(upbeat music)
- It's finally happened,
Google has finally announced the Pixel Fold.
Its first folding phone that's been rumored for years now.
It's coming out this summer.
It costs 1799 and it comes in two colors, obsidian
and porcelain, which normal people will call black or white.
The pixel fold is a very similar device
to the Samsung Galaxy Fold4,
meaning that it is a smaller phone
that opens up into a bigger, almost tablet size device.
The outside screen is 5.8 inches.
The inside screen is 7.6 inches
but they're different aspect ratios
than what Samsung's doing.
So on the outside screen, it's a little bit shorter
but it's a lot wider, so it's more comfortable to type on,
feels more like a normal phone when you're using it.
And then the inside screen
is actually larger than what Samsung is doing.
It's got a bigger, more expansive display on the inside.
Both screens are 120 Hertz OLED
They feel really fast and snappy.
They're very smooth to scroll on, very nice looking screens.
Didn't get a chance to take a look at it outside
but we'll have to follow up on that.
The hinge is a new one developed by Google
that allows the phone to fold completely flat.
There's no gap when it's folded, unlike the Samsung phone.
And then it's completely flat when it opens up.
It's 180 degree hinge
and it will hold its position however you open it up.
So if you open it up part way
or if you open it up 90 degrees, it will hold that position
and you can use it to take photos, prop it up, watch video
other kinds of things like that.
When you open it up,
there is a noticeable crease on the inside,
similar to what you see with Samsung.
They have not eliminated that crease fully.
However, it's pretty minimal
and with the time with it that I had it,
it was actually pretty hard to see the crease
unless I was specifically looking for it.
It's most notable when the screen is off
but frankly that doesn't really matter that much.
It's not really a problem for me on the Fold4
and I don't think it's gonna be a problem on the Pixel Fold.
Now, Google says this hinge is rated for 200,000 folds
similar durability to Samsung's.
It's also an IPX eight rated phone
which means that it's rated against water resistance
but not dust exposure.
So it's still going to be a pretty delicate thing
that you have to take care of
and be aware of when you're using the Pixel Fold.
This is not quite the same as a standard slab smartphone.
It's also impressively thin.
Google says it's less than six millimeters thick,
which is about two-thirds of thickness of a Pixel 7 Pro.
And of course that's for each half.
So when you close it, it's about double that or so
but it's still thin enough to fit into a pocket easily.
It doesn't feel nearly as bulky as you might expect
for a folding phone,
and it's noticeably thinner
than the Galaxy Z Fold4 when it's closed up.
The Pixel Fold's got a tensor G2 processor in it.
It's the same processor that's in the Pixel 7 Pro
the Pixel 7, the new Pixel 7A,
and the Pixel Tablet.
So across the line, Google's putting the same processor
in all of its phones and it's got all the same performance
and capabilities that you can expect on those phones,
including similar features for the Google Assistant
and call assistant, as well as similar camera features.
You'll be able to get it with 256 gigs
or 512 gigs of storage
but unfortunately there's no microSD card slot
and there's also no support for any stylus input
on the pixel fold
which is a little bit surprising
considering Samsung's made that a key feature
with the Galaxy Z Fold4.
Now, Google's claiming all day battery life
with the Pixel Fold.
It's got a dual battery system.
The batteries are extremely thin.
It's got one in each half of it.
It's hard to say how good that battery life
is gonna be in real life though
when we actually use it
especially given the size of the screen
on the inside of the fold.
It's a noticeably larger screen
than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold4
and it gives you more room
for putting apps side by side or watching video
or anything of the sort that's more immersive.
- [Advertiser] It's just a bigger, nicer display.
For cameras, the Pixel Fold has a total of five cameras.
There's a camera on the outside for selfies.
There's a camera on the inside
above the screen in the bezel for video calling.
And then on the backside it's got a total of three cameras
48 megapixel main camera,
a 10.8 megapixel ultrawide camera
and then another 10.8 megapixel 5X telephoto camera.
- It's a very similar camera system
to what you get on the Pixel 7 Pro,
but it's not exactly the same.
It's got smaller sensors across the board
which were necessary in order to fit it
in the Pixel Fold's design.
Google says it has the same capabilities
and software features as the Pixel 7 Pro
but we'll have to wait and see until we're able to test it
in the real world to see how good the camera system is.
One of the complaints with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold4
is that it's always had worse camera systems
than other top end Samsung phones.
And Google saying that
it's put at the best cameras that it can.
There are a couple software tricks
with the Fold's unique design and its cameras.
You can crop it up
when it's folded part way to use it to take some selfies
or you can flip it around when it's open
and use the rear cameras and the outside display
as your viewfinder for selfies as well,
so you can get a better quality image selfie.
It's very similar to what Samsung's offering
on the Z Fold4 as well.
Now in terms of software,
the Pixel Fold is launching with Android 13.
It's obviously gonna be upgraded to Android 14
in the near future, probably after launch.
And Google says that it has updated
over 50 of its own apps to support the screen
and provide better experiences
when you're using the larger inside display.
Apps like Google Keep and Maps and YouTube
and things like that will offer dual pain designs
that take better use of the larger screen
when you're using it.
You can watch a video on the outside of the phone
and then open it up
and it will continue playing on the inside.
And there's also some multitasking features that you can do.
You can do drag and drop,
split screen, two apps at the same time
but it's definitely not as comprehensive as the multitasking
or windowing features that you get on the Z Fold4
which allows you to run more than two apps at a time.
Of course the open question is
how many third party apps
are gonna take advantage of the Fold's unique design
and larger screen,
and we're just gonna have to see
once we have more time with it.
The Pixel Fold comes with many of the same compromises
as Samsung's phones, though.
Namely, it's expensive.
$1,800 is a lot of money for a phone,
especially when we don't know
how durable Google's version's going to be.
It is pretty exciting if you're into folding phones though
because now there's actual competition for Samsung
and it's not just a single player in the game
at least here in the US.
It's been a Samsung only show for so many years now.
So I'm hopeful that Google was able to push Samsung
and the rest of the industry
to move forward on this technology.
Pixel Fold wasn't the only thing that was announced today.
Google's also got a new Pixel 7A
as well as a Pixel Tablet.
You can find all the information
about that on the verge.com.
See you there.