Among the four phones in Google's Pixel 9 family, it's clearly the Pixel 9 Pro Fold that stands out. It's Google's second phone with a foldable screen and the first to be sold in Sweden. The format, with a reasonably normal-sized phone that unfolds into a small and thin tablet, is reminiscent of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series.
The construction itself is impressive. The phone is so thin when unfolded that it doesn't feel particularly thick when folded, and the two halves close tightly without any gap. The hinge feels reliable, but as is usual with this type of phone, it's quite stiff. With Google's odd placement of the volume button below the power button, it's hard to find a good grip to open the phone without hitting any button.
Google themselves point out that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is not much thicker or heavier than the Pixel 9 Pro XL when folded. That's true, if you ignore that the screen is rather the same size as the smaller and more manageable Pixel 9 Pro. You don't have to pretend too much for it to feel like you have a regular phone in your hand when using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold folded. Unfolded, you get an almost square eight-inch screen. Both the inner and outer screens have substantial maximum brightness and high refresh rates. The inner screen, as is always the case with foldable screens, has a protective plastic layer that more easily attracts fingerprints and causes more reflections, and a crease in the middle that is always somewhat visible. The crease is more pronounced here than on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.
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I'm not saying that the outer screen can be too good, but if you think it's nice that you never have to open the phone to use it, maybe you didn't need to pay 23,000 kronor for a mobile phone. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is quite expensive, and to even have a chance to justify it, you can't focus on how good it is folded, there must be arguments for the large inner screen.
Here, Google struggles just like Samsung to find good answers. In theory, it's a small tablet you get, but in practice, with the square screen, there are few apps where you actually feel you get more out of the screen. When watching movies, you mostly don't get a bigger picture than on a regular mobile because the screen isn't larger in length. Instead, you get black frames around the screen, where the subtitles end up so they don't obstruct the movie.
Google does not try to claim that you can use the phone as a small laptop if you have the screen folded halfway, but they do mention watching movies and photography as functions where this can be useful. For movies, for example, YouTube and Netflix are placed on the upper half of the screen when you have it half-opened, while SkyShowtime and Prime Video do not and are placed right in the fold. This is a good illustration that not only are there few apps that can utilize the screen format, but it's also difficult to predict which ones they are.
Good for screen sharing
One thing that works well in this format is having two apps open simultaneously on the screen. Here, unlike Samsung, Google has not made much effort to improve the user interface for two apps on the screen at the same time; it is still a bit cumbersome.
When Google highlights the advantages of the format, they mostly talk about having screens on both sides of the phone. They give the example that when you're doing transcription or simultaneous interpretation, you can have a screen for each to read from. But neither holding the phone between you and the person you're speaking with nor letting it stand on the table where it wobbles on the camera island feels like a particularly natural use case, as it's not that cumbersome to read on the same screen. It's telling that the feature Google themselves keep returning to, called Made You Look, involves a funny character appearing on the outer screen when you're taking photos with the screen unfolded, perfect for getting small children to look into the camera. Here, I feel that you either buy a phone for 23,000 kronor or you buy a rubber duck to achieve the same result.
So don't expect any new insights into what you can use a foldable phone from Google for. But if you don't feel you need that either, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a solid build so far.
The phone is powered by Google's Tensor G4 chipset, which doesn't reach the same peaks as other flagships at the same price in performance tests. This is not something I notice in practical use, the phone feels as fast as I could wish for. More concerning is perhaps the energy management, as it doesn't seem to be Google's strong suit. With a little load, I think the phone loses battery quickly, and the battery life is nothing to brag about, either in our battery test or in practical use.
Simpler cameras
On the back, there are three cameras, a main camera with 50 megapixels, a wide-angle camera, and a camera with five times optical zoom. There are also two selfie cameras, one on each screen, and you can also use the regular cameras for selfies if you unfold the phone. The main camera is the same as in the rest of the Pixel 9 series, which means an excellent camera for everyday use, with good sharpness and light sensitivity that makes it take excellent low-light photos. I think the images sometimes tend to be on the dark side, which makes darker areas feel underexposed.
The wide-angle and zoom cameras, on the other hand, are simpler than those in the other two Pixel Pro models. This is especially noticeable with optical zoom, as images taken with 5 or 10 times optical zoom are not quite as sharp as the images from the Pixel 9 Pro, but they are still good. Unlike other Pixel phones, the camera does not seem to utilize the high resolution of the main sensor for two times optical zoom, as these images are not sharper than when I digitally zoom into an unzoomed image.
The fact that Google has not waited until Android 15 is out but is launching the phones with last year's Android 14 can be interpreted as a signal of a shift. The new Android versions contain fewer new features and are mostly characterized by opening up for new standards, with features mainly coming in so-called Feature Drops that can occur several times a year. Above all, Google seems to see the Pixel 9 phones as a platform to market its generative AI Gemini. If you buy the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, you get one year of Gemini Advanced included.
However, a major problem arises here. Since Google's generative AI is so-called multimodal, meaning it interprets information in both text, speech, and images, almost all functions depend on Swedish language support. Of all the exciting AI news that Google listed during the Pixel launch, very few actually work for us. Some of the functions can be made to work by switching the phone to English, while others are simply missing in the version sold in Sweden. For a thorough review of these functions, I refer to my test of Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL. Here, I will only mention the functions that exist and work, which mainly have to do with photography.
AI in images
There is a new panorama mode that does a significantly better job of stitching images together than I am used to from panorama photos. Add Me is a camera feature where you can take a group photo where everyone is included by first having one person take a picture, and then another person takes over and takes another picture that is merged into a photo where everyone is included. The user interface is good, but the result is often not convincing and it feels a bit like a gimmick.
Auto Frame is a feature that Google describes as a way to give an image the perfect framing. Rather, it is a way to save a bad photo using AI. It straightens crooked horizons and fills in parts that have been cut off. As usual with AI image editing, the result varies in quality. Audio Magic Eraser is a feature where you edit a video and the artificial intelligence separates different types of sounds, from different people speaking to different types of background noise. You can then adjust the volume or completely remove the different sound components. This can save a video where you can't hear what someone is saying, but the price is that the sound may sound processed.
We don't notice much of Google's AI investment in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, at least not more than what you find in other manufacturers' phones. There is also nothing that Google does, either related to AI or otherwise, that takes advantage of the phone's special format. This gives the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold a somewhat anonymous feel, as if no one has put their own stamp on the phone and its system. Google also doesn't do anything to convince those who question the whole concept of paying over 20,000 kronor for a bulky phone that you can unfold to get a screen twice as large. But for those already convinced, there is no doubt that it is a well-built foldable phone with excellent screens and cameras.
Questions and Answers
Does the screen have thick bezels around it? The outer screen: yes. The inner screen: Not for a foldable. The raised edges are also very discreet.
Is it a good phone for watching movies together? Well, the picture doesn't get any bigger than on a regular phone. I also think the speakers are a bit weak.
How does the fingerprint reader work? It's located in the power button, which makes it convenient to use whether the phone is folded or unfolded.
An alternative
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the obvious alternative. Samsung has made a few more adjustments to the large screen format, but the cameras don't quite match the same quality, and the phone is thicker when folded.
Camera example
The sharpness and color reproduction are nice, but I think the pictures often turn out a bit dark.