Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Hands-on with the thinnest foldable you can get

Last year, Google’s Pixel Fold was a solid first attempt at a foldable. This year, Google has not only changed the follow-up’s name, but it has improved the device in almost every way that one could possibly care about.

At least, that’s the impression I got after spending just a few minutes hands-on with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Google has altered the name to put the new foldable into the Pixel 9 family, but it’s definitively a successor to the old Pixel Fold. With a gigantic inner display and a remarkably thin form factor, those with the cash lying around and the interest in having a giant phone may want to keep an eye on Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Pixel 9 Pro Fold hands-on: Thin is in

The camera viewfinder is enormous, as you can imagine.
Credit: Kimberley Gedeon/Mashable

As someone who has reviewed multiple foldables over the years, my brief hands-on time with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold left me pretty impressed.

For starters, Google is touting the 8-inch inner display as “the largest ever on a smartphone.” That’s a pretty lofty superlative, but when you see it in action, you instantly understand the appeal. With up to 2,700 nits of peak brightness, a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and a 2076 x 2152 resolution, everything looks vibrant, smooth, and sharp as heck. This has always been my favorite foldable form factor because the large inner screen is eminently useful for watching videos and reading books — and that hasn’t changed here. This will undoubtedly be an excellent way to do those things on a phone.

But what might be an even more impressive achievement on Google’s part is the outer display, the one you use when the phone is folded. Last year’s Pixel Fold had a 5.8-inch outer screen that simply felt too condensed, too short when compared to a regular smartphone. This year, Google has upgraded it to a much taller 6.3-inch display that genuinely just kinda looks and feels like a Pixel 9 when you use it one-handed. You could conceivably go through a whole day without ever unfolding it if you wanted to.

Look at how thin it is.
Credit: Kimberley Gedeon/Mashable

And that’s still not the best thing Google did to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold! The foldable is super thin — like really thin. It’s just 0.20 inches unfolded, beating the OG Google Pixel Fold’s 0.22-inch height. At 257 grams, it’s heavier than a single-screen phone would be, but still light enough to fit within acceptable parameters.

If you’ve been foldable-curious, and you have $1,700 lying around, maybe check this one out.