Google’s product launch event, Made by Google , saw the Pixel 9 series announced as this year’s flagship smartphone .This year, the Pixel Fold, which made its debut last year, will become a part of the Pixel 9 series with the release of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Gizmodo US also had a chance to try out the device ahead of its release on September 4th.
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I think the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has undergone a brilliant transformation, and not just in its name. It is evolving to catch up with and surpass its predecessors in the foldable smartphone market, Samsung and OnePlus. However, I don’t think it has yet any unique features that make it stand out as a foldable smartphone, either in terms of software or hardware.
design
What you can see at a glance is that it ‘s slimmer than the first model last year . In inverse proportion to that, the screen is larger.
The cover display is 6.8 inches (Actua display) compared to last year’s 5.8 inches. The main display that opens and is used is 8 inches from 7.6 inches.
The moment you hold it, you can tell it’s much lighter than last year. The moment you open it, you can tell the hinge moves smoothly . The new hinge design means the bezels are much thinner than the original Fold. The spring in the hinge when you open it is also good.
To be honest, it would have been better to delay the release by a year and release this as the first generation. There are still wrinkles on the screen, but they are not noticeable. What bothers me is the waterproof performance of IPX8. Not only is the waterproof performance not that high, but it is also folding so it bypasses the dustproofing.
The software is still in development and there is a lot of room for development. For example, it does not have the floating window function that is unique to the larger screens used by Samsung. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold can only do split screens. Opinions are divided on the floating small screen, but it’s better to have it if it’s an option.
One nice improvement is the ability to pin the taskbar to the bottom of the cover display, which will come in handy for people who want to use Android devices in a Windows-like way.
camera
Even though it’s the same Pixel 9 series, the camera handling is suddenly different when the phone is folded.
First of all, the design around the rear camera is square, not pill-shaped like the one adopted this year. The camera is a triple camera with 48MP wide-angle, 10.5MP ultra-wide-angle, and 10.8MP telephoto. Considering that the original Pixel 9 has a major camera update and has a 50MP wide-angle and 48MP ultra-wide-angle, the camera specs of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold seem quite low. However, Google says that this is the result of considering the size and weight of the device.
Although it’s not really a replacement for the physical specs of the camera, it does have a gimmicky feature called “Made You Look” that displays catchy animations on the cover display to attract children’s attention and allow them to take cute photos.
