Transcription
(upbeat music) - So, I've been thinking about this concept a lot lately. There's tons of folding phones out now, it's been a category for a little while and we're expecting a folding iPhone soon, it'll probably reinvigorate the category. And I actually don't think that the concept of a Pixel, and the concept of a folding phone are actually really compatible, and that's okay.
(upbeat music) (calm music) So, hear me out, the idea of a Pixel is very specific, like we've seen it for the past couple years now. It's a super smart phone, like it's never really been a super high-end piece of hardware, it's never had the best screen, or the best chip, or the best battery, or the best cameras, but just a ton of great clever software that the everyday person can appreciate and more often lately than ever, also a pretty good deal.
But then the idea of a folding phone, well, this is inherently niche, like this is gonna be a premium priced, premium built piece of bleeding edge hardware for the people that want the absolute most from their phone. They use their phone so much they have two different styles of phone in one and it might cost $2,000 to get that. So, Pixel and folding phone are like opposites, they're at odds with each other.
But that didn't stop Google for making another nearly $2,000 folding phone. And so I've been using it and as someone who really likes Pixels and as someone who likes folding phones, I like it. But I do understand that there are very few people who I can recommend this to.
So, the biggest change versus last year's Pixel Fold, no joke, is the new hinge. It's been re-engineered so there are both aesthetic and functional improvements. It's now gearless, and it's much smaller. So now the bezel to the left of the cover screen is much thinner and it's closer to even all the way around, and it has this nice smooth motion, a satisfying kind of heavy resistance. It's a nice hinge. Shout out to the hinge engineers. The hingeneers I guess.
So, this makes room for the next best thing about this phone, which is these new displays so you can maybe already tell this outside cover display is a little bit bigger, it's 6.4 inches, and it's also a good amount brighter. One of my favorite trends in phones this year so 3000 knits is the new max and it looks really good in basically any conditions. Then you open it up and the inside eight inch screen is brighter too.
Now, not much else is different. It still has a selfie camera cut out in the corner. It still has that aggressively medium bezel all the way around, and it still has that very visible crease through the middle that you can easily feel with your finger, but you kind of learn to live with over time.
So, then the next best thing about this phone is probably Pixelsnap. So, the magnets in the back that they've added to every Pixel to give them Qi2 wireless charging, but also have them snap to literally any MagSafe accessory, elite. It's awesome. They made some of their own Pixelsnap accessories of course, but the fact that every Pixel 10 in the lineup can snap to the MagSafe charger, or a dock, or anything you can buy right now or might already have is so dope. And even though this folding Pixel is a bit heavier than the average phone, it does still stay up in the car dash, no problem. That was one of my concerns coming in.
There are also some other tiny changes like the sim card tray, which is still here, has moved up to the top of the phone. And you can also now go up to a terabyte of storage.
Now, we already learned that this Tenser G5 chip, which is new for this generation, was kind of a let down power-wise. Like it's nowhere near the most powerful chips in phones right now. But they did pair it with 16 gigs of ram because it's a multitasking foldable so that makes sense.
So yeah, I was let down by the power levels, but I would say I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life and the efficiency because the battery life of this phone was actually really solid. Effectively, when you're using it closed a lot, it's like a slightly thicker phone with a relatively small 6.4 inch display, and it's a 5,015 mAh battery. So, using it like that, I was getting like six hours of screen on time, no problem every single day. Of course, mileage varies pretty directly with the amount of time you spend unfolded where it can chew through battery faster. But there is no question that the extra room inside thanks to the thinner hinge was put pretty directly towards battery and it turns out to be a surprising strength of this phone. Worth it. Shout out again to the hingeneers.
Also, did I mention this is the first foldable ever to be fully IP68 water and dust resistant. You better believe that's also because of that hinge.
So, using the Pixel 10 Pro Fold closed, it's pretty good. Everything I liked about Pixel 10 is still here. It's all the Android 16 features, the Material 3 Expressive aesthetics and the animations, and then all the AI features, Call Screening, Now Playing, all of that, super smart smartphone. Plus the new longer battery life like I said.
So, then opening it up just like every other foldable, I get inspired to be way more productive. Like I start doing things I would never do normally on a phone, like organizing travel, buying plane tickets, and doing things side by side like email triage with schedule building on my calendar. Like I just get this itch to crush my to-do list and be productive 'cause I have all this real estate now. There isn't anything particularly new or special about Android on this folding screen. Of course there's still side by side apps, and the task bar and doc thing at the bottom, but after that, it feels like it's really just what you make of it.
But also surprise, this Pixel is clearly still not a hardware leader in any way. Like it's still kind of a chunky foldable phone, which is very noticeable when compared to a lot of these newer ultra thin folding phones. And it's also noticeably heavier. So, the slightly uncomfortable feeling that you get while using the phone closed, which let's be real, is how you're gonna be using it a lot, that's important. And so you could argue that that is a sacrifice that's necessary for such good battery life, but I just think the ergonomics are right up there on top of the list for most important things about a foldable. And this isn't like a silicon carbon battery or anything that charges particularly fast either. And so the newer foldables just feel more pleasant to use, even when open too. The lighter weight makes a difference, the thinner bezels make a difference, the lesser creases on other foldables makes a difference too.
This is also essentially the exact same cameras as last year, which is to say almost flagship quality. Like it's just a half step down from the Pixel flagships despite how big this camera plateau is. So, just have a little less detail and a little more noise and a little less ability and low light shooting scenarios. And the 10 megapixel selfie cameras on the cover and inside screens are just not that great at all, unfortunately.
And then the Tensor G5 is decently efficient, like I said, and using the phone has been smooth and I have no complaints with regular everyday use, but this doesn't hold a candle to the Snapdragon 8 Elite for the most powerful stuff. Or it's about to get replaced by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. I don't know why it's called that, but still.
So, the point is, in the competitive $2,000 price segment for smartphones, like people rightfully start shopping a lot and expecting the absolute max from their phone, especially with the hardware. And this phone, while it is really nice to use, I enjoy it, and it gets a lot of things right, it's pretty clearly not giving you the absolute max especially with the hardware. Here's another way of looking at it, this is a really good phone in a vacuum, but we're not in a vacuum, so you have to consider the other options that are really exciting and really pushing the limits and then you start to compare it and notice other things that are great about those other phones. I'll keep using this one though. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys on the next one. Peace.
(calm music)