I examined Google’s $1,800 Pixel 9 Professional Fold for per week, and it wins in three main methods

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold begins at $1,799, with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
• It encompasses a slimmer and taller design, an enormous eight-inch inside show, and a extra succesful Tensor G4 chip.
• Regardless of the value and branding, the digital camera system does not match the opposite Pixel 9 Professional telephones. 

If my week of testing the brand new Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold has taught me something, it is that sequels can, the truth is, be higher than the unique. After a rocky begin with final 12 months’s Pixel Fold, Google has gone again to the drafting board, etched out a brand new foldable that’s extra polished, user-friendly, and feature-packed, and is hoping that you will purchase into its $1,799 grasp plan once more. For me… it virtually succeeds.

View at Greatest Purchase

It is solely been per week, so I am not 100% offered on Google’s foldable cellphone simply but. Nonetheless, after re-using the Pixel Fold in preparation for this evaluation, the Pixel 9 Professional Fold feels a lot simpler to suggest to lovers than its predecessor, with upgrades in arguably each manner, from the slimmer, taller show to the brighter panels to the Tensor G4 chip that powers Google’s different flagship telephones this 12 months.

These three elements alone could also be sufficient to entice Pixel Fold customers to make the change. I definitely would.

Additionally: I changed my Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely with the Pixel 9 Professional XL for 2 weeks – and may’t return

After all, the brand new look will not be everybody’s cup of tea, particularly for those who favor the shorter, boxier design of final 12 months’s model. Google likes to match the Pixel 9 Professional Fold with the Pixel 9 Professional, each of which discipline 6.3-inch Tremendous Actua shows.

When you issue within the former’s aspect hinge, thicker bezels, and folded display, nevertheless, the 2 do not feel as shut because the numbers recommend. I would not name the Pixel 9 Professional Fold an excellent one-handed gadget, however its skinny design — which supplies me Microsoft Floor Duo vibes — definitely helps.

The Pixel 9 Professional Fold’s thinness additionally helps make the eight-inch inside show all of the extra wonderful when unfolded. That is the closest you may ever come to the “pill in your pocket” dream.

I do know we’re speaking decimal factors between the Pixel, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, and the OnePlus Open, however the dimensions of the Google cellphone actually really feel like an Android pill when open, and I find it irresistible for streaming YouTube movies and TV reveals, enjoying video games, and multitasking.

Additionally: Why the $799 Google Pixel 9 is the true star of this 12 months’s Android cellphone lineup

Discover I did not point out “films” in that sequence. That is as a result of the broader, 21:9 side ratio of most movies means the letterboxing (black bars that fill any lifeless area) on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold’s squarish show is very outstanding. It is more-letterboxing-than-the-actual-video outstanding.

Happily, the audio system are loud and clear, and the flexibility to unfold utterly flat means the middle crease is much less noticeable this 12 months, decreasing any visible distraction.

For multitasking, you are restricted to split-screening two apps, with Google nonetheless towards you having three or extra apps open directly — whether or not by way of cut up layouts or floating home windows. This stays the Pixel’s greatest setback towards competing phone-to-tablet foldables, particularly when Samsung and OnePlus are being extra adventurous with their big-screen capabilities. Due to this limitation, the Tensor G4 chip naturally handles probably the most “extraneous” workflows on this gadget.

That is to not say that Google is not making an attempt with the Pixel 9 Professional Fold. The 16GB of RAM, Tensor G4 chip, and breadth of Gemini-powered AI options make it clear that the gadget was constructed for the occasions.

Additionally: Each Google Pixel 9 mannequin in contrast: Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Professional, Pixel 9 XL, and Pixel 9 Professional Fold

In actual fact, I’ve loved utilizing Google’s newest AI companies on the massive display much more than on its Pixel 9 Professional, for not less than three causes, as listed in beneath:

• Pixel Screenshots: Extra images can populate as you sort particular phrases, names, locations, and different queries.
• Reimagine (and different Magic Editor options): The bigger canvas makes it simpler to pinpoint topics to take away, resize, or reimagine.
• Gemini: Break up-screening with Gemini Reside or its chatbot app is like working Copilot on Home windows. Simply this weekend, I discovered the dos and don’ts of refinancing a house mortgage from Gemini whereas texting my lender.

In my testing, the Pixel 9 Professional Fold remained useful even once I held it beneath the summer season solar. The two,700 nits of brightness on this 12 months’s mannequin is a serious win, particularly when in comparison with the Pixel Fold’s mere 1,450 nits, which made textual content illegible outside.

I’ve additionally seen the refresh price remaining principally at 120Hz, with much less throttling than on the usual Pixel 9, at the same time as I am updating a recreation within the background or scrolling by way of a Reddit feed stuffed with movies and pictures. The consumer expertise on the Pixel has been very easy.

When you have been hoping to expertise the reducing fringe of digital camera tech with the $1,800 Pixel 9 Professional Fold, you would be simply as upset as those that hoped for a similar final 12 months. That is as a result of the brand new Google foldable carries practically each sensor from the earlier Pixel Fold, together with the 48MP primary lens and 10MP selfie cameras.

The ultrawide and telephoto lenses are all the way down to 10.5MP (from 11MP) however discipline related apertures and capturing capabilities. The humorous factor is, even with the year-old {hardware}, the Pixel nonetheless shoots probably the most natural-looking, well-contrasted images and movies of all of the foldables I’ve examined.

Additionally: The digital camera accent I like to recommend to most individuals will not be a tripod or microphone

Nonetheless, in comparison with the brand new Pixel 9 Professional collection, the Fold falls flat intimately and coloration copy. See the picture pattern beneath, which compares the output from the 48MP and 50MP broad sensors on the Fold and 9 Professional, respectively. The colours captured by the Fold seem extra washed out (learn: the flower petals are a lighter shade of pink). When zooming in, you may actually see the place particulars get misplaced, like on the flower tag.

As a substitute of buffing the {hardware}, Google has added new software program options like Made You Look, Add Me, and Video Enhance to increase the Pixel 9 Professional Fold digital camera system’s capabilities. Made You Look shows dynamic animations on the outer display to get the eye of your topic — ideally, a toddler or pet — as you seize the photograph.

It virtually works. As a result of the rear cameras on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold will not be immediately above the outer show, topics typically stare extra rightward, showing as in the event that they’re distracted by a passerby.

I additionally want you may use Add Me, which stitches two photos captured by two totally different folks to incorporate everybody in the identical photograph, whereas the Pixel 9 Professional Fold is in Tabletop Mode. With the ability to set the cellphone nonetheless would make the framing of the images practically equivalent. You would not want an AR overlay to information the framing, considerably decreasing consumer error. As a substitute, the characteristic now requires that you simply click on twice and hope that the AI will piece everybody collectively.

Additionally: Why Pixel cellphone’s enhanced Astrophotography mode is ideal for snapping the evening sky

Lastly, the 4,650mAh battery on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold has been sufficient to get me by way of a day, with roughly 18% to twenty% left. That is about common by at present’s flagship cellphone requirements however significantly better than final 12 months’s Pixel Fold, which I discovered myself recharging earlier than nighttime. It helps that the outer show feels extra like a standard smartphone’s, that means I’ve felt much less of an urge to open up the cellphone and use the extra power-consuming internal show. 

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold has practically every thing a Pixel consumer may need in a foldable, from the simplistic consumer expertise to the dependable digital camera system to the seven years of software program help. I am a fan of the brand new, slimmer, and lighter design, which earns the title of being the thinnest foldable within the US.

Underneath a $1,800 magnifying glass, nevertheless, it is laborious to not nitpick all of the methods Google may’ve made the cellphone higher. Having the identical (if not related) digital camera system as the opposite Pixel “Professional” telephones can be a begin. 

For the very best deal on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, I might think about Amazon or Greatest Purchase, each of which give you a $350 reward card along with your buy.