Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review: Software and performance

Android 14 with the Pixel experience

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs on the latest Android 14 OS and Android 15 is promised to arrive in October. Google also guarantees 7 years of Android upgrades, so this Fold will stay relevant for years to come.

When it comes to UI and features, the Fold is largely the same as the rest of the Pixel 9 lineup. You’ve got the intrinsic Android 14 features along with some Pixel-exclusive ones, which we’ve already outlined in our Pixel 9 Pro XL review.

Of course, the AI-related features are also at hand. Gemini AI can engage in a natural conversation with you, give you an idea of ​​what to cook based on a picture of your fridge, summarize text, etc. Google’s AI assistant is much more powerful now and adds to the list of already-known features.

But since this is a foldable device, you can take advantage of a couple of unique features. Most are tailored toward better and more effective multitasking.

There’s the usual app dock at the bottom of the unfolded screen, which you can hide or pull out with a swipe and hold. You can add apps of your choice for easier access or open up the app drawer to launch an app.

Drag and drop an app to open it up alongside another in a split-screen view. You can even launch two instances of the same app, as long as the app itself allows it. For instance, you can launch two Google Chrome browsers at once.

Home screen and notification shade

Due to the square 1:1 aspect ratio, it doesn’t really matter how you hold the phone. The content and UI will look the same.

App taskbar and app drawer

Unfortunately, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s multitasking capabilities are rather limited for now. There’s no floating window option and you can launch only two apps at once. Competitors, such as the Galaxy Z Fold6 can run more than two apps on the screen.

On the other hand, you can predefine app pairs using the AppPairs feature. Once you launch a set of two apps in a split-screen mode, you can save them in a shortcut on the home screen and launch them simultaneously when needed. It’s similar to Samsung’s feature, but you can’t place a shortcut on the home screen on the Z Fold.

Recent apps and split screen

The Pixel also plays nicely with some games that recognize foldables. For instance, Asphalt 9 will show a minimap and controls on one half of the screen leaving the top half just for the game itself. It’s pretty convenient.

Asphalt 9 on the foldable

When it comes to performance, the software ran smoothly without any major hiccups. We didn’t observe any major software issues, but the docked taskbar can sometimes get in the way of some UI elements in apps, but we are sure Google will fix that with a future update.

Benchmark performance

Unlike its predecessor, the new Pixel 9 Pro Fold employs the latest Tensor G4 SoC and not a year-old one. The Tensor G4 contains a brand-new CPU with eight cores, one core fewer than the G3’s – 1×3.1 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3×2.6 GHz Cortex-A720 & 4×1.92 GHz Cortex-A520. All cores have been upgraded to their respective latest generation.

The GPU stays the same as on the Tensor G3 – Mali-G715 MC7 – but it has a higher clock at 940Hz, up from 890Hz.

Memory-wise, the new Fold offers 16GB of RAM across all configurations, which are just two, though. You can either get 256GB or 512GB without the option to expand via microSD. The storage chips are UFS 3.1.

Pixels have never been the most powerful phones and their Tensor SoCs have always dragged behind the competition, so seeing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip topping the Tensor G4 inside the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is no surprise. Google’s foldable runs smoothly in day-to-day tasks, but it may not be as good in more demanding game titles.

Sustained performance

The sustained performance of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is downright abysmal. Heavy throttling occurs less than 20 minutes after the test starts and it doesn’t really matter if the handset is folded or unfolded. We observed the same behavior on the other Pixels 9 models, so the culprit could once again be the Tensor G4 SoC.

CPU and GPU throttle tests unfolded

CPU and GPU throttle tests folded

The GPU stress tests looked better, though.