The new Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold finally looks like it wasn’t conceived in 2014

Do you remember Microsoft’s attempt at making a foldable phone? The handset didn’t come with a foldable display. Instead, it had two screens on the inside with thick bezels surrounding them. Google’s first Pixel foldable from last year looked a lot like Microsoft’s Surface Duo when unfolded, and that isn’t what a device should make one think of. The Google Pixel Fold felt like a first-gen product, which is also reflected in our review.

On the other hand, the new Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a far cry from the previous foldable phone from Google. While it may only be an incremental upgrade on paper, Google made so many hardware changes that the phone feels at least a couple of generations ahead of the 2023 Pixel Fold.

The oh-so-thin build

It is difficult to make a foldable phone thin because you’re starting with not one but two sides that sandwich together. When folded, the handset is bound to feel substantially thicker — if not double — than any of the top candy bar-style Android flagships. However, Google achieved that marvel of a feat with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which is now among the thinnest foldable phones.

One could argue that thinness doesn’t contribute much to how a phone feels in your hand, but it makes a difference, particularly with a foldable. When I first held the Honor Magic V2, it took me a while to get over its jaw-dropping 4.7mm thickness thinness in the unfolded state. It was thin enough to make me envious. That’s when I was using my favorite foldable, the OnePlus Open. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has come within a 0.4mm margin of the Magic V2’s thickness at 5.1mm, which is a remarkable technical coup on Google’s part.

The first-gen Pixel Fold didn’t open flat like other foldables. This made it look slightly bent from the side, which was noticeable when using the main screen. This year, Google updated the phone’s spine — its hinge — with a new stainless-steel construction that makes the new Pixel foldable more ergonomically sound, likely providing better durability.

Speaking of which, it bears an IPX8 rating, meaning it isn’t dust resistant but can handle water pressure as much as any other flagship phone, making it less prone to water damage than, say, the OnePlus Open.

While discussing the phone’s construction, I cannot skip the controversial camera bump design. The camera visor on the 2023 Pixel Fold looked consistent with how other non-folding Pixel phones look. The stacked cameras on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold may not look like the rest of the Pixel 9 series, but that’s good news for buyers. The longer bar on the back (coupled with its bent hinge) didn’t allow the Pixel Fold to lay flat when it was open, and it wobbled when you touched its screen. But that little flaw has almost been done away with on the new model, and a part of the credit goes to the new camera island.

My colleague, Will Sattelberg, spent a lot of time with the new folding Pixel, and in his opinion, this part of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold feels better than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

Look at those displays

They deserve your attention

I believe the inner display on a foldable should be there for you to use when you need to, like a bonus feature. It shouldn’t be something you must depend on all the time. That allows you to use your book-style foldable phone as a regular phone for most things. For that to happen, the outer display should have appropriate proportions. Take the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, for example. Its cover screen is too slender for my liking and often feels too cramped. The previous Pixel Fold got the ratio wrong in the opposite direction. Its outer display was too wide for single-handed use.

Google listened to user feedback, and this year’s model comes with a commonplace 20:9 display. That aspect ratio and the display size make the Pixel 9 Pro Fold identical to the Pixel 9 Pro when folded (as shown in the image above), making it handy, even more so with its reduced thickness. This way, you aren’t forced to use the bigger screen because the outer screen is unusable.

That’s not to say that the inner flexible panel is not up to the mark in any way. We think the main 8-inch screen is a big jump from the last-gen model. The Pixel Fold had such thick bezels that one could mistake it for a phone from a decade ago if not for its folding capability. Those unsightly bezels are mostly gone on the new model, and the phone looks modern inside and out.

On top of that, the company upgraded the display technology. The inner display appears to be of higher quality than its predecessor. It feels like Google layered it with additional coatings that Samsung foldables have used for a while. That screen is better on paper, and it feels to be of higher caliber and standard than the outgoing model.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has arrived and how!

It’s finally living up to super-premium standards

Google couldn’t have given its latest foldable a more awful and mouthful of a name than “Pixel 9 Pro Fold,” Still, the handset has become a more mature product hardware-wise than the Pixel Fold ever was. While we wish this was how Google shipped its first foldable, every piece of technology must undergo these growing pains to emerge as a solid, polished product from the other side.

Whether or not the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will become a public darling is up to the users, but Google has a winner on its hands. After these improvements, we won’t have many qualms counting the phone as among the best foldable phones to put your money down on.