Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold Review

Design

• Hefty compared to leading rivals
• Curiously wonky design
• HiLight notification system is pointless

At a time when the trend seems to be towards smaller, wider book-style foldables, the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold runs the risk of coming across as a dusty (albeit dust-resistant) relic.

It looks much the same as the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold and the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold before it – two phones that weren’t exactly on the cutting edge of foldable design even at launch.

To be fair to Google, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has slimmed down a little. It’s 0.4mm thinner (when folded) and 18g lighter than its predecessor.

But that still makes it 10.1mm thick and 239g respectively. A darned sight chunkier, in other words, than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Honor Magic V6.

You can still get away with a heftier foldable body, as the Motorola Razr Fold will attest to, with a sufficiently cohesive and inviting design. But in slimming its phone down, Google has created a curiously wonky, almost lopsided Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

The rear section is noticeably thinner than the front section, which looks and feels plain weird when you flatten it out and observe it from the top or bottom edge. There’s a big old ridge as you run your fingers from one section to the other.

Another dated element is the inner display crease, which seems way more visible than those of its key rivals, despite Google having redesigned the hinge mechanism. It’s better than before, but still not good enough.

In its defence, the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a well-constructed piece of kit, built from premium materials that are now reportedly three times stronger, and with a full IP68 dust and water resistance rating. Although even that last point is no longer so special, with the Honor Magic V6 having attained IP69.

One particular saving grace is the delightful Olive colour option, which I’ve been using. The full effect doesn’t quite come through in these images, but Google undoubtedly has a way with a tasteful green tone.

Like the Google Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL, Google’s new foldable comes with the new HiLight system. It’s no more helpful here, serving up a largely superfluous notification light for those psychos (and case-users, I’ll concede) who keep their phones face down on tables.

This LED light, mounted on the camera module, flashes on when you talk to Gemini, or when you receive a call. That’s it. It is almost completely useless, at least until a future update adds wider compatibility and customisation options.

Screen

• Useful 6.4-inch cover screen
• Good-quality but very square 8-inch foldable screen
• Decent stereo sound

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold employs broadly the same duo of displays as the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, fronted by a usefully proportioned 6.4-inch 120Hz OLED cover display.

This smaller screen is the one you’ll be using most of the time, so I’m glad that it doesn’t have the overly tall aspect ratio of many book-style foldables. It feels like using a ‘normal’ phone – or would do if that body wasn’t so darned thick.

On the inside there’s a familiar 8-inch 2076 x 2152 OLED. It’s as good as ever for more involved tasks like split-screen multitasking, extended web browsing, and light spreadsheet editing, though video content looks weird with those thick black borders. You probably know the score with such foldables by now.

The main (only?) advance over the Pixel 10 Pro Fold displays relates to brightness. Peak brightness has risen to 3600 nits in both cases, up from 2700 nits, which is an appreciable improvement – though last year’s models hardly felt dim.

Sharpness and colour accuracy are uniformly good.

Whichever screen you’re using, stereo sound is supplied, in landscape, by a pair of speakers on the top and bottom edges of the phone. The output is clear and reasonably nuanced.

Camera

• Larger 48MP main camera
• Much the same 10.8MP telephoto and 10.5MP ultrawide
• Dependably rich, well-exposed shots

Glancing at the spec sheet, Google appears to have equipped its latest foldable with exactly the same camera set-up as its previous one. There’s a 48MP main, a 10.8MP 5x telephoto, and a 10.5MP ultra-wide, just like on the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

There’s one major difference here though. That main camera actually deploys a different 1/1.56″ sensor, which is 63% larger than that of its predecessor.

This means that it’s no longer the runt of the litter (though it’s only level with the regular Google Pixel 11). More importantly, this means that it scoops up considerably more light.

Google’s processing has always done a lot of the heavy lifting here, so daytime shots continue to look great, with vibrant colours and a generally bright, well-exposed look. They’re not the most natural-looking by default, but even here Google has added new Camera Looks that fundamentally alter the tone of the image in fairly self-explanatory ways (Default, Natural, Shadows, and Vanilla).

Where you really notice the difference with that larger sensor is in night shots, which are clearer and crisper than before, and which require shorter shutter times to achieve such results. Just avoid using those poky secondary sensors in low light conditions, and you’ll do just fine.

Those two sensors do a solid job in better lighting, despite their humble pixel counts. Google’s processing prowess deserves another nod here, as it ensures that the colour and exposure are broadly consistent with that superior main sensor.

The ultra-wide can’t even begin to match it for detail, of course, but the telephoto camera captures pretty crisp shots. You don’t get the full 120x Pro Zoom madness of the Pixel 11 Pro, but then, that was always a bit of a gimmick. As things stand, the phone can manage anything up to 10x shots well, but stretching all the way to 30x feels like a blurry step too far.

Google’s software tricks are on another level, with the likes of Add Me (insert yourself into group shots) and Camera Coach (learn how to improve the framing of your shot in real time) setting it apart from other phone makers.

This year Magic Capture joins the fray, intelligently digging out the best shots from a length of video footage. It’s pretty on the money with its selections, in my experience, even if I generally prefer a more intentional form of photography.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold isn’t the best foldable camera system out there – the Honor Magic V6 and the Motorola Razr Fold are superior in many ways. However, it is arguably the easiest to simply go out and snap with, reliably producing startlingly clean and usable results.

Performance

• Humble Tensor G6 chip
• Not a gaming powerhouse
• Generous 16GB of RAM

It’s becoming a truism to say that you don’t buy Pixel phones for their raw performance. The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold runs on the same Tensor G6 chip as the rest of the Pixel 11 range, which means that it falls well short of the competition.

In our usual suite of CPU and GPU benchmark tests – Geekbench 6 and 7 and 3DMark – Google’s foldable simply can’t hack it next to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra or the Honor Magic V6.

This shortfall isn’t merely academic, either. Gamers will find that the likes of Wuthering Waves perform markedly worse here on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold than on those aforementioned elite rivals – we’re talking flaky frame rates on Balanced/medium settings.

Of course, I’d argue that this isn’t the sort of game that’s best suited to such foldables – not with that weird square display. More expansive, strategic, and less technically demanding fare like Kingdom Rush, Slay The Spire and Dicey Dungeons play splendidly here. As they should.

By every other practical measure, though, I can’t really fault the Pixel 11 Pro Fold’s performance. It’s fast enough to fire through menus and apps, to jump into the camera app from the lock screen, and to run two apps side by side without pause. Doubtless the standard provision of 16GB of RAM helps here.

It’s extremely fast and fluid when running AI tools, too, which has long been the primary area of focus for Google’s hardware team.

Software & AI

• Android 17 as God (well, Google) intended it
• Seven years of support
• Extensive but not comprehensive Gemini AI

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold runs on Google’s own distinct flavour of its own Android OS, which I’d argue is the finest mobile UI out there.

True, Android 17 has been quite buggy for a chunk of Pixel users, but I can’t say I’ve experienced anything too egregious. This despite the fact that I’ve been using the Pixel 11 Pro as my day-to-day phone when I haven’t been testing the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Android 17 on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is as smooth, snappy, and just plain easy on the eye as anything. What lifts it above the custom Android UI also-rans, other than its visual cohesiveness, is the little flourishes.

Now Playing is a constant wonder, identifying background music without you even having to ask. Google’s Call Screening, too, is a powerful yet unobtrusive way to fend off spam callers.

Some find Google’s approach to be a little too hand-holdy, and it’s true that it’s not the most customisable or power user-friendly UI around. You won’t be able to shift that Google search field from the bottom of the home screen, for example.

But I like how intentional it all is. Take Google’s refined approach to multitasking on that large 8-inch internal display, for example. You can only have two apps side-by-side, which might feel rather restrictive, but the implementation feels extremely intuitive.

What’s more, you can now add further app ‘Bubbles’ that overlay what’s on screen, rather like a streamlined desktop environment. It’s not something I personally ever felt the need to deploy, but I appreciate the clarity of the implementation.

As we’ve pointed out in our other Pixel 11-series reviews, some of Google’s new AI-oriented software features aren’t available in the UK right now, which is annoying. One that is available is Rambler, which greatly improves text dictation by picking up on vocal slip-ups and corrections.

I’m with the rest of the guys on Magic Cue, though. It’s supposed to draw from Google’s many apps and services to surface relevant information, but I can’t say I’ve noticed its ‘help’ during my extended time with the recent Pixel series.

More generally, Google continues with its pioneering provision of a seven-year software support promise. Yes, other manufacturers have since matched this – but other manufacturers can’t guarantee you major OS updates quite so quickly.

Battery Life

• 4806mAh battery smaller than before
• Still all-day battery
• 30W wired and 25W Qi2 support

One weird downgrade with the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is that it has a smaller battery than its predecessor. Given that the wider foldable format has famously struggled with battery life, that’s a bit of a concern.

There’s no need to worry all that much though. Combined with the new Tensor G6 chip, which Google claims is 20% more efficient, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold’s 4806mAh cell will comfortably see the vast majority of users through a full day with change.

On one day with 5 hours and 16 minutes of screen-on time, involving two hours of YouTube and an hour of web browsing, I was left with 26% left in the tank. That’s not outstanding, but it’s good enough.

You can do better, of course. The Honor Magic V6 gives you a much bigger 6660mAh battery, and will last you longer.

The charging provision on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is, to use a technical term, a mixed bag. 30W wired charging is no-one’s idea of a suitable charging rate for a £1,800/$1900 phone, and it’ll get you from empty to full in a leisurely 1 hour 20 minutes.

Google’s provision of magnetic 25W Qi2.2 wireless charging, however, is among the best in the field. Essentially, there’s this and the iPhone Duo, with even last year’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold only stretching to 15W Qi2.

Should you buy it?