Google's Pixel 9 Pro Fold Is a Wild Upgrade Over the Original Fold

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The Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the follow up to Google's very first foldable phone, has arrived. And as sequels go, this one could be a major one. Unveiled at the Made by Google event alongside the Pixel 9, 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL, the new book-style foldable has been overhauled in nearly every way, including its name.

Read more: Made by Google Live Blog: Pixel 9, Pixel Watch 3 and More Expected

With Google's announcement, "foldable phone season" continues to chug along, following the releases for Motorola's Razr and Razr Plus and Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6. Meanwhile, overseas, Honor announced one of the thinnest and lightest book-style foldables, the Magic V3, only for Xiaomi to match those superlatives with the Mix Fold 4.

Now it's Google's turn.

Of all the companies releasing foldables, Google has the trickiest path to navigate. The 9 Pro Fold has to address and improve on the original Fold's numerous shortcomings while also being competitive with Samsung, OnePlus, Honor and Xiaomi. And from what Google showed me, I think it has a good chance of doing both.

New name, who this?

This is not the Pixel Fold 2. No, no – it's the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It's not the most catchy name, but it kind of doubles as a mission statement. In the same way that Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6 was like a foldable clamshell version of the Galaxy S24, Google seems to be positioning this new Fold as a Pixel 9 Pro that folds in half.

And in some ways, that seems true. It has Google's new Tensor G4 processor, 16GB of RAM and the same new AI features as the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro (more on that later). Compared to the original Fold, which had a Tensor G2 chip and 12GB of RAM, this should be one heck of a performance upgrade. But in other ways, the 9 Pro Fold isn't quite living up to the "pro" in its name: The camera specs seem like a step down from the Pixel 9 Pro and the battery is smaller than the first Fold's. 

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold's thinner design

The 9 Pro Fold weighs nearly an ounce less than last year's Fold, and that's noticeable from the moment you pick it up. (Though it's still heavier than the Z Fold 6 and OnePlus Open.) And when you open up the 9 Pro Fold, you can really notice just how svelte Google made things. It's just 5.1 millimeters thick, which is ridiculously thin. Compared to the original Pixel Fold, it feels like a completely different phone.

While the 9 Pro Fold isn't the thinnest foldable – that would be the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 or Honor Magic V3 – it is the thinnest book-style foldable you can get in the US.

In terms of displays, the cover screen grew half an inch and is now 6.3 inches, the same size as the Pixel 9 Pro's screen. The 9 Pro Fold's cover screen has a 60-120Hz variable refresh rate and now has a higher peak brightness of 2,700 nits, a dramatic improvement over last year's 1,550 nits. All this, along with a higher contrast ratio, should make the new outer display easier to see outdoors on a bright day.

The interior screen also got a glow up. It's 8 inches compared to the Pixel Fold's 7.6-inch display and uses an LTPO panel, which gives it a variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz. The internal display's brightness is also 2,700 nits and the contrast ratio has also been doubled, like the cover screen, to 2,000,000:1. This should help make reading, writing, scrolling social media and watching videos so much better.

The cover glass and back glass are made of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and the rear gets a lovely matte finish. The 9 Pro Fold comes in Obsidian or Porcelain colors.

Pixel phones are known for their swanky camera tech, and the new Fold's cameras get some improvements. On the back, there's the same 48-megapixel main camera and 10.8-megapixel 5x telephoto camera as last year's model. But the ultrawide has a new 10.5-megapixel sensor, but this is one area where it falls behind the Pixel 9 Pro, which has a 48-megapixel ultrawide.

The selfie camera and internal screen cameras also get upgrades. I'm keen to test these out as the original Pixel Fold had the best all-around camera system found on any foldable we tested in 2023. I'm curious to see if the image quality improves enough to be on the same level as Google's Pixel Pro slab phones.

Being a foldable phone, Google has also added some extra camera modes that are just for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, such as Made You Look. Like Motorola, this lets you display a fun animation on the cover screen while taking a photo so that you can get the perfect pic of your kid looking at the camera. The animations also react when the subject of the photo is smiling.

The cameras have a new AR-powered feature called Add Me that's designed for group shots where the person taking the photo can add themselves in. Basically you take one photo of the group and AR on the screen helps line up the photographer in the same locale for another photo which the phone merges together with the first. It seems absolutely wild and like it could be kind of useful.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has so much AI

It's kind of amazing that I made it this far without mentioning AI, but this phone is packed to the gills with it.

The Magic Editor gets more AI tools and can now expand the frame of a photo you took and generate a fill to match the edges. Magic Editor can also suggest crops and ways to reframe photos you took. There's also a new Reimagine feature that lets you transform your photo by entering a prompt. For example, you might have it make the grass in the image greener. Or you can change what's in the photo entirely. When CNET's Lisa Eadicicco tried this feature, she was able to transform the ground in a photo to a sandy beach by typing that in as a prompt.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold can use AI to improve videos shot at night or in low light – and that's just the cameras! Google Gemini is everywhere on this phone. What's great is you get a year of the Google One AI Premium Plan when you buy a 9 Pro Fold.

Google has also sprinkled AI throughout the user interface in more practical ways. There are AI-generated weather summaries in the Weather app, for example, and a Pixel Screenshots app, which lets you search for information stored in screenshots. 

Then there's battery life and Satellite SOS

One spec I'm a little worried about is the battery. Last year's Pixel Fold had a 4,821 mAh battery and mostly made it through a day on a single charge. The 9 Pro Fold has a smaller 4,650 mAh battery, which makes me wonder how long it will last. Maybe the new Tensor G4 chip is more efficient and will make up for the smaller battery? We'll see once we can test it.

I've saved two of the best new features for last: Google now has Satellite SOS to help you connect with emergency services even when you don't have a cell signal. Google also guarantees seven years of OS, security upgrades and Pixel feature drops. That means a 9 Pro Fold should be running just as securely and safely in the year 2031 as it does today.

Watch this: First Look: The Pixel 9 Pro Fold Gets Significant Upgrades

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Google made all of these changes while keeping the price the same: The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is $1,799. If this is indeed a Pixel 9 Pro that folds in half, you're paying $800 just for the folding part.

For more on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, check out the specs chart below.