The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold was come out on 13 August 2024 in India. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is Google’s second-generation foldable phone, and it has an upgraded design, thinner than the First Fold, and it also offers some enhanced AI features. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold with 16GB/256GB of storage is priced at ₹1,72,999 on Flipkart and it is available in two trendy colours: Obsidian and Porcelein, so let’s find out what the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is all about in our full review.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Design and Display
The Pixel 9 Pro fold has an upgraded design as it has a different shape and it looks like a small book. After folding, you get one straight edge with sharp corners, and the other side has rounded corners. Its thinner, heavier and wider than many other foldable devices and it weighs 258g. It also features Gorilla Glass victus 2, which protects the back of the device and the cover display. The frame of the phone is made of aluminium, and you get 19X8-rated water and dust resistance that is good against water but not good against dust.The phone’s hinge is more durable than before, and it will hold itself open at different angles.
Coming on the displays, it features a 6.3-inch OLED inner display, which looks similar to the Pixel 9 display, and it features1080 x 2424 pixels resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and has HBM brightness of 1800 nits and peak brightness of 2700 nits. It supports HDR video and feels very natural to use. Meanwhile, the gap between the screen and the hinge does not look good, in my opinion. Since the cover display is a regular OLED, it will use a 120Hz refresh rate and decrease from that to 60Hz when the phone is idle or showing static content.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has an 8-inch foldable LTPO OLED inner display with a resolution of 2076 x 2152 pixels, a 120Hz refresh rate, 1600 nits HBM brightness, and a peak brightness of 2700 nits. Because of the aspect ratio, it has the largest display we’ve ever seen on an affordable device. When you watch videos on it, you typically get black bars on the top and bottom, but the content still looks contrasty and sharp, while the display supports HDR10+ video. There is a crease where the phone screen folds, but it is quite subtle. On the other hand, the LTPO OLED has a more sophisticated refresh rate behavior.
However, the brightness is excellent in manual mode, as the inner display achieved over 1100nits maximum and over 2000nits in auto mode. The cover display is similar and even brighter, as it achieved over 1200nits in manual mode and around 2200 nits in auto mode, which means this is one of the best foldable phones when it comes to visibility outdoors on a sunny day.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Camera
On the back, the Pixel 9 Pro fold features a triple camera setup, a 48MP main camera with dual-pixel PDAF and OIS support, a 10.8MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom, and a 10.5MP ultrawide lens with PDAF support. There are not much changes in the rear camera setup, but we get an upgraded selfie camera this time.
Let’s start from the main camera. During the day, the photos are decent but far from impressive. It takes a detailed picture, but the sharpness could be better. Some pictures even look soft and have a bit of extra contrast, and the colours tend to be on the warmer side, lending a cosy vibe.
In low light, even with the night mode processing active, we do not get better end results, as the scenes are well exposed with plenty of detail in the shadows, but occasionally highlights get clipped, the sharpness could be better, and the performance is inconsistent.
Five times zoomed photos from the telephoto are quite good, and there is plenty of detail, and the contrast is more subdued than on the camera, but again, you get the warmer colours here. In low light, the 5X telephoto samples are soft, but the dynamic range is fine.
The pictures from the ultra-wide camera are just ok. They are on the soft side, the dynamic range is limited, the colours are warm, and the contrast is again boosted since the ultra-wide camera supports close autofocus, which helps you to take macro close-ups with it, and the sharpness and detail are pretty good. The ultra-wide photos at night are soft and low in detail, but the dynamic range is acceptable for this sort of camera.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has identical 10 MP selfie cameras on the inside and outside screens, but it takes 9 MP photos for some reason. The processing renders lovely colors and nice skin tones, and the selfie camera’s shots are quite good. However, it has the ability to take selfies with the rear camera, as well as using the cover screen as a previewer.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold can record video in up to 4K at 30/40 fps. 4K clips from the main camera are rather soft, and you get accurate colours, excellent contrasts, and wide dynamic range. Meanwhile, the zoomed clips are a bit fuzzy as well, and the rendition matches that of the main camera, and the ultrawide videos are softer and low in detail.
The low-light videos from the main camera are not very impressive due to the softness. Otherwise, the dynamic range is fine, and the electronic video stabilisation is excellent.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Performance, Software
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold Uses the latest Google’s in-house Tensor G4 (4 nm) chipset coupled with a Mali-G715 MC7 GPU and Octa-core CPU. The phone performs smoothly in daily tasks, and. It achieved an overall performance score of 1,187,754 on AnTuTu and scored 4783 on GeekBench, which means in benchmarks it does not achieve a good score compared to the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 chipset when it comes to performance. Even the thermal management is not great, as we observed heavy throttling during our prolonged stress tests.
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The Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs on Android 14, and the interface of the phone is clean. You get pixel-specific AI-based features just like the Pixel 9 family, and Google promises 7 years of Android updates. Since this is a foldable device, there are some unique features for you, such as the fact that the Pixel 9 Pro can split its UI between the two halves of the screen for a unique experience, and at the bottom of the unfolded inner screen there is an app document that you can hide or pull out, and there are also many other unique features added in the phone that you can use to make your experience better.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Battery
The Pixel 9 Pro offers a 4650mAh battery capacity, and the battery life is decent while unfolded. The phone provides 11 hours and 54 minutes of screen time, and the results were better when folded and using the cover screen only, and it gives 13 hours and 15 minutes of screen time.
Meanwhile, the phone supports 21W wired charging, but it does not come with a charger in the box. Since with a compatible charger the phone gets charged from 0 to 46% in half an hour and full charge took more than an hour and a half, and you get wireless charging support too.
Verdict
The Pixel 9 Fold is quite better when we compared it to its predecessor, as it comes with large and bright screens. It is packed with a decent chipset, good battery life and you get Google’s Advanced AI features, and you also get long software support. However, in benchmarks, the chipset has not achieved a good overall performance score. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is decent, but in this price range you can get a better foldable device with excellent performance.
Vishal Jakhar is a Senior Writer at TechBurj.Com He has penned over a hundred articles on TechBurj covering a wide range of topics on tech.
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