With the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Google has not only released its second foldable smartphone, it has released a foldable that feels closer to a regular smartphone than any that have come before. I’ve spent the last month with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to find out how close it really is and if this is a foldable ready for prime time.
If all I’m reviewing is the hardware, then Google has hit it out of the park with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. With “one simple trick”, the second foldable in the Pixel line-up moves the form factor out of the unique experience and into the practical. The software is catching up, and the package can be recommended, albeit with a few caveats.
Those caveats are the price and the software. I‘ll return to the latter, but the former will be the biggest issue for those considering the foldable.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has two specifications: the 256 GB model at $1,799 and the 512 GB version at $1,919. This is right at the top of the flagship price bracket and pushes the 9 Pro Fold well past the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Folding smartphones are bleeding edge technology. As they rely on expensive components and offer smaller production runs, there’s much less economy of scale to leverage. If you’re going to join in the revolution, you’ll need to pay for the privilege.
That one simple trick I alluded to is aligning the folding smartphone with a regular smartphone. In this case, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is clearly connected to the Pixel 9 in terms of size and use.
The outer screen of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes in at 6.3 inches, with a resolution of 1280 x 2856 pixels, giving it a 20:9 aspect ratio. That’s the same as the Pixel 9 (although the 9 Pro Fold has more curved corners at the edge of the display). Unlike other foldable phones, when the handset is closed, and you are using the outside screen, there’s no visual clue to this being a foldable phone.
For all intents and purposes, the folded Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the Pixel 9. The screen size doesn’t have a tweaked aspect ratio, the bezels are not obtrusive, and it’s comfortable to hold, although there’s an extra bit of bulk on the hinge side. Yes, it’s a bit heavier, smaller and bulkier than the current flagships and premium devices, but it’s “just a phone.”
Then it unfolds. And that simple trick of “make it the Pixel 9” takes an interesting twist because the unfolded screen is the equivalent of two Pixel 9 screens sitting next to each other. It’s not pixel-perfect; it’s principle-perfect. I’ve seen split-screen interfaces before in several smartphones and tablets but much like the comfortable aspect ratio on the outside of the 9 Pro Fold, it offers a comfortable feeling by split-screening the equivalent of two phones side by side.
The interface does allow you to move the central bar between the two apps, so you can move one over to a more ribbon-like view alongside an expanded screen for the main app, but this is the only choice you can make. Other foldables allow a floating window over your apps rather than a split screen option. From a UI perspective, I’d like to see the owner given the choice of split or floating to use multitasking.
With all that said, the 9 Pro Fold is built around the expansive unfolded display, offering the tablet experience in a smartphone when running a single app. For me, this is the weakest part of the Fold, and it comes down to Android applications not considering the impact of a tablet-styled screen.
For many information-based apps, the UI places each entry (be it an email, a calendar appointment, a directory listing, or whatever else) in a scrolling strip of content on the left side of the screen. Select one and it opens up to reveal the contents in a larger window. On a tall and narrow smartphone, the listing takes up the whole screen, and tapping through opens up the contents full screen. On a tablet, there is room to show both the listing and the content together.
But if the app isn’t ready for it, or it’s looking for a wider screen than the one offered, you get the awkward situation where the listing spans the entire display, and opening up to the content also stretches across the screen.
It’s down to the app. Developers are taking into consideration screen size to lay out UI elements but are not always choosing to program a view for tablets or large-screened devices such as foldables. Some developers have got this nailed, and those are some of the best apps to run in a foldable.
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s Android apps, especially Outlook, handle the unfolded screen comfortably. It is, after all, the exact same methodology as we saw in the Microsoft Surface Duo. While there was a solid bar between the two screens of the Duo, compared to the crease in the folded single screen here, Microsoft’s device would run one app over the two screens and offer both a ribbon on the left and a main content screen on the right.
Compare that to Gmail on the 9 Pro Fold, which shows a single ribbon stretched over the entire device’s width. While not unusable, it’s not comfortable.
There is an answer to this issue; head into an application’s information screen, where you can force an aspect ratio on the app if it is opened solo on the internal screen. You can set this to full screen, 3:2 radio, or half the screen. The latter essentially forces an app to display the screen as if it was on the Pixel 9 Pro, giving you maximum compatibility but with the loss of the wider screen.
The 3:2 ratio is the compromise. It offers a wider view of an app, but not so wide that the vertical ribbon interfaces feel awkward and ungainly. At the app level, this works for me—I can get a wider view, which is more comfortable when reading lots of text and not so awkward with a big list. But this is a foldable, and an expensive one at that. Google’s apps should be best in class for this device, yet there are moments when I wonder if everyone is on the same page.
The settings app happily splits the list of categories on the left side and their content on the right; the solution that I would expect to see across the apps, perhaps with an option to minimise the left side for a full-screen reading experience where appropriate. Gmail offers just the very wide reading experience for both views. Then you have the contacts app, which is maddening; you have a left and right split with the left side your names and the right side the details of a single entry… but the split between the left and right views does not align with the fold in the centre of the screen.
Some of Google’s apps present themselves in a way that feels right. The Calendar app does start with the full-width view, which is awkward on a day view but works wonderfully with the week and month view. Tap on an entry, though, and you get a perfect split, with the entry opening on the left-hand side and the day/week/month view compressed on the right—although I am going to point out that every other UI places the individual entry details on the right of the screen while the Calendar app goes for the left
Third-party apps are vital to any smartphone or tablet. With the Pixel 9 Pro Fold offering a standard smartphone look, a side-by-side smartphone multi-tasking environment, and a tablet experience, it has to get all three right to make a seamless experience for the consumer. The first two have been achieved, the third falls short.
Google needs to keep encouraging the ecosystem to address the third form. Working to bring app support to large-screened Android devices—which includes tablets and foldables from every Android manufacturer, not just the Pixel line—requires ongoing evangelism. That Google has continued with a foldable device is a visible part of that, but the momentum needs to remain and the drive behind the scenes to developers must continue.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is both wonderful and maddening in the same breath. Google has solved the cover screen issue and offers an authentic smartphone experience when the Fold is folded. The approach to multi-tasking, essentially offering two phones on the inside, is a practical way of achieving multitasking on what is a small and square tablet.
Yet the software experience for a full-screen app on the unfolded screen is hit and miss. Putting aside the perhaps expected mix of approaches by third-party apps, Google’s own app suite cannot agree on a single user experience when the apps fill the screen. Some awkwardly take up the full width, some have the classic split of a list and an entry, but apps can’t agree which side should be the list and which the entry, and others can’t decide if the information should be packed close to the edges or be surrounded by large pastel borders.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the first foldable that could belong in the workhorse category and be used as a primary smartphone by your average consumer. However, that very high price tag is going to keep the Fold as a specialist device rather than one for the mass market.
Now read my interview with Google’s product team on the decisions that shaped the second foldable Pixel smartphone…
