Pixelated - A Tale of Two Android 16s

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Welcome to episode 80 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will talk through all of the new changes in Android 16 QPR2 and beyond. After digging through everything Google's been working on these past few months, their attention turns to the newly-confirmed Galaxy Z TriFold. Can they make sense of what's bound to be yet another ultra-premium device from Samsung, or does this feel like an experiment without a clear path to success? Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - The state of early Android builds 12:06 - Android 16 QPR2 features and changes 24:06 - Galaxy Z TriFold announcement 41:41 - Wrap-up Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more Android 16 QPR2 rolling out with December 2025 security update The top new features in Android 16 QPR2 [Video] Samsung reveals Galaxy Z TriFold, confirms US launch in early 2026 Galaxy Z TriFold likely priced around $2,800, first look shows display creases, DeX, more [Video] YouTube ‘Recap’ is here; how to find it Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer.

Welcome to Pixelated Episode 80. I'm your host, Will Sattelberg. This week, Abner, Damien, and I dive into everything new with Android 16 QPR2. Alongside Google's second big OS upgrade this year comes a whole slate of changes both visual and under the hood. After that, we tackle Samsung's newly confirmed Galaxy Z trifold coming early next year and wonder just who the device is for, especially considering that rumored price. It's all coming up right now. So to start off December, gents, we have, I love this time of year anyway, but to get a

nice, chunky, sizable Android 16 QPR 2, I mean, the name's terrible, but Android 16 QPR 2 update, there's quite a lot here to uncover. Let's kind of get into the summation of what's happened. There's some really cool features here. Let's get kicked off, Abner. So, yeah, I think for some context, the fact that we had a featured one. last month, we're still so weird in this context of we have this big proper Android 16 QPR2 update and then just before we had the big pixel feature drop. From the user's perspective,

yes, it's obviously nice. But the splitting of the actual Android update from the feature drop that people are so familiar with, that was interesting. And I guess it's fine. I guess we're from the end user perspective, more updates, the better. But I do wonder from whether it's too much updates in terms of people, you don't like change, do they? I can't believe you said there's too much updates. I don't think there is enough update. I would have an update every single month if I could.

But let's be real. Like, we don't get enough of this on Android period, right? I feel like we get, I agree with you, the optics is really strange, but in a good way, I think we, it feels like this is such a first world problem for pixel specifically that we get a nice little update, like a pre-holiday update, like that Thanksgiving style update for you guys in the States. And now we have for me, who doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving that nice Christmasy, Christmasy holiday period update, which I think is, it is amazing if you are looking to purchase that device in between, obviously that Black, after Black Friday and

then this Cyber Monday and stuff. You've picked up a pixel and you've probably got two substantial updates on your phone straight away it's not the same phone that you picked up in the store I don't know how often they update those in the stores but like it's evolved I don't know if you switch back from your 1 plus 15 will but I've been switching in between that and the Find X9 Pro and to come back to the pixel

it's like oh wow I've got some really cool stuff to sink my teeth into I uh oh man this makes the 1 plus 15 sounds so bad but I switched back like for the second my review will I missed my pixel I don't know I've been really enjoying Google software this year, as we've talked about previously on the show. And I feel that way about this update, too. I think I'm on your side, Damien. I'm welcoming the pace at which Google seems to want to evolve its current state of Android,

even if maybe, you know, I just don't think this pace is probably sustainable. So I expect next year to slow down at least a little bit. But I don't know. Maybe I'll be wrong. like like in yeah it just i mean i'm just going back to what you said i don't know it does feel out of sync but in a good way in that google was confident enough to have these features ready last month that we talked about on the pod that let's just shove these out the door now get these these these are ready these are ready for prime time let's get them in people's hands

like on every device that they could potentially support and now it's like hey we were already working on these things before how long have we had this qprar too bad like september time yeah Yeah, like three or four months. So they have these ones on the back burner for three or four months. It's like, hey, you're getting a double whammy. So let's dive into that. Yeah, let's dive into the future. Google framed this as a new next step for Android updates.

Specifically, they're referring to how Android 16 got its major update in June with the initial release. And this December update, this minor release, is. part, not part two, but it allows them to add more features independent of the major OS update. So they're trying to play up this, that this is the second release of Android 16. Optics-wise, I probably think they need to do point increment, point one, point two, point five, even, which I know it harkens back to the original days of Android for better or worse, but But I don't think this second movie is quite captured people's enthusiasm or expectation, I guess. And this is separate from the QPR system that I would be the first to admit it's more for

enthusiasts that are aware of QPRs and how they work every three months. But I think that needs to be simplified if they're going to continue this pace, as you were mentioning will. Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, Abner. And I don't know, maybe you guys can make me feel a little bit better about this or not, but even just this update cycle alone or maybe the past, you know, six months worth, it's been like hard to keep track of everything that Google is working on for Android in terms of betas and then just upcoming software launches. It's like, it's become really complicated for me to keep, you know, separation between, you know, Android and pixel and Android and pixel and

and so on and so forth, which, which is not a new problem. It's been an, uh, an ongoing thing for the past few years, maybe. Um, but, but the, the addition of we're kind of doing two Android 16 releases this year, I think multiplied it a little bit for me where it's like, there's, there's a lot here. And I, I think pixel owners are, are best served in this, right? Because they're just going to get everything and every update is for them, regardless really of whether it's meant for, for pixel or not. But, um, I think for everybody else, it can, maybe feel a little bit confusing. I assume non-enthusious people are probably just not even fully aware of the background stuff of this. And they're just, you know, updating their phone

when they see a notification that says to and then they've got new features. So it might not matter, but from, you know, the messaging that Google puts out can be a little bit confusing maybe at times even for people who are dialed into this. I think zooming out, there's no enthusiasm about Android updates in the way that iOS point updates. They can introduce new features. Of course, there's so many caveats here. Pixel is a subset of the Android. It's not Samsung.

There's so many caveats here. But the enthusiasm gap is I think in an ideal world, Google would want that excitement that every point release update carries on the iOS side. But of course, all iOS apps update in one go versus, at any time. And I think as Android users, we should prefer that because it's more instantaneous. But at the same time, there is a presentation benefit to grouping everything in one big update. I wonder, though, to kind of rebuke that a little bit, is do you think that the optics of Google holding

things back is good for the Android community? Because I think, I mean, without critiquing, Android fans in general, I think we're quite an impatient bunch. I think sometimes when stuff when stuff happens, we want it to be available on the day that it's available. I think maybe Google's made a rod for their own back with the pixel because it was basically like, you get Android the day that it is released, whereas I think every other OEM has always had to have this almost lead time to release. And so Google holding things back, even with QPR beta releases does feel like, because if you're on the track, and I mean, I wouldn't, suggest anybody runs their phone on QPR software,

but I think it's a lot more stable than it ever used to be. Now they have Canary as well. I think it needs to be, I mean, to us it's obvious, right? And anybody out there listening is screaming, either listening on the headphones, the speaker, car, whatever you're doing. You're saying, you're an idiot. Canary is very obvious that it's for the bleeding edge,

QPR baiters and maybe for people who want to run slightly preview software without breaking the phone and then there's a stable track for everybody else. I do genuinely think Google needs to come up. that's obvious. I'm sorry. If you think that's obvious, like, that is a, that is a lot of things to keep track of. Like, you can be an enthusiast and, and like, you can be like, well, that's obvious to me because I'm deep at this. But I do think that it is, it is, I think it is objectively a little bit messy if you were just like, even like a little bit into like smartphones or

something. Like, I just, I want to push back a little bit on the idea that like, ah, just, just just study up on your, on your Google Vader reviews. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. I do agree with do, but I can kind of, I'm basically trying to court the people who might call me an idiot. Yeah, no, no, I hear you. I'm just, I'm jumping in and being like, hold on. If you're defending me there, I appreciate it. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, I definitely feel like there is this three, we've got a three-tiered approach now, yeah? I guess that wouldn't, that isn't happening anywhere else. I don't see that anywhere else. I don't even think it's on like Windows or anything. No, like, their update policies or their beta testing policy. this is weird too, so. Yeah, so maybe there is some confusion around that, which I'd like to see streamlined.

But at the end of the day, and to kind of flip my own conversation in my head, is I quite like that we have this opportunity. I think that is a good thing. In a lot of ways, it is a really good thing. Because like you say, Abna, with iOS releases, there are a lot of people out there who will run the betas because they want this functionality straight away.

And I'm going to say, I think the, the way that Apple enthusiasts in air quotes are treated is very different to how Android enthusiasts are treated, i.e., there are a lot more Android, iOS people, sorry, who are happy to run the betas, I find. But then again, that could be coloured by the fact that I'm surrounded by people who are, in air quotes, tech enthusiasts. But it definitely feels to me like more run-of-the-mill people

are going to run a beta release on an iOS device than on Android. So maybe that's... Yeah, I agree. Do you know what I mean? It's an impatience. On the app side, I totally agree with both of you. And I think that's, you know, for all of the, we haven't even mentioned the idea that, like, app betas exist too, right?

But I actually think that that's a good thing. I think it's great that someone who does kind of care about, like, testing out new software features, like, specifically in the apps they use, whether they're made by Google or somebody else, can enroll in those specific app betas, but not have to run beta software on their device that might cause, like, daily driver issues. I do think Google has a much better beta policy across the board on both OS and app side. It's just a matter of maybe cleaning up a little bit of the language. The beta approach is absolutely reflective of how the, let's say, distributed nature of Android versus a centralized version of iOS. But I guess to put a cap on this, it's just the you only get one chance to make a a first one is that what's that one one chance to make a first impression yeah yeah it's and i don't know centralizing or point up app ios is point updates they get more centralized

versus the more dispersed nature of android updates sometimes yeah but do you think like let's talk about this feature set that we've seen and we talked about this at let's guess kind of at length over the past few months, but let's just get some highlights out of the way. I think a lot of people are going to be happy with the enhanced HDR brightness feature. I think that's long overdue. I think that's really nice because, hey, I get, I hear complaints from my family members saying that when they're scrolling Instagram, they get their eye searing bright, blightenedness. They don't know what HDR is. So this is going to be fantastic for them when I get them updated and they, because most people are idiots and don't update the phones, like regular

fog. So that's going to be amazing. Um, I think. there are little quality of life additions. I don't think there's anything really truly game breaking here. The hub mode coming from pixel tablet, I like that. I think, yeah, lock screen widgets. I think that is, I've been using it. I'm using it right now. It's for weather. It's for the weather on the weather widget to see that for a few hours in the upcoming days. I have a music thing to open recently played albums. and kind of what not. But those are my two use cases right now.

It's, yeah, it's another launcher, I guess. It's another, to get more lock screen shortcuts. I've been fine with it. Widgets, I guess not to go into a broad discussion about Android widgets, but how have you, how have the two of you been using it? I'm not a lock screen widget person. I learned this the first time they were on Android. I genuinely, in theory, they're great, but

well, in theory, they would, you, this might be a broader widget issue, which is that I'm just not a big widget person in general. The one widget that I get a lot of, well, okay, the widgets that I get the most use out of are calendar and weather widgets, which are essentially built into the pixel experience, both on your lock screen and your home screen. So I do keep a calendar widget on my, like, secondary,

like my second home screen panel. I only have two home screen panels. Um, but otherwise, like, whether I really just click like at a glance or it's on my lock screen, like, and that bleeds into the lock screen widgets where it's like, well, if I haven't found a use case for these really on my home screen, like I, I like a simple clean. I have like eight icons per page and then my dock and that's it. Uh, it kind of leads over to my, my lock screen experience as well. I have just replicated what I have in my pixel tablet, which I'm about to swipe to take a look at. Yeah, I have. battery so I can check my devices that are paired so my watch which is currently on my that's smart yeah my i mean i don't know how it works with that you have to open the case of your earbuds right for it to see the battery so that's kind of nice if i'm like it's continuous they actually is continuous now well on the pixel uh buds ah yeah well that would explain why i use a one plus buds pro three which hey i will but i will go to bat for them every day at the week

they're fantastic earbuds um and then i have i was using until really recently the currency converter, but obviously while I was away a couple of weeks ago, I didn't have this software build, so that's a bit of a shame. But yeah, I only use two. So that as weird as it sounds, I only use two widgets on that screen. I'm going to find, I'm going to find a use case for the bottom one because you can have three per page. I still don't know what I'm going to put there yet. I think, I kind of agree with you to an extent that like widgets on Android. The first party ones are fantastic. They look great. They fit in with the rest of the aesthetic of Material 3 Expressive.

I just want to see a little bit more from these third-party developers. Maybe I would put pocket casts on there, but if I'm being honest, I don't think pocket-cast widgets are that great. No, that's one of the ones

I would use if it was better... I'm still using the original. Okay, okay, their widgets are straight from iOS. Yes. Yes, they are. But, yeah, I'm still using the old now playing

before they redesigned it with the latest style. one with the transverse the background. Gotcha. So they kept that option at race, but yeah, the widgets, widgets, again, I don't want to go into this now, but they feel static on Android. Yeah, it would be nice to have a little bit of, like,

I guess, more screensavery and a little bit more interactive, like maybe you can see the weather changes here. I think that would be kind of cool. But then that plays into the idea that with Google developing the OS continually and then pushing these updates, surely there's a I mean it's called hub mode for Christ's sake I think there's

definitely going to be some changes here that make it more interactive I think I mean obviously I'm spitball in here and I'm kind of putting a wish list out there publicly so if anyone out from Google is doing that please do this I think you can really make this more of an interactive hub as it were especially if if tablets and and we got six months left on the pixel tablet support window I'd love to see them really just say let's go for it. We have CH2. We're sticking our phones on magnetic charge docs to turn it into that mini screen that we want to see. But yeah, that's that's that's that's the headline feature, right? But another one, they could make it some kind of daily hub. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

100%. Actually, for real, I'd love to see a version of Daily Hub that is like good that is mixed with these, these lock screen widgets. I think that's like what this should be where it's, it's like your own personalized space mixed with like whatever AI things Google wants to do to like I think that's a more useful thing than just like trying to keep it its own service. But I don't know, that would that would have to come with like a full new like rebuild of Android 17 or something. Yeah. It wouldn't it wouldn't just drop here. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I'm not going to quote Google on that, but I think it probably is something that they could work on quite easily. Definitely feel that feels like the perfect integration of this. But it's that it's that

start. It's that it's that return to form. It's something we've had returns of return to our devices. And on that front, we've seen things happen over the last couple of months with regards to certain third-party launchers really fall by the wayside. We're not going to have Nova anymore. Nova's are basically dead in the water project. Launcher doesn't exist. So Google adding this even basic them options, reintroducing them here with QPR2, I think it's huge. I think it's to start potentially of something that I think me and Abner have talked about for nearly two years since Gemini became a thing. This Gemini powered operating system with AI helping you theme things. I think if this is the first, if this is the first step in that direction, I'm all for

Google reintroducing things that we'd been missing since, I think, Android 11 was the last time we could theme icons on our phones. Yeah. So these themed icons, you have five options, five familiar shapes. They don't look that nice to actually apply them. The only nice one is a square. Yeah. I actually like the square because it makes the rigid folder app folders a bit look nicer. But the other ones, okay, there's the Pac-Man one, which I'm just going to call it that. But my ghost, yeah. And the two, that's a flower. The flower one is somewhat usable, but the multi-sided shape one, that is not usable whatsoever. They don't, okay, these app icons are kind of weird.

The themed icons, which is something that Google should have been doing from the beginning, forcing a theme basic black on color background or whatever. Yeah. That should have been ages ago. But you win some of you, some, I guess. 100%. 100%. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I am not theming my phone as much as I used to.

I have kept it as simple as possible. I used to use lawn chair. I used to theme to the high heavens. And now over the past, say, three to four years, the amount of theming that I do is widget here, widget there, themed icon colors, which I'm now using finally.

And I changed the squircle icons, but I'm probably going to go back to circular because I'm boring like that. Well, and as you pointed out this morning in Slack, Damien, the app drawer is like a problem. It's like so annoying that you're like, And that kind of bleeds over into like the themed icons too, right?

Because it's the same thing or whatever. Like it could be, I don't know. I just, I wish there was a little bit more parity between the, the home screen experience in the app drawer. They're so linked together. And yet it feels like a completely different like space for your apps if you're using any of Google's theming options. Hmm.

I hope this develops. I hope we get more options. I hope that this is the start of things. I maybe don't want, I'm not convinced. changing, reintroducing fonts and font styles is something that Google should do, because I think that could really break material through expressive. Maybe if it's an option that you can add in developer options or an accessibility option, yeah. But hey, we've all seen those horrendous Samsung fonts on screenshots. And I don't, I kind of don't want Pixel to do that, but I'm sure

there'll be some people who would like that. So maybe it could be, like I say, an accessibility option or something you can tack on. I mean, we've seen the, the, the, I can't remember the name of the film that came out last month. The Wicked, we've had the Wicked theme pack. So maybe there could be something tied in there, but this is great. I like this. I think this is something that's long, long, long overdue.

It's like, what, for five years since we've had this opportunity, the ability to do this on our phones, our pixel phones. And so seeing Google do it again, just feels like, yeah, it's about time. It's half a decade nearly that we haven't been able to change icon size. But apart from that, I don't think there is a great deal of majorly game-changing things. It's all quality of life additions. I guess the biggest thing here is that it's support.

We've got five years of devices almost supported all the way back to the Pixel 6, which is great because there's not many people, there's not even many other Android OEMs who can say that they have the latest version of Android on their devices. So having a pixel 6 and being further down the update scale, Samsung is fantastic. But yeah, I don't know if you guys had a final word on QPR2. It's a substantial update. Yeah.

It's a, this, it goes back to why, like, this second race of Android 16 hasn't seemed like that big of a deal. Even on the developer side or what the options they've added aren't that great, or significant, rather. So this is, I guess this, this is the first year they're doing this, It does seem like they're going to have more major minor releases going forward. So maybe they started out smaller on the focus side going out for the start. So we'll see how it continues going forward.

Hopefully there's more substantial stuff. We'll talk about notification summaries. Well, we've been living with notification summaries for a hot minute now. The notification organizer is not seeing wide roll out yet as of today. So we'll talk on that in the future. But, yeah, it's, there's more stuff to talk about, basically. I'll briefly jump in and talk about those AI notification summaries. They are already way better than I've experienced on iOS, like exponentially so.

The context is kept. There is no oversimplification of things. And I really like the fact that it is specific applications. It's not everything. So kudos to Google so far. I think we talked about it in the previous episodes where I was. here was that they've done as long as they do the right things with this, it will work just fine. I do think it's been pretty good so far. Let's get into some hardware news, which is

very rare this time of the year. Usually it's Chinese OEMs releasing devices that we're never going to see until February, May time in the US and other European nations. Samsung has just decided, hey, there's enough rumours about this device. Here is the Galaxy Z, or as I would say, Zed trifold. I know we both, both of me, you and Abner has his own thoughts, Will. I think we're a little bit more kind of, I guess, in agreement. Is this the first step in the direction where we think smartphones and tech is always heading a tablet in your pocket, as it were? I don't know.

That's such a lame answer, but I recorded next week's episode of the sideload yesterday with Daniel Bader, and we were talking a little bit about the trifold. And it occurred to me that I would, if I were to review this phone, would have no idea, like, where to even start with it, because it is such a unique. And I, I'm putting the Wobway device aside. It is not, I can't buy it. So, you know, it is such a unique piece of hardware that, like, even something as simple as, like, it's weight.

It's a little over 300 grams. Like, is that heavy? I don't know. It is heavy. But is it heavy for a trifold? I don't know. So it's one of those things where I can't, I would have to live with. it to really understand how this device fits into my own workflow. But it would on paper at least

fix a lot of the issues I have with foldables in general, which is that I don't find that the expansive, or the expanded screen rather, is enough real estate for me to feel like I'm getting anything else done. You know, I was just talking to Ben about his own foldable experience. we were talking about what phones were taking to CES this year. And he brought up the ability, like the reason that he carries his fold seven everywhere. The reason that it will be his daily driver in Las Vegas is because he needs the ability to load desktop apps on his phone so that he can write a post wherever he is, no matter where he is.

And that's a good explanation. And I feel like something like the trifold would be even greater for that. But at the same time, are you going to pay the price of a really, really nice. laptop for it. You know, we don't have pricing yet, but like the rumor is $2,800 and, and, you know, you start to question the value versus what you can buy across multiple devices. And obviously, the pitch of a trifle is it's everything you would want in one thing, but there are downsides with that, too, such as the weight. I don't know if that's too heavy for, for an everyday phone. So, I mean, to that, I think, I agree with you. I think personally, I think this is better. This is

more interesting to me than the, the, the, the AR, XR, where it is currently. I think this is more usable to the average person. Then again, the average person is not going to pay nearly $3,000 for a device. This, at 300 grams or 380 grams or 400, let's just say 400 grams for argument's sake, 400 grams in my pocket, if it means that potentially I have what is effectively a tablet available at any moment's notice and I can access desktop level applications, which I don't doubt you can because of Samsung's real investment in Dex. And I do think this has been their ultimate goal. Dex is this platform on this device, maximized effectively.

This could be the killer. This is the killer feature of smartphone tech to me. Is it going to be widely adopted? Absolutely not. It's a prestige product. It's going to be for business guys that you see sometimes in the airport who are in the business class C with their foot, they'll pull out their phone. They'll maybe pull out an extra Bluetooth keyboard. So there's another, what, four or 500 grams. You've probably got nearly two pounds of equipment

that you need to carry around to make this, that device that it needs to be. And again, that comes back to the argument that you may, if Android laptops are coming, you're better off just carrying an Android laptop. Also, they're only using that keyboard while you walk by them to your seat and coach. The second you're seated, they're putting it away and watching a movie. I just want everybody didn't know that. As, as, I mean, we've all used a foldable, right? We've all used a foldable in some form. Like, are you currently using the pixel, you're still the original pixel fold

Abner? Because I think this would, from what you said to me before, that, the aspect ratio, this is that supersized slightly. I think this, yeah. I feel like you're the perfect demographic for this. I just feel like, but I know you have thought. Actually, than the pixel world. Honestly, no, the original pixel fold is a tank.

It's, the ability is my main concern, but I guess now that's something solved in two or three generations. So that isn't the thing. But right now, I'm just thinking about this trifold in the context of the original galaxy fold. And things have sure advanced since then. Not that, six years. Imagine what this will be. like in six years. I agree with you, Abner.

That's where I've been all week, too, is that like if this is what the first gen is, like, damn, like who knows? Now that you mentioned six years, I, fundamentally, I still think everybody's engineering display resources would have been better spent

working on something else rather than this technology. Fundamentary, I guess in the case of Samsung displays, I feel I want them to work more on XR on glasses projection technology than this, but that's neither here nor there. This is more in the short term. This is more mass market. It's the productivity use case is interesting. I'm just like imagining typing on this.

I wouldn't, I don't think I'd be a person that brings around the Bluetooth keyboard, even a tiny one. I'm thinking I'm using just the Bluetooth, the split virtual keyboard. And my question is whether it will feel so thin that it's breakable. That's my question. I don't know what desktop apps,

what, yeah, desktop Android apps I'd want to use on this thing. The web is the most obvious use case here. and I guess that's something, but like I'm the fold or even the original pixel fold or the 9 pro 10 pro fold, that form fact, that's more squarish form factor is honestly fine for browsing the web. You don't need to go wider, do you? This is the $1 million question, isn't it? I think, I mean, from the, as I've alluded to, I think this is the tech paradigm we've always kind of wanted.

That laptop in your pocket, the laptop screen in your pocket. I think that's the, to me, that's the only selling feature here. I do agree with you that it's like, what desktop level applications do you need? You're going to have a desktop.

You're going to have a laptop. I think it is very much, it's almost proof of concept again. The thinness is kind of cool. It feels like, it feels very much like, Samsung has the M.O. with this one of, we want to make one of our Galaxy tabs

something that you don't have to compromise on taking with you everywhere. I will make the compromises, maybe the battery life or marginal durability things so that you can have that big tablet in your pocket everywhere and that's it. It's an entertainment first. Because judging by what specifications are there, I don't even think it's the latest snapfraggin' chip, is it?

Is it the one, the slightly lesser snapwagon chip that's inside it? That diminishes the product slightly as well, because it's like, well, technically it is our top of the line, but it isn't. It's our most engineered device, but it isn't our top of the line device. When you have the Galaxy Z-Fold 7 with better internals than this, the optics of that to me is very, very odd. But yeah, desktop level applications just is Chrome, isn't it? Is that it?

Is that it on, maybe you have a video editor of some format, LumaFusion, but again, that's a mobile-based editor. We just not, this is, this is probably, probably gets a wider problem of Android as an OS for laptops. Like, what do we really need from this? And I think me and you, well, we've talked about it at length. I think we need something like an Adobe package. We need something of that ilk.

I don't think, I don't think we lack power on Android for this kind of stuff. No, I think the iPad has shown. that. Like, the latest snaprogan chips are within a hair of the top Apple chips now. So I don't know. It's a question of touch. Is touch the best way to interact with these mouse first cursor-based apps and keyboard shortcuts? It's funny. It's, it might. So when Google is demoing the Galaxy X-R, one of their productivity showcases was Google Flow. the AI-based video creations, anything, app, whatever. So it's my, it kind of feels like

if there's no way to get these, to make touch paradigms work on these desktop professional level apps, the clutch might be AI, having a new generation of AI apps that do that hard, literally moving your cursor work to get, to get these kind of applications with mobile. I'm sure that's not what most people want right now,

but I wonder if AI is the needed thing to make mobile productivity go. We're probably complaining about this a little bit in terms of like we're looking at it from a productivity perspective, but the kind of people are going to drop this money on this device, do you think they're just

buying it as an entity? I feel like they're just buying it as like it's a flex, literally, literally at the screen. I mean, that's... I was joking about the plane thing, But that's like the problem with these devices is that like, it's like, okay, you know, you want to launch a new, a new VR, ARXR headset. Well, what's the best use for this $3,000 piece of hardware you've made? Well, it's, it's watching movies. Okay.

You want to make a trifold because you've decided that it's more advanced and the bigger screen will be better than on a regular foldable. What's the best use case scenario right now? Watching movies. Like, it, which is fine, but you're, it's a lot of money for. for advice that is like at its core still primarily best as a consumption device, which is, which is great except for the fact that you can go buy an iPad for $250 for literally a 10th of this and get like a similar, obviously it's not going to be pocketable. I know this, but like the end result is the same. Like what you're doing on it is the same. And I do think that like 99% of

people will not see the value in spending 10 times the amount of money to be able to put that iPad in their back pocket. And so. yeah, I don't know. I think the apps certainly need to be there. And I think I don't know if the AI is the answer because when you're asking somebody to pay $2,800, you know, give or take, depending

with the final prices, like, you're asking professionals to do that. You're asking people who are, who have a workflow already to abandon the platform that they have already gotten used to, to abandon an Adobe app, to abandon whatever, and move over to this new thing. And it's like, that's, I'm not against it.

but it needs to have the applications I need to use. And in a lot of ways, Apple is kind of set up well for whatever their foldable ends up being there because they do have a closer partnership with Adobe, right? Like Photoshop and Premiere have like arrived on the app store for iPad or whatever in like pretty full featured formats. And that can come to Android and those I think maybe are or at least Photoshop maybe is coming to Android. I can't remember off the top of my head.

I frankly, I don't have a ton of use for mobile Photoshop in general. But still, those applications are there in a way that they're not showing at all on Android. And, you know, no matter how many times Google has tried to push tablets forward, it hasn't happened, to the degree that I think it would need to for me to buy a trifle, then use it as my main device. Because if I'm paying $2,800 for something, it's my main device. Like, it has to be. So, yeah. Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, when you put it in that context, I think it is basically the Z-Fold 7 with a Galaxy S-25 Ultra. yeah that's that's what you're that's what you're paying for for and effectively an extra screen

exactly you're you're buying an extra you're buying an extra portion of screen real estate on that Z Fold 7 and I think that is probably going to be the toughest sell but there are going to be people who walk around with this and hey I'm not going to lie to you that it would be I know for a fact if I pulled this out of my pocket anywhere I was and I pulled it out and it turned into a big laptop sorry a tablet size screen there are going to be people paying attention to it so even if it is just from just think you have a tablet What people just think you're using a tab of it? Possibly.

The unfolding process. Yeah, true. But what I would do is I'll keep unfolding it and folding it. You know, the accordions? I'd just be doing that. I just run around like, hey, everybody, look at my phone. It's doing this. It's like how anybody using a Vision Pro on the street isn't actually using it.

They're just waiting for you to notice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the airplane thing all over again. But like, for real, like it would, it is a status symbol, like, first and foremost, like, like, absolutely. It is like, and that's how the original Galaxy Fold was, too. It's, I can buy this so I did. And hopefully that evolves into something that becomes the device that Ben Shone wants to bring to, he's like, I got to bring this to Vegas in five years.

But right now, I think it's going to be primarily a status symbol and a better device, a better foldable for watching movies and TV shows than current foldables are because the screens on current foldables are not that much larger than if you just bought an S25 Ultra when you have it rotated for a movie. but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I think that probably sums up how we all feel a little bit about this Z-fold, tri-fold, whatever I want to try one, but I would never buy one. Yeah, I mean, just going back to the businessman side of things, I think the carbon fiber, probably,

the carbon fiber finish gives that away a little bit. That feels very bit utilitarian. I'm going to use this in an office situation. What year is it? Like, why is carbon fiber back? Like, why is Samsung so obsessed with carbon fiber? I don't understand. I thought, like, I thought we left this behind in, like, 2014.

Like, that was a, it's gone. I don't know. Maybe I'm a hater. You can write it and yell at me. I think you are a bit of a hater, but I do agree that I think F1 has not helped because there's a lot of carbon fiber using F1. And F1 is very popular in the U.S. Now, I know you guys are suddenly cottoned onto it, and it's really popular.

Just the other night, we saw an ad for F1, and I turned to Maddie, and I was like, I wish I wish I had the time to get into that. I do not, though. No, I spent a lot of my youth watching F1, and now, yeah, it's past the point of pantomime at this point in time, so I'm done with it. But do we, do we, just to kind of draw a line under Z trifold, Z trifold, do we think that this is one of those products that, I think it's a wrong time for something to do this in a lot of ways.

I know it's just before CES and they want a little bit of kind of runway at it. And I'm sure a lot of people get to see it at CES in person. But off the back of the Galaxy X-R, which, I mean, it's a fantastic product in its own right, and I think they've done some good things with it. Should they have kind of maybe done this at the same time or maybe waited a bit? I don't know. I feel like maybe that is why we have this lukewarm response to it so far. Yeah, I think to me it's tricky.

they're chasing the same audience and I already kind of feel like the XR already kind of did not leave much of an impression on the on the culture right it didn't it didn't leave its footprint and like I don't know maybe the trifold has a better chance of doing it but it's so expensive that once again it's going to be a really limited audience I mean we weren't even sure if it was going to launch in the US and so yeah I don't know I I think maybe this is just the time of year where Samsung is kind of casting out these products that it might believe in, but certainly doesn't foresee them being like 100% commercial successes right off the bat. That's the only thing I can think of is that they see this, this window and, you know,

maybe the goodwill they earned with the Fold 7 as an opportunity to cast out some of these otter, much more expensive products. But I'm really, I'm struggling to see the logic. I don't see either of these devices doing well. They seem more like bets on the future than anything that they seem to believe in presently. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it.

That's the trifold. That's QPR2. I don't think there's anything else really to discuss. The only thing I would say is if you do use YouTube. YouTube Recap is rolling out right now. I don't have this in the UK at the moment. But again, we're at that time of year where Spotify Rapt is rolling out. We'll probably get YouTube music's version very soon.

but the YouTube recap is rolling out so yeah if you already have that go check that on the YouTube application but I want to say thanks for joining me guys I think this would be a nice return to form the trio is back together the three musketeers as it were we've put the world to rights as we always do

but as always yeah like share this with your friends your Android friends out there who maybe haven't listened to a podcast before and rate and review on your platform of choice it really helps us out massively but yeah looking forward to getting into some more things in the next couple of weeks

before that Christmassy period, which I think everything kind of winds down to, and then it gets ramped up again for CES. But yeah, thanks for joining me, guys, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9 to 5 Google Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.