The Pixel 11 Pro Fold sees Google tackling some of the biggest grumbles phone fans had with its outgoing foldable: it’s slimmer, lighter, and tougher than ever. Smarter rear cameras, a speedier CPU and brighter displays also sound promising – but will sticking with a taller book-style form factor be the right move now Samsung has brought wider foldables to the fore?
Landing in Olive and Obsidian colours, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold isn’t a huge departure from its predecessor design-wise – only the camera bar has been reshaped slightly. Google has slimmed the entire handset down by 1mm, however, quickly catching up with the skinny class-leaders. The whole thing is 10% lighter to boot. It’s no featherweight, but should feel more like a non-folding handset while in your pocket.
The 6.5in outer display has seen the biggest upgrades, with a Super Actua OLED panel that’s 30% brighter than before and with the thinnest display bezels of any Pixel Fold to date. Glass Ceramic ought to keep it scratch-free too. The inner screen now maxes out at 3600 nits, so should be perfectly viewable while outdoors, and gets a more durable finish.
In fact the Pixel 11 Pro Fold stands to be the toughest book-style foldable ever, with an IP68 resistance rating and a new composite back material that’s designed to be impossible to crack.
It’s also the first Google foldable with HiLight, a repurposed rear LED flash that glows different colours based on what Gemini is doing at the time. The firm promises it’ll flash certain colours to represent incoming calls from particular contacts, and that you’ll be able to do the same for incoming messages later down the line.
Power comes from the new Tensor G6 chipset, which Google reckons will bring 25% faster web browsing and 15% app loading over the previous generation. 50% more compute should speed up on-device AI and the Titan M3 security chip promises to protect against quantum computing attacks. Every handset comes with 16GB of RAM, along with 256GB of base storage.
Google was a little coy when it came to battery capacity, only saying buyers can expect “more than 24 hours” of use between charges. A rummage through the spec sheet revealed why: a 4750mAh cell puts it behind the outgoing handset – which the firm said could manage 30 hours at a time – by some 300mAh. Even Samsung, not typically a class leader, takes the win here with the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra.
It’s still great to see magnetic wireless charging make a return, especially now it supports faster 25W Qi2.2 speeds. This remains your only choice for a Qi2 foldable phone that doesn’t also require a case to add magnets, at least until Apple plays its hand in September.
The Pixel 11 Pro Fold will arrive running Android 17, which isn’t a dramatic overhaul from the outgoing version but does add some foldable-friendly features. You can now ‘bubble’ any app, with icons appearing in the bottom right corner for easy multitasking. Gemini also gets a new Rambler mode which promises fast, accurate voice inputs that match your intent, even with lots of ums and ahs in between.
There’s not a lot new to shout about on the photography front, with the same 10.8MP telephoto (good for 5x optical zoom) and 10.5MP ultrawide as the outgoing Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The inner and outer selfie cameras still top out at 10MP each, too. It’s the main snapper that sees the most attention, with the promise of 56% more light capturing ability than last year thanks to a physically larger sensor size, despite sticking with the same 48MP pixel count.
Google is still promising the ‘best video quality in a Pixel’ with greater control over sharpening, noise and detail, smoother transitions between camera lenses, and a Pro Stable Video mode that automatically kicks in for shaky scenes as long as there’s enough light.
The updates are all on the software side, with Camera Looks giving you one-touch control over colour tone, contrast and detail. Some will lean more to the analogue film style rivals have been championing for a while now, and you’ll be able to set your favourite to be active by default when you launch the camera app. A Creator suite adds social media-friendly guidelines to your viewfinder and adds a teleprompter inside the camera app; footage is then organised into project folders automatically. Finally, Magic Capture analyses hundreds of frames from a short clip and automatically saves the best results.
The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is up for pre-order right now, direct from the Google hardware store, for £1799/€1999. Every handset includes six months of Google’s Gemini AI Pro plan, worth $120/£114. Devices will start shipping on August 20.
My big worry is that the Galaxy Z Fold8 has rapidly turned shoppers’ heads to wide-style foldables. That’s just a teeny bit ironic, given the original Pixel Fold took a bit of flak for being too short and wide. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold also has to contend with the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra and Motorola Razr Fold in North America, plus the Honor Magic V6 in Europe.
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