Google Pixel Fold Interview | Tom's Guide
The Google Pixel Fold is a different breed of foldable phone, which is exactly what this category needs. But what makes it different than the Galaxy Z Fold 5, why is the price $1,799 and how can Google say it has the world’s toughest hinge? I ask Google Pixel product manager George Hwang those questions and more, including whether Google is looking at flip-style foldable phones.
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00:00 The Google Pixel Fold is a different breed of foldable phone, and that's a good thing
00:04 at a time Samsung has become synonymous with the category.
00:07 It has a wide front display, the thinnest design, and, of course, pixel-grade cameras.
00:12 But as you've seen in our Pixel Fold review, it's not perfect, and it has the same $17.99
00:17 price as the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
00:19 At Google I/O, I had a chance to sit down with George Wang, product manager for Google
00:23 Pixel, about what makes the Pixel Fold stand out, the size of those bezels, and whether
00:27 Google is working on a Pixel Flip.
00:30 George, what do you feel like are the three things that really make the Pixel Fold stand
00:36 out?
00:37 Yeah, it's a great question.
00:38 I think about it quite a bit, and there's so much we're proud of, but I think that if
00:41 I had to choose three, it's really the design, which is led by the thinnest foldable out
00:46 there.
00:47 It's then durability and our focus on durability, ensuring that it's robust and people can use
00:51 it like they use anything else every day.
00:53 Right.
00:54 And then the design is around the cameras, ensuring that we brought all of that great
00:57 Pixel camera goodness to this.
01:00 So what about the thinness of the Pixel Fold?
01:02 So it's like 0.2 inches thin.
01:05 So how were you able to do that, and were there any trade-offs that you had to make
01:09 as a result of that?
01:10 I think first and foremost, getting it this thin, which is about two-thirds the thickness
01:16 of our traditional Pixel Fold, was a real task.
01:18 And we had to rethink how we architected a phone, how we laid out a phone, and even all
01:23 the components.
01:24 So even things from the haptics modules, the speakers, and particularly the camera had
01:29 to be all redesigned from the ground up to really ensure that we brought the great user
01:33 experience that you would expect from us.
01:34 But the key thing that enabled that was our hinge, our 180-degree fluid friction hinge.
01:40 It really does enable us to actually go that thin and still balance all of the other aspects
01:44 of it.
01:45 But one other thing that really stands out is the exterior display and the aspect ratio
01:49 that you guys chose.
01:50 And it makes a big difference in terms of everyday usability and wanting to use it when
01:55 the phone is closed.
01:56 How did you decide on the size and how wide it should be?
02:00 The first thing is we actually looked at data.
02:02 We were trying to see, well, how often do people use their phones, and really, what
02:07 do they do on their phones to try to make some decisions?
02:10 We saw that the 99th percentile of the user unlocks their phone and uses their phone about
02:15 200 times per day.
02:16 So a lot of interactions.
02:18 And the majority of those are actually quite short interactions.
02:22 Sending a quick text message, changing the song or the volume, and then maybe setting
02:27 an alarm clock.
02:28 So it's really cumbersome to have to change that in the way that you do that.
02:32 So we really focused on giving a phone-first type of design here that's very similar to
02:36 the phone that I'm sure you have in your pocket.
02:38 And then the benefits of that is actually when you unfold it, it gives you a large 7.6-inch
02:43 display that's really beneficial for things like media consumption as well as multitasking,
02:48 which are key use cases if you think about how people use things like tablets.
02:53 What are some of those modes that you have, whether it's like tent or the tabletop mode?
02:59 And what can you do with them?
03:00 Yeah, so we've worked with our friends in Android, as well as the Play Store and our
03:05 developer partners, to really show that we could optimize for particularly, obviously,
03:09 the outside display, but then in the inside display as well, ensuring that we could bring
03:13 those in an optimized view on the inside display and the transition between, which isn't easy.
03:18 You could start something on the outside and via continuity, it comes out into the larger
03:22 screen.
03:23 Then on top of that, because of the hinge that we developed, you do get some extra modes,
03:26 which we're really excited about.
03:27 Tent, this is really great.
03:30 The thing that I do often is I like to cook, surprise, and I'll be watching a YouTube clip
03:35 on a recipe.
03:37 And because I have my hands dirty, I'll just be watching it kind of in tent like this and
03:41 then going and making the food and things like that.
03:43 Or we also use it for astrophotography, which is because you want to have a hands-free tripod.
03:49 And so you kind of set it into astrophotography mode if you go camping or something like that,
03:53 and you get a really great view of the starry sky.
03:55 So you can do a time lapse without having to do anything or use a tripod.
03:58 Exactly, or bring extra gadgets and things like that.
04:01 And then on this side, we have optimized several apps and continue to expand on that as well.
04:05 YouTube's a great one.
04:06 Peloton's another great one, where you have the content, the viewing content on the top,
04:12 and then additional information on the bottom, stats, comments, playlists.
04:16 Or the thing that I like to do, if you're on a Google Meet call, for example, is I actually,
04:21 if I'm going to pay attention to the Warriors game, I'll have the box go on the bottom using
04:27 a split screen.
04:28 Now that is multitasking.
04:29 It is, it is.
04:30 It's very smart of you.
04:32 In terms of the design itself, I think some people have been commenting on the size of
04:36 the bezels themselves.
04:37 I mean, I guess they're more prominent than they are than a regular phone.
04:42 But are there certain design considerations you have to give when you're designing a foldable
04:45 phone?
04:47 So I talked about the thinness of this device and a lot of that being driven around the
04:52 hinge.
04:53 And so how generally most hinges are made is that the hinge mechanisms are actually behind
04:59 the display.
05:00 And so that adds to the thickness of the device, right?
05:02 Because if you just think of a stack, you've got to add things on top of that stack.
05:05 And so what we did to really drive thinness is we actually took those hinge mechanisms
05:11 out to the corner.
05:13 That drove what you consider these bezels over here.
05:16 But that actually gave us two benefits.
05:17 It allowed us to improve the durability of the hinge, as well as put the selfie camera
05:24 into the bezels such that you have like a perfect display, large display.
05:29 You say, I think, that it's the most durable foldable device out there?
05:33 Foldable hinge out there.
05:34 Foldable hinge.
05:35 How did you come to a claim like that?
05:36 A lot of testing.
05:37 A lot of devices being dropped.
05:41 Worked closely with the engineering and the reliability teams to be quite rigorous in
05:44 this.
05:45 But it's something that you actually have to start from the get-go.
05:47 You can't just be like, oh, and we're going to test it later on, right?
05:50 We were really thoughtful about this, making sure that when people buy this, they have
05:55 confidence in the device.
05:56 And so we put that into our design from the get-go.
06:00 And then we obviously validated that through rigorous testing.
06:04 OK, talking a lot about AI and AI phones, and that's what Google makes, whether it's
06:09 a 7A on up to this.
06:11 How does AI play a role in the user experience of someone using a Pixel Fold?
06:17 There are multiple ways, not just on Pixel Fold, but also Pixel phones in general, which
06:22 we're really proud about.
06:23 One of those that's really special to Pixel Fold will be that dual screen interpreter
06:28 mode that we were discussing earlier, where if you're in another country, and then we
06:31 can have a much more fluid conversation, because you can be quite creative with this type of
06:35 device.
06:36 You have screens on both sides of the display.
06:38 You have cameras everywhere.
06:39 And you've got this really interesting hinge that holds its state, unleashes the capabilities.
06:44 That powered with our AI capabilities allows you to think through new use cases, new experiences
06:48 for our users.
06:50 What about the pricing of it?
06:51 Because I think Google is known for, in a good way, undercutting the competition, whether
06:55 it's the Pixel 7A or the Pixel 7 line.
06:57 This is in line with the competition at $1799.
07:01 Did you think about going lower?
07:03 What can you tell us about the pricing strategy and what it means?
07:06 When we thought about this phone and we worked on it, we really wanted to make sure we brought
07:10 the best of Google and the best that we could forward.
07:12 And so we kind of balanced that, everything from the design to the camera, many of the
07:16 hinge things.
07:17 And so I think our focus was ensuring that we brought the best device and the best overall
07:21 device all around.
07:23 And we really feel like we did a great job with that, ensuring that we could actually
07:26 deliver on the promise that we wanted to and bring the greatest experience for a foldable
07:30 phone to our users.
07:32 And I know you can't comment about future products, but what do you think about flip
07:35 style foldable phones as opposed to the book style?
07:39 Is it a category that you're investigating or do you like just sort of focusing on this
07:43 one form factor for now?
07:45 What do you think of the flip style phones?
07:47 Yeah, we're always looking at different types of devices, different types of technologies,
07:54 and it's really interesting.
07:56 We're definitely looking at it.
07:57 The thing for us is we do want to focus specifically on this form factor because everything we
08:01 can kind of bring to it and ensure that we could kind of solve some key user issues from
08:06 the design to the apps, as well as the camera.
08:10 And so we're quite confident in what we're doing with this, but we're always exploring
08:13 other types of devices and other types of technologies.
08:15 All right, George, well, thank you so much for your time.
08:17 That's our interview with George Wang on the Pixel team.
08:19 Be sure to check out our full Google Pixel Fold review and our Pixel Fold versus Galaxy
08:24 Z Fold 5 face off on Tom's Guide.
08:26 And be sure to follow us at Tom's Guide on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
08:30 I'm Mark Spoonhauer, and I'll see you in the next video.
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