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  • Thinking on buy a Pixel Fold and need opinions

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd Update: I switched to GrapheneOS last night, initial impressions - I like it. I haven't noticed any issues that weren't also present on the stock os.

As for battery life, I'm not really a power user. I mostly use my phone to watch some YouTube on lunch, read, text, and occasionally a little bit of games depending on what's new and peaked my interest as a pc gamer. I've never had an issue with battery and I don't charge it during the day. I'd say I usually go to bed with about 50% remaining. That may improve further now that I'm on GrapheneOS.

If you're looking for a purchase recommendation: I'm mixed. I've been a die hard fan of the large foldable format ever since they were concieved. I've owned the Samsung Z Fold 3 and now the Pixel Fold, and I spent years following the rumormill around the pixel fold. I actually met one of their senior executives at an event and got early warning of it's release :D. That said, idk if I'd buy another foldable personally. The big screen is great, and it's just as great as you'd imagine for stuff like reading, games, and video (despite the black bars)... but my personal tastes are changing and what really interests me more lately is ownership through right to repair. My next phone will likely be either a Pixel A-series (older gens are nearly disposable in terms of affordability) or a Fairphone, provided I can source it in the US. Performance isn't as important to me as those. Part of the shift came from the fact I had to RMA my first Pixel Fold due to a display defect, which basically brought my hype train to a full hault. Thankfully, the second one has had no issues :). Software wise the Pixel Fold has a couple quirks, such as the accelerometer doesn't adjust for the larger screen and map think you're sideways when you're not, some apps are incredibly broken like Discord where it just simply doesn't work on the big display unless you relaunch it every time, and then you'll have to relaunch it to use it on the smaller screen. Do I regret buying it? No. Full disclosure though, that due to some promo's, tradeins, and other shenanigan's I only paid about $200 for my Pixel Fold, ordered straight from the Google Store. At the end of the day though, it's just another phone and at some point the novelty wears off. The biggest thing I'd miss if I switched is reading, YouTube, and games.

tl;dr;

Camera is fine. Battery is fine. Big screen is nice. Experience as a whole is ups and downs.

    First notices about the Fold2 are out and seems new version will be released in November, like P9/P9Pro. I think I can't wait until November 🤣

    6 days later

    Well, I've decided to buy a Pixel Fold 1, thansk for the comments...
    Please, if you own a PF1 with GrapheneOS installed, can you let me know the main differences BTW the stock software and GOS in the specific Fold form factor?
    Thanks

      cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd Please, if you own a PF1 with GrapheneOS installed, can you let me know the main differences BTW the stock software and GOS in the specific Fold form factor?

      After a couple weeks of use on GOS with the Fold these are the differences I've noticed:

      • No more call screening. It hasn't been needed in this time, but I liked knowing it was there. Other than this, it honestly feels like a stock install. Support for the inner display has been identical, for better or worse.

      Other than that, there are a few self-inflicted ones:

      • Pixel Camera app (Google's, not GrapheneOS) will only open pictures (via the preview on bottom left) if you have Google Photos installed, it does not care if you have another gallery. Since I was using Google Photos before (and am currently trying to de-google to a limited extent) I was unaware of this behavior.
      • Some (but not all) people who would message me using RCS had to wait a day before their messages would revert back to SMS, this is because I stopped using the Google texting app
      • I can't use Google Assistant to control music in my car because my phone's not constantly listening to me

      I thought battery usage would decrease on GOS, but I also found a new game to play (AFK Arena) so I don't have an apples to apples comparison.

        • [deleted]

        • Edited

        RandomRanger Gcam Services Provider
        https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider
        Fdroid - https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.google.android.apps.photos

        https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider#comparison-grapheneos-gcam-support

        The only reason to consider Gcam-Services-Provider on GrapheneOS is the ability to use the button in Gcam that opens the last taken photo without having Google Photos installed. If you can do without it, you don't need this app.

        5 days later

        Thanks for the help folks :-)

        7 months later

        I am reopening the topic again because after the release of the new Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the price drop of the original Pixel Fold on the second hand market I am tempted to buy one.

        I fear for the fragility of the inner screen, since all the original pixel fold I see second hand do not include the purchase invoice, so in the face of a hardware problem I think google would not take charge.

        Could someone who has been using a pixel fold for months comment on their impressions?

        Thanks

        Had mine for a couple of months now. Bought it used from fleabay so I have no idea how many times it's been opened/closed but it seems solid so far. I was skeptical of folding screen devices ever since they came out but have been won over by my wife's zfold 4 which is almost 2 years old and gets heavy use and still looks like new. The pixel fold works great with GOS and it's nice to have something a bit different than another candy bar phone.