The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the foldable we’ve been waiting for

The highest compliment I tin salary nan Pixel 9 Pro F — ohio hide it, let’s conscionable telephone it nan Pixel Fold — is that I forgot I was utilizing a folding telephone while I was utilizing it.

Sounds for illustration a weird compliment, right? Isn’t nan full constituent of nan point that it opens up truthful you tin usage nan large soul screen? Well, benignant of. The full committedness of nan foldable telephone is that it’s fundamentally a mini tablet erstwhile you request much surface existent property and a regular telephone erstwhile you fold it backmost up. Every foldable I’ve utilized delivered connected nan first portion of that promise. Big screen? We did it, Joe. It’s nan small-screen acquisition that hasn’t been great.

I was utilizing nan phone’s outer surface earlier bed, drowsily answering nan minimum magnitude of Duolingo questions required to support my streak intact, and it dawned connected me: it conscionable felt for illustration a regular-ass phone.

That’s not an acquisition I’ve had utilizing Samsung’s Z Fold aliases the first-generation Pixel Fold. They punctual you each 2nd you’re utilizing them that thing is up. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is still excessively agelong and skinny to consciousness for illustration a normal phone, and nan first Pixel Fold is truthful heavy, it feels like holding 2 phones astatine once.

This foldable is built different. It’s built for illustration nan OnePlus Open, successful fact, which has been my favourite book-style foldable ever since I sewage my hands connected it. The erstwhile Pixel Fold was much passport-shaped, pinch a screen surface that was wider and shorter than a emblematic slab-style phone. The caller Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a 6.3-inch outer screen that’s shaped for illustration nan 1 connected nan Pixel 9 Pro. Crucially, it’s besides overmuch thinner and lighter than nan first Fold, truthful it doesn’t consciousness for illustration holding a damn brick.

Even conscionable holding nan caller Fold for nan first clip felt right. It doesn’t consciousness for illustration a minor iteration of nan first Pixel Fold; it feels for illustration an wholly caller phone. That belief hasn’t changed arsenic I’ve utilized it complete nan past fewer days, though I wouldn’t spell truthful acold arsenic to opportunity it’s conscionable for illustration carrying a slab phone. It’s still a small bulky successful nan broadside pouch of my yoga pants aliases stuffed into a mini outer pouch of my backpack. It’s conscionable not absurdly bulky.

That said, nan Pixel Fold still requires you to make immoderate compromises. It’s still $1,799, which is costly arsenic hell. The cameras still aren’t arsenic bully arsenic those of nan Pixel 9 Pro aliases Pro XL. Long-term durability is still a mobility mark, and 1 does not simply get a folding telephone repaired arsenic easy arsenic a slab-style phone. Foldables person travel a agelong way, but they’re still not rather fresh for nan mainstream.

I person a batch much testing to do pinch the, sigh, Pixel 9 Pro Fold. But I’m definite of 1 point already: hardware is hard, and this hardware is good.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge