It’s a shame the Fold is only available in two colors: Obsidian, the color of my review unit, looks more like a dark matte gray than black, while Olive Green has a shinier gold frame.
I’m not a fan of Google’s asymmetrical design. With the Pixel 11 Pro Fold closed, there’s a curved corner cutout, and when you open the phone, the two halves have slightly different thicknesses. All folding phones still have a detectable fold line in the middle of the screen when you open them, but Google’s is among the most noticeable. Some folks won’t notice or care, but I’m the kind of guy who goes upstairs to turn the light on so the downstairs switches aren’t misaligned.
The fingerprint sensor in the power button always bugs me when I switch to a folding phone, because I have to pick it up to touch it and unlock the screen, rather than pressing on the screen like most phones. You do have face unlock with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and it works well provided there’s ample light, but it still doesn’t work in a dark room, which is still annoying.
You get two lovely, sharp OLED displays in the Pixel 11 Pro Fold: an 8-inch main screen and a 6.5-inch cover screen. Both push peak brightness to 3,600 nits, remaining legible in direct sunlight, and boast a variable refresh rate up to 120 Hz. They’re smooth, with rich colors, and I have nothing to complain about beyond that crease.
Pro Pretender
I’m not convinced the 11 Pro Fold earns the “Pro” in its title. It does have the new HiLight feature, a group of color LEDs in the camera module’s flash that light up different colors based on who is calling, or swirl through the rainbow while you chat to Gemini. It’s neat, if a little underbaked. It’s handy if you put your phone face down when you’re working or trying to relax, but it’s a very minor feature.
All the Pixels get the new Tensor G6 processor, and the Fold has 16 GB of RAM paired with 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB of storage. Switching from the Pixel 10 Pro XL, it was mostly smooth sailing. But it froze a couple of times in split-screen view in Gmail and after launching an app on the outer display, then unfolding the inner display.
The 11 Pro Fold actually has more in common with the regular Pixel 11, because it misses out on the high-end camera in its Pro siblings. Folding phones struggle to match flagships on camera specs because of form-factor limitations, and they must include two front-facing cameras (one for open and one for closed).
Photograph: Simon Hill