Google Pixel Fold FULL REVIEW - I Dropped It In Dirt and Gravel 😱

It’s here! This is google’s first foldable phone - the Google Pixel Fold. I have been DYING to get my hands on this thing long before it was officially announced - rumors, y’all know. I bought this device from the Google Store and thankfully it shipped on time, so I’ve been using it non-stop since delivery. It’s got a lot of pros, a few cons. So let’s chat about it.

I woulda been real keen on buying the Porcelain color in the 512GB model, but for some reason this colorway is only available in a 256GB storage size. That’s plenty of storage for most folks… if you aren’t a youtuber recording 4k videos every day.

The Obsidian colorway is available in either storage spec, and these start at $1799. Even though deliveries are taking a while at the moment, you can get a free Pixel Watch with purchase, even an LTE model. So that’s a nice perk.

I did an unboxing vertical short video showing what’s included in the box. Oddly, it’s shipped folded, I’m used to seeing foldables ship flat, unfolded. But it doesn’t seem to harm the device.

Speaking of durability… I’ve seen the article about the screen dying due to a spec of dust. I have my doubts, based on my own tests. I took this thing to the Colorado Renaissance Festival - talk about a dusty environment - and dropped it from my normal height on the ground, first folded, then unfolded, display down. This means it hit rocks, gravel, dirt. Given that I bought my own device, I definitely had a moment of anxiety, thinking this was a horrible idea, I didn’t buy device protection, oh god, there goes 2 grand out the window… But it was fine. The dust didn’t make it’s way into the hinge, and I still have dust all around the inner display and I’ve folded this thing close probably hundreds of times since that day… It’s still fine. To be fair, though, you shouldn’t treat products you purchase like crap, especially when they’re so expensive. But accidents happen, and we drop phones all the time, so that’s what I’m recreating here. I’m glad it survived, I know I could’ve said durability is terrible for the clicks and views, but honestly… I haven’t had that experience. The hinge is sturdy, there are no grinding sounds like you’d get if there was dust under the hinge, and both displays still look flawless. I’m still putting a case on this pricey piece of tech, but if you’re panicking due to one article… don’t. The only things I’d warn about are not to puncture the folding display - those are fundamentally more fragile than traditional displays. And don’t bend the hinge backwards - the phone casing will break. In other words - don’t try to break your very expensive phone. It is IPX8 water resistant which does not mean it’s waterproof or dustproof. It includes an alloy steel hinge (that’s supposed to be more resistant to wear and tear over stainless steel), a Gorilla Glass Victus back with a polished aluminum frame. So the material do offer durability.

At 10 ounces, I was expecting it to weigh more, but it’s got a pretty compact size. It kinda reminds me of my old Nintendo DS in terms of dimensions. Like, it gives me those vibes, my muscle memory immediately remembered Tetris on my DS and that comfortable size in hand. At 5.5” x 3.1” closed, 6.2” wide when opened, and 0.5” in depth, it’s very compact. It’s small enough to fit in my lady pants pocket without sticking out too far.

Meanwhile, that front display is wide enough to comfortably type on - It’s almost like they took a Pixel 7 screen and made it a little shorter and a little wider. It’s a 5.8” OLED display, FHD+ at 2092x1080 resolution. 120hz, super zippy. And it’s got that nice, high brightness I like for the Colorado sun - 1550 nits peak.

It’s short enough that I can use it with one hand, apps look fine at this aspect ratio, I have no issues with the cover screen. If anything maybe some folks will dislike the bezels?

One thing I certainly don’t like is how online data brokers put your personal information on their sites without your consent - but I like to include privacy and security in all of my reviews, and DeleteMe is sponsoring this video. When I was first found DeleteMe, it was because I had experienced some stalking and wanted to scrub some data off the internet. I found out from lots of my friends in the cybersecurity community that DeleteMe is the go-to service to get this done. So I signed up as a customer, and I’ve renewed my account ever since.

Data Brokers like peoplefinder or people search buy your data and stick it on their sites as a public search database - and that could be your legal name, your home address, your kids names, your phone number, whatever. They do offer opt outs, but often they’re complicated, sometimes require you to call someone or fill out a form, and since there are 10s if not 100’s of these sites now, how do you keep up with that? DeleteMe can do it for you, searching these sites for your info, and sending those opt out requests for you, and they keep tabs on your data year round in case it pops up anywhere. They send you a quarterly report every quarter showing where they found your data, and how many times they found it.

You have to be careful about what data broker deletion tools you sign up for - if a site is set up to collect your data and use it for phishing or spam, then that defeats the purpose. Scammy websites pop up all the time but DeleteMe is the only one that I’ve trusted for years, and is the only one I’ve ever heard my friends in the infosec community recommend.

Go to https://joindeleteme.com/MorseCode - use the code SNUBS for 20% off any of their plans and see how DeleteMe can help protect you and your data today. Thank you so much to DeleteMe for sponsoring my channel.

The internal folding screen is, of course, the fun part. There’s a nice, satisfying magnetic closure. It closes flat, with no gaps, and it does unfold flat - you just have to give it a gentle nudge to get it to that full 180 degree angle. Unfolded, it’s 7.6” with a 6:5 aspect ratio. Almost square but not. The resolution is 2208 x 1840 and you get that 120hz refresh rate here too, with a peak brightness of 1450 nits (still solid). It’s made out of ultra thin glass with a plastic layer over that, and the plastic doesn’t stretch all the way to the edges, but it does cover the lit OLED on all sides. When fully unfolded, you can still feel the crease and see it in certain lighting. This crease isn’t as prominent as my Z Fold 3 or Z Flip 3 - I didn’t buy any foldables last year so I don’t have any newer folding displays to compare this to.

I was disappointed that there is no stylus support. For a big display like this one, that’s a big con for me since I use a stylus for editing on the go. I hope they add stylus support to a gen 2 model - that would be high on my “perfect phone” dream wishlist.

That hinge is fluid, and it sits sturdy at any position. So if you want to use this phone in a tabletop mode, it’s also well balanced and won’t tip over, and the sensors and haptics feel responsive.

Since it packs in 12 GB RAM, Google’s Tensor G2 and their Titan M2 for security, I’m seeing zippy, quick responses by apps. I’m seeing solid, no lag 4k video editing. Multitasking feels solid and really compliments the display, especially when you do stuff like split screening. In terms of 3D mark, I did run some benchmarks, and these were my findings.

I found that more apps than I thought work well on this large display. Social media apps need to catch up, they’re still narrow and don’t have a good tablet interface - you can double click on either side to snap them to the edges or split screen (?), but apps such as Adobe Rush and Capcut for editing, productivity apps like Notion, and hobbyist apps like Flightradar24 look great and take advantage of the screen real estate.

I’m glad we’re getting 5 years of updates for this phone, and it includes the Titan M2 security chipset for onboard security, plus the Google One VPN, and biometrics in terms of a fingerprint sensor built into the power button and face unlock. The fingerprint unlock is done through a capacitive power button, and it works similar to the new Pixel Tablet. It’s responsive and doesn’t require you to press down on the button first, but the screen needs to be on.

Face Unlock works like the 7 Pro - but only via the camera on the outer display - it’s not available for that inner display lens.

Wifi 6E, if you have a wireless access point that supports it, is fast and this phone takes advantage of those upgraded speeds. Bluetooth 5.2 gives me solid connection to my earbuds, and I didn’t have any issues connecting to my cell phone carrier via 5G here in Denver. As always, your connection speeds will vary based on location, availability, etc.

Let’s talk cameras! I’m really happy with this set of lenses. Here are the specs for the front facing camera - the one on the outside. And these are the specs for the inner camera. They’re pretty close on paper, and same can be said of my example photos. The hues and color saturation is pretty comparable. I generally don’t use portrait mode since I prefer the natural bokeh from the physical lenses, and here you can see the edge of my hat kinda merged with the clouds behind me.

They’re quick and responsive compared to the shutter and I like the field of view. It gives me plenty of space to take group selfies with friends. They differ when it comes to video though - the outer front lens can do 4k video, while the inner front lens can only do 1080p 30. I think it’s obvious they expect you to use the outer selfie camera for photos and recorded videos, while the inner one is best used for video calls.

The rear set of cameras definitely shines. You get a set of 3 - the main lens, an ultrawide and a telephoto. The main lens is solid, and is the standard that I expect from a Pixel phone - great colors, excellent clarity and sharpness, and beautiful bokeh. I got some great shots of The Craic and Celtic Legacy, my favorite bands at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, using the telephoto to zoom in at varying lengths. Here’s a shot of Garden of the Gods with the Ultrawide lens, main lens, then telephoto at 2x, 5x, and 20x. Portrait mode didn’t give me the best cutout - a similar expectation to my other pixel phones. These photos of myself and my friends at the Ren Faire give you a good idea of what to expect when the sun is glaring at a bad angle. You can definitely see that lens flare, but the Pixel Fold captures all of our facial details even though we’re in shade. You can tell the shutter is fast, when I was twirling around in my dress, it still captured the skirt clearly even though there was lots of movement. The one thing you don’t get is a good macro mode, something that you do get in the 7 Pro. Macro mode is niche for sure, but I use it all the time to take highly detailed photos of things for my job.

I love the Rear Camera Selfie mode - combined with palm selfie activation. The fact I can take selfies with the nice 48MP 1/2” sensor make me a very happy content creator.

Recording looks great! I can do my usual 4k 30p videos, and even though we were hanging out in the hot sun at the Ren Faire, this thing didn’t explode into flame, it never shut down, and it took the constant use like a champ with no overheating issues. Stabilization is excellent, and the videos are clear. Here’s some examples with audio.

With the 4821 mAh typical battery, you’ll see decent screen on times, moreso if you don’t flip the phone open as often as I do. I tend to watch a lot of youtube in the background while working, so I have my screen on for several hours. Google says you can get beyond 24 hours of battery life on the Pixel Fold, and I’ve certainly left the device in my studio overnight not charging just to see if that was the case, and it was. The battery didn’t drain much while it wasn’t in use, so I woke up the next day with a decent percentage left. Here you’ll see a bunch of screenshots of my battery settings page to give you some examples based on my prosumer usage. The first few show the battery life when it was open and screen on the whole time. A few of these days include performance benchmarking and airplane travel, so those will vary.

You can take advantage of Google’s fast charging 30W USB C charger, and wireless Qi charging is also built in - it’s located on the back, so best to use when folded.

I’m really excited that Google is diving into foldables, and I hope we see a second generation that offers stylus support. I am enjoying this phone so much that I put my main sim in it - and as a reviewer that’s not something that I do with every phone that I’m testing. I know I haven’t experienced any durability issues but some folks have, however, this is an expensive device, so take care of your investment.

I’m working on a big “pro tips” video showing some of these features more in depth and also giving you some more examples that I didn’t even have time to show here. So subscribe for those and leave any questions you have down below. Bye yall!