Pixel Fold: Google enters the foldable market with a premium device

Photo: Google

Google's attempt at a foldable smartphone is now official. The Google Pixel Fold will set you back a pretty premium USD 1,799 price (around CAD 2,447). It's not showing up on the Google Canada page yet, but it's available for pre-order in the US, with availability sometime in June.

What has Google included in the Pixel Fold? It sports a wide 5.8-inch exterior screen that lets you do more without opening the device. The screen has a 17.4:9 aspect ratio, which is different from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4’s narrow cover screen. The Pixel Fold also promises a more comfortable feel in your hand, thanks to its slim and light design. It weighs 10 ounces or 283 grams, but it is less than 6mm thick when open. The Z Fold4 is almost 16mm thick when closed, while the Pixel Fold is just around 12mm thick. Google says it has the most durable hinge on any foldable phone, which minimizes the gap between the two halves when closed. It can supposedly handle up to 200,000 opens and closes.

The main attraction of the Pixel Fold is its large 7.6-inch OLED inner display. It has a resolution of 2,208 x 1,840 and vibrant colours. You can still see the crease on the screen, and it's visible even through the videos of the device online. The Pixel Fold has bigger bezels and a wider landscape orientation than the Galaxy Z Fold4, which makes it better for watching videos. It also has a regular 8.3-megapixel camera on the top right corner, instead of an under-display sensor like Samsung’s device.

Photo: Google

The outer screen also gets an 8.3-megapixel selfie camera to add to the three on the back. Those include a 48-megapixel optically-stabilized main camera, a 10.8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10.8-megapixel 5x telephoto. And as with other foldables that came before it, you can use the outer screen as a viewfinder to take high-quality selfies or group shots with those rear cameras.

The Pixel Fold’s software and multitasking features seem impressive but also imperfect. The device feels fast and smooth when switching between the front and the interior screen. Google has added some nice touches, such as the animated wallpaper that matches the screen position and the hidden taskbar that you can swipe up to access. Google didn't include pen support though, which is a waste of its large display. It doesn't support external displays, but we hope this is something Google can remedy.

It supports over 50 first-party apps that are optimized for large screens. For example, YouTube has a special UI that changes when the phone is folded. This shows Google’s commitment to developing adaptive UIs for foldable devices. Google also demonstrated a new Interpreter mode that uses both screens and speech recognition to translate two languages in real time.

Photo: Google

The Pixel Fold has premium specs as expected. It runs on the Google-made Tensor G2 chip, 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and offers 120Hz refresh rates on both screens. It is launching with Android 13. But when it gets updated to Android 14 later this year, you can expect more features utilizing its unique hardware. Google is promising five years of software and security updates.

This foldable has a fingerprint sensor on the power button, wireless charging, and IPX8 water resistance, which is rare for its segment. (But proceed with caution if you think of bringing it to a beach.) Wireless and wired charging are at 30 watts, but there's no charger in the box. Google promises "beyond 24 hours" use out of its 4,800mAh battery system. But that's something you can only tell in real-life tests.

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