The Pixel Fold looks and feels every bit the high-quality Pixel smartphone we’ve come to expect from Google when it’s folded closed. On the outside, you’ve got what could be used as a standard flat smartphone with a high-powered set of cameras on its back. It has a slightly stout-looking 5.8-inch panel on its front, with an aspect ratio of 17.4:9. It is bright, sharp, and colorful.

Next to the Google Pixel 7a (also revealed for the first time this week), it’s clear how similar — but significantly different in a few key ways — the Pixel Fold is, so long as it’s folded. If we’re only looking at the devices from this perspective, it’s difficult to see why one would have a price many times that of the other. 

Then again, in many ways that plays to the Pixel Fold’s advantage. Being able to use the smartphone when closed means one-handed tasks are easier than on, say, the cover display of Samsung’s taller, thinner Galaxy Z Fold 4. While Samsung’s external screen is certainly usable, it’s a far better experience when the handset is opened up. Google’s foldable, in contrast, feels far more user-friendly — and akin to a regular smartphone, though obviously thicker — when it’s shut.