Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Review: This Folding Phone Is A Winner
We tested Google's Pixel 9 Pro Fold primarily on T-Mobile, Google Fi, and Telus’ sub-6GHz 5G and 4G LTE networks in San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Detroit, Miami, Maui, Jackson (WY), and Vancouver (Canada), and didn’t run any problems with call quality or data speeds. This phone also works fine on AT&T and Verizon’s networks, plus most smaller US carriers, and MVNOs. It supports nano SIMs, eSIMs, and mmWave 5G.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Audio, Data, and Call Reception
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold features stereo speakers that sound pleasantly loud and clear. But unlike the competition, there’s no support for Dolby Atmos here. Spatial audio is available when using headphones or earbuds, however. And while there’s obviously no headphone jack, you can connect audio devices via USB Type-C (digital accessories only), or wirelessly over Bluetooth (with aptX HD and LDAC codec support).
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Performance
Samsung’s Exynos processors and Google’s (Exynos-based) Tensor SoCs are often derided for their relatively lackluster performance and efficiency. Benchmarks usually place these chips one or two generations behind Qualcomm's and MediaTek’s best. Pixel handsets are also known for getting randomly hot and suffering from cellular reception issues. Thankfully, the 4nm Tensor G4 inside the Pixel 9 Pro Fold alleviates most of this.In the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Tensor G4 is paired with 16GB or RAM and either 256 or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage (without microSD expansion). Overall, this phone feels as smooth and responsive as any other flagship. It handled our usual suite of communication, productivity, and entertainment apps without skipping a beat. Plus, we didn’t experience the random overheating and poor cellular signal problems that sometimes affected older Tensors SoCs.
That being said – and as you'll see in our benchmarks below – the Tensor G4 still lags well behind current Snapdragon and Dimensity processors in terms of raw performance. But, unless you enjoy playing the latest, most graphically demanding games, this won’t matter for the majority of day-to-day tasks. We also noticed that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s WiFi hotspot signal is weaker than other handsets. It’s not a big deal, but it’s worth mentioning.
On the plus side, we only recorded minimal thermal throttling during 3DMark’s Wild Life stress test. After twenty iterations of this benchmark, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold posted a stability score of 90.6%. That’s impressive relative to some other flagships and shows Google has optimized the phone for consistent performance, rather than top-end speed for short bursts.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold GeekBench Results
GeekBench 5 is a purely synthetic benchmark and can be heavily targeted
for optimization. Despite Tensor G4's improvements over previous Google chips, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold still lags behind Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped Android flagships in both single and multi-threaded performance.
GeekBench 6 includes new ways
of testing multi-core configurations and uses higher-resolution assets. As you can see, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold performed close to last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped flagships in this test.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold PCMark For Android Benchmarks
Futuremark's PCMark for Android is an excellent suite of tests if you
want to benchmark a wide range of tasks on any handset -- things like
image and video editing, as well as lighter-duty, everyday workloads such
as email and web browsing. When you see the test running live, it's clear
the scripted application tests are carefully selected and tuned to make
use of the each mobile platform in a very controlled way.
Here the Pixel 9 Pro Fold shows similar performance to previous generation
Pixel models, slotting just below the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered OnePlus Open.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold AnTuTu 8 Benchmark Results
AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of metrics ranked with
somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates or time to complete.
Here we're running AnTuTu 8 across multiple Android
devices. AnTuTu returns four top level performance results which are all
included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or User Experience), along with a total
score...
According to AnTuTu, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers a slight increase in
performance vs. the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and comes close to
matching the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Galaxy Z Fold6 in terms of its overall score.
We also ran the companion AiTuTu benchmark, which had the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold finishing toward the bottom of the stack. This benchmark requires optimization and the latest AI frameworks to offer the best performance and its clear Google isn't putting in the necessary effort here.
We also ran the companion AiTuTu benchmark, which had the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold finishing toward the bottom of the stack. This benchmark requires optimization and the latest AI frameworks to offer the best performance and its clear Google isn't putting in the necessary effort here.
3D Graphics And Gaming Benchmarks With The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
Next we're checking how the Pixel 9 Pro Fold compares in GFXBench, which
has been one of the standard mobile graphics/gaming performance benchmarks
for years. To ensure that display refresh (v-sync) and resolution aren't
limiting factors, we're comparing off-screen test results here. GFXBench
tests OpenGL ES graphics workloads and we're specifically testing OpenGL
ES 2.0 and 3.0.
Unfortunately, we're not seeing much of a performance improvement with Tensor G4-equipped handsets like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold compared to devices using Google's previous SoCs in these graphics and gaming related tests. This phone
doesn't even match Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered devices in these graphically rich benchmarks.
UL's 3DMark Sling Shot is a newer benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback.
UL's 3DMark Sling Shot is a newer benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback.
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Benchmark
We're running this test in off-screen mode once again to remove
display resolution differences from the equation. This lets us compare
cross-platform results more reliably...
Once again, we're not seeing much improvement to the overall score over previous Google Tensor chips. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold performed about the same on this test as Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped Android flagships.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold 3DMark Wild Life Benchmark Tests
3DMark Wild Life is the latest cross-platform test from UL. Its
primary purpose is to measure GPU performance across platforms, and two
distinct tests are available. The standard Wild Life test is designed to
give feedback on how a game performs over a short period of time. With
mobile games, people typically play in brief spurts when they find some
free time; be it on the bus, on the subway, or a quick battle royale
session over lunch break. The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, on the other
hand, shows how a device performs over a longer stretch of time, and
takes note of performance degradation that might crop up due to
increased heat levels and throttling.
3DMark Wild Life is a significantly more taxing graphics benchmark
that employs cutting-edge mobile game engine technologies to deliver
impressive visuals -- as you can see in the screen shot above.
Here, the tensor G4-powered Pixel 9 Pro Fold delivers close to the same level of performance as Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped devices, but clearly lags behind the current crop of Snadragon 8 Gen 3-powered Android flagships.
Fortunately, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold does not exhibit the kind of excessive
throttling we experienced with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold6 in the
Wild Life Stress test, managing a stability score of 90.6%. Not too shabby.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Other Features And Battery Life
In terms of its specifications, you’ll find sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G (SA / NSA) on board the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, along with 4G LTE, tri-band WiFi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth 5.3 (LE), NFC, UWB, and dual-band A-GPS / GLONASS / Galileo / BeiDou / QZSS / NavIC. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also includes a standard set of sensors, a linear vibration motor for quality haptics, and a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor. Both fingerprint and face unlock are quick and reliable.
At 4650mAh, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s battery capacity is on the small side, and its 21W (USB PD) wired and 7.5W (Qi-compatible) wireless charging speeds are slow by modern standards. There’s also no charger in the box, or reverse wireless charging. But the biggest issue is the position of the charging coil, which is off-center (too low), and prevents this phone from charging properly with most vertical wireless chargers.
Obviously, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s battery life doesn’t match today’s best flagships. Still, It scored a respectable 12 hours and 01 minutes (inner screen) in our PCMark Work 3.0 battery test. As such, we expect that for most people, this handset will trot along for an entire day on a charge.
Next up: software, AI, and review verdict...
