Thoughts and prayers for Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold

2026 is the Year of the Fold per the grand smartphone calendar. In the nine (and a half) months ahead, we're expecting a whole bouquet of fascinating foldable tech.

While there'll be several clamshells (like the Galaxy Z Flip 8) out there, the best in terms of innovation, hardware and hype is an area reserved for the book-style foldables.

So, what are we looking at? For starters, we could finally welcome Apple's first foldable, Cupertino's so-called iPhone Fold. That's an unofficial moniker, but it's good enough for the moment and I'll stick with it until Apple decides to share something more about its secret device. We also expect marvels out of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Oppo Find N6 (is there really no crease on that display?!), plus, the Motorola Razr Fold is drawing attention to itself with top-tier specs.

Hey, aren't we forgetting something?

Gosh, right – the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is also scheduled for the summer of 2026!

"But I'm a Pixel Fold fan"

I hear you. Don't get me wrong – Google's foldables are getting better with each new iteration and can't be called outright "bad" or blamed for being "a waste of money".

What I'm concerned about is the level of upgrades that the Big G introduces from one model to the next. Things could be done a bit boldly, to say it politely. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold, for example, wasn't radically different from its predecessor. It's probably unrealistic to expect a company to spit out "radically different" phones every 12 months, so if the Pixel 10 Pro Fold got a thumbs up even if it wasn't that much different from the previous model, the same probably won't apply for the upcoming Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Recent rumors about the Pixel 11 Pro Fold read that the selfie camera on the inner display might move to the upper right corner. The rear camera island could be slightly redesigned. The chipset is expected to be Tensor G6. And that's it for the moment. Given that Google is notoriously bad at keeping things secret, I find these laconic rumors uninspiring.

The current book-style foldable by Google, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, is almost a carbon copy of its predecessor. Sure, this phone introduced Tensor G5, some AI features, a slightly brighter display and the Pixelsnap system (Google's answer to the super popular and beloved MagSafe).

All of the above wasn't enough of an enhancement to render the Pixel 10 Pro Fold a champion. While performance is OK, gaming is disappointing, the battery life isn't better than that of its predecessor, video shooting is lagging… At the end of the day, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold was one of Google's laziest updates of recent times.

While many major companies (I don't even need to cough, you know I'm talking about Apple and Samsung) have been equally guilty of the same sin, Google should make an example of itself and innovate harder with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Moreover, the upcoming foldable by Google will find itself in a pretty harsh rivalry later this year.

The rocky road ahead

I'll start with the elephant in the room – the iPhone Fold. This one could turn out to be an epic fail (first-gen devices often come with hilarious shortcomings), but it will nevertheless steal the foldable show in the months and weeks ahead of its release. Pixels are popular mainly in the US, Canada and Japan. Problem is, these countries are huge fans of the iPhone, too. Naturally, they might be inclined to wait until September and see what the iPhone Fold will really be like instead of getting a Pixel foldable in August (when Google might release the upcoming 11 Pro Fold).

The opposite is kind of true when it comes to the Galaxy Z Fold 8. See, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was a mass hit and everybody – even some Samsung skeptics – was generally impressed with how thin, elegant and capable the Z Fold 7 is. Sure, it doesn't have a crazy battery on it, but the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a powerful and capable tool. That's why the bar is raised so high for the Z Fold 8 – expected in July, probably – that the poor Pixel 11 Pro Fold probably won't be able to keep up in the race for your attention.

The third menace (which is far from phantom) comes from the Far East. It has many faces. Sometimes it's called the Honor Magic V6. Or the Oppo Find N6. Yeah, Chinese foldables are giga-cool and tech nerds are not afraid of ordering one from across the sea, so Pixel's natural US presence is not a decisive factor.

The just-presented (and aforementioned) Magic V6 packs a new battery that has a capacity of 6,660 mAh (the Galaxy Z Fold 7 comes with 4,400mAh cell), and the upcoming Find N6 might come without a crease on its inner display and a 200 MP camera.

Motorola's Razr Fold looks mighty great, too, with its 6,000 mAh battery, a promising camera setup and blazing-fast UFS 4.1 storage.

Foldables may still be too expensive, too niche; but it's precisely in foldables that major innovation leaps are happening nowadays.

That's why it's crucial for Google to buy the Pixel 11 Pro Fold some comfortable Air max sneakers – it has lots of jumping (ahead) to do.

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