I tested Google’s $1,800 Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold for per week, and it wins in three necessary strategies

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Google Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold begins at $1,799, with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
• It encompasses a slimmer and taller originate, a big eight-dawdle interior screen, and a extra capable Tensor G4 chip.
• No topic the value and branding, the digital camera system doesn’t match the quite plenty of Pixel 9 Legitimate telephones. 

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If my week of attempting out the brand new Google Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold has taught me something, it’s that sequels can, of course, be better than the authentic. After a rocky delivery with final year’s Pixel Fold, Google has long gone abet to the drawing board, etched out a brand new foldable that’s extra polished, user-pleasant, and characteristic-packed, and is hoping that you will buy into its $1,799 master concept again. For me… it nearly succeeds.

Ogle at Excellent Purchase

Or no longer it’s totally been per week, so I’m no longer 100% sold on Google’s foldable cell phone sparkling but. Restful, after re-the usage of the Pixel Fold in preparation for this overview, the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold feels essential more uncomplicated to indicate to enthusiasts than its predecessor, with upgrades in arguably every blueprint, from the slimmer, taller screen to the brighter panels to the Tensor G4 chip that powers Google’s assorted flagship telephones this year.

These three parts alone will seemingly be ample to entice Pixel Fold customers to make a decision on up the switch. I unquestionably would.

Also: I modified my Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely with the Pixel 9 Legitimate XL for two weeks – and can no longer return

Pointless to claim, the brand new note received’t be every person’s cup of tea, especially must you desire the shorter, boxier originate of final year’s model. Google likes to examine the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold with the Pixel 9 Legitimate, both of which enviornment 6.3-dawdle Noteworthy Actua displays.

Whenever you protest within the ancient’s aspect hinge, thicker bezels, and folded screen, nonetheless, the two don’t truly feel as shut as the numbers indicate. I wouldn’t call the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold a ample one-handed application, nonetheless its skinny originate — which affords me Microsoft Surface Duo vibes — unquestionably helps.

The Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold’s thinness additionally helps choose up the eight-dawdle interior screen the full extra honest when unfolded. That is the closest you will ever reach to the “capsule to your pocket” dream.

I know we’re talking decimal aspects between the Pixel, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, and the OnePlus Open, nonetheless the scale of the Google cell phone in actuality truly feel like an Android capsule when delivery, and I cherish it for streaming YouTube videos and TV reveals, playing video games, and multitasking.

Also: Why the $799 Google Pixel 9 is the right star of this year’s Android cell phone lineup

Sight I didn’t mention “movies” in that sequence. That’s for the explanation that wider, 21:9 aspect ratio of most motion photos blueprint the letterboxing (gloomy bars that hang any ineffective enviornment) on the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold’s squarish screen is very prominent. Or no longer it’s extra-letterboxing-than-the-right-video prominent.

Fortunately, the speakers are loud and seemingly, and the flexibility to unfold entirely flat blueprint the heart crease is less noticeable this year, lowering any visible distraction.

For multitasking, that you can perhaps presumably presumably also presumably be restricted to split-screening two apps, with Google serene against you having three or extra apps delivery as we direct — whether or no longer through split layouts or floating windows. This remains the Pixel’s finest setback against competing cell phone-to-capsule foldables, especially when Samsung and OnePlus are being extra adventurous with their expansive-screen capabilities. Which skill that limitation, the Tensor G4 chip naturally handles the most “extraneous” workflows on this application.

That’s no longer to inform that Google is no longer at all times truly attempting with the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold. The 16GB of RAM, Tensor G4 chip, and breadth of Gemini-powered AI gains choose up it certain that the application used to be constructed for the times.

Also: Each and each Google Pixel 9 model when put next: Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Legitimate, Pixel 9 XL, and Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold

Genuinely, I’ve loved the usage of Google’s most trendy AI products and services on the expansive screen essential extra than on its Pixel 9 Legitimate, for no longer decrease than three reasons, as listed in under:

• Pixel Screenshots: Extra photos can populate as you variety particular phrases, names, locations, and various queries.
• Reimagine (and various Magic Editor gains): The greater canvas makes it more uncomplicated to pinpoint matters to eliminate, resize, or reimagine.
• Gemini: Split-screening with Gemini Live or its chatbot app is like running Copilot on House windows. Wonderful this weekend, I learned the dos and don’ts of refinancing a dwelling mortgage from Gemini whereas texting my lender.

In my attempting out, the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold remained handy even when I held it below the summer solar. The 2,700 nits of brightness on this year’s model is a vital safe, especially when when put next to the Pixel Fold’s mere 1,450 nits, which made textual thunder material illegible outdoor.

I’ve additionally observed the refresh payment closing largely at 120Hz, with less throttling than on the fashioned Pixel 9, even as I’m updating a sport within the background or scrolling through a Reddit feed tubby of videos and images. The user skills on the Pixel has been very relaxed.

At the same time as you had been hoping to skills the cutting fringe of digital camera tech with the $1,800 Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold, you’ll seemingly be sparkling as dissatisfied as those that hoped for the same final year. That’s for the explanation that new Google foldable carries nearly about every sensor from the earlier Pixel Fold, at the side of the 48MP main lens and 10MP selfie cameras.

The ultrawide and telephoto lenses are all of the manner down to 10.5MP (from 11MP) nonetheless enviornment identical apertures and capturing capabilities. The silly thing is, even with the year-frail hardware, the Pixel serene shoots the most pure-taking a witness, effectively-contrasted photos and videos of the full foldables I’ve tested.

Also: The digital camera accessory I indicate to most of us is no longer a tripod or microphone

Restful, when put next to the brand new Pixel 9 Legitimate series, the Fold falls flat intimately and coloration copy. Peep the checklist pattern under, which compares the output from the 48MP and 50MP extensive sensors on the Fold and 9 Legitimate, respectively. The colours captured by the Fold appear extra washed out (be taught: the flower petals are a lighter color of crimson). When zooming in, that you can perhaps presumably presumably truly search for the put info choose up misplaced, like on the flower sign.

Moderately than buffing the hardware, Google has added new application gains like Made You Glimpse, Add Me, and Video Boost to develop the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold digital camera system’s capabilities. Made You Glimpse displays dynamic animations on the outer screen to make a decision on up the distinction of your enviornment — ideally, a child or pet — as you snatch the checklist.

It nearly works. Since the rear cameras on the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold are circuitously above the outer screen, matters in general ogle extra rightward, performing as within the occasion that they’re distracted by a passerby.

I additionally need that you can perhaps presumably presumably also use Add Me, which stitches two images captured by two assorted of us to consist of every person within the same checklist, whereas the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold is in Tabletop Mode. Having the flexibility to location the cell phone serene would choose up the framing of the photos nearly about identical. You would possibly no longer need an AR overlay to manual the framing, vastly lowering user error. As another, the characteristic now requires that you click twice and hope that the AI will share every person together.

Also: Why Pixel cell phone’s enhanced Astrophotography mode is extra healthy for snapping the evening sky

Lastly, the 4,650mAh battery on the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold has been ample to make a decision on up me through a day, with roughly 18% to twenty% left. That’s about common by on the present time’s flagship cell phone requirements nonetheless essential better than final year’s Pixel Fold, which I chanced on myself recharging sooner than lifeless evening. It helps that the outer screen feels extra like a frail smartphone’s, which blueprint I’ve felt less of an urge to delivery up the cell phone and use the extra energy-ingesting interior screen. 

ZDNET’s shopping advice

The Google Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold has nearly about every little thing a Pixel user also can need in a foldable, from the simplistic user skills to the first payment digital camera system to the seven years of application give a enhance to. I’m partial to the brand new, slimmer, and lighter originate, which earns the title of being the thinnest foldable within the US.

Beneath a $1,800 magnifying glass, nonetheless, it’s laborious no longer to nitpick the full strategies Google also can’ve made the cell phone better. Having the same (if no longer identical) digital camera system as the quite plenty of Pixel “Legitimate” telephones could perhaps presumably be a delivery. 

For the totally deal on the Pixel 9 Legitimate Fold, I’d judge Amazon or Excellent Purchase, both of which provide you a $350 reward card along with your non-public.