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00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here and welcome to your first look at Google's first foldable phone.
00:08It's almost wild that it's finally here and I got to hold it and play with it for the first time after all these months of rumors and hype.
00:14So the phone is exactly what it sounds like. It's a pixel with a folding screen on the inside.
00:19And we were curious just waiting to see what it would look like just because this is the official Google take on what a folding Android phone would look like.
00:27So now we've got it. So for a phone like this there's basically three categories that matter.
00:30Design, hardware specs and software. And I guess also probably price but we'll get to that at the end because that's also important.
00:39It's an expensive phone but with my like hour or so of hands-on time with the phone I did get a pretty good sense of all three of these things.
00:45So for design, this is a more compact folding phone I would say.
00:49It's in the same style as the Oppo Find N2 but a little bigger and a little thinner.
00:55So there's a 5.8 inch OLED display on the outside, pretty thin bezels, power button and fingerprint reader and volume buttons on the side.
01:01And there's a pretty firm hinge that can stop at just about any angle to hold the phone open for easel mode.
01:07But then this is where it gets interesting.
01:08Google made a pretty big design choice in the hinge mechanism to put a lot of the parts of the folding hardware above and below the middle instead of behind it.
01:17So that's what makes the hinge itself and the entire phone so thin.
01:21But that also means there's extra hardware now above and below the hinge.
01:24So when you open up the phone, yes, that means there's a bit more bezel than usual above and below the display.
01:30Now it's a pretty generous 7.6 inch display unfolding on the inside here.
01:34But I think that it'll be slightly controversial because people are going to freak out about the bezels.
01:38That's like one of the things you can count on for the internet.
01:41But honestly, looking at it and using it, I'm totally fine with it.
01:44Like it lets them put an actually good front-facing camera in the bezel on the inside here.
01:48And it gives you a bit of something to hold on to and rest your thumb when you're holding the phone open.
01:53Anyway, around the back is the camera bar that doesn't quite span the whole width of the back.
01:57But it still looks very pixel.
01:59Plus on the side, there's an LED flash and a microphone array.
02:02And it comes in two colors basically, black and white.
02:04Honestly, I think it's a pretty good looking phone.
02:06I'm someone who liked the looks of the older Pixel.
02:08So that falls right in line with that.
02:10And I keep coming back to this Oppo Find N2.
02:13This is a phone whose form factor I've loved so much.
02:16And the Pixel is both a little bigger and a little thinner.
02:19Which is really interesting.
02:21And we're going to have to see how this thinness trade-off pays off.
02:24Because that naturally means not so much battery, right?
02:28So we'll get to the next category.
02:30Let's talk about the next section of things which is just hardware specs.
02:33So the story of the hardware here is it's mostly flagship or just short of it.
02:38So the 5.8-inch display on the outside is a 1080p 120Hz OLED with over 1500 nits peak brightness.
02:45Which is great.
02:46And the 7.6-inch OLED on the inside is also 120Hz.
02:50It's also just over 1440p in the 6x5 aspect ratio.
02:53I think these screens are awesome.
02:54But then on the inside, you've got Tensor G2 which has been in the Pixel for several months now.
02:59And 12GB of RAM.
03:01And then there's a 4821mAh battery inside.
03:05Now just for context, that's an interesting number.
03:074800, that would make it the largest battery we've ever seen in a foldable.
03:12But at the same time, the Pixel 7 Pro has a 5000mAh battery and the same Tensor G2.
03:19And average battery life, I think we can say.
03:22And so having a smaller battery and a much bigger, brighter screen in this Pixel Fold
03:27does give me some pause about battery life.
03:29That's a question that I have to actually use it to find out and review it.
03:33But I think also wireless charging, good to see.
03:37But it's also kind of slow wired charging.
03:3930W max.
03:40And then with the triple cameras at the back, there's actually all new sensors throughout here
03:44which Google says are flagship grade.
03:46But we're definitely going to have to test these out for the full review.
03:49But we're looking at a 48MP main camera.
03:51Then a 10MP ultrawide and a 10MP 5X telephoto.
03:55So overall as a package, teetering on flagship but not completely maxed out, obviously.
04:01The displays, I think, looked really, really good.
04:03In person, super smooth, super bright and responsive.
04:06But there are clearly concerns.
04:08I think the battery is the big question in my head
04:10which is always just going to be a combination of physical capacity
04:14but also software optimizations.
04:17And so, of course, software is a big part of what makes a phone good
04:21especially in a folding phone because it's a phone and also a tablet at the same time.
04:26So this Pixel Fold is going to have all the Pixel stuff.
04:29You know, the Google Assistant, Now Playing, Hold For Me, Material You,
04:34the customizable looking version of Android that we've seen in the Pixels
04:37make it the smartest smartphone in the world.
04:39And I love all that.
04:40But, of course, on the inside screen, we're talking about basically a tablet.
04:43And Android tablets, let's be real, have always been a little bit lacking in the software department.
04:47So I was curious to see if there was new stuff here.
04:50And there is some stuff to pay attention to.
04:52So first of all, the expected stuff like side-by-side multitasking
04:55feels really smooth and intuitive.
04:57The apps resize however you want them.
04:59But that's not new.
05:00What's new is this dock behavior at the bottom.
05:03So you can now long press that bar at the bottom of Android that's normally for gestures.
05:07And it brings up a dock of apps, which I think I need to play with more to understand better.
05:11But I'm going to guess it's your most recent apps and it's not fully customizable.
05:15But we'll see.
05:16Either way, you can quickly launch and bounce around other apps here
05:19and jump right into split-screen multitasking
05:21just like what Samsung did with the permanent dock on the Fold.
05:24It's just this one takes up less space.
05:26And also during my time with the phone,
05:28I was sort of talking with some people on Google's team about it.
05:31And they talked a big game about optimization,
05:34which I feel like we hear this story a lot.
05:36But they've worked with a lot of developers on optimizing tablet versions of their apps
05:40to look good on the Pixel Fold.
05:42They're also launching a tablet, so that should help both devices.
05:45And also they've updated something like 50 Google apps to all work on the larger display,
05:51whether that's a column layout or just something that takes advantage of the entire display
05:55instead of just looking like a stretched phone version of the app.
05:58So I think good news on the software TBD when we test it.
06:02Decent hardware overall and I think a pretty nice design.
06:06But then of course we should get to the price,
06:09which I mentioned at the beginning.
06:11I felt like it would kind of overshadow the whole thing,
06:13which is how crazy it is.
06:14But this phone will cost $1,799.
06:20This is an $1,800 phone.
06:22And $1,800 is a lot for a phone that's at the top of the market.
06:26I'm pretty sure that's the exact same price that Samsung's Fold 4 launched at,
06:30but now that's probably dropped in price since it came out.
06:32So, I mean, this is going to bring comparisons to every other $1,800 folding phone option.
06:39So if I'm just guessing from my first impressions,
06:41this is going to be a tough sell for anyone who isn't specifically interested in the Pixel software experience,
06:48which to be fair, I'm one of those people.
06:50I love that.
06:51But it's the same tough sell that the Pixel 7 Pro was.
06:54But at least this was sort of undercutting some of the most expensive ultra phones out there,
06:58where this Pixel Fold is the same price as the most expensive, best flagship folding phones.
07:04But all in all, very interesting.
07:06Very interesting Google's first entry into the folding phone space.
07:08Definitely get subscribed to this channel so you can see the full review
07:11when I actually get my hands on this phone for a longer period of time and test it.
07:15But for now, that's your first look.
07:17Let me know what you think.
07:18Is this going to be able to sell at this price?
07:21Or is this just another one first option in the first gen pile that people probably shouldn't buy?
07:26Let me know what you think.
07:28Thanks for watching.
07:29Catch you in the next one.
07:30Peace.