is sometimes described). Everything from multitasking to typing in tablet mode is intuitive and feels well-conceived. It is very easy to split the screen to do several things at once, and most apps work perfectly—or at least more than adequately—in both modes. For example, we wrote this entire review on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold using the split keyboard that is standard in tablet mode. The first few paragraphs were a bit tricky to manage, but by the end, there was no problem writing almost as fast as on a regular smartphone.
The foldability: useful or a gimmick?
A foldable phone brings several interesting possibilities, and Google has implemented some of them. Because the hinge is firm and can be set at almost any angle, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold can be used as its own stand when consuming media. You can either split the inner screen in two and open it like a laptop, where the bottom half acts as a media control, or you can use the outer screen, standing it up like a small tent. Somehow, Google always seems to know which of these two modes we want and when, which was impressive. Another nice little touch that isn’t obvious but feels very intuitive is how the Pixel 9 Pro Fold behaves when you open or close the phone. If you are using the outer screen but want to quickly switch to the larger inner screen, you just open it, and the active app continues seamlessly there. If, on the other hand, you are using the inner screen to watch YouTube or read emails and then fold the phone, the screen lock activates instead of continuing playback on the outer screen. For those of you who remember the old flip phones, this shouldn’t be underestimated; snapping the phone shut to lock the screen feels so natural and satisfying.
The Camera
This part of the test won’t be long-winded; the Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes with the same camera features and interface as the rest of the Pixel 9 phones we’ve already tested. On paper, the camera hardware isn’t as sharp as the regular Pro model, but as we’ve said many times before, technical specifications are far less important than they used to be; today, the manufacturer’s algorithms and software matter most. Feel free to look at the image here where we compare the Pixel 9 Pro Fold with its “little brother,” the Pixel 9a, to see how little difference there actually is. One advantage the Pixel 9 Pro Fold actually has regarding cameras is that, in fully unfolded mode, you can use the more powerful main camera to take selfies, using the outer screen as a viewfinder so you can actually see yourself. So, if you know that selfie image quality is a priority for you, this is a big plus.
Conclusion
At the start of our time with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, we were very skeptical about how useful a foldable phone actually was. We didn’t want to like it—it was so expensive and so niche that it couldn’t possibly be a sensible product. But we were truly wrong about that. Because it is so thin, it could “cosplay” as a regular phone most of the time, only to transform into a tablet whenever the mood struck. To be honest, our regular tablet has completely disappeared from the daily rotation. Sure, it’s expensive (at the time of writing, it can be bought for 18,000 kronor, a staggering price for a phone!). But that is what a standard flagship phone from Apple, for example, costs today. If you also want a decent tablet to complement your flagship phone, it is virtually impossible to get a better deal than the multi-tasker that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold actually is. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is simply a multi-tool that MacGyver himself would have loved, and so do we!
Google sent a review unit for this review. The sender of materials has no editorial influence on our tests.
