It took me 5 minutes with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to see where Google messed up

It’s appropriate to note that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is my first folding phone since the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which I bought, used for a month, and returned - because it was too bulky, and nowhere near as good as the “normal” flagships at the time.

Three years later, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold takes me back to 2021 - it’s a dramatically better phone than the Fold 3 in pretty much every single way, but it’s only 14g lighter. My initial impression (which never lies) is that this is still too heavy, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Google’s new foldable is only 10.5mm thick when closed, which makes it nearly indistinguishable from a “normal” phone (in a case) for me, and it deserves some credit for that.

But weight is one aspect of foldables that shouldn’t be overlooked, and Google is still playing catch-up to Chinese foldables right now. In fact, even the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is noticeably lighter, which is a difference you can feel when holding both in one hand.

My Pixel 9 Pro Fold still doesn’t look like a “normal phone” compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Oppo Find N2, or Honor Magic V3

Making a very thin foldable is one thing but making a foldable that’s indistinguishable from a normal phone when you use it as one, is a different story. And Google has failed big time here.

The decision to go for a large foldable, importantly, with thick bezels and frame around them, make the Pixel 9 Pro Fold unnecessarily bulky, and I’m reminded of that every time I look at the cover screen.

Now, don’t get me wrong - it’s not impossible to operate the Pixel 9 Pro Fold with one hand or anything, but the phone looks and feels larger than it could’ve been had Google trimmed down the bezels and the super thick hinge/frame that sticks out, reminding you this is indeed a folding phone.

Ironically, the larger cover screen (compared to that of the Fold 6) appears small and gets lost in the massive bezels and thick frame around it - I find this both visually and practically annoying.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s speakers are not the speakers you deserve for a bulky phone that costs $1,800

I certainly wouldn’t call them bad speakers (even for normal phone standards), but they don’t come close to touching the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s speakers, which sound dramatically richer and even louder.

In fact, the Pixel 8 Pro also has mediocre speakers but they sound richer, with more bass compared to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s, which do sound a bit louder - so there’s that.

While it’s understandable that dual speakers housed in a 5mm body (when the phone is closed) won’t have the room to deliver the richness you get with a 9mm slab, can’t we get three, or even four speakers - like on tablets?

It’ll also make it harder to block the speakers when you’re holding the phone in certain orientations.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold proves no matter how good your software is, you need a clear vision for the hardware - Google hasn’t figured it out yet

In the end, my quick impressions of using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold after having ditched the Galaxy Z Fold 3 three years ago, are that Google is still in the process of finding out what the foldable Pixel should look like.

The fact that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold differs so much from the original Pixel Fold, (and the two are only a year apart) speaks volumes. In other words, Google is clearly trying out something different to see if it sticks. And this “different thing” happens to be pretty similar, yet somewhat inferior to what Chinese phone-makers are doing right now.

Personally I’ll take a bit more time before giving a conclusive answer to the question whether the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is worth the money and the hype for me.