Google Pixel Fold: Not There Yet

I bought a Google Pixel 10 Fold back in November. Google usually offers pretty good discounts around Thanksgiving / black friday for GoogleFi users, which makes buying a new phone feasible when combined with the refund for a year or two old trade in.

Being an early adopter is fun, and the fold technology is definitely promising. I'm certain in a few years there will be a whole slew of foldable phones (Samsung and Google already have several offerings) including an iPhone. But the technology isn't there yet - probably why there isn't an iPhone yet - and I've gotten frustrated enough with mine in just 6 or so months that I'm pretty convinced something significant is still missing.

Pros

• Bigger screen = more fun.

  Honestly, the bigger screen is dope. It works great for reviewing pull requests, playing phone games, basically anything where you'd expect the extra real estate to be useful is awesome. We've gotten used to our narrow-and-long phone prisons, but the foldable phones show it doesn't have to be that way.

• Tactical feedback is natural and enjoyable.

  I also love being able to open it to start engaging and close it to stop; the tactical feedback of opening it and closing it, especially when combined with face unlock, is just satisfying and natural.

Cons

• Apps are stuck in the narrow-and-long age.

  Apps haven't caught up. The bigger screen is great when there's an experience that can make use of it, but most common apps - instagram, facebook, etc - are still built for sm & lg+ screen sizes. The fold's square aspect ratio and md-ish dimensions result in distortion, cropping, or significant letterboxing for most content. Sometimes there's even functionality that exists off screen, which is ultra annoying.

• The open / close sensor sucks.

  Like really sucks. Maybe it's just an issue with my phone, this model, or Pixel specifically, but since pretty early on I've had issues getting the screen-opening to register, often leaving me fiddling with opening it slowly or partially to try to get it to work. When it doesn't work the inner screen just stays disabled and you can't do anything with it. Lately, my outer screen just doesn't work. I think it's the same sensor issue. A quick google shows others having similar or the same problems.