Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a major leap forward, but Pixel 9 Pro Fold was still the bigger upgrade

13 hours ago 1

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 is an impressive jump for the company’s book-style foldable, delivering a needed upgrade and some major improvements. But if we’re looking to crown the biggest upgrade in foldable history, I think Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold still earns that title.

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The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a major, overdue upgrade for Samsung’s foldable. It’s drastically thinner and now matches the best in the world, while addressing almost every other complaint from past generations. A better camera, a wider cover display, a bigger inner screen, etc. Save for the stagnant battery size, Galaxy Z Fold 7 is better in virtually every way.

And in my use of the device so far, I’m super excited about that.

The best foldables on the market for the past couple of years have been from the like of Oppo and Honor and, while they’re fantastic in their own right, they’re not sold in large portions of the globe, and their software experiences certainly aren’t appealing for a huge number of people. That’s why the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has been my daily driver, because my alternatives were either iffy software from those brands, or underwhelming hardware from Samsung.

Samsung deserves a lot of credit for the year-over-year upgrade Fold 7 is delivering, but I think Google still deserves more credit for its work last year.

Moving from the original Pixel Fold to the the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was effectively like if Samsung had skipped directly from the Galaxy Z Fold 3 all the way to the Fold 7. Google’s first device was surprisingly good for a first attempt, but it had some clear downsides in that rough inner display, constant overheating issues, and the unorthodox form factor. Google addressed quite literally of that with the sequel, with Pixel 9 Pro Fold delivering the form factor everyone wanted with its big display, traditional cover screen aspect ratio, and improved chipset. Samsung is similarly addressing a ton of issues, but the issues on last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, and even the Fold 5 before that, weren’t nearly as impactful as the ones Google was dealing with.

To put it succinctly, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a device full of refinement, where Pixel 9 Pro Fold was a complete reinvention.

Is that to say Samsung’s upgrade is somehow bad or underwhelming? Not at all! As a customer, I’m thrilled, but I also want to acknowledge that Google, despite its inexperience, did more last time around.

That said, Google is preparing to launch Pixel 10 Pro Fold with little to no major improvements. I don’t think that matters much, really, as the Pixel and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 will have enough differences to still give each other some healthy competition. Samsung has a more impressive form factor, but Google (probably) has a more affordable price. With $200 separating each other, these devices can absolutely coexist without stepping on each other’s toes. Of course, that wouldn’t be a problem anyway, considering we’re talking about a tiny portion of the smartphone market in the first place, and then talking about one of the smallest (but growing) players in that market.

What do you think?

Pre-orders for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7, and Galaxy Watch 8 are now open through Samsung.com with up to $1,100 in trade-in values, plus an additional $50 in Samsung credit when you order through 9to5Google’s links below, but that credit only applies if you check out within 30 minutes.

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