GoKawiilis a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.
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The foldable phone market is in the middle of a huge transformation, but no one told Google.
Last year, Samsung transformed its Galaxy Z Fold 7 with a dramatically thinner design. This year, it made its phones thinner and lighter again, almost eliminated the crease, and introduced a new passport-sized form factor that feels like the future. Next month, Apple is expected to enter the market with a foldable iPhone that, rumor has it, includes all of the above and adds iOS too.
In the face of all that flux, Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold has hardly changed a thing.
Like the other Pixel 11 phones, this is an iterative hardware upgrade, but unlike the others its design feels dated already. It’s a little thinner and lighter than last year’s phone, the main camera is a bit better, the screens a touch brighter. But it’s mostly the same hardware, boosted by software updates like Camera Looks, multitasking Bubbles, and Creator Suite tools.
This isn’t a bad phone at all. The IP68 rating makes it tougher than Samsung’s latest, and the triple camera and solid software are both big draws. Perhaps not changing the design will even work in Google’s favor: The 11 Pro Fold’s aspect ratio sits in between the two extremes of Samsung’s 2026 lineup, its stocky Z Fold 8 and skinny Z Fold 8 Ultra, and despite a price hike still feels competitively priced with either.
That’s enough to mean the 11 Pro Fold still feels like a smart purchase right now, but I’m worried it won’t do for long.
At $1,899, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is $100 more than last year’s phone. Unlike on the other Pixel 11 models, that’s not masking a storage bump: This has the same 256GB starting storage as last year’s model. You can pay an extra $120 to get 512GB storage, and a further $230 to get 1TB. Every version comes with 16GB of RAM.
That $100 hike gets you a handful of hardware improvements on last year’s phone. The chipset has been upgraded to the new Tensor G6; both OLED displays run a bit brighter, now peaking at 3,600 nits; the 48-megapixel main camera uses a larger image sensor; and the Qi2 magnetic wireless charging now runs at 25W, up from 15W.
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