this is the Pixel 9 Pro fold. It's the follow-up to Google's very first foldable phone, the Pixel fold, and it could be a solid sequel. The Pixel 9 Pro fold is the follow-up to the original Pixel fold, and out of all of the companies who are releasing foldables, Google has the trickiest path to navigate. The Pixel 9 Pro fold has to address and improve on the numerous shortcomings that the original fold had, while also being competitive with Samsung, OnePlus, Honor, and Xiaomi. From what Google showed me, I think they have a good chance of doing both. So let's start with the name. It's not the Pixel fold 2. Oh no, no, no, no. It's the Pixel 9 Pro fold. Not the most catchy name, but the name, um, well, it kind of doubles as a mission statement. In the same way that Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6 was like a foldable clamshell version of the Galaxy S24, Google seems to be positioning the new fold as a Pixel 9 Pro.

that folds in half, and in terms of the RAM and processor, that may be the case. The 9 Pro fold comes with Google's new tensor G4 processor and 16 GB of RAM. Now, compare that to the original fold, which had a tensor G2 chip and 12 GB of RAM. Now, this should be one heck of a performance upgrade. Then there's the design, which is thinner and lighter. The pixel 99 Pro fold weighs nearly an ounce less than last year's fold, though it is still heavier than the Z Fold 6 and OnePlus Open. When the 9 Pro fold is open, you really notice how spelt Google made things. It's just 5.1 mm thick, which is ridiculously thin. While the 9 Pro fold isn't the thinnest foldable, that would be the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 or the Honor Magic V3, it is the thinnest book-style foldable you can get in the US right now. In terms of the displays, the cover screen gains half an inch and is now 6.3

In the same size as the Pixel 9 Pro, the 9 Pro Fold's cover screen has a 60 to 120 Hz variable refresh rate and now has a peak brightness of 2700 nits. That is a dramatic improvement over last year's 1550 nits, which, along with a higher contrast ratio, should make the new outer display easier to see outdoors on a bright day. The interior screen also got a glow-up; it's 8 in and uses an LTPO panel, which gives it a variable refresh rate of 1 to 120 hertz. The internal display's brightness is also 2700 nits, and the contrast ratio has also been doubled to 2 million to one. This should help make reading, writing, scrolling social media, and watching videos so much better. The cover glass and back glass are now made of Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and the back gets a lovely matte finish. Of course, a Pixel phone wouldn't be a Pixel without some swank camera tech, and there are some improvements to the Pixel.

fold now on the back. There is the same 48-megapixel main camera and 10.8-megapixel five-times telephoto camera as last year's model, but the ultrawide gets a new 10.5-megapixel sensor, and the selfie camera and internal screen cameras also get upgrades. Oh man, I am so keen to test these out, as the original Pixel Fold had the best all-around camera system found on any foldable that we tested in 2023. It's kind of amazing I made it this far without saying AI, but this phone is packed to the gills with it. The cameras have a new AI-powered feature called add me. And so, what happens is you take the photo of your group and another of the photographer in the same location, and the phone will merge the two together. I am so intrigued to see how this works in the real world and to test it out. Then there's the magic editor, which gets more AI tools. For example, it can now expand and fill the frame of a photo that you

took and the phone can even suggest crops on other photos. Then there's a new reimagine feature that lets you transform your photo by entering a prompt. So, for example, you can make the grass look greener. Google is also going the Motorola route and adding fun new animations to the outer screen so that you can get a perfect photo of your kids looking at the camera and hopefully smiling. The Pixel 9 Pro fold can use AI to improve videos shot at night or in low light. And that's just the cameras. Google Gemini is everywhere on this phone, and what's great is you get one year of Google One AI Premium plan when you buy a 9 Pro fold. Now, one spec I'm a little worried about is the battery life. Last year's Pixel fold had a 4,821 milliamp battery and mostly made it through a day on a single charge. The 9 Pro fold has a smaller 4,650 mAh battery, which makes me wonder how long it's going to last on a charge.

maybe the new tensor G4 chip is more efficient and will make up for the smaller battery size. I don't know, we'll have to see once we can test it. And I've saved the best two features for last. Google now has satellite SOS to help you connect with Emergency Services even without a cell phone connection. And Google is guaranteeing that the 9 Pro fold gets 7 years of OS security updates and pixel feature drops. That means a 9 Pro fold should be able to run securely and safely into the year 2031, just as it does today. Google made all of these changes while keeping the price the same. The pixel 9 pro fold is $1,799. And if this is indeed a 9 Pro that folds in half, you're paying $800 just for the folding part. So that's the pixel 9 Pro fold. I want to hear from you guys. What do you think? Do you think that Google did enough to make this a compelling upgrade over last year's pixel fold? Let me know in the comments.

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Pixel 9 Pro Fold First Look: A Pixel Pro That Folds in Half

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