Google Pixel Fold Review: Maybe Next Year!

Pixel Fold is pretty sweet and I'm loving it. But it's also $1800 and has a real set of flaws.

Phone provided by Google for review.

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[terribletimes]

Google’s phones have never been about the best hardware, but for $1800 this one needs to be

[Kevin_elie]

You gotta give it to Samsung for taking the risk and start the production of folding phones early when there wasn't more advanced technology at the time. They made a good progress overtime and they are making good foldables on the smartphone market right now.

[dannyadams]

4 hours of battery life is an instant pass from me but I’m excited to see where the foldable market goes in the next year or two

[bwamo]

The bezels surprisingly don't annoy me as much as I thought they would, they remind me of the bezels of a regular tablet which actually makes perfect sense for a phone that unfolds to be a tablet-sized device.

[Ronnet]

Looks like Google took inspiration from the MS Duo not only in terms of design but in terms of how the home screen works as well. A shame they didn't incorporate the Duo's superior multitasking feature. If you set-up the homescreen in this way then Duo style multitasking is possible as well.

[elwd]

In a way this really gets me excited for the next generation of Pixel Fold but also for foldables in general. It feels like aside from Samsung and maybe Motorola, there's no "real" competition in the foldables space which means that these phones aren't improving as quickly as one might hope.
I'm not (yet) interested in owning a foldable, mostly because to me they still look quirky compared to their relatively gorgeous counterparts, but this feels like a step in the right direction of maybe one day going for that foldable format.

[er]

I am getting this phone next week based on your review from this and your month-long review ....I just love your reviews. Please keep up the good work.

[viruscat]

My only complain and hold-back about the Pixel Fold is the lack of stylus support. A passport formfactor like this would've been perfect to use a stylus on for making art or creating notes.

Other than that it's a great first gen product and i can't wait to see how the second gen will be like

[ruslanmalakhovskiy]

I really like the formfactor of pixel fold when it's closed. Google should just make a phone of this size and call it a Pixel mini or something like that.

[petertainer]

Xiaomi and Vivo do something similar with the homescreen. The outer display on the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 and Vivo X Fold series act as sort of windows, a peak into the larger inner display. I personally don't mind that, on all the Z Fold's I set up both displays identically but I do agree there should be an option to treat the outer and inner displays as different homescreens.

[davea]

You are simply the best. Have been watching you since videos from your bedroom! Really appreciate your thoughts and beautiful visors.

[MacRay]

Despite the "weirdness", I'm actually really impressed with how much you like it for a first gen device. Sounds promising for the future, even if it's not a device for me.

[kisarunihofmannndosi]

This is the kind of in depth review that I love! Great video! I want this phone but I don't want it strong enough to pay 1800$

[zachlamoreaux]

As a Z Fold 3 daily driver, my main concern about upgrading to a Pixel Fold is when you open the Pixel, the inner screen is a landscape display. I think this is causing some apps not to display across the whole display for example twitter spans the whole display on my Z fold and is a great experience.

[Leptokarya]

I’m sorry if I missed that but there’s one more thing that probably needs to be fixed, it’s the fact that the bezels are not even slightly raised like on other foldables, so when it’s closed if anything gets at very small but still present gap between the screen protector and bezel could potentially damage the screen.

[ItsMeStefC]

I wouldn't want to sacrifice a good inside camera and thinness in order to have smaller bezels. I feel like that would just increase accidental touches, the bezels can be smaller though. Also I would like to see the practical downside to losing 2 degrees of rotation on the hinge, especially with a camera bump already present on the back. What is that extra two degrees going to change for it to be a main point of improvement? I think the app ecosystem should be the largest focus for Google. For many of these apps the PWA versions scale properly anyways, but most users won't ever figure that out unless PWAs become more visible to end user somehow.

[The_BigB]

Im sure im not the only one with this like warm take, But I do not mind bezels, and if i dare to say, that I prefer bezels on my devices. Extra protections, preventing accidental touches, something to grip onto, better phone cases and screen protector design. Like I miss me led notification light so bad it's not even funny

[debopoporhypersaiyanidc]

The Pixel Fold costs $1800, and has a four hour battery life. That is unacceptable.

[clivesinclair]

Looking forward to comparisons to the upcoming ZFold 5. Samsung may have made a good decision on the launch date.

[loricat]

It'd make a big difference to be able to have a different set of home screens for the inside an outside; that's very important to me. The only reason I'd get a foldable phone would be to have a phone-and-tablet-in-one, and such a feature is integral to this.