Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Z Fold 6 foldable device this month, with the phone hitting stores in just under a week on July 24. Thankfully, Google was attentive throughout the launch process, as there are plenty of lessons to be learned about how the company should handle the next version of its foldable phone.
This would be the sequel to the Pixel Fold, which will apparently be integrated into the Pixel 9 lineup and rebranded as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Google has scheduled a Made by Google hardware event for August 13, and we’ll see the new foldable unveiled there.
The changes Google plans to make to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold are likely already set in stone at this point. Still, the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s release has a few dos (and one big don’t) that I hope Google follows through with its foldable Pixel.
Add AI features specific to foldable models
There’s no doubt that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will come with AI features. It’s sort of the calling card of the Pixel lineup, along with delivering exceptional mobile photography. And by launching the new foldable as part of the Pixel 9 lineup, that means the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will likely feature a Tensor G4 chipset that enables a bunch of new AI-powered capabilities.
Hopefully some of these features acknowledge that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has multiple displays and can fold in half. Because several Galaxy AI features introduced with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 certainly do.
Interpreter mode isn’t necessarily a new Galaxy AI feature, but Samsung has tweaked it for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 to take advantage of the phones’ inner and outer screens. Now, when you’re having a conversation with someone else who speaks a different language, each person can see the real-time transcription appear on their respective screens.
Sketch to Image takes advantage of the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s S Pen support and expanded drawing space, transforming the sketches you create into more elaborate illustrations using generative AI. Google Gemini can appear on the phone’s Cover Screen, answering your questions without you having to open your Z Fold 6.
Will the Pixel 9 Pro Fold offer something similar? It’s hard to say at this point, as rumors suggest that the AI features for the Pixel 9 phones, like Add Me to improve group photos and the ability to search for screenshots, would work just as well on a regular phone as they would on a foldable. The Pixel 9 Pro phones could come with a year of free access to Google Gemini Advanced, and the Fold would likely be included in that offering. But again, this isn’t something that’s necessarily specific to a foldable phone design.
Hopefully the Made by Google event sheds a little more light on Google’s AI plans, especially when it comes to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Improve battery life
The original Pixel Fold’s battery life was decent: It lasted 10 hours and 21 minutes in our battery test, where we asked the phones to surf the web over a cellular network until they ran out of juice. The Pixel Fold’s time was a marginal improvement over the average smartphone result, which isn’t bad considering the Fold has to keep a massive 7.6-inch display powered.
Samsung’s Galaxy Fold phones have a similar problem, though the Z Fold 6 made slight strides in this area. The new phone averaged 10 hours and 35 minutes. That’s only a slight improvement over what the Galaxy Z Fold 5 was capable of, though the extra battery life came without any increase in battery size.
The same challenge now applies to Google and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold: improve the battery life of the original Pixel Fold by any means necessary. Maybe that means a bigger battery than before. Maybe the Tensor G4 is more power efficient than its predecessor. But however Google goes about it, increasing the battery life of its new foldable is essential.
Solve your display problems
The biggest complaint about the older Galaxy Z Fold models is probably the phone’s outer display, and more specifically its narrow aspect ratio. The thin display proved difficult to use, especially compared to devices like the Pixel Fold, which offered a larger cover screen.
Samsung addressed this issue with the Galaxy Z Fold 6, increasing the size of the Cover Display from 6.2 inches to 6.3 inches. The result is a slightly larger and slightly easier-to-use screen than before. Our review of the Z Fold 6 certainly found the screen to be less claustrophobic.
The Pixel Fold’s cover display is fine, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other areas that need attention. One of the things that comes to mind is the bezels surrounding the original Pixel Fold’s inner display, which are simply too thick for a phone that’s supposed to have a modern look.
We don’t know how much Google will address these issues until we get a chance to test the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but early indications are promising. The image above is from a teaser video that Google itself released ahead of the launch event. And the bezels definitely look narrower.
Make it lighter
Samsung seems to be making its large foldable device easier to carry. With the Galaxy Z Fold 5 last year, Samsung adopted a Flex hinge that made the foldable sleeker than its predecessor; the change also allowed the Z Fold 5 to shed 8 grams. The weight loss continued with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 this year, as the new phone weighs half an ounce less than the Z Fold 5.
If there’s ever been a phone that’s going to be on an aggressive weight-loss program, it’s the Pixel Fold. The device weighs 283 grams, which is 42 grams more than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. I don’t know if Google has any plans to tweak the Fold’s design to make it a bit slimmer, but making the foldable more portable seems to be a priority.
Don’t increase the price
And now the one thing Samsung did that Google should absolutely do not — charge more for its successor to the Pixel Fold. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 costs $100 more than its predecessor, with a starting price of $1,899.
Samsung likely has its reasons for raising the price, even if it hasn’t exactly articulated them. “The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 set a new standard for mobile innovation for us and are our best foldable series yet, enhanced by the Galaxy’s new AI capabilities,” Drew Blackard, Samsung’s vice president of mobile product marketing, told my colleague Mark Spoonauer when asked about the Galaxy foldable price hike. The problem with this approach is that it leaves shoppers wondering whether these kinds of improvements are really worth $100 more, and sometimes the answer they give may not match Samsung’s.
Google shouldn’t take that risk, or make the same mistake twice. When the Pixel Fold debuted a year ago, one of the things that immediately threw off the new phone was Google’s decision to match the Galaxy Z Fold’s starting price. By keeping the Pixel Fold’s $1,799 starting price this year, or better yet, by reducing the Pixel Fold’s $1,799 starting price a bit, Google can better differentiate its new phone from the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
And in this way, Google could teach Samsung a thing or two about foldable devices.