Google Pixel Fold Review: A Foldable Galaxy Rival With Trade-Offs

Google is strangely coy about the Pixel Fold's charging speed, saying only that you'll get "hours of power with minutes of charging." That's true, but we're talking a lot of minutes for just a couple of hours. The Pixel Fold charges at 21W with an appropriate charger supporting USB-PD 3.0 and PPS, though you don't get one with this $1,800 phone. Foldables tend to have slower charging (the Z Fold5 is only 25W), so this isn't a deal-breaker. However, the measly 5W max for wireless charging unless you have the obscenely priced Pixel Stand 2 is irritating. 

Pixel Fold Battery Life

The PCMark battery life test aims to simulate a standard day's workload by running the benchmark repeatedly over the course of hours. It's not always indicative of real-world mixed usage performance with extended idle periods, but it helps to compare devices with an always-on and active load test.

Google promises all-day battery life with the Pixel Fold, but who doesn't? It's definitely possible to use the Pixel Fold all day, but only if you spend a lot of time on the cover display. When you open the phone, your battery life will evaporate much, much faster. 


Closed, the Pixel Fold lasts almost as long as the Pixel 7, but open it up and it plummets to the back of the pack. It's about tied with the Z Fold 3's main screen time. Outside of the benchmark, we definitely felt the drain from that big internal screen—we can eke out roughly four hours of mixed usage on that display. Some users may experience range anxiety in the afternoon, if you've been multitasking on the foldable OLED, and its sluggish, low power charging can make the Pixel Fold a challenge at times to keep juiced up. 

Pixel Fold Conclusion: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

It was a bold move for Google to enter a product category that Samsung has owned for four (going on five) generations at the same price as Samsung's shiny new foldable. The Pixel Fold is quirky, and usually quite fun to use. We also really like the phone's footprint when closed.

Unfortunately, being bold doesn't equal success. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is already a stretch at $1,800, but the Pixel Fold has no hope of justifying that price. Samsung's phone has a better hinge, more useful multi-window features, brighter displays, stylus support, and more accessory options. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 feels like a mature product that would be ready for the mainstream if not for the lofty price tag. Google's foldable, meanwhile, feels like it needed more time to bake. The hinge that doesn't open completely flat is emblematic of Google's first-gen hardware difficulties. 

Android founder Andy Rubin once noted that Android v1.0 was more of a v0.8, implying it was still prototype-y at launch. That was four years after the first Android phones arrived, and the Pixel Fold might feel similar if we look back on it in a few years—more of a 0.8 when Google needed at least a 1.0 product. Google gave foldables some time to evolve, and people are buying them even with the sky-high prices. It makes sense for Google to get into the market and show what Android can do, but Samsung is way out in the lead. 


The Pixel Fold does come out ahead in a few areas, though. Google's take on Android for foldables is more elegant and streamlined, and the Pixel camera is unbeatable. Still, the Pixel Fold doesn't completely warrant its $1800 price tag, in our opinion. If Google trims its price a bit, it might be worth purchasing over the Z Fold5, but regardless, foldable fans at least have another choice now over Samsung and Motorola. If Google keeps working on foldables, it not-quite-flat hinge will hopefully be reworked. The Pixel Fold is a necessary, admirable first step, but Google still has some ground to make up.