Over the past couple of years, folding phones have been released in ever-increasing numbers. These devices essentially give you a phone and tablet combined, giving you the large screen you might want for certain tasks, while keeping things pocket-sized. However, its very true that these phones dont tend to be the best phones for photographers, since they tend to use less able cameras than are generally found on candy bar phones.

　　The Google Pixel Fold 9 Pro is the second such device from the company, and sits within the Pixel 9 Pro line-up, which also includes the Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

　　You might assume that you get the same cameras as you do with the regular Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL. However, there are some compromises to be made – with only one high-resolution sensor, compared to the three found in the non-folding devices.

　　This isn’t particularly surprising of course, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is already an expensive proposition, setting you back £1749 – add the best possible cameras and you might be heading closer to £2000.

　　But, if you really want that hybrid experience of both phone and tablet – but still want a good camera experience is this the folding phone to go for, and is it a compromise too far? Let’s find out…

　　Features As mentioned, there’s only one high-resolution sensor for the cameras. As such, there’s a 48MP 25mm (equivalent) f/1.7 lens, which is joined by a 10.5MP f/2.2 ultrawide and a 10.8MP 118mm (equivalent) f/3.1 telephoto lens. You also get a 10MP f/2.2 selfie camera, as well as a second 10MP f/2.2 camera on the inside of folding section.

　　How does this compare with the Pixel 9 Pro/XL (they’re both the same) setup? Well, with either of those models you’d get a 50MP f/1.6 main camera, 48MP f/1.7 ultrawide and a 48MP f/2.8 telephoto lens. The selfie camera is 42MP f/2.2 – but it should be pointed out that with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, you can use the main cameras to take selfies with the screen unfolded if you wish.

　　So, yes, the camera isn’t as good as its stablemates, but you’re paying here for the tablet / dual screen experience. You get a 6.3-inch front screen, enabling you to use the phone as a regular “candy bar” phone, and the device unfolds to reveal a square shaped 8-inch screen. Naturally, the phone is heavier than a standard candy bar phone, weighing in at 257g, compared with 199g for the Pixel 9 Pro, or 221g for the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

　　In terms of other camera specifications, there’s no 8K video option for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, while a couple of other modes, such as Action Pan or Cinematic Blur are missing. The same AI editing features are found across all three phones, as well as some of the AI shooting modes such as “Add Me”.

　　Elsewhere, there’s a Google Tensor G4 processor – the same as found in the regular Pixel 9 Pro models, fast and wireless charging (again, the same). There’s IPX8 rating, meaning it has no official dustproofing, but the same water resistance as the regular Pixel 9 Pro models.

　　It’s available to buy in either Black or White, and you can get it in 256GB or 512GB variants.

　　Handling and Design Although the Pixel 9 Pro Fold weighs more than a standard Pixel 9 Pro / 9 Pro XL, it’s not so much as to put you off carrying it around. It’s also not too thick either, considering it’s hiding a screen inside it – it’s only 5mm thicker than a standard Pixel 9 Pro / 9 Pro XL.

　　Opening the phone to reveal the inner screen is a little on the stiff side, but this gives you some degree of confidence that the hinge is going to last. You can see the fold quite visibly on the screen from some angles, but most of the time it’s very unobtrusive.

　　It being a square screen makes it useful for using two apps side by side. Having a larger screen than a standard phone screen size is useful for doing things like watching films or playing games, but the square shape means that you will have black bars running along the top and bottom of anything you’re watching – it’s not a deal breaker, but it’s worth considering.

　　The brightness of the outer screen goes up to 2700 nits, which is slightly less than the standard Pixel phones, but hardly likely to be too noticeable in most scenarios. The interior is the same at 2700 nits, and it looks great on the whole.

　　Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is used, plus a steel hinge. This should make the Pixel 9 Pro Fold withstand a decent amount of usage, and indeed I’ve not noticed any scratches or dents in the time I’ve been using it. Cases for phones like this aren’t as numerous as they are for regular phones, but you can still get them if you want one, though there is something nice about using them “naked”.

　　Aesthetically speaking, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is quite attractive as far as folding phones go. I quite like the asymmetrical design, with sharper corners on the left hand side compared to the right hand side. I’d perhaps like to see some more fun colours available, but that’s being a bit picky.

　　One of the most useful things about folding or flipping phones is that you can use the better, external cameras to shoot selfies, rather than relying on lower-quality front-facing cameras. The downside is that it can be a bit cumbersome holding the unfolded phone to shoot such a selfie, but you can’t have everything in life.

　　Having a folding screen does essentially give you an inbuilt tripod however. You can half open the screen and the camera viewfinder will appear on the top, vertically positioned half of the screen, while the controls appear on the flat part. You can activate a timer to keep things as still as possible, making it useful for night time shots and the like. Note, you can’t shoot this way for selfies – but that’s the same with pretty much all folding phones.

　　Native camera app As you might imagine, the native camera app for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is pretty much the same as those found on the standard Pixel 9 Pro models.

　　Compared to many other Android models, the Pixel’s native apps are fairly simple, arguably being closer to the iPhone’s native camera app, than other Androids. To launch the app, you can give the power button a quick double push when the phone is locked.

　　By default, the phone will record in “Photo” mode. Here you’ll be able to access the 1x, 0.5x and 5x lenses, and there’s also an on-screen option to quickly jump to 2x (a central crop of the main sensor). You can pinch out to zoom to 20x (a digital zoom). Two different options are available for anyone who wants “Pro” settings. You can swipe up from the main screen, you’ll find a tab named “Pro” where you’ll be able to switch on raw format shooting. Note that for the Fold, you can’t shoot in “High Resolution” mode like you can with the standard Pixel phones. If you want more settings control, you can tap a sliders button from the bottom right hand corner of the screen, where you’ll be able to adjust settings such as shutter speed, white balance and ISO. This settings icon won’t appear if you have automatic Night Sight switched on – the whole thing is quite inelegant and would be better served by a proper “Pro” mode.

　　There are plenty of other shooting modes to choose from, including Portrait, for creating shallow depth of field effects, primarily of people, Night Sight for low light shooting (if you don’t feel you’re being well served by the automatic Night Sight option), Long Exposure for, well, creating long exposures and Panorama. The Long Exposure option is something which is well-suited to this phone, as you have the stand option as discussed above. For some reason, Action Pan, which gives you the ability to create panning shots, is not available on the Fold phone. This is unlikely to be a big problem for most, but it’s a shame not to have it.

　　More pleasingly is the new “Add Me” mode. This is a lot of fun which you can use to take shots of two or more people without the need for another person to take the shot. How does that work then? Well, it’s quite simple and there’s even an on-screen walk through to guide you through the process. Essentially your friend poses in the shot first, leaving enough space for you, then you hand them the phone. Now it’s your turn to pose, with your friend taking the shot. They’ll be shown a guide to make sure you both line up, and voila, by the magic of AI, you’ll both appear as if you were standing there together at the same time. It’s useful if you don’t want to get a random person involved to take your shot (or you don’t trust them with your £1800 phone), and it’s also quite fun.

　　For video users, there’s a separate set of functions for them to use. You can shoo general video, low light, slow motion and so on. The maximum rate tops out at 4K 60fps, which is again another difference from the Pixel 9 Pro standard phones – though it should be said, those phones only offer “upscaled” 8K video, rather than true 8K video anyway.

　　If you want to edit your photos in the phone, then the Magic Editor is very useful and comes with a wide array of different options. For example, you can remove and resize objects and people. You will need to have an active internet connection, as well as back up your photos to Google Photos to use it, but it’s a useful tool nonetheless.

　　Image Quality Considering it shares a substantial part of its name, you might expect the Pixel 9 Pro Fold to have the same image quality as others in the same range.

　　Sadly, one of the big compromises here for having the folding element is that you sacrifice the best image quality. That’s not to say that it’s bad, but if you’re looking for the best of the best, this isn’t it.

　　Overall, as you might expect, we see the best results from the main (1x) lens. Here, the 48MP sensor produces reasonably detailed shots, good colours and decent overall exposures. As is common, the best results are seen in good light. This lens is reasonably similar in performance to the 1x lens found on the Pixel 9 Pro / XL so if you shoot mainly with this lens, you might not notice too much of a difference.

　　An image taken with the ultrawide lens of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Image: Amy Davies

　　An image taken with the 1x lens of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Image: Amy Davies

　　An image taken with the 5x lens of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Image: Amy Davies The other lenses also put in a good performance in good light, but they’re not as good as the equivalents found on the 9 Pro / XL. The ultrawide lens shows a noticeable lack of detail if you zoom in closely, while you can see a fair amount of smoothing when you use the 5x lens. That said, both are pretty fine if you only intend to share or view your images at relatively small sizes. Digital zoom is OK up to around 10x, but I wouldn’t recommend using it beyond that point, as there’s a noticeable drop in image quality.

　　In low light, the ultrawide lens loses a lot of detail. Image: Amy Davies

　　In low light, the 1x lens performs the best. Image: Amy Davies

　　In low light, the 5x lens is very smudgy. Image: Amy Davies Looking at images taken in low light, I can see an even bigger difference between the Fold and the other 9 Pro phones. While the 1x lens puts in a reasonably good performance, the ultrawide is very smudgy, and the 5x lens is almost unusable. If you’re likely to find yourself doing a lot of low light shots, it’s difficult to recommend this phone.

　　Macro shooting is available if you simply move the phone closer to the subject, whereupon the phone will switch to using the ultrawide lens. These days, we’re seeing much better macro results from smartphones which use the telephoto lens to capture macro lens, but Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s macro shots are OK, so long as the light is good. Having to use the ultrawide means stepping into the path of the available light in the scene, so you need the most available to get the best results.

　　Portrait mode is pretty good, producing fairly realistic outlines. I’d like there to be the option to shoot at a longer focal length, but it’s not the worst problem to have. Being able to use the same main lenses for selfies results in better shots than youd expect from the usual front-facing selfie cameras.

　　Value for Money As is common among folding phones, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a pricey smartphone.

　　The price starts at £1749, giving you 256GB of memory. Opt for the 512GB version and you’ll be out £1,869. That’s a significant cost compared to the standard Pixel 9 Pro variants (prices start at £999).

　　At that price, it’s also more expensive than some other folding phones on the market, notably the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (£1,599 for 256GB / £1,699 for 512GB) and the Honor Magic V3 (£1,699 for 512GB).

　　It’s hard to say how well folding phones will hold their value, as they’ve not been around quite as long as regular phones, plus, buying an older device which relies on a hinged screen is always a bit riskier. I’d guess however that a folding Samsung is likely to give you a better return when it comes to resale or exchange.

　　That said, you could also argue that while the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is more expensive than other similar devices, it gives you better value for money, with a well performing camera and a range of different camera modes that you might not see elsewhere.

　　I’d be inclined to see if the price drops a little however – Google often drops its prices at various points throughout the year.

　　Verdict Although they still represent a tiny fraction of the market, folding smartphones are becoming increasingly more popular.

　　There’s no getting around the fact that these devices are premium models that will set you back a small fortune. The main appeal is that you essentially get a phone and a (small) tablet combined together, which can be great for a number of reasons.

　　However, if you primarily concerned with the camera, you will often find there are compromises to be made. The same is true here – while the main camera puts in a reasonably good performance, the other two don’t match up to the cameras found on the regular Pixel 9 Pro models, which is a big shame – especially at the price.

　　If you really want a folding phone, then this is certainly a great option in terms of the screen and aesthetics, however for photographers it’s hard to recommend this one. For now at least, our choice for folding phones for photographers, remains the Honor Magic V3.

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