I changed my Pixel 9 Professional with Google’s $1,800 foldable for every week – and might’t return

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold begins at $1,799, with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
• It incorporates a slimmer and taller design, an enormous eight-inch inner show, and a extra succesful Tensor G4 chip.
• Regardless of the value and branding, the digicam system would 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, in truth, be higher than the unique. After a rocky begin with final yr’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’re going to purchase into its $1,799 grasp plan once more. For me… it nearly succeeds.

View at Finest Purchase

It is solely been every week, so I am not 100% bought 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 advocate to fanatics 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 yr.

These three facets 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 might’t return

In fact, the brand new look will not be everybody’s cup of tea, particularly for those who desire the shorter, boxier design of final yr’s model. Google likes to check 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 screen, nonetheless, the 2 do not feel as shut because the numbers recommend. I would not name the Pixel 9 Professional Fold an awesome one-handed machine, 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 inner show all of the extra wonderful when unfolded. That is the closest you will 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 adore it for streaming YouTube movies and TV exhibits, enjoying video games, and multitasking.

Additionally: Why the $799 Google Pixel 9 is the actual star of this yr’s Android cellphone lineup

Discover I did not point out “motion pictures” 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 house) on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold’s squarish show is very outstanding. It is more-letterboxing-than-the-actual-video outstanding.

Fortuitously, the audio system are loud and clear, and the power to unfold utterly flat means the middle crease is much less noticeable this yr, lowering 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 via break up layouts or floating home windows. This stays the Pixel’s largest 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 machine.

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 machine 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 truth, I’ve loved utilizing Google’s newest AI companies on the massive display screen much more than on its Pixel 9 Professional, for no less than three causes, as listed in beneath:

• Pixel Screenshots: Extra images can populate as you kind 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: Cut up-screening with Gemini Reside or its chatbot app is like operating Copilot on Home windows. Simply this weekend, I realized 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 yr’s mannequin is a significant win, particularly when in comparison with the Pixel Fold’s mere 1,450 nits, which made textual content illegible outside.

I’ve additionally observed the refresh fee remaining largely at 120Hz, with much less throttling than on the usual Pixel 9, whilst I am updating a sport within the background or scrolling via a Reddit feed filled with movies and pictures. The consumer expertise on the Pixel has been very easy.

If you happen to have been hoping to expertise the reducing fringe of digicam tech with the $1,800 Pixel 9 Professional Fold, you would be simply as upset as those that hoped for a similar final yr. That is as a result of the brand new Google foldable carries almost each sensor from the earlier Pixel Fold, together with the 48MP essential 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 digicam accent I like to recommend to most individuals is just not 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 large 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 possibly can actually see the place particulars get misplaced, like on the flower tag.

As an alternative 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 digicam system’s capabilities. Made You Look shows dynamic animations on the outer display screen to get the eye of your topic — ideally, a toddler or pet — as you seize the picture.

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

I additionally want you could possibly use Add Me, which stitches two photographs captured by two completely different individuals to incorporate everybody in the identical picture, whereas the Pixel 9 Professional Fold is in Tabletop Mode. Having the ability to set the cellphone nonetheless would make the framing of the images almost similar. You would not want an AR overlay to information the framing, considerably lowering consumer error. As an alternative, 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 via a day, with roughly 18% to twenty% left. That is about common by at the moment’s flagship cellphone requirements however a lot better than final yr’s Pixel Fold, which I discovered myself recharging earlier than nighttime. It helps that the outer show feels extra like a conventional 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 almost every little thing a Pixel consumer may need in a foldable, from the simplistic consumer expertise to the dependable digicam 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.

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

For the perfect deal on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold, I would contemplate Amazon or Finest Purchase, each of which give you a $350 reward card along with your buy.