I examined Google’s $1,800 Pixel 9 Professional Fold for every 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 incorporates a slimmer and taller design, an enormous eight-inch inner show, and a extra succesful Tensor G4 chip.
• Regardless of the worth 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, actually, 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’re going to purchase into its $1,799 grasp plan once more. For me… it virtually succeeds.

View at Greatest Purchase

It is solely been every 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 advocate to fans than its predecessor, with upgrades in arguably each approach, 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 features alone could also be sufficient to entice Pixel Fold customers to make the swap. I actually 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 in the event you want 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 subject 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 a terrific one-handed system, however its skinny design — which supplies me Microsoft Floor Duo vibes — actually 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 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 like 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 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 useless house) on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold’s squarish show is very distinguished. It is more-letterboxing-than-the-actual-video distinguished.

Fortuitously, 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, lowering any visible distraction.

For multitasking, you are restricted to split-screening two apps, with Google nonetheless in opposition to you having three or extra apps open directly — whether or not by means of cut up layouts or floating home windows. This stays the Pixel’s greatest setback in opposition to 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 system.

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 system was constructed for the instances.

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 providers on the massive display screen much more than on its Pixel 9 Professional, for a minimum of three causes, as listed in beneath:

• Pixel Screenshots: Extra pictures 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: Break up-screening with Gemini Dwell or its chatbot app is like operating 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 purposeful even after I held it beneath the summer time solar. The two,700 nits of brightness on this 12 months’s mannequin is a significant win, particularly when in comparison with the Pixel Fold’s mere 1,450 nits, which made textual content illegible outdoor.

I’ve additionally seen the refresh charge 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 means of a Reddit feed filled with movies and pictures. The consumer expertise on the Pixel has been very easy.

In case you have been hoping to expertise the slicing fringe of digicam tech with the $1,800 Pixel 9 Professional Fold, you would be simply as disenchanted 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 right down to 10.5MP (from 11MP) however subject comparable 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 pictures and movies of all of the foldables I’ve examined.

Additionally: The digicam 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 colour replica. See the picture pattern beneath, which compares the output from the 48MP and 50MP extensive 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 an alternative of buffing the {hardware}, Google has added new software program options like Made You Look, Add Me, and Video Enhance to develop 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 virtually works. As a result of the rear cameras on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold aren’t 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 might 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. With the ability to set the cellphone nonetheless would make the framing of the pictures practically an identical. 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 night time sky

Lastly, the 4,650mAh battery on the Pixel 9 Professional Fold has been sufficient to get me by means of a day, with roughly 18% to twenty% left. That is about common by in the present day’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, which means I’ve felt much less of an urge to open up the cellphone and use the extra power-consuming inside show. 

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold has practically the whole lot 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 laborious to not nitpick all of the methods Google may’ve made the cellphone higher. Having the identical (if not comparable) digicam system as the opposite Pixel “Professional” telephones can be a begin. 

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