The Pixel Fold launched 3-4 months before the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. If you just bought a Google foldable and are mostly happy with it, I highly doubt the 8 series will cause you to change your daily driver.
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This is largely due to the Pixel 8 hardware not being overly competitive and my suspicion that this will be a software/AI-dominated year, with those features most likely coming to the Fold sooner than later.
1.) However, looking beyond that, I’m curious whether today’s Pixel Fold owners will be waiting for a second-generation foldable from Google, or whether they see themselves going back to a slab-style form factor. If nothing breaks, how long will you hold onto it?
It’s only been a few months for those first buyers, but the utility of having a bigger screen should be realized by now. Subsequent Android updates and Pixel Feature Drops should only make the large screen experience more compelling, with app pairs immediately coming to mind for faster, pre-defined multitasking. That said, after using a foldable, you might end up realizing you don’t really need a bigger on-the-go screen, or that you don’t really need two side-by-side apps that often.
Then there’s the tradeoffs of having a device that will always be thicker than a regular phone and likely heavier. In my usage of the Pixel Fold, I’ve come to ignore/accept the thickness and weight after a few weeks. It wasn’t instant, and I want improvements in the next version. However, I don’t consider it an obstacle to enjoying this foldable.
2.) Meanwhile, how many inner screen issues and the resulting replacement/repair cycle are you willing to tolerate before your experience with the form factor sours?
Overall, I think (and hope) that each Google foldable generation will be on sale for longer than a year (before the next one is announced). A lifespan of 18 to 24 months would allow for more time to develop, test, and make each version more meaningful than the last. (Of course, Samsung has put foldables on a yearly update schedule, though we’re starting to see the improvements diminish.) I think the iterations (at least three) that Google put into the first Pixel Fold means that it doesn’t need to do a second generation immediately (i.e., within a year).
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