Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold

At Rs. 489,999, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a premium purchase that makes sense mainly for people who will use the big inner screen every day. Opinions differ on its value: compared with its launch price it looks like a fair deal at Pakistani market prices, but some buyers still find it hard to justify.

What you get:

• A full-size 6.3-inch cover screen and a bright 8-inch inner screen.
• A thinner, flatter body with a smooth hinge that opens fully flat and IPX8 water resistance.
• 16GB of RAM, strong stereo speakers and seven years of Android updates.

What you give up:

• Cameras with smaller sensors than other Pro Pixels.
• Slow 21W wired and 7.5W wireless charging, with no charger in the box.
• A Tensor G4 chip that is slower than rival flagship chips.

Verdict: a well-rounded, productive foldable for Pixel fans. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 offers more speed, a thinner body and faster charging for a much higher price.

The cover screen is a 6.3-inch OLED with 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It is comfortable for one-handed use, close to a normal flagship phone, although the bezels are visible and the screen sits slightly off-centre. Unlike the inner screen, it is not LTPO, which matters because it handles the always-on display.

The inner screen is an 8-inch foldable LTPO OLED with 2076 x 2152 resolution, 120Hz and HDR10+. It is rated at 1600 nits in high brightness mode and up to 2700 nits at peak, so it stays bright and easy to see. The bezels are even all round, the selfie camera sits in a small corner punch-hole, and the crease is average, easy to ignore when content is on screen.

Because the inner screen is almost square, it is excellent for split-screen apps and reading. GSMArena notes the flip side: standard widescreen videos appear quite small, with large black bars.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs on the Google Tensor G4 with 16GB of RAM. In everyday use it feels fast and smooth, and the extra RAM helps both Google's AI features and multitasking with several apps open.

The chip is not built for top-end performance. Its AnTuTu score is below one million, behind the best flagship chips, so heavy gamers will find faster foldables. Battery efficiency is not its strength either, and how well it holds up across seven years of updates remains an open question.

For productivity, the experience is strong: split screen, picture-in-picture and two-column layouts in the settings, notifications and many Google apps make the inner screen feel like a mini tablet.

The rear cameras are a 48MP f/1.7 main camera, a 10.8MP 5x telephoto and a 10.5MP ultrawide, and both screens have a 10MP selfie camera. Rear video goes up to 4K at 60fps.

These use smaller sensors than the Pixel 9 Pro. Photos keep the familiar Pixel style, with high contrast and strong dynamic range, but they are not as sharp. The gap grows as light drops: low-light shots turn soft and lose detail faster, and the overall quality is closer to an older Pixel flagship than to Google's current Pro phones.

• Features include Add Me for group photos, Night Sight, portrait mode, slow motion and time-lapse.
• The large camera bump looks unusual, but it causes little wobble on a table.

If photography is your top priority, a slab flagship will serve you better.

The phone has a 4650mAh battery. With mostly cover-screen use, it delivers around six hours of screen-on time, and heavy inner-screen use drains it faster. Opinions differ on whether the battery is big enough for such a large screen, but GSMArena's endurance test placed it ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold6.

Charging is slow. The phone supports 21W wired and 7.5W wireless charging, and GSMArena measured a full wired charge at more than an hour and a half, slower than the Galaxy Z Fold6. No charger comes in the box.

Wireless charging is also awkward: there is no Qi2, the charging coil sits lower than usual, so it can be hard to line up, and it does not work on some chargers. Bypass charging is supported.

Out of the box the phone ran Android 14; it can now be updated to Android 16, and Google commits to up to seven major Android upgrades in total.

Apart from the thermometer app, every Pixel 9 series feature is here:

• Gemini as the assistant and Circle to Search, although on the inner screen the gesture for Circle to Search can be confused with the gesture that opens the app dock.
• The Pixel Weather app, Add Me and Google's AI editing tools.
• Foldable layouts, with two-column views in the settings, notifications and many Google apps, plus split screen and picture-in-picture for multitasking.

Some AI features depend on an internet connection and may vary by country, so check which ones work in Pakistan if a particular feature matters to you.