is a reviewer with 10 years of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview.
A foldable phone isn’t for the faint of heart. They’re generally heavier, pricier, and have less capable cameras than a standard slab-style phone. And while they’re far less fragile than when they first debuted, foldables are still susceptible to the kind of damage a regular smartphone can shrug off. You really don’t want any dust getting in that hinge. But if you’re an adventurous sort of gadget lover, then a folding phone is a rewarding investment.
There are basically two kinds of foldables at the moment — the kind that fold like books and the ones that fold clamshell style, like your old flip phone. Here’s how I think of it: a book-style foldable is like a phone plus a tablet, and a flip-style foldable is a phone plus a smartwatch. The book foldables provide an outer screen for all your regular phone needs, and then a tablet-like inner screen when you want, well, more screen. Flip phones come with a smaller secondary display on the outer panel that’s useful for checking information quickly. When you need to do regular phone stuff, you unfold it.
What I’m looking for How we test phones Collapse There’s no shortcut to properly testing a phone; I put my personal SIM card (physical or otherwise) in each phone I review and live with it for a minimum of one full week. I set up each phone from scratch, load it up with my apps, and go about living my life — stress testing the battery, using GPS navigation on my bike while streaming radio, taking rapid-fire portrait mode photos of my kid — everything I can throw at it. Starting over with a new phone every week either sounds like a dream or your personal hell, depending on how Into Phones you are. For me, switching has become so routine that it’s mostly painless. Top-notch software support Collapse The phones listed here have powerful processors and enough RAM to keep up for years, so it’s fair to expect more than a handful of OS updates throughout the life of your phone. Four years of new OS versions and five years of security updates is a healthy benchmark for this class, and many of the phones here meet or exceed that standard. A fantastic camera Collapse Most phone cameras can perform well in good lighting conditions, from the flagship class down to $300 budget phones. The devices listed here offer a little something extra, like a useful telephoto lens, a great portrait mode, or impressive low-light shooting — and many include all three. Stabilization for the main camera unit to help in low light is a must in this category. Best-in-class build quality Collapse An IPX8 rating has become standard for foldables, meaning they can survive full water immersion. But X stands for “not dustproof,” and no folding phone maker has figured out how to fully protect these devices from dust yet — what with the moving parts and all. Devices with an IP48 rating aren’t dustproof either; they’re only rated to withstand solid particles 1mm or bigger, which is larger than dust. Value Collapse In addition to the best devices at any price, I look for phones that offer the best mix of must-have features for good prices. That might lead to a recommendation of a lower-tier model if it’s particularly feature-rich for its price or last year’s model if it’s still sold new and this year’s device doesn’t offer many upgrades.
So while they all fit in one category of folding tech, they’re suited to two very different kinds of people — someone who wants even more phone with their phone and someone who wants to be fully immersed a little less. Whichever category you fit into, you’d be wise to get the manufacturer’s extended warranty with your purchase; fixes can be expensive, and you won’t be able to walk into just any phone repair shop to get them. If you don’t opt for the warranty, you’ll want to be sure you can comfortably afford to replace your phone in the event of a sudden sand-related catastrophe. Death can come swiftly to a folding screen.
If I haven’t scared you off by this point, then you’re probably the kind of person who will have a heck of a good time with a foldable. I’ve used every phone under the sun, and folding phones are some of my favorite gadgets. Run four apps at once! Prop it up like a tiny laptop! Hold it like a camcorder when you shoot video! There are tons of possibilities, and the thrill you get when you fold your phone shut never fully wears off.
Best book-style foldable
Screen: 8-inch, 2076p, 120Hz OLED inner screen; 6.3-inch, 1080p, 120Hz OLED cover screen / Processor: Tensor G4 / Cameras: 48-megapixel f/1.7 main with OIS; 10.8-megapixel 5x telephoto with OIS; 10.5-megapixel ultrawide; 10-megapixel selfie (cover screen); 10-megapixel inner selfie camera / Battery: 4,650mAh / Charging: 21W wired, 7.5W wireless / Weather resistance: IPX8
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is only Google’s second folding phone, but it’s more refined than you might expect from a sophomore effort. Where the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6’s long and narrow outer screen suffers from Remote Control Syndrome, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold feels like an ideal form factor. The outer screen matches the dimensions of a regular phone, and the whole package is light enough that you can sometimes forget you’re holding a phone that folds in half.
There are some shortcomings. Like other folding phones, the 9 Pro Fold has a slightly downgraded camera system compared to its slab-style siblings. You still get a good 48-megapixel main and a 5x optical zoom, but don’t expect to be able to push it too hard in dim lighting. And like other foldables, there’s no formal dust resistance, just IPX8 resistance to full water immersion. Google’s multitasking software isn’t as flexible as Samsung’s either, and you can fit two apps side-by-side on the screen rather than the Z Fold 6’s anything-goes approach.
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