Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs Google Pixel Fold: which is the better foldable?

When it comes to big folding phones, Samsung was early in the game with its Galaxy Fold series — now up to a 5th generation. Its evolution has slowed down a bit, as all the important features of a modern smartphone have been added — water-resistance, excellent screens, high power, and adequate cameras. But the competition that is joining in now has the benefit of employing the technologies that have developed over the past few years, and hit the ground running.

For example — the Google Pixel Fold. Which looks like you grabbed a Pixel 7 Pro and just stretched it out. It comes with a different value proposition than the Galaxy Z Fold 5, as Google took a different approach to the design. Instead of having a narrow, one-hand oriented external screen, it aims to give you a "normal smartphone" experience on its cover display, while the internal screen grants you that extra play space whenever you require it.

But that's not where the differences stop — you also have different processors, different cameras and also different battery life and charging speeds. So, let's take a deeper dive with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs the Pixel Fold!

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From inception, the Galaxy Z Fold series has had this weird external screen, where it's way too tall and way too narrow. With an aspect ratio of around 23:9, it works for checking up on chats, mails, and calendar events quickly, and can be used for swipe-typing some quick messages. But once you decide to grab it with two hands and thumb-type away, it quickly starts feeling cramped.

This is where the Pixel Fold differs, with an external screen that has a comfortable 17.4:9 ratio (we are almost back to the good old 16:9 here!). As a consequence, the Google Pixel Fold has an internal screen of 7.6 inches, with an aspect ratio of 6:5, while the Galaxy Z Fold 4 has the same screen size only in a vertical orientation and 5:6 aspect ratio.

So, a win for the Google design here, if you are one of the people who laments the slightly awkward size of the Galaxy Fold.

We should also note that the Galaxy is the first in the Samsung family of foldables that folds with no gap, and so is the Pixel Fold. This is nice as it makes for a slimmer package and does not allow dust to get in between the two halves.

As for construction, both phones are ingress protected, with an IPX8 rating, but there is no dust protection, and that remains the number one enemy of folding phones and the biggest cause why they can break much sooner than traditional phones.

As for colors, we have Obsidian and Porcelain for the Pixel, which is classic and also playing it safe. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 comes in a bigger variety of color options:

What do you get with both phones? Well, a phone and a cable in the box and not much more — we live in a "Bring Your Own Charger" world, which is the sequel of the "We Don't Need Headphone Jacks" saga.

We already mentioned the important differences in the sheer size and format of the screens, but what about the actual display panels and quality? Well, it's all OLED — both screens on both these devices use the tech, and it's only logical, since LCD with backlighting just can't work on a folding phone.

The crease in the middle is still very much noticeable on both phones, but probably a bit more so on the Galaxy.

Both also come with a pre-installed screen protector that you should not remove under any circumstances as you may void your warranty and break that fragile panel underneath.

We have 120Hz refresh rates on both inner and outer screens, HDR support, vibrant colors and high levels of peak brightness.

The Pixel Fold does have this awkwardly thick bezel around the internal screen, but at least it also houses the selfie camera on that frame. Samsung, on the other hand, embeds the internal selfie camera under the main screen, so it's almost invisible, really cool tech at the slight expense of image quality.

For biometrics, don't look at the screens — the two use a fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button, and it's fast and reliable on both of them.

One of the big advantages of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is that it's the first folding phone coming with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, aka the latest and greatest chip for Android phones.

Google, on the other hand, uses its in-house made Tensor G2 chip.

In raw specs and benchmarks, the Tensor G2 just can't compete — not even with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 from last year. Google says it has instead focused on AI specific features with the Tensor chip, but we are not sure we are completely buying this. In real life, the Tensor can overheat quite easily and on a few occasions after heating up it slows to a near halt, while we practically never experienced this with the Snapdragon-powered Galaxy.

As for the rest of the specs, both phones have 12GB of RAM and the base model on both is equipped with ample, 256GB of storage.

Look closer, and you would notice the Pixel Fold actually uses a slightly slower LPDDR5 RAM (vs LPDDR5X tech on the Galaxy), and it also uses the slower UFS 3.1 storage standard. At that price, those details matter: after all, UFS 4.0 is almost twice as fast at reading and writing.

When it comes to software, both phones run on Android 13, but it looks and functions somewhat differently.

Both phones support split screen multitasking and both use a "dock" with your favorite and recent apps ready to be accessed quickly. From the dock, you can also easily drag and drop apps to the side of the screen to instantly start a split-screen session. The Galaxy is a bit more versatile with its split-screen multitasking features: while the Pixel only allows you to drag your apps into a 50/50 or 66/33 split, on the Galaxy you can freely arrange them and you can have three apps running at the same time, while the limit is only two apps on the Pixel. Additionally, you can have a floating app on top of that on the Galaxy, a feature not supported on the Google folding phone.

Samsung's software also has other selling points. For one, it looks a bit more old school and familiar compared to Google bolder and more modern look. Samsung also has the DeX Mode, which activates when you plug in an external monitor.

And then there is stylus support. The Pixel Fold display is just way too soft and gentle, and we would absolutely AVOID using a stylus with it. It can even scratch from a fingernail!

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 screen is sturdier and it does support the S Pen. Samsung even has a re-worked and much slimmer S Pen case for the Galaxy Z Fold 5.

Both phones have a triple rear camera system consisting of a wide, ultra-wide and a zoom shooter, but while the Pixel supports native 5X zoom, the Galaxy can only go as far as 3X.

That's great for long range zoom shots, but not so great for portrait mode photos where you need 2X and 3X which are both supported on the Samsung phone.

There is also a clear difference in the color science, with the Pixel going for more toned down and realistic colors, while the Galaxy favors a look with more saturated and vibrant tones.

We will be sharing sample photos, videos and more details over the next few days, so make sure to check back here for that.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 inherits the amazing loudspeaker quality of its predecessors and it has roomy and boomy sound. The Pixel Fold sounds fine in comparison, but it just doesn't quite have that punch and rich soundstage.

And as for haptics — we would say the Galaxy has the stronger output, and on a few occasions we missed calls just because we could not feel the vibration feedback on the Pixel Fold in the pocket.

These phones may feel large to hold, but the fact is — they only have the two thin halves to store components in, and the battery has to be split between these two thin halves.

So that's why the battery size on both is a bit smaller than on a traditional flagship smartphone. But interestingly, the thicker Galaxy Z Fold 5 is equipped with a 4,400 mAh cell, while the Pixel Fold - despite its thinner size - comes with a nearly 10% larger 4,821 mAh battery.

We are yet to run our three independent battery tests on these phones to give you the exact battery numbers, but we still don't expect these to last much more than one full day off the charger.

As for charging, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 supports 25W on the wire, which is just okay by modern standards, while the Pixel Fold supports even slower, 21W charging speeds. 

As for wireless charging, the Pixel Fold is a beat slower than most modern phones at speeds of just 7.5W, while the Z Fold 5 supports 10W+ speeds. 

Thus far, we've discussed how the Galaxy Z Fold series usually tries to be on the cutting edge of hardware, whereas the Pixel phones have a slightly different take. But here are the raw specs, laid out:

As you have already seen, there are substantial differences in the size and form factor, but also in the processor and battery specs.

So... do we have a unanimous winner in this Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 vs Google Pixel Fold comparison?

Each phone has specific pros and cons, but we don't think there is one clear winner for everyone.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 feels faster, has more software options and multitasking features, and has a number of camera advantages.

However, it still feels awkward with that shape, while the Pixel Fold feels like it nails down the form factor from the very first go.

The outer screen on the Pixel Fold makes a huge difference. After all, most of the time, you just use your phone for casual stuff and you don't really need to open it.

However, the cons of the Pixel Fold are in the chip which overheats easily, and it is still a first gen phone, meaning we are not sure how it will survive long term use and abuse.

So... which one fits you better and why is that?