Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold hands-on review: Biggest display ever in a phone

Talk about going back to the drawing board. The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is radically different than the original Pixel Fold . In fact, it's the biggest evolution I've seen in years from one phone model to the sequel — and these are very impressive changes.

Here's a quick cheat sheet:

• The main display is now 8 inches up from 7.6 inches, making this the biggest screen on a foldable — and it's 80% brighter
• The 6.3-inch cover screen is still plenty wide but with a narrower aspect ratio to easily slip into a pocket.
• At 0.2 inches thick open and 0.4 inches closed, this is one of the thinnest foldables on Earth.
• Weighing a little bit more than 9 ounces, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is refreshingly lighter
• The AI features are actually more impressive than gimmicky with quick results, thanks to the Tensor G4 chip

It's almost like Google read all the reviews and comments about the first Pixel Fold and came up with a checklist of things to improve. And then they executed.

Google didn't radically change the cameras on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but you do get an improved ultrawide camera with dedicated macro mode now, and Google promises better panoramic photos that are easier to take and look way better in low light.

So did Google do enough to make our best foldable phone list? We'll have to do our full testing first, but based on my initial impressions this device certainly has what it takes to challenge the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and OnePlus Open .

Here's what I think about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold so far.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Specs

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Price and release date

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a release date of September 4, and you can pre-order right now. The starting price is $1,799 for 256GB of storage but you can upgrade to 512GB.

While that's a pricey phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 starts at $1,899 so it's $100 more expensive than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The OnePlus Open is $1,699 but can be found on sale for as low as $1,399.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Design

Holy cow! That what I said to myself when I first put my hands on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It has a very different look and feel than the original Pixel Fold. The front display is narrower and the main display is taller, which means that you get a more compact device when closed and a mammoth 8-inch display when open that's bigger than most other foldables.

Just as important, the main display loses the unsightly big bezels and has the equivalent of two 20:9 screens side by side. The result is that popular apps should fit on the screen normally, which was a big problem with the original Fold.

There’s some other things I really like about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold design. The first is that the display actually folds flat this time around. And when open, this is the thinnest foldable on the planet at just 0.2 inches unfolded and 0.4 inches folded.

The Pixel 9 Pro is also lighter at 9.1 ounces. That’s way less than the first Fold’s 10 ounces but heavier than the Z Fold 6 (8.4 ounces) and OnePlus Open (8.43 ounces). There's also a new stainless steel hinge with aluminum alloy cover that’s designed to be more durable.

You get IPX8 water resistance but like other foldables no dust resistance.

The only nitpick I have with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold design is that the camera block is fairly large and dominates the left side of the phone. It doesn't have a sleeker camera bar like the other Pixel 9 Pro models .

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Displays

The 8-inch OLED display on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold dwarfs that of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and OnePlus Open (7.6 inches for Samsung's phone and 7.82 for the OnePlus device) and yet it doesn't feel unwieldy in the hand.

Another plus is that Google boosted the brightness of the main display 80% so it now has a peak brightness rating of 2,700 nits. This should make the screen easier to see in direct sunlight and was one of our biggest complaints with the original Pixel Fold.

I watched the trailer for Captain America: Brave New World on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and it looked pretty vibrant. I also appreciated that the crease across the main display isn't as prominent this time around.

The front 6.3-inch OLED cover display is narrower but overall bigger from corner to corner than the 5.8-inch cover screen on the Pixel Fold. I prefer this design because the original Fold was a bit too wide up front.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Cameras

Don’t expect big camera hardware upgrades, as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold sports a very similar 48MP main camera, 10.5MP ultra wide camera and 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom and 20x digital zoom.

But the ultrawide camera is improved, as you now get a macro mode that kicks in when you get close to a subject. I got a great looking close up of a flower with sharp edges.

Google has also improved the panorama mode, making it more intuitive to line up your shots with an easy-to-follow guide as you pan around. I got a striking photo of the Hudson River waterfront. Google also promises much better looking panoramic shots in low light that I look forward to testing.

The front camera on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold 10MP and the inner camera is now 10MP up from 8MP. And to help make snapping photos of kids a bit less stressful there’s a Made You Look feature that displays fun animations on the front of the screen. This is easy to activate and there's several options to choose from.

When it comes to video, Google promises that Night Sight video will help capture footage in dim conditions, with AI helping to reduce noise in your footage.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: AI Features

Now that every phone has AI features built in, there's an arms race of sorts to see how many you can stuff in a handset. Google really started the trend, and it fortunately seems to be focusing more on quality than quantity. The Tensor G4 chip along with a whopping 16GB of RAM makes that possible.

For example, there's a clever Add Me feature for taking group portraits in the camera. You take a photo as you normally would but then you can add someone else to the shot (say the original photographer) using an augmented reality overlay.

You just line the person up, take the second pic and — voila — the Pixel 9 Pro Fold stitches it altogether. The result was a group shot that was surprisingly convincing, with a good level of detail and depth.

Another clever AI photo feature is Reimagine, which users generative AI to tweak your photos on the fly using text prompts. For example, I tapped on the ocean in a shot of a biker and then typed in "make the waves bigger" and after several seconds I could choose from multiple options.

Or maybe you want to create entire images from scratch. That's where the Pixel Studio app comes in. Just type what you want to see — like cats shooting lasers out of their eyes — and you'll get a result quickly. Just keep in mind that Google is purposely excluding people for now.

I tried a couple of other AI features on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Pixel Screenshots lets you search your screenshots using natural language so you can find what you're looking for easily. You can also perform various actions from a screenshot, such as taking that poster of a concert and adding the date instantly as an entry in Google calendar. Pretty clever.

And I got a quick demo of the new Google Gemini Live, which lets you choose form several voices and lets you have life-like conversations on a wide range of topics. It's like Siri, but smarter and more human.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Battery and charging

There's one thing that worries me about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and that's the battery life. This foldable packs a 4,560 mAh battery, compared to 4,821 mAh battery for the previous Fold. I’m really hoping the new Tensor G4 chip is more efficient.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold supports a 45W charger but Google doesn't make any claims about charing time. That's where our testing will come in.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Outlook

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a mouthful when it comes to saying the name, but it mostly lives up to it given all the changes Google has made to this foldable phone. You get a huge main display in a super thin design that's easier to carry, a powerful Tensor G4 chip and impressive AI features that make Apple Intelligence look quaint.

I also appreciate the redesigned aspect ratio for the displays and the modest camera upgrades. And that brings me to my biggest complaint. While the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is no slouch in terms of camera specs, it trails the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL with their more powerful 48MP ultra-wide and telephoto lenses vs 10MP for the Fold. The Pixel 9 Pro and XL have longer 30x digital zooms, too.

Nevertheless, I'm excited with everything Google has brought to the table with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It's not only the most improved foldable, it could be the new foldable phone to beat.