The software experience is almost like a miniature version of The Pixel tablet I recently reviewed. There’s a taskbar at the bottom of the screen that you can pull up in any app. Tap an app and drag it to the side of the screen, and you’ll launch it in split-screen mode—that’s all. There are no other strange gestures or controls you need to learn.
The split screen feature is great when you have apps that don’t look crumpled. I used Chrome with Telegram to send suggestions to my partner for where to order dinner without having to sort through the apps. I checked my calendar and replied to people via email and Slack to notify them when I was free. I had a phone call with the local utility company when I looked up my account number on the screen on the right. None of this is impossible on a normal phone and having these capabilities makes little things a lot easier.
Google says it’s updated more than 50 of its apps to use the larger screens on tablets and folding phones, and the results have been amazing. Gmail’s dual-pane view lets you see your email list on the left and the content that opens on the right screen. Google Maps gives you a desktop-like experience where you can see the location on the right and details about the place on the left. By default, Chrome doesn’t offer a desktop mode, but you DO Get tabs at the top to quickly switch between them.
There are a few apps I like opening the Fold for, such as Reddit syncmy favorite third-party Reddit app (it’s about died in a few days). It shows Reddit posts on the left screen and opens threads on the right, so you can scroll through the comments and easily tap the next post to continue. This is true even in messaging apps like Telegram, Google Messages, and WhatsApp. Airtable and Google Calendar look great too.
But of course, not all apps are created equal. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are a few of the many apps that aren’t optimized for large-screen Android and open with black areas on the side of the screen. You can expect this situation to improve as foldable devices become more common, but it may take some time.
As for the cameras, there’s nothing to worry about. Hardware is not as good as what you will find on Pixel 7 Pro, but it comes close and you still get the same great Pixel camera experience. There’s a 48MP main camera paired with a 10.8MP ultra-wide lens and a 10.8MP telephoto lens with 5X optical zoom. The external selfie camera is 9.5MP and the internal selfie camera is 8MP. You might think the innermost camera is pretty bad, but it’s not. It easily wins over the Samsung Fold4’s internal camera with well-exposed selfies.
