Google’s latest folding phone sticks with its tried and tested design of a traditional phone shape when closed and almost square when open, in the face of new competition from Apple’s squat iPhone fold. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is Google’s fourth-generation folder and is still one of the only models with a full water and dust resistance rating similar to standard slab phones. It costs from £1,799 (€1,999/$1,899/A$2,799), which is £50 (€100/$100/A$100) more than last year as the pressure of RAMageddon continues to push up prices.
The 11 Pro Fold looks identical to previous models, but it is 19g lighter and fractionally slimmer in all directions with a slightly larger outside screen. Unlike Samsung’s slender Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra or squat models such as Apple’s iPhone Duo or the Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Pixel has the same ratio screen as Google’s slab phones and so handles precisely like them when shut with a bright and smooth 6.5in display. Opened up, the internal screen is essentially square, which allows you to run two full-size apps side by side but is less ideal for video.
The display is very bright, crisp and smooth, but the crease where it folds is more visible and detectable with your fingers than the best rivals. Like all foldable phones the screen is also delicate compared with standard hardened glass phones. The back of the phone hides the excellent Qi2 magnetic charging and accessory support from last year, while Google’s gimmicky HiLight notification LED, as seen on the other Pro Pixels, replaces the camera’s flash.
Outside screen: 6.5in FHD+ 120Hz OLED (399ppi) Camera: 48MP wide, 10.5MP ultrawide, 10.8MP 5x telephoto; two 10MP selfie cameras Connectivity: 5G, eSim, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, UWB, Thread, GNSS Water resistance: IP68 (1.5 metres for 30 minutes) Dimensions unfolded: 155.2 x 150.4 x 5mm The 11 Pro Fold has the same Tensor G6 chip from the other Pixel 11 models with 16GB of memory, which works very well for all kinds of multitasking, remaining snappy and responsive with multiple apps on screen. It handles light gaming, but can’t match rivals for raw performance. The battery life is a little shorter than last year’s model and rivals, lasting about 36 hours between charges when used on a mix of 5G and wifi with the screens in active use for about 2.5 hours each for browsing, messaging, apps and photos.
Most will have to charge it nightly, but even on the heaviest of use days the Pixel managed to end the day without requiring a top-up. The Fold runs the latest version of Android 17 with all of Google’s AI tools, including Gemini’s proactive system, the new supercharged voice dictation feature and six months of Google AI Pro subscription. Many of Google’s more creative AI tools, including the Omni video creation tool, Circle to Search and Gemini’s information cards benefit from the larger internal screen.
Google has made a number of modifications to Android to better fit the folding form, including a floating taskbar and a split-screen mode that can resize apps beyond the bounds of the physical display introduced last year. The bubbles system, which was primarily used for messaging apps, has been revamped to allow as many as five apps of any kind to be opened as floating windows on top of a single or split-screen apps and minimised to a little taskbar. But it isn’t as flexible as Samsung’s true desktop-like floating window system that can be resized and placed anywhere on the screen.
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