There's a lot of heated competition around the best foldable phone and the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold intends to be a part of that conversation. This year's notebook style foldable gets a new makeover, complete with slimmer bezels, a thinner chassis, and a more durable design. Powered by the Tensor G4 chip, it's a much needed upgrade to help it execute all the new AI features it introduces -- like Add Me, Gemini Live, and more multitasking. There are also some minor camera upgrades packaged along, but given that it's still pricey at $1,799, it might be tougher to convince phone shoppers.
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00:00The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has the steepest price in Google's lineup, so it takes a pretty
00:04big commitment to see if it's worth your money. There's still lots to be excited about for this
00:08full-wall phone, especially all the efforts around AI, the cameras, and multitasking.
00:14If you're thinking of upgrading or switching from another phone,
00:17I'll tell you if it's worth buying or skipping the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
00:21The first reason you should buy the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is for its lighter, more compact design.
00:26I wish they called it the Pixel Fold 2, but anyways, while it's not the thinnest foldable
00:31phone, Google improves the design by making it thinner and lighter. The original Pixel Fold
00:35weighed in at a hefty 10 ounces, which felt heavy after I used the OnePlus Open, which weighs 8.43
00:42ounces. Even though it's not as light as OnePlus's foldable phone, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's 9.1 ounce
00:47weight makes it much more manageable to use, and I like how it's getting it at 0.4 inches close
00:52versus the half-inch thickness of the Pixel Fold. Adding to this, I also like how it's also narrower
00:58at 3 inches wide, so that it's easier to hold one-handed. I've always enjoyed the AI features
01:03that Google introduced with my Pixel 8 Pro, and it's no different here with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold,
01:09which is the second reason you should buy it. That's because it introduces a handful of new
01:12AI features that I frequently use and have found to be actually helpful. For example,
01:17the reimagined feature in Magic Editor lets me use generative AI to fill in errors that
01:22I've selected by typing in what I want. I really like how it does the shadows on the animals too,
01:28because the sun's hitting a certain direction, it's looking at the image, and it's actually
01:32producing those shadows too, which is a key thing you don't see in many of these AI altered photos.
01:38There's also the new AdMe tool that blends multiple photos together, so that anyone taking
01:41a group photo can also appear in the final image. Over on the productivity side of things, I've used
01:46call notes to record and transcribe phone calls, which the Pixel 9 Pro Fold would then summarize
01:52the entire conversation for me. And finally, there's Pixel Screenshots, which I like to refer
01:57to as my storage locker for memories, because it's able to recall details from all the screenshots
02:01I've taken. If there's an important event in an email, I can take the screenshot of it,
02:05and then use Pixel Screenshots to look it up for me. Speaking of AI, there's also Gemini Live,
02:12which is the smartest AI system I've come across, because it's like I'm talking to an actual person
02:17who listens. Just like Google Assistant before, I can ask it all sorts of questions and stuff,
02:22but the coolest part is how natural Gemini speaks. I can even interrupt Gemini while
02:26it's responding to ask another question, and Gemini knows what I'm saying. What's the weather
02:31like today? Los Angeles is looking at a high of 81 degrees. Are the Yankees playing tonight?
02:38The Yankees will be playing the Nationals today at 6 45 p.m. After using other voice assistants
02:43like Siri, Google Assistant, even Amazon Alexa, I like it. It sounds like an actual person I'm
02:49talking to. Make those interruptions fluid, realistic conversation, and just seem so
02:54natural versus the robotic tones and the long pauses before. You also get a year's worth of
03:00Gemini Advance, which I've used to create the ultimate EV savings calculator, and if that's
03:05not enough to convince you about this AI system, the other perk about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is that
03:10Google plans to add full multimodal capabilities, meaning I'd be able to use the camera to ask
03:15Gemini detailed questions. Tell me how much would an EV cost in the long run if it starts at $30,000
03:22and I drive it 1,000 miles a month for the next 10 years? The value of the EV will decrease over
03:29time. The rate of depreciation can vary depending on factors like mileage, condition, and market
03:35demand. My final reason to buy it is for the bigger display and also smaller bezels. When I first
03:40opened up the Pixel Fold, I was shocked it had ungodly large bezels around the screen, much more
03:45than any other notebook-style foldables I've tested. Luckily, Google recognized this and now
03:50the Pixel 9 Pro Fold looks much better. There's still a bezel around the inner display, but it's
03:55thinner and more uniform this time around. It's less distracting than before, but I like how the
04:00inner screen is bigger as a result of the slimmer bezels. You get a sizable 8-inch OLED display,
04:05which is up from the 7.6-inch screen of the Pixel Fold, and due to how the outer display grows to 6.3
04:11inches, it changes the aspect ratio as a result, making it more square when unfolded. The first
04:18reason I think you should skip it is because it's still expensive. Unlike the Pixel 9 Pro XL, which
04:24technically costs $100 more than last year's Pixel 8 Pro, Google has kept the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's price
04:29to $1,799. That's a little crazy expensive when I consider how the best foldable phone, in my opinion,
04:36the OnePlus Open, costs much less at $1,699, with an additional $100 off when you trade in any phone
04:43in any condition. So basically, you're paying $1,599 for it. Google's Pixel line has always been
04:49slightly under typical flagship pricing, but that's not the case here, and it's still a hard sell.
04:55And that's made harder because they've only made minor camera improvements. In fact, it's
04:59leveraging nearly the same hardware as before, so that's a 48-megapixel main sensor, 10.5-megapixel
05:05ultrawide, and a 10.5-megapixel telephoto with 5x optical zoom. Compared to the Pixel 9 Pro XL,
05:11these cameras are technically downgraded, although the only new thing here is how the ultrawide
05:16sensor now allows for macro photography. I'm also bummed that it doesn't gain the same 42-megapixel
05:23selfie camera as the Pixel 9 Pro and the 9 Pro XL, so I'm guessing they're hoping that AI and
05:28computational photography is going to help improve the camera quality. And for my final reason,
05:33the Tensor G4 still lags behind the competition. After benchmarking the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it's
05:40clear that the Tensor G4 chip still trails to the Snapdragon 8th Gen 3. While the phone itself
05:45operates smoothly and delivers better results than what we got from last year's Pixel Fold,
05:49the Tensor G4 scores in Geekbench and 3DMark still doesn't come close to what the Galaxy Z Fold 6
05:55achieves. I'm really on the fence here because while I love the redesign, I'm not convinced it's
06:00enough to warrant paying for the phone, especially when the camera's performance is a smidge better.
06:05I also suspect that Google will be rolling out many of the new AI features to older Pixels,
06:10which would give last year's Pixel Fold new life. It's a great phone, and I really think that this
06:14is what the original Pixel Fold should have been like, but after testing out other foldables like
06:19the Z Fold 6 and also the OnePlus Open, I expect more out of a foldable phone. It's great that they
06:24didn't increase the price, so if you're holding out with last year's model, this is definitely
06:28worth picking up. But it's still more expensive than a typical flagship phone. You're going to
06:32be sacrificing things like the battery life and also the camera performance. And when you look
06:37at the OnePlus Open, how it's cheaper, does all that, it's a tougher sell. So what do you guys
06:42think? Let me know in the comments below. Would you buy or skip it? Make sure to watch all our
06:46other Pixel content on our channel. Don't forget to follow us on social,
06:50At Times Guide. I'm Jon V, and I'll see you in my next video.