A Light Booklike Folding Phone: The Design and Performance of the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Fold Is Way Better Than It Looks
This taller size will allow you to fit more on the screen over the predecessor. The phone is one of the lightest booklike folding phones on the market, with a 2.54mm thicker thickness than the Pixel 9 Pro, making it easier to use when it is folded up. Remarkably, Google has shaved off about 25 grams from the original, and while the 9 Pro Fold is still 60 grams heavier than the Pixel 9 Pro, the extra weight is manageable.
Some of it doesn’t matter. This iteration has some real improvements to it in comparison to the last one, as it’s a mini tablet the size of a typical laptop, and you’re paying this much for it. As with the original, the hardware feels more polished and durable, and the display is stunning when unfolded, among the largest you will find in a folding device.
Seriously, I spent about 80 percent of my time using the phone’s exterior screen because it all felt normal. This is a good thing because it’s not like you’re going to be unfolding the phone to use the giant interior screen for every single situation. I have large hands so your experience might be different.
Even just holding the new Fold for the first time felt right. It doesn’t feel like a minor iteration of the first Pixel Fold; it feels like an entirely new phone. I have been using it over the past few days, but I wouldn’t call it a phone with a phone in it. It can still be loaded into a small outer pocket of my backpack or placed in the side pocket of my yoga pants. It’s just not absurdly bulky.
I was using the phone’s outer screen before bed, drowsily answering the minimum amount of Duolingo questions required to keep my streak intact, and it dawned on me: it just felt like a regular-ass phone.
That’s not an experience I’ve had using Samsung’s Z Fold or the first-generation Pixel Fold. Every second you use them they remind you of something. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is still too long and skinny to feel like a normal phone, and the first Pixel Fold is so heavy, it feels like holding two phones at once.
