Google Pixel Fold Review: A Great First Foldable, But Not Perfect

foreign [Music] this is the pixel fold Google's first foldable phone and at 17.99 it's also Google's most expensive phone I've only been using the pixel fold for a couple of days so you'll have to read our written review to get our full thoughts and Impressions but right off the bat I can tell that Google did a few things right with this phone first of all I

love The Wider cover screen it really makes the fold feel more like a regular phone when it's closed it makes apps feel a lot more natural I also really love the camera on the pixel Fold It Feels similar to the pixel 7 Pros even though there are some important differences that said there are some ways Google can improve especially when it comes to which apps are

optimized for the device when it's opened and the bezels on the inside of the device are also noticeable compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z fold 4S first let's take a look at that outer screen it measures 5.8 inches making it about the same size as an iPhone 11 Pro what I really like about the front screen other than the fact that it makes apps feel more

natural is that it makes the pixel fold really great for watching video I loved propping it open like it tends to watch Netflix and YouTube videos throughout the day by comparison the Galaxy Z fold 4 screen is a lot thinner and longer which feels a little less natural for watching video I also really liked texting on the front screen since I have more space given that

the screen is wider the Galaxy Z fold 4's keyboard feels a little cramped by comparison and because the screen is wider you also get a bigger viewfinder when you're taking photos with the device closed once you open up the pixel fold you'll see a 7.6 inch screen on the inside yes there is a crease and you can see it but it's not much more noticeable than

the one on Samsung's phone in fact I think it's about the same however I do feel like it's a little bit less noticeable when you're swiping over it which is great and this phone given its giant inner screen is all about multitasking of course you can view apps in split screen mode which isn't anything new for foldables but it's still nice to see it on the

pixel fold however you can only open two apps at a time in multitasking mode which for me personally is enough I actually prefer to dedicate that entire inner screen to one app as I've been testing this out I have noticed that not all apps are optimized to take advantage of that big inner screen but the good news is that some popular apps are optimized Tick Tock

is one of them Candy Crush Soda Saga is one of them calm is one of them so there are a few to choose from but again there's still a lot that aren't optimized for that big interior screen in addition to just viewing apps in split screen mode you can also drag and drop content between apps I use this with the photos app and the Google messages

app to quickly drag and drop photos to my husband and my sister as I was texting them throughout the day [Music] fold has a great camera that takes bold and sharp photos there's a 48 megapixel main camera a 10.8 megapixel telephoto camera and a 10.8 megapixel Ultra wide camera compared to the Galaxy Z fold 4 I felt like the pixel fold had a couple of advantages

for example it does have a slightly closer optical zoom which is great if you take a lot of photos from afar and I also thought that skin tones looked a little bit more accurate sometimes on Google's phone versus Samsung's phone that said Samsung does punch up the color sometimes which some people might prefer it's all about your preferences and tastes compared to the pixel 7 Pro

there are some notable differences here when it comes to the hardware the biggest being that the pixel 7 Pro has a much higher resolution telephoto lens in my early testing I didn't see much of a difference between zoomed in photos taken on the pixel fold versus the pixel 7 Pro but of course the pixel folds camera is about much more than just photo quality alone it's

also about how you take those photos because the pixel fold is a foldable phone you have much more flexibility when setting up your shots you can open it up halfway for example and prop it open on a nearby surface for times when you might want to jump in the photo or if you just want the camera to be a bit more steady than it might be

in your hand but again be sure to check out our full written review which is going to have many more Impressions and comparisons about the pixel folds camera the pixel fold runs on Google's tensor G2 processor which is the same chip that powers the pixel 7 lineup so far performance has been pretty smooth apps open quickly the camera launches right away and apps smoothly transition between

the front display and the inner display which is really important on a phone like this the tensor G2 processor is about much more than performance and speed alone it's really about the features that you get because of that chip like Photo one blur which sharpens older photos that might be out of focus and some of Google's translation features another thing I really like about the pixel

really great and also on the back of the phone the camera module kind of rests flat against a table when you have the phone on a Surface which is great because it doesn't tend to wobble back and forth the way the Galaxy Z fold 4 sometimes does you can also prop open the phone like a mini laptop in what Google calls tabletop mode and this can

be really useful if you're taking a video call or if you're watching a video since you don't have to prop up the phone again this is a really useful feature for a foldable and it's one of the things that really sets foldables apart compared to non-foldable phones but it's not necessarily new either Samsung has been doing this for years overall Google's first foldable is off to

a really promising start I really like the wider cover screen it makes the fold feel much more useful for watching video and for texting when the phone is closed and I also love that the phone folds completely shut when it's closed which makes it feel a bit more Sleek than Samsung's Galaxy Z fold 4. that said I don't necessarily feel like Google is bringing anything new

to the table just yet a lot of the multitasking features we've seen have existed before but I do think that Google is going to continue to update the pixel fold over time with new features just like it does with other pixel phones the thing I'm most excited about is seeing how Google leverages both the inner screen and the outer screen together but it sounds like we'll

have to wait until Android 14 comes out to see how that works and once again don't forget to check out our written review for our full thoughts and Impressions on the pixel fold so far thanks for watching and I'll see you next time