Google's New Folding Phone: What's New and How It Stacks Up Against Samsung
Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a phone that opens like a book to reveal a larger screen inside. The outer screen measures 6.5 inches and the inner screen measures 8 inches, both about the same size as last year's model. The screens are 20 percent brighter, reaching 3,600 nits (a measure of screen brightness). The phone weighs 239 grams, down from 258 grams last year, and is 10.1mm thick when closed (Engadget).
Google has gotten closer to Samsung on weight but hasn't caught up. Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 weighs 201 grams, and the Z Fold 8 Ultra weighs 215 grams. Both Samsung phones are also thinner. Samsung showed off its foldable lineup on July 22, 2026, and started selling them on August 7 in select markets (Samsung Newsroom). The Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 5.5-inch outer screen and a 7.6-inch inner screen with new proportions.
Where Google pulls ahead is toughness. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold has an IP68 rating, which means it is fully sealed against dust and can survive being submerged in water. Samsung's Z Fold 8 line carries an IP48 rating, which offers less protection. Google also switched to a new glass fibre material on the back of the phone that the company says is nearly impossible to crack. These are the company's own claims, though, and independent testing will show whether they hold up in real life.
A new processor called the Tensor G6 runs the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. It delivers up to 25 percent faster web browsing, 20 percent better battery efficiency, and 15 percent faster app loading compared to the previous model. A new component for handling photos inside the chip makes Google's Night Sight feature up to 4.5 times faster. Google's Titan M3 security chip is also included (Engadget).
The main camera gets a new 48-megapixel sensor, which Google calls the most significant camera upgrade on the device. The hands-on coverage did not provide details on the other cameras.
The battery is actually smaller than last year's, dropping from 5,015mAh to 4,806mAh (mAh measures how much charge a battery can hold). Wired charging stays at 30 watts. Wireless charging jumps to 25 watts using a newer standard called Qi 2.2, up from 15 watts before. The smaller battery is worth noting because folding phones already have limited space for batteries. The 20 percent efficiency improvement from the new processor might help make up for it, but actual battery life testing will need to confirm that.
The Pixel 11 Pro Fold costs $1,799, which is $200 less than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold Ultra at $1,999 (Yahoo Tech). Google has kept its folding phone at $1,799 since the first Pixel Fold came out in 2023. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is expected to go on sale toward the end of August 2026 alongside the rest of the Pixel 11 series (Tom's Guide).
A June 2026 software update called the Pixel Drop added new features that may benefit the Pixel 11 Pro Fold at launch, including a new screen recording tool, text-to-video features powered by Gemini Omni, and better multitasking across Pixel devices (Google Blog).
This is Google's third folding phone. The original Pixel Fold came out in 2023, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold followed in August 2024 with pre-orders starting August 13 and in-store sales September 4. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold brings a series of steady improvements: a lighter body, brighter screens, a faster processor, tougher materials, and a notable upgrade to wireless charging.
In my view, what Google is doing here is the kind of incremental engineering that could push folding phones toward being a normal choice for everyday buyers. Toughness matters more for a folding phone than a regular one, because the moving parts and flexible screens create more ways to break. The water resistance and new back material address two of the most common ways these phones fail. If the processor's efficiency gains hold up, Google may be able to shrink the battery without shortening how long the phone lasts on a charge. The $200 price advantage over Samsung is meaningful. Whether all of that is enough to win over buyers in a category where Samsung still makes the thinner and lighter devices is something the market will sort out this autumn.
