Google Pixel Fold vs Pixel 7 Pro: foldable phone pros and cons - PhoneArena

Intro

Google now has a foldable phone in the face of the Pixel Fold, but how does it compare to Google's traditional flagship phone, the Pixel 7 Pro? Is the battery life as good, and can the Pixel Fold take photos as good as the Pixel 7 Pro?

In this comparison, we explore the design differences, the comfort of using a foldable phone vs a regular slab phone, the software experience, performance, battery life and the camera quality.

And we also don't forget that the Pixel Fold has to live to a high standard: after all, it costs a whopping $1,800 to buy, and you can have two Pixel 7 Pros and change left in the pocket for one Pixel Fold!

Google Pixel Fold vs Pixel 7 Pro in a nutshell:

• Pixel 7 Pro is thinner and weighs less
• Pixel Fold has much larger main screen, but smaller outer display
• Both have 120Hz smooth scrolling
• Camera quality is similar, but there are differences
• Pixel 7 Pro has a slightly larger battery
• Both have rather slow charging speeds

Table of Contents:

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Design and Display Quality

The big question around foldables: are they durable enough?

Google has done a great job slimming down the Pixel Fold, and even when folded the phone is not much thicker than the regular Pixel 7 Pro.

We think Google made the right call with slimming down the Pixel Fold: the company explains it even had to move parts of the hinge to the edges of the phone to make it all as thin as it is, and the trade-off was much larger bezels around the display, but we'd rather have a thinner foldable phone than slim bezels.

However, one thing you can't get around is just how heavy the Pixel Fold is. Weighing exactly 10 ounces versus 7.5 ounces for the Pixel 7 Pro, the Pixel Fold is more than 30% heavier, and you notice that.

But probably the biggest concern for most people with a phone like the Pixel Fold is its durability. Foldable phones still tend to break more often than regular phones, and they do not have dust protection, which is the biggest enemy of folding screens.

You have to be a bit more careful with a folding phone and possibly get some form of insurance.

As for the Pixel 7 Pro, it has IP68 water and dust protection rating and is very solidly put together.

As for biometrics, both phones rely on a fingerprint scanner, but the one on the Pixel Fold is built in the power button on the side, while the Pixel 7 Pro has an in-screen fingerprint reader which is just a tad slower.

Performance and Software

Tensor G2 on both, but with some multi-tasking tricks on Pixel Fold

There is no difference in the chip on both phones: they both come with the latest Google Tensor G2 and they also have the same 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM.

Both run very smoothly, with well optimized animations which help for that refined feel of using the interface.

The two phones come with Android 13 in the form that Google envisioned it, and we like this clean UI with no duplicate apps.

When it comes to software updates, both get the standard Google treatment: 3 years of major OS updates and 5 years of security updates.

This is fine, but we honestly expected a bit more out of the pricey Pixel Fold, that would have been a nice touch.

As for the software, the main benefit of having a foldable phone with a larger screen is that it just makes split-screen multitasking much more enjoyable.

Interestingly, Google has limited multitasking to just two apps on the Pixel Fold (unlike the Samsung Galaxy Fold which can do three apps and a floating one on top of that). Most people should be okay with that, but we imagine some power users might be a bit disappointed.

Also, just having the app dock on the Pixel Fold makes it much faster to multitask compared to the traditional UI on the Pixel 7 Pro.

Camera

Pixel 7 Pro has a slight advantage, but they are mostly the same

Making such an incredibly thin phone as the Pixel Fold meant Google had to use slightly smaller camera sensors compared to the Pixel 7 Pro.

We don't think that's a dealbreaker for most people, but again, some might notice a slight drop in quality in certain shots and a bit more noise.

As for the cameras, we have the same triple main camera system: a wide camera, an ultra-wide one and the very awesome 5X zoom one.

Images on both the Pixel Fold and Pixel 7 Pro have the same "Pixel" look with excellent dynamic range but a bit of a "flat" look sometimes.

If there was just one really weak spot for this camera system, it's Portrait mode where we see detail fall apart, but for all other use cases, you can expect excellent shots both during the day and at night.

Audio Quality and Haptics

We have not yet tested the audio quality on the Pixel Fold, but we will be doing that very soon, so check back for more impressions on this soon.

Similarly, we will be updating you on the quality of the haptics and the vibration motor feedback.

Battery Life and Charging

Can the Pixel Fold match a regular phone?

A foldable phone design makes it much harder to include a larger size battery, so that's why we were not surprised to see that the 5,000mAh battery on the Pixel 7 Pro is bigger than the roughly 4,820mAh cell on the Pixel Fold.

But the difference in size while there is definitely not huge, to the tune of around 4%.

We will soon run all three of our independent battery tests on the Pixel Fold, and we will see exactly how it compares to the Pixel 7 Pro, but we are also planning to share some real-life impressions from the battery life of the foldable.

All of this is coming next week, so check back then.

As for charging, the Pixel 7 Pro does have the higher speeds.

If you charge with a cable, the Pixel 7 Pro tops up at up to 23W vs 21W for the Pixel Fold, and the difference is even bigger with wireless charging where the Pixel 7 Pro supports 23W vs just 7.5W speeds for the Pixel Fold. That's quite the difference for wireless charging!

Specs Comparison

Specs	Google Pixel Fold	Google Pixel 7 Pro
Size and Weight	Folded: 139.7 x 79.5 x 12.1 mm Unfolded: 139.7 x 158.7 x 5.8 mm 283g (10oz)	162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9 mm 212g (7.5oz)
Displays	Main: 7.6" OLED 10.8:9 ratio 120Hz Cover: 5.8" OLED 17.4:9 ratio	6.7" OLED 19.5:9 ratio 120Hz
Processor	Google Tensor G2	Google Tensor G2
RAM, Storage and Price	12/256GB for $1,800 12/512GB for $1,920	12/256GB for $900 12/512GB for $1,000
Software	Android 13	Android 13
Cameras	48MP Wide camera, f/1.7 10.8MP Ultra, f/2.2 10.8MP 5X Zoom, f/3.05 9.5MP Outer front cam 8MP Inner front cam	50MP Wide, 25mm f/1.9 12MP Ultra, f/2.2 48MP 5X Zoom, f/3.5 10.8MP front cam
Battery Size	4,821 mAh	5,000 mAh
Charging Speeds	21W wired 7.5W wireless	23W wired 23W wireless

As you can see, the Pixel 7 Pro has a few advantages in terms of pure specs: it weighs significantly less, it uses larger camera sensors, slightly bigger battery and faster charging. 

Summary and Final Verdict

It's hard to compare to phones with a completely different form factor, but if you are like us, you might be facing this choice.

The defining factor here is to know just how much will you use and need that larger screen on the Pixel Fold. In our experience, nearly 70% or 80% of our usage would happen on the cover screen of a folding phone and only about 20% or 30% of the time we would use that bigger screen. And yes, we would enjoy this a lot.

So if you think you would be playing games, or doing something else that would utilize the main screen more, you might be better off with the Pixel Fold.

But if most of your usage is social media and texting, with occasional heavier usage, you might actually prefer the convenience of the regular Pixel 7 Pro, which weighs less and is just more reliable, sturdily built.

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