Google Pixel Fold Review: A Foldable Galaxy Rival With Trade-Offs

Google Pixel Fold Voice and Data

Google's Pixel phones have never been at the top of the heap when it comes to signal performance. However, the Pixel Fold has been performing better than the company's flat phones. Despite being in an area with poor coverage, the Pixel Fold holds onto signal about as well as Samsung's phones. This might simply be thanks to the larger frame having more space for antennas, but it's good to see any improvement.


Google prides itself on making phone calls less annoying. In addition to all the aforementioned calling features, Google uses AI to improve your call audio. We can't say how much of a difference it makes, but all the calls we've had on the Pixel Fold sounded excellent on both ends. As for data speeds, the Pixel Fold is up there with the best, taking full advantage of T-Mobile's 5G "Ultra Capacity" network. The Pixel Fold also has mmWave antennas, but those networks are only available in dense urban areas, and the signals don't travel very far. 

Google Pixel Fold Performance Testing

The Pixel Fold has the same processor as all other current-generation Pixels, the Tensor G2. This 5nm chip has a lot in common with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon flagships, at least on paper. Tensor G2 has two 2.85 GHz Cortex-X1 cores, two 2.35 GHz Cortex-A78 cores, and four 1.80 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. The CPUs are paired with a Mali-G710 MP7 GPU. Tensor G2 performs well in daily usage, even if the benchmarks paint a different picture.

We noticed some minor deficiencies with the Tensor G2 in the Pixel 7a, and it turns out Google may have accepted a lesser packaging technology in that phone's chip, possibly to save money. From what we've seen of the Pixel Fold, this device has the "better" Tensor G2 found in the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. 

Google Pixel Fold Geekbench Results

Geekbench 5 is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real-world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics calculation scenarios. We tested all of the smartphones featured here with Geekbench's single and multi-core workloads.


Geekbench is not always a particularly informative benchmark, as it's completely synthetic, and OEMs are known to optimize for it. Regardless, Geekbench can be useful as a relative data point. Modern phones are pretty inconsistent in Geekbench 5, but the Pixel Fold falls roughly where we expected, in-line with all the other Pixels. 


Recently, the Geekbench test has been upgraded to version 6, which has new ways of testing multicore configurations and uses higher-resolution diagnostic assets. Since this benchmark is brand new, we don't have as many data points. This benchmark gives more accurate results for new hardware, and here the Pixel Fold outperforms the 7a by a fair bit, and even bests the Pixel 7 Pro. 

Google Pixel Fold PCMark For Android Results

UL's PCMark for Android is an excellent suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks on a handset -- things like image and video editing, as well as lighter-duty, everyday workloads such as email and web browsing. When you see the test running live, it's clear the scripted application tests are carefully selected and tuned to make use of the mobile platform in a very controlled way. Here's where the Pixel Fold falls.


Google's phones tend to perform poorly in this test, but the difference between the leaders and the back of the pack isn't very significant. We have not noticed the Pixel Fold lagging during heavy productivity, even with two apps running in split-screen. 

Google Pixel Fold AnTuTu 8 Benchmarks

AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of metrics ranked with somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates or time to complete. Here we're running the latest version of AnTuTu across multiple Android devices. AnTuTu returns four top level performance results which are all included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or User Experience), along with a total score.


The Pixel Fold had the best showing of any Tensor-based phone in AnTuTu, but most Qualcomm-based phones are way out in front, especially when you look at those with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. 

Google emphasizes AI as a major component of Tensor, which powers on-device intelligence like voice typing and cinematic wallpapers. However, it doesn't do well in generic AI assessments like AITuTu. You can't even see the leading Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 devices in the graph because Tensor phones run so far behind.


Even if you are concerned about on-device AI processing capabilities, the Pixel Fold should not concern you. Google is implementing more and better AI features than any other smartphone maker. That's more useful than a big number in AI benchmarks.

Google Pixel Fold Graphics And Gaming Benchmarks Results

Now, let's take a look at how the Pixel Fold stacks up in GFXBench, which has been one of the standard mobile graphics/gaming performance benchmarks for years. To ensure that display refresh (v-sync) and resolution aren't limiting factors, we're comparing off-screen test results here. GFXBench tests OpenGL ES graphics workloads and we're specifically testing OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0, as well as Vulkan in the latest iterations.


No surprises here—The Pixel Fold falls smack in the middle of the other Pixel phones, which all run slightly behind Qualcomm-based phones. 

Pixel Fold 3DMark Slingshot Tests

UL's 3DMark Sling Shot is one of several modules in the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers, and transform feedback. We're running this test in off-screen mode once again to remove display resolution differences from the equation. This allows us to compare cross-platform results more reliably.


Slingshot again shows the Pixel Fold to be consistent with other Google phones. It's about on par with the Galaxy S21, which had a Snapdragon 888 chip. That was not (and still isn't) a slow phone, but it's a few steps behind the latest S23 family and other phones running the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. 

Pixel Fold Wild Life Benchmark Tests

3DMark's Wild Life benchmark is newer and more demanding than Slingshot, and it allows powerful devices to shine. The Tensor G2's performance has regressed slightly from the G1 in the Pixel 6 family, but we're still talking about the middle of the pack in either case. It's faster than Snapdragon 888 phones by a decent margin, at any rate. 

Of course, it doesn't matter how fast a phone is in benchmarks if it can't maintain that speed in real world usage. All chips heat up and throttle, but some can shed 30 or 40% of their cold performance. The Wild Life Stress Test is designed to test that, running the above benchmark successively to see how performance changes. 

The Pixel Fold does fairly well here, possibly due to its larger form factor. It loses less performance than the Pixel 7a, Pixel 7, or Pixel 7 Pro (about 15%). It's even a bit more stable than Samsung's latest phones. Although, they start with higher benchmarks and remain higher overall.