As you stack most modern smartphone models side by side, a trend becomes apparent. Mostly, they are tall and slender in their closed state, allowing them to possess an added squareness. when unfolded. For me, this design choice has always seemed misguided, since it strived to mimic a conventional smartphone layout rather than embracing the unique opportunities presented by a book-style foldable.
That’s still the unique one that got here alongside us in 2023? The long-awaited Pixel Fold finally emerged with a sturdy, compact form that unfolds into a expansive 16:9 widescreen display, resembling a tablet more closely than traditional book-style foldables.
Despite its sequel’s awkward moniker, it deliberately deviates from the signature characteristics of its namesake, instead emulating the features of other foldables I’ve encountered. While Google’s latest foldable device may boast numerous enhancements, the misguided approach opted for a more traditional foldable phone design instead. Why do I yearn for Google’s return to a more expansive layout for its homepage?
It is higher for apps
In my comprehensive review of the Pixel Fold, a crucial observation emerged: the expansive aspect ratio proved beneficial not only for outer display apps but also for internal screen usage. The issue wasn’t necessarily caused by the display screen being. Compared to other devices, the experience of using the Pixel Fold is altered because applications presume that you have been suddenly employing a tablet in landscape orientation.
Actually, a lone foldable exception existed – the Xiaopeng P5, which was never released outside of China.
The Pixel Fold’s innovative hinge mechanism enables seamless transition between tablet and phone modes, ensuring the expansive display is utilized efficiently throughout. While various foldable devices are offered for sale, they all share a common trait: transforming into a large smartphone when unfolded. This device primarily serves as a broad, overarching display platform, but its size often renders many apps ill-suited and inefficient when opened on this larger format.
Take Gmail, for instance. While Google has made significant efforts to optimize its suite of apps for larger, foldable screens, Gmail remains stubbornly unaware of its surroundings, persistently rendering as if opened on a traditional tall and narrow smartphone display, despite being displayed on a massive, expansive foldable screen. When unfolding the device, you’ll experience a seamless transition from a compact exterior to a larger canvas ideal for multitasking and content consumption?
The Google Mail app on the Pixel Fold seamlessly unfolds into a panoramic dual-pane view, offering instant access to folder and tag lists on one side and an open email or comprehensive inbox listing on the other. If you rotate your open foldable to a 90-degree angle sideways, you’ll gain this unique perspective; alternatively, you could simply open it in the most intuitive way.
Upon receiving the massive foldable display screen, I expect my workflow to become significantly more efficient compared to the constraints of a smaller mobile phone screen. I’d rather not need to pull out the collapsible menu situated on the left side. It should simply exist. This feature saves me the hassle of constantly scrolling up and down in my inbox, allowing emails to open below it rather than overlapping it, making navigation more efficient.
The YouTube app uniquely defaults to pill view regardless of how a foldable device is rotated, but “flex” mode offers a better movie viewing experience with its optimized aspect ratio on the Pixel Fold. When utilized as a makeshift stand, the device’s versatility shines through, allowing users to prop it up at an incline and leverage the bottom half as a stabilizing leg, perfect for watching videos or engaging in competitive gaming.
The Google Pixel Fold presents videos seamlessly across its entire display surface, unlike other foldables I’ve tried, which often feature black bars on either side due to a mismatch between the screen’s aspect ratio and the content being displayed.
While some users have experienced issues with the Pixel Fold since its release, a peculiar problem has been reported to occur on multiple instances.
Despite its reputation for being buggy, Discord remains a popular communication platform that can be frustratingly difficult to navigate on older smartphones with smaller screens, colloquially referred to as “book-style” phones. While using it on the Pixel Fold is significantly less troublesome due to its natural fit on the larger display screen, where the chat, navigation pane, and server records seamlessly unfold across the beautiful, expansive internal display.
The Pixel 9 Professional Fold’s chat may appear cut-off when displayed in a non-native aspect ratio, due to its unique folding design and potential limitations in content rendering. To view the entire chat, simply slide the chat panel to the left side of the display screen, allowing a spacious chat window to occupy most of the screen and utilize available space effectively.
While numerous apps have made significant strides in addressing issues since the original Pixel Fold’s release last year, many still falter when used on large foldable devices.
While builders can opt to display pill UIs on large screens, this does not mitigate the fundamental issue with displays that are too tall but not wide enough. While the initial Pixel Fold took bold steps, it’s uncertain whether any other company, including Google, would have the audacity to attempt a similar feat again, which is truly regrettable?
