Review: Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold

The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a predictably iterative improvement over last year’s foldable, with slight upgrades to performance and the camera, but it comes with an unwelcome $100 price bump. The IP68 rating for water and dust resistance and the Qi2 25W support for faster magnetic charging are standouts in a category where Google is lagging, but it has never been known for its hardware. Software is where the company excels, and some folks will appreciate the unrivaled AI-infused software features.

Google is good at elevating its devices beyond the spec sheet, but the 11 Pro Fold is perilously close to the Pixel 11 on paper, a phone that’s less than half its price. Beyond the big unfolding screen and customizable rear LEDs, little else justifies the “Pro” tag. With Samsung’s fresh Fold8 form factor and a folding iPhone on the horizon, I’m not convinced Google has done enough to make this the foldable you drop $1,900 on.

Devil in the Details

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold doesn’t look different from the 10 Pro Fold, but Google has shaved off a fraction of a millimeter and 19 grams. Sadly, the 11 Pro Fold is still heavier and thicker (239 grams and 10.1 mm) than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 (201 grams and 9.7 mm), the Fold8 Ultra (215 grams and 8.9 mm), and the Honor Magic V6 (219 grams and 8.75 mm, not sold in the US). That makes it a little trickier to handle, though the horizontal camera bar means less rocking than Samsung’s phones when they lie flat.

The double-camera module has had a makeover, so it looks less chunky, and the back is matte-textured glass that feels lovely. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold scores an impressive IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. That compares favorably to Samsung’s IP48 ratings, which means both can survive shallow submersion, but Google’s phone is dust-tight, whereas Samsung’s phones are at risk from fine dust and sand.

Photograph: Simon Hill

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

You get the same 48-megapixel main camera and 10.8-megapixel telephoto for 5X optical zoom as on the Pixel 11, but the Fold drops to a 10.5-megapixel ultrawide. The main camera is excellent in a wide range of scenarios, and I used the telephoto lens a lot. The 5X zoom produces sharp, detailed shots, though things get a little fuzzy if you push up to the maximum digital zoom capability at 30X. The ultrawide is a very obvious weak spot, producing relatively grainy images, though it doubles as a macro lens for decent, if slightly distorted, close-ups. The 10-megapixel front-facing cameras are passable for selfies.

The 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL cameras are superior across the board (50-MP main, 48-MP ultrawide, 48-MP telephoto, and 42-MP front-facing). They also boast instant Night Sight, 120X digital zoom, and better video capture. That said, I took some great shots with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold; its camera results compare favorably to other foldables, and a good telephoto is more useful than an ultrawide.

I like the new camera tricks: Camera Looks lets you define your preferred style, dictating contrast and colors; Magic Capture makes it easy to get video and photos from an event without focusing on the viewfinder; and Creator Suite will delight content creators with some useful tools, like a built-in teleprompter. You can even use Circle to Search in the camera app to get info on anything you circle without snapping a shot first.

Unfortunately, there’s one significant area where the Fold looks amateur, and that’s battery life. The 4,806-mAh battery is smaller than the one in last year’s 10 Pro Fold (5,015 mAh). While that downgrade is mitigated by greater power efficiency in the new Tensor chip, Google suggests 24 hours for the 11 Pro Fold, compared to 30-plus for the other Pixel 11 models.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Compared to a folding phone with a silicon-carbon battery, like the Honor Magic V6, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold lacks stamina, but it shouldn’t be an issue for most folks. The battery lost 6 percent in an hour of video streaming, and an hour of casual gaming claimed 9 percent. It will get you through an average day easily, but when I pushed the Fold with a lot of photography and graphically demanding gaming, I had to engage the battery saver before bedtime.

There’s 30-watt wired charging, but you should definitely embrace Qi2 wireless charging with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold as it tops out at 25 watts and is so much more convenient. The magnets stick firmly and ensure perfect alignment. It’s nice to see Qi2 25W in a folding phone, since many competitors haven’t even adopted it in their regular flagships yet.

Software Save

I’m a big fan of Google’s Pixel-exclusive software features. Call Screen saves me from telemarketers daily; I use Now Playing often to add songs to my playlist, and several new features may just persuade you to board the Pixel train. My colleague Julian Chokkattu talked about Rambler in his Pixel 11 Pro review as a more conversational voice-to-text message-drafting tool. I also like that AI overviews pop up contextually to save you a step, offering a Calendar link when someone texts to suggest a meet-up, for example, though it does mean granting Gemini access.

But one of the most useful new features for the Fold is Bubbles. With this, you can keep a floating circular profile picture from an open chat and open or minimize it with a tap. It’s not a new idea (Facebook Chat Heads did it more than a decade ago), but it lets you get on with other things without leaving the chat, potentially floating above two apps in split-screen mode. It also minimizes to a bar at the bottom right when you’re using the main screen.

With folding phones, people always talk about the ability to watch movies and play games on a big screen, but their real strength is multitasking. Message apps can show the list and a preview simultaneously. You can read a café review and check the location on a map, or watch a movie while you skim your emails.

Photograph: Simon Hill

That said, many apps still aren’t optimized for folding phones, so they can look clownishly big or occasionally obscure buttons. As mentioned, I ran into freezing issues and had to restart apps more than once. Sometimes, when you switch from the cover display to the big screen, it fails to scale up, and you might get a prompt to restart the game for full-screen view, as I did with Bloons TD 6.

Foldable newcomers should also beware of the big black bars. You must rotate the opened Fold for maximum screen viewing, but virtually nothing is made for this weird, almost square aspect ratio. You get more room when browsing something like Netflix, but start a video and you’re not much better off than with a large flagship phone like the Pixel 11 Pro XL.

Games fare a little better, and the 11 Pro Fold is great for titles like Clash of Clans, point-and-click adventures like Machinarium, and tower defense games like Bloons TD 6. It’s also a good option for older games via emulators, but for anything too demanding, like Wuthering Waves or Genshin Impact, you can expect dropped frames galore.

The other reason I find myself unfurling the big screen is to read. For browsing the web, doomscrolling Reddit, or, best of all, reading an ebook, a folding phone is a big step up from a regular phone screen. Whether it’s worth the premium you pay is debatable. It’s a little too easy to forget to use the big screen in daily life.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Photograph: Simon Hill

Folding phones have been around for years, but they still feel a bit gimmicky. For folks who think they’re a tough sell when they can get both a higher-spec flagship phone and a tablet for the price, it’s worth laying hands on one to get a feel for the experience. Foldables may not be an inevitable next step for phones, but there’s a reason they’ve carved out a niche.

The 11 Pro Fold starts at $1,899; that’s $100 more than last year’s 10 Pro Fold, but it doesn’t have a storage bump to soften the blow, as the Google Pixel 11 ($899) does. It also lacks the Pro features you’ll find in the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL ($1,099 and $1,299). If you’re set on a foldable, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra ($1,900 and $2,100) demand consideration, and if you don’t live in the US, check out the Honor Magic V6 ($2,100). There are other options and form factors in our best folding phones, but rumors of a folding iPhone persist, so you might want to wait and see what that looks like.