The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is official – but how does it compare to the first-gen foldable, the Google Pixel Fold?
While you might assume that the two share plenty of similarities, given that the first-gen foldable only launched a year ago, you’d be surprised just how different the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is.
It not only sports a wholly redesigned chassis, but key improvements in the performance, AI and software departments that make it a worthy successor to the Pixel Fold – on paper, anyway.
We’re yet to go hands-on with the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but we’ve spent plenty of time with the Google Pixel Fold. With that in mind, here’s how the two compare on paper to help you decide which is best for your needs.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a cleaner design and bigger screens
The Pixel Fold’s design was based loosely on that of the Pixel 7, complete with rounded corners and edges and the infamous camera bar – but the Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers a completely different look.
Flat edges replace the curves of the first-gen device, bringing it more in line with the rest of the refreshed Pixel 9 collection and foldable competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and OnePlus Open.
The camera bar has also gone the way of the Dodo, replaced by a more stylised camera housing that shouldn’t snag on pockets as the first-gen device did – in our reviewers’ experience, anyway!
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold not only offers a refreshed design compared to the OG foldable but larger displays too – both on the cover and internal.
The relatively short and squat 5.8-inch, 17.4:9 cover screen has been replaced by a larger, taller 6.3-inch 20:9 screen – the same as that of the Pixel 9 Pro, coincidentally.
It also offers a massive boost to brightness, up from 1550 nits peak brightness to a whopping 2700 nits, which should make it easier to use in bright sunlight, and it offers upgraded Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection too.
The internal display has had similar treatment, with Google ditching the rectangular screen of the original with a squared-off 8-inch screen, making it one of the largest foldable screens on the market right now – and with a maximum brightness of 2700 nits, it’s a whopping 80% brighter than the first-gen foldable.
It also offers LTPO support for the first time, allowing the inner display to drop down to as little as 1Hz to save battery life, and there’s a slight boost to the resolution to match its larger dimensions too.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a faster processor
This one’s practically given, but it’s worth mentioning anyway: the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has an upgraded processor. This isn’t a one-generation jump either; the Pixel Fold was released in June 2023 ahead of the Tensor G3-powered Pixel 8 range, so it featured the Tensor G2 chipset – the same as that of the Pixel 7 range.
That should mean that the Tensor G4 of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold should offer a much-improved experience, both in terms of raw processing power and AI smarts – more on the latter in a second.
That’s paired with the same 12GB of RAM regardless of the foldable you opt for, interestingly slightly less than the Pixel 9 Pro’s 16GB of RAM, and either 256GB or 512GB of storage depending on the variant you opt for.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers support for on-device Google Gemini
The Google Pixel Fold boasts a whole host of AI features, from photo editing tools like Magic Eraser and Magic Unblur, as well as handy features that’ll perform actions like automatically identifying the music you hear throughout the day – but the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold really takes things to the next level.
In a year when competitors like Samsung and Apple have gone all-in on AI capabilities, Google really needed to do something special to stand out. That comes in the form of on-device support for Google Gemini, allowing you to use the assistant without an internet connection, and it’s much smarter too.
In addition to the general knowledge queries and text generation we’ve already seen from Gemini, it’s able to recognise elements within images. This means you can do things like snap a photo of a dying plant and ask for advice on how to save it.
It also offers a new feature called Pixel Screenshots where you can save information and ask Gemini about it later, allowing for quick retrieval of order confirmation details and the like.
There’s also a range of new photo editing features, including Add Me, a way to include everyone – including the photographer – in a group selfie, and the phone will also be able to listen in on phone calls and generate a summary afterwards.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a much longer software promise
The Google Pixel Fold has a middling solid long-term software promise, with the Big G committing to three software updates and five years of security patches for the foldable.
However, Google upped its software promise just a few months after the launch of the Pixel Fold, meaning that the newer Pixel 9 Pro Fold will be supported for much longer.
In fact, with a whopping seven OS upgrades to carry it through to Android 21, it’s among the longest software promises around right now – though it is matched by Samsung’s competing book-style Galaxy Z Fold 6.
This means that the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold should continue to get better over time, benefiting from the new feature drops and OS upgrades as they appear. The same is true of the Pixel Fold, of course, but that’ll likely end with Android 16.
The Google Pixel Fold is more affordable
The fact that the Google Pixel Fold is a year old and has now been replaced by a newer, shinier model means that it’s now more affordable – relatively speaking, for a foldable, anyway.
While the Pixel 9 Pro Fold retails at the same £1,749/$1,749 as the first-gen foldable, the original Fold can be found for as little as £1,399 at the time of writing, and we expect that to drop further in the coming weeks as the newer model is released.
However, if you are tempted by the newer model, you can pre-order the Pixel 9 Pro Fold right now, with release scheduled for 4 September 2024.
