Righto, so I received the Pixel Fold this afternoon and spent a bit of time pondering whether I should keep it or send it immediately back because it's super expensive, and I still haven't made myself a YouTube channel for PR companies to lavish with swag, thus have to buy things myself 😅.

Given it was in front of me I figured it worth a look either way, so cracked it open (figuratively and literally?) and had a bit of hands on.

As positives go, it's very nicely made, feels great in the hand, the stainless steel is a lovely material, the hinge works wonderfully in every angle, and from what I gathered in half an hour of fiddling, the software is quite well adapted to the form factor. The form factor itself is also massively improved over the long, slim candy bar front displays of other folds on the market and makes it much nicer to use without having to unfold the device to be productive.

But.. the plastic screen is still no better than anything else to date, which is a disappointment given we're coming up on 5(?) years of bendy screens. If anything the crease is more pronounced than any Samsung foldable I've dabbled with, and my Fold came with bonus "dimples" towards the top of the screen for additional distraction during use. The battery is far too small for the hardware as well; I 100% would not get a full day of use out of this given I struggle to achieve the same on better-equipped devices with fewer screens.

"You already said you don't like foldable displays Bayton, why even bother!?" - I hoped I might be swayed with Google's foldable, in particular the Pixel Android experience, to a point where I could overlook first gen hardware but.. nah. It's outlandishly expensive for what it is, and I won't enjoy using it based on my thoughts above.

I'll go back to waiting for a well-supported (read: not Surface) multiple glass display device to hit the market one day.. or for a foldable that figures out the creases and such.

Back to the Fairphone 4 for now :)