I can’t unsee the reason Pixel 11 Pro Fold is thinner, but it’s for the best [Gallery]

Ben Schoon | Aug 12 2026 - 1:30 pm PT

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is sneakily maybe the most impressive of Google’s new releases this week, but on picking it up one thing caught my eye – one half of it is thicker than the other.

It’s not super uncommon for the two halves of a foldable to slightly differ in size, but it’s usually by such a small degree that you simply can’t see it. On Pixel 11 Pro Fold, it was evident the second I laid eyes on the device. But closed and open, you can see that one half is thicker – or one half is thinner, depending on how you want to look at it – than the other.

And, interestingly, it’s not the way you might expect.

The half that contains the cameras and the Qi2 magnet hardware is the thinner one, while the half with the cover display is a bit thicker.

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When opened, as pictured above, the plane of the inner display is flat, while the back is slightly uneven. It’s not a big deal and something you won’t notice in feel, but it’s absolutely visible.

We asked Google about this, and a spokesperson explained that this is at least partially a result of the effort to make Pixel 11 Pro Fold thinner. Despite having roughly the same battery size and the same Qi2 hardware inside, Pixel 11 Pro Fold is roughly 1mm thinner than its predecessor, coming in at 10.1mm when closed up. That’s something you can feel in actually using the device, so I’m all for a slightly uneven set of halves if the phone as a whole feels nicer to use.

Pixel 11 Pro Fold is available for pre-order now, and it has way more upgrades than I personally expected. Are you interested in Google’s latest foldable?