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I saw the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold - and found 3 key reasons to buy it over Samsung
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Google is in a bit of an odd place right now, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold may be the best example. It's launching this week, just shortly after Samsung released its Galaxy Z Fold 8 series to global fanfare, and Apple will reportedly launch a phone-to-tablet foldable of its own in September. So who should care about Google?
Also: I compared Google's pricier Pixel 11 series to Samsung's Galaxy lineup - here's the better value now
That's the question I tried to get answers to ahead of this week's Made by Google event, where the company is showing off its latest generation of Pixel 11 devices, including the Pro Fold. While much about this year's device reminds me of last year's Pixel 10 Pro Fold, there are still some interesting changes and upgrades that put Google ahead of Samsung -- and possibly Apple.
One of my biggest qualms with previous Pixel foldables is their insufficient brightness, with both the inner and outer displays often barely legible in direct sunlight. With the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, Google says it's upped the overall brightness by 20% compared to last year's model, while applying the same Super Actua tech of the inner screen onto the outer one, too.
The result is a phone that's noticeably more vivid, even before I dial the brightness to the max. I'll have to see how the displays hold up when used outdoors, but from an early look, they're much more promising.
Google is encasing the new displays in a design that it claims is 1mm thinner and 10% lighter -- thanks in part to a tighter hinge -- than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. While that's not a drastic improvement and doesn't put the Pixel in Galaxy Z Fold 8 territory for pocketability, it's done in a way that retains the phone's IP68 water and dust resistance.