Galaxy Z Fold 6 vs Pixel 9 Pro Fold: Which is better?

With the Pixel Fold finally landing in Australia, Samsung now has a major competitor for tablet-style foldable phones. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 are very similar devices - while there are small differences like battery life, and decimel points of megapixels we won't really know which one out performs the other until we've been able to test them out.

For now though, we compare what we know about the 9 Pro Fold and Google's phone prowess, with our hands-on testing of the Z Fold 6 to help determine which one is worth your money.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is $50 cheaper than the Z Fold 6, but when you're looking at prices this high that isn't much of relief. Pixel's price starts at an eye-watering $2,699 while Samsung's latest foldable at $2,749. Either way, you could almost buy two iPhone 15s for that price.

Google's foldable comes in 256GB or 512GB models, while the Z Fold 6 has these and a 1TB model. Both devices amp up the price for each storage variation - $200 for Pixel and $200-350 for Samsung.

When it comes to megapixels there isn't much seperating the Pixel and the Samsung Z Fold 6, but in our testing Google's cameras often punch above their weight.

Both devices have a tri-camera set up comprising of a Wide primary lens, an Ultrawide, and a Telephoto. The MP differences are tiny; just 2MP seperate the 9 Fold Pro and Z Fold 6's primary lenses, there is a 1.5MP difference in the ultra wide, and a 0.8MP difference on the telephoto. For the first two Samsung wins out, and Pixel edges in for the telephoto.

Of course megapixels aren't everything, what really matters is the camers quality. While we can't speak for the camera quality on the 9 Fold Pro yet, Google has consistently delivered top-tier phone photography with as little as a 12MP camera. Samsung's camera on the other hand, is not only exactly the same as last year's Z Fold 5, but in our testing we found it lacklustre. Low light shots tended to be grainy or blurry, and even in crisp daylight images never quite looked sharp.

Since this is the first Google foldable to make it to Australia we don't have a point of comparison outside of Google's track record. Based on that, my bet is on the 9 Pro Fold to outshoot the Z Fold 6 but time (and testing) will tell.

Google and Samsung both have a slew of AI features, and but since they're mostly powered by Google's LLM across both devices there isn't too much of a practical difference.

While not all, most of Galaxy AI's features are powered by Gemini. Which ones are, and which ones aren't is difficult to determine since Samsung doesn't label them very well, but you'll notice a lot of similarites between the two devices.

Both devices have a range of camera AI features. On the Pixel you'll find Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Best Take, Photo Unblur, Zoom Enhance, Portrait Light and Add Me where you can quickly combine photos. Samsung highlights a feature called Photo Assist which allows you to move, erase or enlarge parts of photos. It also has features like Instant Slow Mo that lets you selectively apply slow motion to videos, and Sketch to Image that uses AI to turn your drawings into an image.

Regardless of the device you'll get access to Gemini from the home screen, and a bunch of associated AI features from Google like Circle to Search.

The main point of difference for the Pixel 9 Fold Pro is the extra AI features available through Gemini Advanced. These include having Gemini in Google applications like Gmail and Docs, using AI to assess spreadsheets, 2TB of cloud storage, and the ability to edit and run Python code into Gemini. Gemini Advanced is usually billed at $32.99/mth, but users can get a year of it for free with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Probably the most striking difference in the foldables' design is the aspect ratio. The 9 Pro Fold uses a 20:9 aspect ratio which makes the front display similar to the size and shape of your traditional smart phone. Samsung prefers what we like to call a remote control ratio of 22:9. This makes the front display long and skinny, like a TV remote. Neither are better than the other persay, but the 20:9 ratio does give a nicer distribution of screen real estate. Especially if you've got small hands.

Both have limited IP ratings, but Samsung's improved a lot year on year. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has an IPX8 rating which means it has absolutely no water resistance. This doesn't bode well for durability, especially as we head into the warmer beach months in Australia. Samsung's Z Fold 6 has an IP48 rating which can handle immersion of 1.5 metres for up to 30 minutes.

We can't say much when it comes to screen durability. US users had some issues with the original Pixel Fold's internal display, but the same can be said about previous Z Fold models. We won't know how well the screens hold up until much later on down the track. 

Both the 9 Fold Pro and the Z Fold 6 are high end devices, so the performance is likely to be excellent. Still according to the stats Samsung's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset will be faster than Google's new G4 Tensor.

In benchmarking the multi-core Snapdragon chip was around 68% faster than the Tensor G3, while the single-core was 32%. Even though Google has made improvements with the G4 chipset, they aren't enough to even out those scores. Google says the G4 chipset opens apps 17% faster and 20% faster web browsing. We're comparing apples to oranges with these stats, but that is the most exciting improvement Google had to share with us. So, the bar is low.

As for battery capacity the Pixel has just slightly more to play with. It is rated to 4,650mAh while the Z Fold sits at 4,400mAh. Thanks to the Snapdragon processor this battery lasted a comfortable five to six hours of screen time in our testing - easily enough to get a full day of moderate usage with a buffer. While Google did say that the new Tensor chipset has battery efficiency improvements, we don't know how that will translate as of yet. 

Another performance adjacent spec worth noting is the longevity of security updates. Both devices now come with 7 years of operating system updates so you'll be able to confidently hold on to either device for a long time.