The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: A Powerful Foldable with Flawed Features
The arrival of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold marks a significant moment in the foldable phone market. As Google’s first foray into this burgeoning space, it’s naturally drawing comparisons to the reigning champion, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. While the Pixel 9 Pro Fold boasts impressive specs and a compelling design, it falls short in some crucial areas, leaving users with a sense of unfulfilled potential.
A Superior Screen But Missing Features:
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold boasts a 7.9-inch inner display, offering a truly immersive experience for reading, web browsing, and multi-tasking. The vibrant OLED panel delivers remarkable color accuracy and deep blacks, elevating the viewing experience. However, the exterior screen, the one you’ll interact with most often, lacks LTPO technology, a feature found on the standard Pixel 9 Pro. This technology enables dynamic refresh rates, smoothly adjusting between 1Hz and 120Hz for optimal battery life and responsiveness. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s exterior screen only supports 60Hz to 120Hz refresh rates, a surprising omission for a device at this price point.
Lost Features and Disappointing Charging:
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also lacks some standard features found on other Pixel devices. Battery Share, which allows you to wirelessly charge compatible devices, is absent. Notably, while the phone supports wireless charging, it’s incompatible with Google’s own Pixel Stand Gen 2 due to misaligned coils. This is a baffling design oversight, particularly since the Pixel Stand is still being sold on Google’s website. While it might charge wirelessly on other charging pads, the orientation limitations are a major inconvenience.
Camera Performance: A Mixed Bag:
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s camera system is broadly similar to the standard Pixel 9 Pro, but differences exist. While the overall quality is admirable, users have reported that the ultrawide and telephoto cameras struggle to capture sharp images in low-light environments, a weakness compared to its cheaper sibling. Additionally, the selfie camera lacks autofocus, a feature expected on a phone of this caliber. While users can take selfies with the main cameras, unfolding the device every time to take a quick snapshot is cumbersome.
A Solid Foldable with Room for Improvement:
“The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a solid foldable," Wired reviewer Julian Chokkattu states, "but Google needs to work on its feature parity so that you don’t feel like you’re missing out on the latest and greatest when you have the company’s most expensive piece of hardware in your hands."
The omissions and inconsistencies feel like a missed opportunity. While the Pixel 9 Pro Fold excels in areas like screen quality and overall performance, its shortcomings in feature parity and usability leave a bitter aftertaste. The lack of LTPO technology, Battery Share, and compatibility with the Pixel Stand, coupled with the selfie camera’s lack of autofocus and the camera’s underwhelming low-light performance, create a jarring dissonance between the phone’s premium pricing and its actual feature set.
The Road Ahead:
Google has undeniably entered the foldable phone market with a competitive contender. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold possesses the potential to be a truly groundbreaking phone, but it needs significant refinement. Addressing the limitations in its feature set, particularly regarding charging and camera capabilities, is crucial to truly solidify its position in the market. Google must ensure that its flagship foldable offering provides a truly unified experience, devoid of the niggling limitations that make it feel like a compromised device despite its impressive core capabilities.
The future of the foldable phone market hinges on innovation and user experience. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has shown Google’s intent to play a leading role in this evolution, but only time will tell if they can refine their offering to compete with the likes of Samsung. As the market matures, the focus will shift towards creating feature-rich foldables that provide a seamless and seamless user experience, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold needs to rise to the challenge.
