Big Flex

After the strong showing with the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro XL, it’s the turn of the big kahuna for this year’s Pixel lineup – the Pixel 9 Pro Fold – the first showing for a Google foldable in the country. And with it, Google has absolutely cracked the foldable formula with a design choice so deceptively simple, you wonder why no one else has tried it earlier. The rest of the story, well that needs a bit more nuance.

What does the 9 Pro Fold do differently from other foldables before it? The front display on the device is the same as the one on the Pixel 9, not a smidgen more or less. Except for that slightly large bezel on the hinge side, the 9 Pro Fold looks and feels familiar and welcoming to use, just like a normal phone – none of the too slim or on-the-squat-side dimensions of the Samsung or the OnePlus. You can quite simply treat it like a slightly heavier but not much thicker (10.5mm) 6.3-inch phone and never once think about it, until you need that gorgeous 8-inch tablet-esque screen on the inside. Pixel outside, tablet inside. One wishes for more interesting color options – the Pixel 9’s Peony, for instance - but Obsidian and Porcelain will have to do for now. 

That massive inner display (1-120Hz LTPO, 2,700nits brightness) may have a visible crease and a slightly noticeable bezel, the latter a compromise we’ve come to accept from all folding displays for now. Crucially, the square-shaped screen opens up a ton of possibilities, like running two apps side by side or navigating maps and webpages on the expansive display. Editing photos, chatting with Gemini Live, writing out emails all benefit, though the dimensions don’t suit widescreen videos, leaving unsightly big, black bars on the top and bottom. The outer display, though basic in comparison sans LTPO, is equally bright and excels in everyday use. As with all Pixels this year, the focus on AI pervades across the software, in tools like Pixel Studio and the Reimagine tool in Photos, but I wish the foldable had some advanced dual-screen features to really flex that big-screen advantage.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs the same Tensor G4 chipset as the rest of the lineup, which means that while everyday use is perfectly fine, you see the same throttling under intense loads and graphics heavy gaming. And while the AI benefits the proprietary chips bring to the Pixels is well documented, one wishes for true flagship performance that its peers exhibit, more so at its steep price point. I’m more concerned about how well the device will age over the next seven years of Android updates as Google adds increasing machine learning workloads with each passing year. For now, the 16GB of memory should hold it in good stead. Battery life is average – the 4,650mAh is oddly the smallest of this year’s Pixels, and it lasted the whole day if I used the inner display sparingly…which I didn’t since it’s so damn gorgeous! Expect to have to charge the device before bedtime if you do…and that’s where you’ll miss the relatively faster charging speeds of other Android devices. At 21W charging speeds, it takes the nearly two hours to completely charge.

The other notable downside is cameras, with the Fold getting smaller sensor and lower megapixel shooters than the rest of the lineup. That doesn’t mean photos are bad by any measure – images offer good colors and a typical Pixel look that ups the appeal, and Google has traditionally used a lot of computational magic to make up for otherwise mid-range camera hardware. It’s just that the Pixel 9 shoots better photos on average, and the likes of the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro have forever raised the bar for foldable cameras.

As commendable an effort as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is, the device will represent an uphill challenge for Google in the ultra-premium segment. You’ll really have to be all in on Pixels and foldables to drop this much cash on the most easy to handle-and-use book-style foldable.

Rating: 7/10

Price: Rs. 1,72,999 (16GB/256GB)