When Apple released the first iPhone in 2007, its form factor—a thin, nearly buttonless rectangle with a big touchscreen on the front—was unlike any phone on the market. Before long, however, just about every smartphone looked just like it. All these years later, its influence remains as pervasive as ever, as if the entire industry has given up on the possibility of inventing something even better.
So ever since Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold debuted in 2019, I’ve rooted for folding phones to catch on. The technology allows for a tablet-size display that fits into a device you can easily slip into a pocket or small purse—an appealing proposition no iPhone-style phone can offer.
And now Samsung’s current folding phone, the Galaxy Z Fold4, has an archrival in Google’s first folding model, the Pixel Fold. Among the features the two phones share is the same imposing starting price: $1,799. Even if the Pixel Fold brings us no closer to the day of the affordable foldable, choice is good. But while Google did several things right with this phone—which it provided me for review—I’m discouraged by the failure of Android developers to take advantage of its possibilities.
Historically, folding phones have suffered from design compromises, such as oddly sized outer displays and camera systems that don’t match what you’d get from a much cheaper, non-folding flagship model. By contrast, Google clearly set out to build a great Pixel phone, period. One with a 5.8-inch screen on the outside for on-the-go use, plus a sprawling 7.6-inch display on the inside.
Folded up, the Fold is chunky but less so than you might expect: I didn’t feel like I was sticking two phones in my pocket. Its rear-facing cameras—ultra-wide, wide, and 5x telephoto lenses—are terrific, and I found the fingerprint sensor on its edge a more reliable form of biometrics than the under-the-display fingerprint sensor and facial recognition on Google’s Pixel 7a.
Unfolded, the Fold is just 5.9 mm—thinner than an iPhone 14. The big display is a killer feature when you’re sitting down and planning to spend more than a few minutes with your phone—for example, on the subway, on a plane, or reading in bed. One downside I didn’t find to be a deal-breaker: The lighting on San Francisco’s BART transit system somehow made the Fold’s big, plastic-covered screen—and even its black bezel—distractingly shiny.
Google also built several features into the Fold that cleverly leverage its design. Rather than being entirely dependent on the front-facing camera for selfies, for example, you can unfold the phone, flip it around, and take them with any of what would normally be the rear cameras. You can also fold the phone into a right angle so it looks like a mini laptop, plop it down on any surface that’s handy, and take a selfie from a distance using voice control to snap the shot.
Naturally enough, the phone comes stuffed with Google software, all of which embraces the large screen. Gmail, for example, shows your inbox on the left and an open message on the right, a view that’s impossible on a garden-variety phone. Along with running a single app in full-screen mode, you can display two at once and drag elements, such as photos, between them, making for a multitasking experience that’s more tablet-esque than phonelike.
But the fact that Google diligently made sure its own apps shine on the Fold only accentuates how few third-party apps play well on it. Some do: For example, most of the streaming apps I tried (and Google’s own YouTube) detect if you’ve folded the phone into a right angle, putting the video on the upper half so the lower half can serve as a stand. Amazon’s Kindle app displays two pages at a time, like a real book. Canva is way better on a large screen than on a typical phone display, since you can actually see the design you’re working on at a reasonable size.
Those happy experiences were outnumbered by apps that filled the screen but merely blew up the size of the text and other elements, so the benefit was minimal. Or occupied only half of the big screen, or about two-thirds of it. Or suffered from other miscellaneous glitches—for example, the Kobo e-reader app also shows two pages at once, but with wonky margins. Bottom line: I didn’t know what to expect from a third-party app until I’d tried it, and most of the surprises weren’t pleasant ones.
Of course, there’s a vicious circle at work here. Folding phones are so expensive that they remain a niche market, giving developers less reason to care about them. And if developers don’t care enough to write great folding-screen apps, even people who can reasonably splurge on a folding phone might not find it the price of admission.
Then there’s the issue of whether folding phones are not only pricey but inherently fragile—a concern that’s persisted ever since Samsung had to take the original Galaxy Fold back to the drawing board after announcing it. Google says that the Pixel Fold sports the industry’s most robust hinge, but Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo found that the one he was reviewing croaked after four days, apparently because debris wriggled its way into the screen.
With any luck, Amadeo’s experience was an aberration and the Pixel Fold will sell well enough to intrigue more developers. But what we could really use is something akin to the Pixel Fold or Galaxy Z Fold4 at a price closer to $1,000 than $2,000. Here’s hoping the economics make that possible someday—and that this entire category hits the mainstream in a way it still has not.
This story is from Fast Company’s Plugged In newsletter, a weekly roundup of tech insights, news, and trends from global technology editor Harry McCracken, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning. Sign up for it here.
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