The Pixel Fold doesn’t fold flat – it doesn’t matter

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The Pixel Fold has arrived at an excellent price and some strong words from Google about the engineering behind it. But, as some have noted, the Pixel Fold doesn’t seem to want to unfold completely flat.

Like other book-style folds, Google says the Pixel Fold unfolds to 180 degrees. But on some early impressions, that doesn’t always seem to be the case. Will Sattelberg of Android Police mentioned that the device appears to stall at about 176 degrees. At the time of our hands-on before yesterday’s event, Abner told me it was closer to 178 or 179 degrees, that it didn’t really feel in the hand.

Michael Fisher, aka MrMobile, called out this “problem” on Twitter. He notes in a thread that the Pixel Fold can swivel 180 degrees, but it won’t do it impatiently. Apparently, a great deal of pressure is required to make the fold “flat” to the point where Fisher describes the bend as “too much for comfort.”

Apparently, as Google told Fisher, this is a side effect of the hinge design. The hinge is designed to be fairly rigid, able to sit in place at certain angles, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.

1) The “unfoldable flat” thing:

Pixel Fold * Folds flat (or almost flat). But you need to really bend it to get to it—much for the convenience.

The explanation given to me (by an engineer, not a PR): They used a high-friction hinge for rigid positioning. This was the trade off. pic.twitter.com/0RGBTrMu4E

— Michael Fisher (@Captain2Phones) May 11, 2023

While this may be a little frustrating for some, the Pixel Fold isn’t alone in not being able to sit completely flat. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series has the same weirdness, it happens after a few weeks of use. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 currently maxes out at about 178 degrees. I can get through the last two degrees with some pressure, but as Fisher says, it’s not a relaxing feat. Other book-style folds have been known to do the same thing both out of the box and over time as well, so the Pixel Fold is by no means an outsider here.

In other tweets, Fisher also correctly points out that this problem is made more apparent by the Pixel Fold’s large camera module, which prevents the phone from sitting flat on a table when unfolded anyway.

More on the Pixel Fold:

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