Transcript
by Josh Teder
Introduction
I’ve spent well over 6 months using Pixel phones, and now that 2024’s Pixels are finally out, hopefully my experience with these two phones so far can help you decide which one you should buy.
Price Comparison
The first advantage of the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL is price. The Pixel 9 Pro retails at $1,000, or $1,100 for the XL model. That’s $800 to $700 less expensive than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Camera System Analysis
The number two advantage the Pros have over the 9 Pro Fold is their camera system, which is the same on both sizes this year. The 9 Pro and Pro XL have higher megapixel telephoto and ultra-wide cameras than the ones on the Pro Fold. What exactly does that mean in practice? Well, the telephoto, for example, looks more crisp on the 9 Pros than the Pro Fold. You can also get the 50-megapixel images with all three cameras on the Pro, and it’s a feature not offered on the Fold at all, even for its main wide camera. That is something that I’d personally miss having.
Real-World Camera Experience
I’ve mainly shot in the 50-megapixel mode on my trip to Iceland and Ireland last month, and I really appreciated having those higher resolution images, especially for the telephoto. It allows you to crop in even more and see more detail, like the eyes on this raven, for example.
Selfie Camera Comparison
The selfie camera is also not as large on the Fold, and it doesn’t do well in low light, though the Pixel Fold does have an advantage of being able to use its rear camera system as the selfie camera, which will blow any regular selfie camera out of the water.
Image Processing
As far as smartphone camera systems go, while they all now have a tendency to overprocess images, the Pixel is still my favorite. Why? Well, out of all the phones I test every year, Google still has a bit more contrast, and importantly, they let you have shadows, and the saturation isn’t blown out to hell like Samsung defaults to.
HDR Capabilities
This year, the Pixel team redid the entire HDR+ pipeline with the goal of having it capture the thing you’re looking at as you remember it. HDR+ is the default image processing for all photos, though annoyingly, Google seems to turn on Ultra HDR by default, which, if you have that enabled and you look at a photo you took with that mode on your phone screen, is going to brighten every time you want to see that photo.
Battery Performance
Another advantage of the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL is the larger battery. Spec-wise, the battery is slightly larger in the 9 Pro than the 9 Pro Fold. The 9 Pro XL, however, has a significantly larger battery, and in my experience so far, the 9 Pro XL’s battery has lasted longer.
Daily Usage Battery Life
So far, both of these phones have been able to last me all day when I’ve used them as my main phone, and that’s typically light to moderate use. Typically, I only use a phone for about 2 to 3 hours of screen time per day and then 1 to 2 hours of background activity for music and podcasts.
Durability Considerations
The next advantage I’d give the 9 Pro and Pro XL is durability. The inner display of the Fold is more fragile than most other phone displays. It has a pre-installed protective film, but you do have to keep it away from sand, crumbs, and other sharp objects that could puncture it.
Audio Quality
The speakers are another advantage I found with my 9 Pro XL. The sound is a bit more harsh from the Fold speakers compared to the 9 Pro XL’s, which sound a bit more full, likely due to the more room they have to work with inside the phone’s body compared to the Fold speakers.
Weight and Form Factor
The Pixel 9 Pro weighs 199g, the 9 Pro XL weighs 221g, and the Pro Fold weighs 257g, so considerably more than the other two phones.
The Fold Experience
The most obvious and number one advantage of the Fold is that inner display. Now that’s not the only display, though. When folded, the Pro Fold actually has the same 6.3-inch Super Actua display that’s found on the Pixel 9 Pro.
Display Technology
When you want to read something, get work done, watch videos, or look at two apps side by side, the larger display just makes it easier to do those types of tasks on your phone compared to the smaller screen sizes of the 9 Pro and Pro XL.
The Crease Factor
Now, is the crease that big of a deal? Yes and no. If you’ve got some lights and stuff behind you, you will notice it, but most of the time when I look at the screen dead on, I can’t see it.
Innovation and Novelty
Somewhat related to the larger screen is the number two advantage I’d give to the Fold, which is the coolness and newness factor.
Software Features
Another thing that gives the Fold that cool and newness factor are the Fold-specific software features, like having a dock like you do on the Pixel Tablet where you can drag apps into split screen, save your favorite pairs, keep the taskbar in view.
Price Justification
Given the hardware engineering and the overall feel of the 9 Pro Fold, I think yes, you can certainly justify its price given the experience you get with the phone, especially when you factor in you can get up to around $700 or so when you trade in your phone through the Google Store.
Alternative Options
But if you really like the idea of having the Pixel experience in both a phone and a tablet size, well, there’s still something you can do about that. I think if you were mainly going to use the tablet-size display for when you’re around home, you can always just get a Pixel 9 Pro or Pro XL and then a Pixel Tablet.
Final Verdict
So all in all, if you’re asking me to pick and I had budget for either phone, I would pick the 9 Pro Fold based on my experience so far. I just love having that larger screen with me everywhere I go, and for me, I don’t necessarily care as much about having the best camera system in a phone since I’ve really transitioned to carrying a camera with me for important stuff where I really want high-quality photos anyway.
If you want to check the current price of all the items we talked about in this comparison, make sure to check out the Featured Products section below:
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