Hands-On With Google's Pixel Fold Smartphone

I’d pay $1,800 for an iOS foldable, 100%

That’s what you will pay soon for a non-foldable iPhone

Ah yes... the future

Finally I can send an update! I got my Pixel Fold on June 27th (Porcelain 256GB), and I like it so much it was easy to trade my Z Fold 4 in for it. The combination of the form factor and a more vanilla Android experience were enough for me to make the switch. The battery optimization and battery life are much better than the Z Fold 4 as well, in my use case anyway. I use my phone between 1.5 and 2 hours a day during the week, at most, and I always have around 70% battery life at the end of the day (my day starts at 4:45am and ends at 8:45pm). The inner and outer display look great and the speech recognition for texts, etc. is top notch. It is buttery smooth no matter what I've thrown at it. I haven't had any issues with the phone getting too hot or overheating. Maybe I won the Tensor chip lottery, but again no issues here. The bezels don't bother me like I thought they would because I force dark mode on everything anyway. I do hate bezels with a passion, but I don't ever really see the bezels on the PF. Also, the bezels do prevent accidental touches and it gives me something extra to use when folding the device so I don't feel like I'm pushing on the display. The cameras are top tier. It fits easily in pants/shorts/gym shorts pockets. When folded it is barely thicker than my wife's 12 Pro Max with a slim case on it. This phone honestly looks and feels a lot like I would imagine a Steve Jobs era foldable phone would end up looking and feeling in hand. If you have ever wanted to try a foldable, I highly recommend the Pixel Fold. Even though I pretty much despise Google, this is a great phone and at least Google is US based (unlike Samsung, etc.), which is a big win to me. Worst case scenario, you can always return it. For reference, I owned every iPhone from the 4 to the 12 Pro Max. I jumped ship for the Z Fold 3 and I've never looked back nor have I regretted this decision. Every device I owned was Apple, and it was a lot of devices. The switch was not difficult for me at all. I know the diehards will downvote this, but that's okay. When I see someone with an iPhone now, I think to myself "Aw, what a cute little slab phone that never changes its design and doesn't support multitasking, I'm glad I don't have one of those anymore". Come on folks, I have to have a little fun with you here! 😁 I think it is nice to have options in this world. If Apple made a book style foldable iPhone, I would consider going back to Apple. I really enjoy Android now though. It has come a looooong way in the past five years.

***For those of you who are about to say "it's a solution in search of a problem" or "I don't get the appeal of foldables", it is simple really. I was using an iPhone and an iPad Mini daily, and I wanted two devices in one highly portable device. It's not rocket science***

There appears to be no way to make a foldable screen look premium.

That crease makes it look like a cheap $10 kids toy.

It looks cool but not worth $1,800 for a smartphone.

Im probably in the minority here, but if I wasnt so deep into the Apple ecosystem, I would have bought this at launch.

I know some feel it’s dumb or just a gimmick, which I can agree with gimmick, but after playing with a galaxy fold for a few hours, I can’t help but love the concept folding concept.