Google Pixel Fold Hands-on: Exhuberance in Numbers

Google Pixel Fold in a nutshell

The Pixel Fold brings yet another form factor to the foldable phone market, with a different proportion to the existing models from Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo. While the market doesn’t pick a preferred form factor, Google came with a phone that is wider and thinner when it is closed, while the Pixel Fold’s 5.5 inches height (139.7 mm) is almost in between the Oppo Find N2’s 5.2 inches (132.2 mm) and the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s 6.1 inches (155.1 cm).

In terms of availability, the Pixel Fold will be, at least initially, sold in a very limited number of countries: Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the US, it will be available in two different colors: Porcelain and Obsidian—aka beige and black, respectively—with two storage options: 256 GB and 512 GB, the bigger option available only in Obsidian.

The Pixel Fold is already available for pre-order on the US Google Store, with shipments starting at the end of July, depending on the selected configuration. Prices start at a steep $1,799 for the base model and reach $1,919 for the 256 GB model.

Design and display

As we mentioned above, the Google Pixel Fold offers a different proportion to the one used by its rivals.
Instead of the long, tall proportions of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold phones when closed, the Pixel foldable has a passport-like form factor similar to the Oppo Find N2, but bigger in both width and height.

Google’s first foldable has the advantage of being the thinnest foldable screen phone at 0.5 inches when closed (12.1 mm) while being the heaviest when compared to the Find N2 and Galaxy Z Fold 4, at 10 oz (283 g).

The dimensions when closed make the Pixel Fold easy to use for medium-sized hands, especially when compared to the thin and tall external display on Samsung’s foldables. The external AMOLED display features a 5.8-inch diagonal, with a FullHD+ resolution (2092 x 1080 pixels), and smooth animations thanks to its 120 Hz refresh rate.

When closed, the Google Pixel Fold doesn’t show a significant gap between the two sides with a surprisingly thin profile for a foldable phone. However, the extra weight is noticeable, especially if you are used to a regular candybar phone.

Opened, the 7.6-inch AMOLED screen uses a curious 6:5 aspect ratio, which makes it very similar whether in portrait or landscape orientations. This makes the screen more practical for split-screen usage—e.g. taking notes or following a tutorial—than for media consumption, which will invariably lead to thick bars around videos.

Speaking about thick things on the internal display, the bezels are very noticeable and bigger than those found on the Oppo Find N2 and Galaxy Z Fold 4. That can be attributed to the in-bezel internal selfie camera and the folding mechanism—which Google says is “the most durable hinge on a foldable phone. Speaking about durability, the Pixel Fold is IPX8 certified, with no protection against dust or solid particles, but able to withstand immersion in shallow waters.

In general, the Pixel Fold build quality is quite good, despite the impressively thin halves. However, the central crease is very noticeable, both when swiping a finger on the screen or simply looking at a web page or video content.

Google Pixel Fold performance

Powered by the in-house Tensor G2 processor, the Google Pixel Fold packs the same SoC used in the Pixel 7 family of phones
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Despite being a flagship-class processor, the Tensor G2 already shows its age, with two high-performance Cortex-X1 CPUs at 2.85 GHz, while 2023’s flagships with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip have a two-generation newer Cortex-X3 core at 3.2 GHz. Google argues that its exclusive AI smarts make up for that, while also equipping the Pixel Fold with fast 12 GB of RAM.

We will put the Pixel Fold under our complete test suite before drawing any conclusions, but don’t expect the 2022 chip to beat 2023 rivals in sheer performance, judging by the performance of the current Pixel 7 phones.

Google Pixel Fold camera

The “Visor” design on the Google Pixel Fold suggests it is powered by the same camera setup used in the Google Pixel 7 Pro which was called “the best Pixel ever” in Camila Rinaldi’s review. However,
not only the resolutions of the three different sensors are different from the Pixel 7 phones, the sensor sizes are slightly smaller on the foldable, which should prove a small disadvantage in low-light situations.

The triple camera on the “back” is housed on a thick island that protrudes quite a bit from the phone’s surface. Besides the camera trio—of which the 5x zoom telephoto uses a periscopic lens—the island is home to the LDAF (laser detect autofocus) sensor, an LED flashlight, and a microphone.

Again, as we didn’t have enough time to test the camera we invite you to read the full review later this week with our impressions and camera samples under different scenarios.

Google Pixel Fold battery

On the battery department, the Google Pixel Fold has a 4821 mAh component, capable of being charged at up to 30 W while using a compatible USB-PD 3.0 charger, which is not included in the box
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Additionally, the foldable can be charged using a Qi-compatible wireless charger at an undisclosed power input—we have reached out to Google to confirm the specification and will add the information to our full review later this week.

Google Pixel Fold technical specifications

Early Verdict

The Pixel Fold is a curious first try at the foldable smartphone arena. Google opted to try a slightly different form factor than the established models from Huawei, Oppo, Samsung, and Xiaomi, some of them in their second or fourth iteration. However, at this time, it doesn’t really bring many differences when it comes to usage modes to justify that choice, just presenting another take on the foldable’s pocketability.

Google, however, promised a bunch of new features that better make use of the foldable form factor, including an improved UI for the YouTube app in August, and an intriguing dual-screen interpreter mode for translating between two spoken languages in real-time coming with Android 14, with the external and internal displays showing each translation. And more novel features are expected to come with the quarterly Pixel feature drops.

The elephant in the room is pricing: With an MSRP starting at  $1799, it is really difficult for us to recommend purchasing what essentially is a first-generation product. You would need to be really involved in the Pixel ecosystem to risk buying a device on an untested form factor, with no knowledge of possible bugs and, of course, an app ecosystem that is still in the making. Future discounts may change that, as is always the case with Pixels devices.

That’s it for our hands-on with the Google Pixel Fold. Follow nextpit on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know when the full review goes live later this week with full impressions on performance, battery life, charging, and of course, the camera. If you remember a detail you want us to cover in the full review, be sure to comment.

In the meantime, what is your opinion on Google’s first foldable phone? Did you like the form factor, or prefer the dimensions offered by Oppo or Samsung foldable or flip phones? Share your thoughts in the comments below!