When Samsung first introduced their folding smartphone device, we thought they were a little crazy. Strangely, HUAWEI followed suit with their own design of a folding smartphone. The approach to a foldable smartphone could not be more different from one to another in between the Chinese giant and the South Korean conglomerate. Samsung’s solution proved to be the more popular variant among the two though, for one reason or another. So that form factor stayed on with Samsung and adopted by others like OPPO and even HUAWEI at some point. Now, you have Google getting on the foldable smartphone hype train with their very own Google Pixel Fold.
The form factor might look similar, but the Google Pixel Fold is a completely different device compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and even the OPPO Find N2 foldable smartphone. To be fair though, in terms of form, it shares more with the OPPO foldable than Samsung’s implementation. The entire device is shorter and fatter than the Samsung. That also means that the display opens up a little wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold devices.
The inside display is a 7.6-inch OLED panel with 6:5 aspect ratio. It offers 2,208 by 1,840 pixels for up to 380 ppi on the display. You get 120Hz refresh rate too inside for that extra smooth feel of the latest Android interface. The display is also rated at 1000 nits for HDR display purposes and can be pushed to 1450 nits in peak brightness for outdoor use. With up to 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio on 24-bit depth, you are getting a brilliant display experience from the Google Pixel Fold.
Fold it up and you get another brilliant display. It is a smaller 5.8-inch OLED panel offering Full HD+ resolution. It is an odd 17.4:9 aspect ratio, but its form makes it more compact than anything else that the market can offer and more useable with a single hand, and more comfortable to work with two hands. It is rated at 1200 nits too for HDR while offers up to 1550 nits in peak brightness for outdoor use. On top of this one is a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus to protect it from bumps and scrapes.
Keeping Android running happily and taking advantage of the large displays is a Google Tensor G2 platform. That in-house exclusive platform is paired with up to 12GB of RAM for maximum performance and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage for even faster access to your files or your apps. To keep everything secured and encrypted, the Tensor G2 platform also comes with Titan M2 dedicated processor just for security.
Out the back of the device is a 48-Megapixel main camera with Quad Phase Detection autofocus mechanism and optical image stabilizer for brilliant, beautiful, and steady photos and 4K videos. There is also two other 10.8-Megapixel shooters out of the back of the device for ultrawide and telephoto shoots. There two more cameras sitting above both displays respectively. The one on the outside is a 9.5-Megapixel shooter with dual phase detection autofocus for clear selfies. The one inside sitting above the large displays is an 8-Megapixel shooter made mostly for video calling purposes.
Keeping the whole thing powered for an entire day and more is a 4,821 mAh internal battery that should keep the device powered on beyond 24 hours (according to Google). Once it runs out, you can quickly charge it still at up to 30W via USB Type-C. You can even wirelessly charge it if you want to.
Price and Availability
The Google Pixel Fold will be updated to Android 14 when it is available. It will be available in Porcelain and Obsidian colour options. Pre-orders in the United States (U.S.) starts today for US$ 1,799 (MYR 8,015*) onward. They say also that the Pixel Fold will be sold in other select regions soon. Not Malaysia unfortunately. More information on the Google Pixel Fold can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.46 as of 11/05/2023 on xe.com