![]() You can expect this situation to improve as foldable devices gain more popularity, but it may be a while.Īs for the cameras, there's nothing to worry about. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are a few of the many apps that aren't optimized for big-screen Android and open up with black areas on the side of the display. Airtable and Google Calendar look fantastic too.īut naturally, not all apps are created equal. This rings true even in messaging apps like Telegram, Google Messages, and WhatsApp. It displays Reddit posts on the left screen and opens the thread on the right, so you can scroll through comments and easily tap on the next post to move on. There are a few apps I love opening up the Fold for, like Reddit Sync, my favorite third-party Reddit app (that's about to die in a few days). Chrome doesn't offer up desktop mode by default, but you do get tabs at the top to quickly switch between them. Google Maps gives you a desktop-like experience where you can see the location on the right and details about a place on the left. Gmail's two-pane view lets you see your list of emails on the left, and the content opens up on the right screen. Google says it updated more than 50 of its apps to make use of larger screens on tablets and folding phones, and the results are great. None of this was impossible on a normal phone, and having these abilities just makes the little things so much easier. I've had a phone call with my local utility company as I looked up my account number on the right-hand screen. I've looked at my calendar and responded to people on emails and Slack to tell them when I'm free. I've used Chrome with Telegram to send my partner suggestions on where to order dinner without having to juggle apps. Split-screen is fantastic when you have apps that don't look scrunched up. There are no other unfamiliar gestures or controls you need to learn. Press an app and drag it to one side of the screen and you'll launch it in split-screen mode-that's pretty much it. There's a taskbar at the bottom of the screen that you can drag up in any app. The software experience is almost like a miniaturized version of the Pixel Tablet I recently reviewed. You need to flex it open a tiny bit more at the end to get it the whole way, but this is just me nitpicking. The Fold also doesn't smoothly open completely to 180 degrees-more like 178 degrees. The rounded edges and my thick fingers make it tough, but I bite my nails, so you might not have this problem. I do wish there was a lip carved into the body that made it easier to open the phone up. There's no unsettling sound when you open it, unlike Motorola's Razr+, and it smoothly stays at any angle you'd like in its 180-degree range of motion. It should be fine, but this is a $1,799 smartphone, so I wouldn't take it to the beach.Īfter opening and closing the Fold for the past week, I can safely say the hinge's “multi-alloy steel construction” feels exquisite. It has an IPX8 water resistance rating, the same as Samsung's folding phone, meaning it can survive a dip in the pool, but it's not rated for dust protection. ![]() There's a polished aluminum frame, and the front and back of the phone are protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus, just like the Pixel 7 series. I'd have liked to see a more dazzling color choice. Your color choices are Obsidian and Porcelain, which are frankly quite tame. The Fold looks like any other Pixel, with the iconic camera bar on the rear. Instead, I found myself opening it up when I was using a specific app that I knew gave me a nicer experience on a larger display, or when I needed to multitask (more on this later). ![]() This is important because you're likely not going to be unfolding the Fold to use the inner screen as much as you interact with the front screen, simply because unfolding the device makes the whole thing way more unwieldy-especially if you're using it one-handed. My wife, who has significantly tinier hands than I do, says she found it easier to hold and use compared to Samsung's phone. The Pixel maintains the same thinness from edge to edge when closed, and doesn't have a gap between the screens. ![]() Samsung's phone forms a wedge shape when closed, with a small gap between the screens near the hinge. Yes, the Fold is thicker than a normal smartphone (12.1 mm versus 8.9 mm when compared to the Pixel 7 Pro), but it's noticeably thinner than Samsung's Fold4, which is 15.8 mm at its thickest point. It gets bright too-brighter than any other Pixel phone-which means I never have trouble reading the screen on a sunny day. It's wide, and every app I've used looks great on it, especially thanks to the sharp Full HD+ resolution and 120-Hz screen refresh rate. Since it's not too tall, I can reach all parts of the display with my fingers (though I should note that I do have big paws). The Pixel Fold's 5.8-inch AMOLED front screen is pretty perfect.
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